Male Migrants Research Articles

Lost in Transition to Adulthood? Illegalized Male Migrants Navigating Temporal Dispossession

The so-called ‘refugee crisis’ has been portrayed as an invasion that threatens Europe and calls its sovereignty into question, prompting exceptional emergency responses. These (re)bordering processes highlight Europe’s uneven, discriminatory, and racialized filtering system. European nation-states sort desired and undesired migrants through sets of precarious administrative statuses that translate into limited access to resources, most notably the formal labor market. European border regimes impose specific spatialities and temporalities on migrants through long-term physical and social deceleration: territorial assignation, enduring unemployment, forced idleness, and protracted periods of waiting. These temporal ruptures interrupt individual biographies and hinder the hopes of a young population seeking a better future. However, some find ways to navigate the socio-spatial deceleration they face. In this paper, I explore how European border regimes affect the trajectory of Sub-Saharan male migrants and how they appropriate such temporal dispossession. I use biographical analysis and participant observations of a squatting organization in a Swiss city to scrutinize the everyday practices and aspirations of a population made illegal and, as a result, denied access to social markers of maturity. I investigate how time intersects with physical, social, and existential im/mobility. I argue that, in navigating spaces of asymmetrical power relationships, impoverished migrants find autonomy in illegality. Neither victimizing nor romanticizing illegalized migrants’ trajectories, this paper offers an ethnographic analysis of the capacities of an impoverished population to challenge European border regimes.

Coping with migration-related stressors - a qualitative study of Nepali male labour migrants

BackgroundInternational labour migration has become a crucial livelihood strategy, especially in countries where decently paid employment opportunities are limited. Such opportunities come with many potential benefits but also many stressors that challenge migrants’ coping skills, especially when they are in a foreign environment away from their normal support network. This paper explores how labour migrants coped with migration-related stressors using a sample of male Nepali migrants.MethodsQualitative life histories were conducted in Kathmandu among returnee male migrants. Coping responses were categorised based Skinner and Zimmer-Gembeck’s coping typologies. The interview scripts were transcribed in Nepali and translated into English for analysis. Each interview script was open coded and then categorised according to the 12 core coping families. Data were analysed thematically to explore relationships across and within coping and stressors.ResultsForty-two men were interviewed who mainly worked in low- and semi-skilled jobs in Malaysia, and the Gulf States. The coping strategies most commonly used belonged to the families of problem-solving, support-seeking, negotiation and helplessness. Men used these either individually or collectively with other migrants. Those who sought assistance from authorities or civil society organisations did not always receive the help needed and there were mixed messages as to when and what types of assistance were available. Some stressors involved multiple coping strategies simultaneously, others described changing strategies following unsuccessful earlier attempts. The coping families of helplessness and social isolation reflected migrants’ limited power in challenging certain stressors. The choice of coping strategies was also moderated by factors such as outstanding loans, language difficulties, or not wanting to cause their family distress. Some coping strategies used led to new stressors.ConclusionsMigrants need greater clarifications on their rights with respect to contract discrepancies, the types of support available, how and from whom to access them once in destination. Improvements to the support mechanisms migrants can access as well as strengthening migrant-led initiatives in destination countries to support labour migrants' in managing stressors are needed. These may contribute to reducing the experiences and impact of such stressors, which may ultimately lead to more successful migration outcomes. As labour migration from Nepal is likely to continue, government and CSOs need to ensure migrants have the support they need to cope with the challenges they may encountered along the way.

Sexual network and condom use among male migrants in the context of China’s gender imbalance

ABSTRACT In the context of China’s gender imbalance, this study addresses the characteristics of sexual networks and their association with condom use in a sample of 713 male migrants (aged 28-64) who have rural hukou (household registration) in China. Descriptive statistics, univariate analyses, and multilevel random intercept models were used to investigate the characteristics of sexual networks and their associations with condom use. We found that age, marital status, type of sex partners, support (the main help given to each sex partner by the participant), type of sexual intercourse, and stability of sexual relationships were associated with condom use. The sexual networks were mainly composed of sex partners of similar age (58.46%), unmarried people (50.53%), and regular partners (49.38%). Married male migrants were more likely to use condoms with casual partners; unmarried male migrants were less likely to use condoms in emotional and stable relationships. Variation in individual factors, sex partners, and sexual relationship characteristics contribute to participation in condomless sex by male migrants. HIV prevention strategies should target unmarried male migrants and their casual sex partners by increasing their awareness of the risk of HIV transmission and the availability of free condoms.

