Global Migrants Research Articles

Mexico: Territory of confinement during the pandemic

Since the 1990s, Mexico has been a transit country par excellence in the Americas. However, since the beginning of the 2010s, Mexican territory has been configured as an extended and violent space of migratory containment. In the regional context of Mexico and the United States, the COVID-19 pandemic accentuated state processes of migratory control and criminalization that had been in place for years (such as zero tolerance policies and migrant protection protocols during the Trump administration). Unlike other countries on the American continent, this health emergency in Mexico did not imply the adoption of strict internal measures to limit mobility. Consequently, although the influx of global migrants in transit, mostly Northern Central Americans, slowed during the first months of the pandemic, it did not cease. In fact, since mid-2020, these transitions have multiplied. However, due to the health emergency, asylum seekers and other migrants could not cross the northern border of Mexico as a direct effect of the increase in controls and strict anti-immigrant policies implemented by the United States. The blockade of the northern border, together with the continued influx of even more global migrants (many from northern Central America), meant that Mexico, in a trend that had been going on for years, consolidated itself as a regional and global territory of spatial and temporal confinement (long waiting). Therefore, this article analyzes the geopolitical implications of these processes for Mexico in the midst of a triple health, political and social security crisis.

Between ‘Trochas’, Orphans and Mourning: Migrant Mobilities and the Effects of US ‘Soft’ Remote Control in Ecuador

ABSTRACT This article proposes a two-scale analysis of how US border externalisation is spatially embedded in Ecuador, producing place-making transformations. On a national scale, it has turned Ecuador into a ‘soft’ buffer to halt unwanted global migration to the US. On a cuerpo-territorio scale, it has had at least two effects. On the one hand, it has transformed migrant-sending communities into mourning and orphaned places as a direct effect of Ecuadorean migrant disappearances and deaths en route and the multiplication of child orphanages. On the other, instead of halting illegalised crossings of global migrants heading to the US, it has multiplied them via unlawful river and land border pathways locally known as trochas, which have increased across the Ecuador-Colombia border. Trochas are socially built spaces embodying fear, anguish, pain, struggle and resistance. As the article proves, mourning and orphaned places and trochas are shaped at the convergence of the effects of the geopolitics of externalised control and the politics of life that Ecuadorean families and global migrants continually deploy to sustain their mobilities and lives. These place-making effects derive from Ecuador’s twofold role as a sending and transit country for global migration to the US, an effect which ends up being highly productive to justify the redoubling of US border enforcement across the region and its increasingly overt meddling in security and border control matters in Ecuador.

Cultural integration, subjective identity, and well-being: global migrants in the UK

Recent waves of immigration in Western societies have drawn attention to social transformational challenges and their repercussions for migrant physical and mental wellbeing. Research into migration has tended to focus on Cultural Integration (CI) with Western country cultures and social norm. We fill a research gap in which the social transformation repercussions and the evolutionary function of human psychology remain underexplored. We theorize how the Evolutionary Fitness and Subjective Significance of Identity can emerge from CI, thus, positively impacting Subjective Well-Being (SWB) of migrants. To legitimize the model we propose, sets of rigorous empirical analyses were developed, drawing on panel data of 5,558 respondents from 7 waves of global migrant surveys within the UK during 2009–2018. Our results supported our hypotheses by suggesting that a tightly defined CI was negatively related to SWB, but a relatively fluid orientation towards CI was positively related to SWB, and the positive relationship became more compelling when the Subjective Significance of Identity (SSI) emerged from the integration process, such that the indirect effect of CI through SSI on SWB was strongest when the degree of SSI was high. Our study offers implications for how policymaking and management strategies can integrate cultural characteristics, increasing migrants’ cultural confidence, self-esteem, and economic creativity in the country of residence.

Diagnostic accuracy of three computer-aided detection systems for detecting pulmonary tuberculosis on chest radiography when used for screening: Analysis of an international, multicenter migrants screening study.