Refugees' and irregular migrants’ self-selection into Europe

We provide the first large-scale evidence on self-selection of refugees and irregular migrants who arrived in Europe in 2015 or 2016. Our analysis uses unique datasets from the International Organization for Migration and Gallup World Polls. We find that refugees are positively self-selected with respect to human capital, as are female irregular migrants. Male irregular migrants are negatively self-selected. These patterns hold whether analyzing individually stated main reason to emigrate, country-level conflict intensity, or sub-regional conflict intensity. Several additional analyses show that our results are unlikely to be driven by omitted variable bias or liquidity constraints. We offer a theoretical framework to explain these patterns, by extending the Roy-Borjas model to include risks related to staying in an unsafe country of origin, risks related to migration, and gender-specific returns to human capital.

Migration, labor and women's empowerment: Evidence from an agricultural value chain in Bangladesh.

As a substantial portion of the rural labor force migrates to urban areas, it is commonly assumed that women could take over traditionally male tasks in agricultural production, with potentially empowering outcomes for women. We study how changes in the supply of labor may influence female labor participation and empowerment outcomes. Using a detailed panel dataset on jute producers in the delta region of Bangladesh, we test whether out-migration of household members and perceived labor shortages are associated with the share of household and hired labor performed by women, and women's empowerment. When a household experiences reduced household or hired labor supply, we observe a relatively larger use of female household labor, but a reduced share of female hired labor. We also find that reduced labor supply is not associated with significant reductions in gender wage gaps, or enhanced women's empowerment. These findings suggest that given existing gender norms, male and female labor are not perfect substitutes for one another, and as a result, male outmigration is not associated with improved outcomes for women in cash crop production in the short run. Our results demonstrate a need for better understanding of the role of gender in rural labor markets, particularly in contexts of rapid urbanization.

Lifecourse-varying structural stigma, minority stress reactions and mental health among sexual minority male migrants.

BackgroundIncreasing evidence suggests that structural stigma (e.g. discriminatory laws, policies and population attitudes) can give rise to minority stress reactions (i.e. rejection sensitivity, internalized homophobia and identity concealment) to compromise sexual minorities’ mental health. Yet, many sexual minorities encounter divergent structural stigma climates over the life course, with potential implications for their experience of minority stress reactions and mental health. We take advantage of sexual minority male migrants’ lifecourse-varying exposures to structural stigma contexts to examine this possibility.MethodsA sample of 247 sexual minority men who had migrated from 71 countries to the low-structural-stigma context of Sweden completed a survey regarding migration experiences, minority stress reactions and mental health. This survey was linked to objective indices of structural stigma present in these men’s countries of origin, diverse in terms of structural stigma.ResultsCountry-of-origin structural stigma was significantly associated with poor mental health and this association was mediated by rejection sensitivity and internalized homophobia, but only among those who arrived to Sweden at an older age and more recently.ConclusionsProlonged exposure to high levels of structural stigma can give rise to stressful cognitive, affective and behavioural coping patterns to jeopardize sexual minority men’s mental health; yet, these consequences of structural stigma may wane with increased duration of exposure to more supportive structural contexts.

Labour out-migration and Covid-19 Pandemic in India: A case study of Murshidabad district of West Bengal

This article outlines the patterns of internal migration from Murshidabad district of West Bengal during the Covid-19 Pandemic. We found that seasonal/temporary male migration from the study area has been evolving continuously over time. More than half of the total migrants move within the state boundaries. The inter-state migrants are often destined to economically better off states than the study area. We have shown that landlessness, lack of jobs, low wages, decaying of traditional craftsmanship and household pressure are among the factors leading young males to migrate. These moves are motivated by jobs and income, and movers often shift from agricultural work to building and construction and petty businesses. Migrants and their families are almost exclusively dependent on domestic remittances to meet the household expenditures, repay loans and meet children’s educational expenses. Social networks, especially friends and relatives, are crucial in facilitating the migration process. Covid-19 Pandemic raised essential questions about the future of these vulnerable sections of the population as migration became difficult and remittances dropped significantly.

Nature and determinants of migration: Insights from NSSO data in three states of India

The exodus of men is the most opted strategy adopted by rural households to diversify income and reduce risks associated with agriculture. Migration plays a very important role in reducing the liquidity and credit constraints of rural households in India. Data shows there are roughly 30 per cent internal migrants in the country. Despite the existence of studies on patterns and determinants of migration in various out-migrating states such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Kerala etc., literature on the same in States with high in-migration are scarce. This article makes an attempt to comprehensively look into patterns and determinants of in-migration in three states. We have used the unit level data on migration (NSSO 64th Round) and tabulated it with suitable statistical techniques. To have a better understanding of determinants of in-migration in the states of Maharashtra, Delhi and West Bengal, a binary logistic regression model have been employed. We found that the majority of male migrants in these states is from within the state and but from different districts. Another interesting finding is that determining factors for migration vary across states. Social group, education, age, monthly expenditure are significant factors in determining migration decisions.

Ties that bind, lines that divide: Bangladeshi labour migrants, Malaysian spouses, and the new contours of racialization

ABSTRACT We investigate the racialization of a migrant “other” centred, not on phenotype, but on nationality, in the context of Malaysia, an ethnically diverse host society. Our case study comprises Bangladeshi male labour migrants who, as transient low-skilled workers, face restrictions in pursuing marriage and entrepreneurship. As Muslims, these Bangladeshi migrants draw on their co-religious congruence with the Malay-Muslim majority to traverse these restrictions, gaining a degree of success in marrying Malaysian women and becoming entrepreneurs. Drawing from narratives of the migrants and their citizen spouses, we examine how they take advantage of their intersectional positioning at the nexus of race, religion, and nationality to overwrite racialization and navigate national anxieties. Leveraging marriage and entrepreneurship, the migrants and spouses draw on and re-interpret existing racial discourses in their mutual pursuit of social mobility. While these partnerships may be socioculturally contentious, they are nevertheless economically interdependent, opening up space for countering racisms.

Recouping masculinity: Understanding the links between macho masculinity and self-exploitation among undocumented South Asian male migrants in Greece

The article situates, centre stage, the process by which temporary labour regimes utilize culturally specific masculine norms of undocumented migrant men to enforce labour docility and accumulate greater capital. It draws upon the example of undocumented Pakistani and Bangladeshi men working in orange orchards and strawberry fields in Greece, who pit their masculinity against one another through fruit-picking contests. South Asian male migrants, emasculated and marginalised by their illegality and precarity of work, attempt to rework their masculine status through such self-exploitative contests. These competitions, predicated on the neoliberal individualizing of workers and their success, displace exploitation by linking piece-rate earnings to muscular masculinity and individual capacity. Fruit-picking contests are an efficient and creative labour management practice wherein fluid masculine subjectivities are harnessed to weed out “inefficient” workers, subdue labour unrest, erode worker solidarity, and maximise labour extraction without adopting overt labour disciplinary mechanisms.

Frequency of health-care service use and severity of illness in undocumented migrants in Catalonia, Spain: a population-based, cross-sectional study

In Spain, legislation was passed in 2012 excluding undocumented migrants from the public health-care system. Catalonia was one of the Spanish regions that did not implement this legislation, and continued to guarantee access to health care to the whole population. We aimed to analyse health-care use and health status among undocumented migrants in Catalonia, and compare health-care use and health status with legal residents classified according to their socioeconomic position (SEP). We did a population-based, cross-sectional study, with administrative individual data. The study included the resident population in Catalonia, Spain, in 2017, aged younger than 65 years and with a maximum annual income of less than €18 000 per year, and classified into three socioeconomic (SEP) groups-low SEP, very low SEP, and undocumented migrants. Indicators regarding health-care service use (primary care, emergency care, mental health care, acute care), drug prescriptions, and selected chronic and infectious diseases were analysed. Between Jan 1 and Dec 31, 2017, 4 071 988 residents of Catalonia were included in this study; undocumented migrants represented 2·8% (n=113 450) of this population. Of all undocumented migrants, 25 942 (61·0%) female participants aged 15-64 years and 19 819 (46·0%) male participants aged 15-64 years attended primary health-care centres: these rates were lower than in individuals with a very low SEP (84·8% in female participants and 72·1% in male participants). Hospital admission rates among male participants aged 15-64 years in the very low SEP group were more than three times as high as in undocumented migrants (111·6 vs 35·7). The highest tuberculosis rate was found in undocumented male migrants (incidence rate 4·35 [95% CI 3·55-5·16]). Undocumented migrants made less use of health-care services than those in the low and very low SEP groups, but for some infectious diseases, incidence was higher in undocumented migrants. These results constitute an additional argument to support the maintenance of universal health coverage for all citizens. None.