The aim of this study was to independently evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of three artificial intelligence (AI)-based computer aided detection (CAD) systems for detecting pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) on global migrants screening chest x-ray (CXR) cases when compared against both microbiological and radiological reference standards (MRS and RadRS, respectively). Retrospective clinical data and CXR images were collected from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) pre-migration health assessment TB screening global database for US-bound migrants. A total of 2,812 participants were included in the dataset used for analysis against RadRS, of which 1,769 (62.9%) had accompanying microbiological test results and were included against MRS. All CXRs were interpreted by three CAD systems (CAD4TB v6, Lunit INSIGHT v4.9.0, and qXR v2) in offline setting, and re-interpreted by two expert radiologists in a blinded fashion. The performance was evaluated using receiver operating characteristics curve (ROC), estimates of sensitivity and specificity at different CAD thresholds against both microbiological and radiological reference standards (MRS and RadRS, respectively), and was compared with that of the expert radiologists. The area under the curve against MRS was highest for Lunit (0.85; 95% CI 0.83-0.87), followed by qXR (0.75; 95% CI 0.72-0.77) and then CAD4TB (0.71; 95% CI 0.68-0.73). At a set specificity of 70%, Lunit had the highest sensitivity (81.4%; 95% CI 77.9-84.6); at a set sensitivity of 90%, specificity was also highest for Lunit (54.5%; 95% CI 51.7-57.3). The CAD systems performed comparable to the sensitivity (98.3%), and except CAD4TB, to specificity (13.7%) of the expert radiologists. Similar trends were observed when using RadRS. Area under the curve against RadRS was highest for CAD4TB (0.87; 95% CI 0.86-0.89) and Lunit (0.87; 95% CI 0.85-0.88) followed by qXR (0.81; 95% CI 0.80-0.83). At a set specificity of 70%, CAD4TB had highest sensitivity (84.1%; 95% CI 82.3-85.8) followed by Lunit (80.9%; 95% CI 78.9-82.7); and at a set sensitivity of 90%, specificity was also highest for CAD4TB (54.6%; 95% CI 51.3-57.8). In conclusion, the study demonstrated that the three CAD systems had broadly similar diagnostic accuracy with regard to TB screening and comparable accuracy to an expert radiologist against MRS. Compared with different reference standards, Lunit performed better than both qXR and CAD4TB against MRS, and CAD4TB and Lunit better than qXR against RadRS. Moreover, the performance of the CADs can be impacted by characteristics of subgroup of population. The main limitation was that our study relied on retrospective data and MRS was not routinely done in individuals with a low suspicion of TB and a normal CXR. Our findings suggest that CAD systems could be a useful tool for TB screening programs in remote, high TB prevalent places where access to expert radiologists may be limited. However, further large-scale prospective studies are needed to address outstanding questions around the operational performance and technical requirements of the CAD systems.

Barriers and Challenges of Immigrant Women’s Access to and Experience of Optimal Maternity Care

With an increase in immigrant populations, healthcare systems are experiencing a new wave of ethnic-cultural diversity among patients. For the 48.1% of women among global migrants, maternal healthcare services are often the first level of contact with new healthcare systems in countries of resettlement. However, immigrants face many barriers, including socioeconomic and language considerations. As maternal care requires frequent contact with health care services through all stages of pregnancy, ensuring the quality of care is important to protect maternal and infant health. Using a systematic review method analyzing 17 articles from PubMed and Google Scholar in the past 20 years, 3 overarching themes were identified: lack of access to prenatal care, cultural insensitivity during in-hospital settings, and challenge in identifying and experiencing post-partum depression. This literature review reveals the broader influences and contextual variables in maternity care and highlights problems relating to the acceptability and accessibility of maternity services for immigrant women. Overall, this paper reveals the importance of considering immigrants’ socio-cultural context of childbirth practices, creating more accessible prenatal classes, and addressing disparities in postpartum depression. This knowledge can better inform health services delivery and formulate health promotion strategies to address discrepancies in maternal health outcomes.

Introduction: African International Migration to the West: Insights from Canada, Australia and Nigeria

Introduction: African International Migration to the West: Insights from Canada, Australia and Nigeria

Globalization of Culture and Identity: Case Study of Halal Tourism Thailand as a Muslim Friendly Tourist Destination

Globalization has consequences for the survival of culture. In this discussion, the authors emphasize the study of hybridization as a perspective in seeing the impact of globalization on culture. This can be shown through a case study of Thailand as 'The Kitchen of The World'. Thailand is one of the leading halal food producers, both regionally and internationally. This description emphasizes the author's stance that globalization has contributed to the cultural hybridization of the global halal trend with the identity of the Thai Buddhist population as a Muslim-friendly tourist destination country through halal tourism. Globalization has an influence on the development of an increasingly heterogeneous culture. The spiritual dimension or halal religious values as a foreign culture can also blend with the social conditions of Thai society. Through this explanation, briefly, it is obtained that first, globalization encourages the influence of cultural hybridization through the share of global migrants or in this case Muslim tourists. Both halal are seen as a lifestyle choice instead of emphasizing spirituality or religion reflecting the cosmopolitan sharia. Finally, the development of global culture is aligned with the global economy or halal as a commodity, and on the other hand, Thailand takes the position of being a Muslim-friendly country due to massive global migration as a result of rapid globalization. Keyword: Thailand, Halal Tourism, Globalization, Hybridization

An analysis of Global Migrants studying the implications for international business and management

For both people and their descendants, international migration is a vital source of material advancement. the movement of people across borders, particularly from developing to developed nations. This paper's main goal is to survey our understanding of how migration impacts inclusive growth. It is helpful to begin by framing the conversation with a few key facts about international migration and its growth over the previous 30 years. Since 1990, overall migrants as a share of the global population have stayed relatively steady at approximately 3%. The contrast between different metrics of inequality at different time frames is essential because migration might have different consequences. This is due in large part to the fact that immigrants vary from indigenous and differentiate among themselves.

Touch vs. Technology

In 2019, the number of global migrants reached an estimated 272 million—an increase of 51 million since 2010—making up 3.5 percent of the global population compared to 2.8 percent in 2000 (UN department of Economic andSocial Affairs). This makes the number of forcibly displaced people the highest it has ever been since the Second World War (Perfect 188). Since 9/11, however, media coverage of terrorist attacks—such as the March 11, 2004Madrid attacks; the July 7, 2005 London attacks; the January 7, 2015 Paris attacks on Charlie Hebdo; and most recently, the knifing of French school teacher Samuel Paty on October 21, 2020—have caused migrant identity tobe conflated with terrorism in the popular imagination. As Homi Bhabha points out, “When eight terrorists in a music hall can be seen at will on billions of screen devices across the world holding Paris hostage, ‘quantity’ does not quell fear, anxiety or hysterical Islamophobia” (709).

Representations of migration in U.K. and U.S. children’s picture books in the Trump and Brexit era

ABSTRACT In the wake of an intensifying hostile environment towards migrants and refugees in the U.S. and Europe, children’s picture books play an important role in shaping children’s understanding of migration and attitudes towards migrants. How do contemporary children’s books depict migration? This article discusses the findings of a thematic analysis of 40 picture books about migration, published between 2015 and 2019 in the U.K. and the U.S. We found that these books typically present successful migration stories where children move from unfortunate circumstances in their home countries to happier lives in the host countries. Host countries are mostly located in the global North and migrants are generally welcomed with generosity and hospitality. We also found that the books give important attention to historical contexts. However, while children’s picture books concerning migration contribute to enhancing children’s understanding of migration in some ways, they concurrently erase difference and injustice, and thus miss an opportunity to broaden children’s knowledge and appreciation of the plurality of cultures, experiences, and places and the urgent need to respect and protect them. IMPACT SUMMARY a. Prior State of Knowledge: Existing research, predominantly in the field of education, highlights how children’s books can promote understanding of and empathy towards migrants and refugees, dispel stereotypes, and teach children how to show kindness, respect, and hospitality towards migrants and refugees. b. Novel Contributions: The study highlights not just how children’s picture books contribute to enhancing children’s understanding of migration, but also how these books concurrently erase difference and injustice, and thus miss an opportunity to broaden children’s knowledge and appreciation of difference. c. Practical Implications: The study draws parents’ and educators’ attention to the lessons children can learn from picture books on immigration, their benefits and limitations. It advances storytellers’ understanding of how to broaden children’s knowledge and appreciation of difference in books about migration.

School Libraries across Cultures

Migration and globalization throughout the world have caused many schools to become multicultural (or intercultural) institutions where students from more than 40 nationalities, who speak many different languages, receive their education under one roof. Some come from families who have lived in that country for generations and speak the official, national language; others represent small, indigenous groups; others are recent immigrants, including those who are more transient, sometimes called ‘Third Culture Kids’or global migrants. All these students use the same learning spaces at school as other students, including the school library. Furthermore, bilingual (secondary) education is being encouraged by a number of national governments. Its goal is to increase students’ proficiency in a “world language” and to provide them with an international orientation. Multicultural situations within the school also impact school libraries which need to become multicultural learning environments providing library services at a multicultural level.

Human dignity and cross-border migrants in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, and the resultant lock-downs and cross-border travel restrictions have reinvigorated public debates about the vulnerability of the global migrants, together with the responsibility of the States to ensure dignified treatment of migrants. Situating within the debates on capability-based development and human dignity and drawing on emerging evidence from Nepal, this opinion piece seeks to explore how returnee Nepali labour migrants from India are subject to dignity violation within the government's response to the COVID-19. The paper tentatively concludes that the Nepali government's decision to seal its border with India, and its subsequent interventions to curtail the flow of outbreak, have undermined the human dignity of Nepali migrants. In so doing, the paper raises a normative question as to whether, to what extent and for how long, poor and marginalised populations such as labour migrants should be expected to endure suffering and dignity violation in the interests of protecting the health of the population at large. The role of contextual politics in shaping the response to the intersecting nature of cross-border and public health crisis is highlighted. Attention is also drawn to the potential of political response against dignity violation, in exposing the ineptitude of the State to safeguard the well-being of its returnee migrants.

Utilization of healthcare services among Chinese migrants in Kenya: a qualitative study

BackgroundThe number of Chinese migrants in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is increasing, which is part of the south-south migration. The healthcare seeking challenges for Chinese migrants in Africa are different from local people and other global migrants. The aim of this study is to explore utilization of local health services and barriers to health services access among Chinese migrants in Kenya.MethodsThirteen in-depth interviews (IDIs) and six focus group discussions (FGDs) were conducted among Chinese migrants (n = 32) and healthcare-related stakeholders (n = 3) in Nairobi and Kisumu, Kenya. Data was collected, transcribed, translated, and analyzed for themes.ResultsChinese migrants in Kenya preferred self-treatment by taking medicines from China. When ailments did not improve, they then sought care at clinics providing Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) or received treatment at Kenyan private healthcare facilities. Returning to China for care was also an option depending on the perceived severity of disease. The main supply-side barriers to local healthcare utilization by Chinese migrants were language and lack of health insurance. The main demand-side barriers included ignorance of available healthcare services and distrust of local medical care.ConclusionsProviding information on quality healthcare services in Kenya, which includes Chinese language translation assistance, may improve utilization of local healthcare facilities by Chinese migrants in the country.

From Homeland to Homelands and Back Again

Today Saami people mostly reside in arctic regions of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. Their prehistoric trajectories, predating “borders,” are as nonlinear as the antecedent trajectories that implicate more and more, eventually all, of us humans. Saami and other Fourth World peoples share concerns about the survival of their cultures, their languages, themselves. Their “homeland” consists in the rights they claim in their now enveloping nation-states. In contrast, refugees' historic trajectories have entailed the transgression of borders—centripetally and centrifugally, by gradual or urgent leaks and absorptions—sometimes landing them in the same, already contested, spaces. In this essay, traditionally nomadic Saami encounter the most contemporary of global migrants and refugees.

The relationship between non-permanent migration and non-communicable chronic disease outcomes for cancer, heart disease and diabetes \u2013 a systematic review

BackgroundThe relationship between migration and health has primarily focused on permanent migrants, although non-permanent migrants comprise a large proportion of global migrants. Non-permanent migrants may have distinct needs that affect their health outcomes. This systematic review 1) examined the evidence concerning whether non-permanent migrants have different health outcomes than other population groups for non-communicable chronic diseases (NCDs) and 2) sought to describe how non-permanent migration is defined and measured.MethodsFor this systematic review, we developed a comprehensive search string for terms about non-permanent migration and disease and screening rates for three NCDs (cancer, heart disease, and diabetes) and searched thirteen electronic databases using the search string. Authors reviewed and evaluated articles for full-text review; hand-searched specific journals and grey literature; and scanned reference lists of relevant studies. Authors extracted and assessed data based on standard reporting for epidemiologic studies.ResultsWe identified twelve peer-reviewed articles that examined NCD outcomes for non-permanent migrants as compared to other populations. Some studies showed worse or no significant differences in the NCD outcomes for non-permanent migrants compared to other groups. The articles reflected substantial diversity that exists among non-permanent migrants, which ranged from economic migrants to nomadic populations.ConclusionNon-permanent migrants varied in their NCD outcomes as compared to other groups. Our included studies were heterogenous in their study designs and their definitions and measurement of non-permanent migration, which limited the ability to make conclusive statements about the health of the populations as compared to other populations. More standardization is needed in research to better understand the diversity in these populations and quantify differences in risk factors and disease rates between non-permanent migrants and other groups.

Estimation of emigration, return migration, and transit migration between all pairs of countries

We propose a method for estimating migration flows between all pairs of countries that allows for decomposition of migration into emigration, return, and transit components. Current state-of-the-art estimates of bilateral migration flows rely on the assumption that the number of global migrants is as small as possible. We relax this assumption, producing complete estimates of all between-country migration flows with genuine estimates of total global migration. We find that the total number of individuals migrating internationally has oscillated between 1.13 and 1.29% of the global population per 5-year period since 1990. Return migration and transit migration are big parts of total migration; roughly one of four migration events is a return to an individual's country of birth. In the most recent time period, we estimate particularly large return migration flows from the United States to Central and South America and from the Persian Gulf to south Asia.

In Strangers’ Hands: Thai Massage Services in Slovenia

This article looks at the Thai massage industry in Slovenia and its impact on the perception of Thai women workers among users of the service. The arrival of Thai massage salons in Slovenia presents an aspect of global ‘body work’, which has increasingly relied on the labour of migrant women from the global South. In Slovenia, however, the presence of Thai female labour is a relatively new development, as is migration from Asia more broadly. In our analysis, we focus on the cultural aspects of the encounter between the providers and users of the service, as it unfolds in the micro setting of the massage salons. We argue that the closeness of the encounter between the two bodies – the worker’s and the consumer’s – complicates the concept of the modern stranger, as it is usually attached to the (male) migrant in the public space. Moreover, the intimate contact with the migrant worker confuses the hierarchies of gender, race and ethnicity and shifts the location of power and vulnerability. Our findings are then placed within the broader frame of contemporary post-socialist Slovene society to ask how this particular experience of body work may coincide with, or contest, local attitudes towards global migrants.

5.8-W1Occupational health disparities among global migrants and refugees

5.8-W1Occupational health disparities among global migrants and refugees

Global citizens, exotic others, and unwanted migrants: mobilities in and of Europe

ABSTRACTThis article reflects on Europe’s problematic relationship with its ‘others’, asking in particular how the idea of the ‘exotic’ – constituting one of Europe’s ‘imperial ruins’ – intersects with the figure of the Muslim migrant. The Muslim migrant has in the present become in Europe a potent marker of otherness, which reflects how some cosmopolitan aspirations are perceived negatively in European discourses, revealing how mobility itself is racilized and gendered. WoDaaBe Fulani migrants from Niger have historically occupied a subject position in Europe as identified with ‘the exotic’. The article discusses WoDaaBe temporary migration to Europe to supplement their income back home, and their intersecting positions as ‘exotic’, as Muslims and black Africans. While contemporary discourses tend to highlight Europe’s status as a site of equality, human rights, and cradle of civilization, some bodies are welcome within the space of Europe while others are not.

Changing landscapes, changing narratives: socio-cultural approach for teaching global migrants

Given the proliferation of new media technologies today’s immigrant children and youth are experiencing the effects of time–space compression in the domain of interpersonal interactions. Increasingly, they are able to simultaneously engage in developmental activities across their native and host societies. If migration is no longer a one-way binary choice, but rather a culturally dialectical process involving fluid articulation of consciousness and identity across multiple cultural landscapes, how can we structure teaching and learning to support cognitive development of immigrant children and youth as they gradually assume the responsibilities of adulthood? This work builds on socio-cultural theory in order to describe sense-making, a psychological process situated in interaction with extant social, cultural and physical environments, which employs language actively woven into a narrative as a tool for organising consciousness and perception. Practical recommendations stemming from this theoretical framework are explored in order to enable the tools for curriculum design that support bicultural and transnational developmental orientations.