Effects of Pandemics on Migrant Communities: Analysis of Existing Sources

Gender, religion, and migration are perplexing issues, especially in this era of the COVID-19 pandemic in which gendered and religious dynamics are emerging within migrant communities across the world. The relations between these three concepts are explored within this bleak time that has exposed previously neglected dynamics present in migrant communities living in distant host countries in Asia, Europe, and the United States of America. In this paper, we discuss the intricacies within religion and gender among migrant communities and the gendered impacts that COVID-19 has had on the aforementioned migrant communities. Through a secondary desk review analysis of the diverse emerging literature, we show that there are gendered implications of the pandemic measures taken by governments as migrant communities occupy unique translocalities. Overall, the intersection of religion, gender, and migration underscores religion reproducing gender roles among the migrants. The reproduction of gender in religious institutions disadvantage women amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. The analysis confirmed the trivial fact that migrant women continue to suffer disproportionately due to increased unemployment and disease burden coupled with religious practices that continue to advance the upward mobility of male migrants. There is a need to recast the place of migrant women in this era, and lastly, religion plays a renewed role among migrant communities especially for women who have enhanced their social positions and organizational skills through it.

‘My life is on hold’: examining home, belonging and temporality among migrant men in Ireland

Based on a recent study in Ireland with young male migrants, this paper discusses how narratives of home in migration and sense of belonging in domestic spaces for male migrants are linked. Using photovoice method, the paper focuses on the temporal aspects of the relationship between home and belonging: the present ‘real’ home which constitutes the lived spaces of migrants and the ‘aspired’ home that is postponed to a future time when families of one’s own are formed. The main argument of this paper is that migrant masculinities are reproduced in relation to current structural inequalities and the absence of significant others that prohibit a meaningful home in present time in these young migrant men’s lives.

Gendered migration responses to drought in Malawi

AbstractMigration is a common means of adaptation to weather shocks. Previous research has identified heterogeneous effects according to age, sex, and wealth, but little is still known about how marriage-related institutions affect such migration. Relying on a quasi-experimental identification strategy, we analyze marriage- and work-related migration in Malawi following large droughts, separating the effects for female and male migrants according to different age groups. The analysis based on stated motives of migration reveals marginal decreases in marriage-related migration among girls, but increases in marriage-related migration within districts for women in older age groups. We also find large increases in work-related between-district migration for boys, and to a smaller extent also for girls following severe drought. The results add to the evidence of the potentially adverse effects of migration as a coping mechanism following drought when other means of insurance do not exist.

When the “Strong Arms” Leave the Farms—Migration, Gender Roles and Risk Reduction in Vietnam

For many family farms, migration is one strategy for reducing poverty and vulnerability to both natural hazards and economic risk. While more men typically migrate to work, the implications of this on the household are inconclusive, especially for the women who remain on the farms. This study employs a gender lens to examine the effects of economically driven migration on household decision-making, farm labor and disaster risk reduction, focusing on two disaster-prone regions with high poverty rates in Vietnam: Dien Bien (Northwest) and Ha Tinh (North Central Coast) provinces. Surveys of 228 households with at least one migrant worker showed a new generation of young male and female migrants, and that men over 30 years of age migrated for longer periods and more frequently than their spouses. Intrahousehold impacts differed according to risk strategies. In areas with a lower-risk coping strategy (Dien Bien), seasonal jobs coincided with periods of less intense farming activities. During the absence of male family members, women temporarily made more domestic decisions. In areas with a higher-risk adaptation strategy (Ha Tinh), farming was planned for longer absences; thus decisions remained largely unchanged. Remittances invested into agriculture contributed to shortening the recovery period after disasters and, in some cases, diversifying farming systems. The migrant’s absence was offset by relatives and neighbors as essential labor reserves. New resilient farming systems need to be disaster proof, gender-sensitive and free up labor.

The disbanded Royal Irish Constabulary and forced migration, 1922–31

ABSTRACT This article concerns the men of the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) who were disbanded from the force in 1922 and felt obliged to leave Ireland for Britain. Afforded unique – if not always entirely sufficient – financial and practical arrangements by the British government, this was in many respects a distinctive but particularly well documented cohort of Irish migrants. While the RIC was an exclusively male force, disbandment and migration also impacted on the wives and children of married members. The article will first examine the nature of migration under threat of republican violence for Irish-born, disbanded RIC members. It will then explore forced separation and the experiences of police families, before offering some reflections on what this case-study can tell us about contemporary understanding of gender and violence.

Migrant women and geography of remittance

Status of women empowerment can be measured in terms of sending remittance. Sending remittance is conventionally a male domain because mostly male migration takes place for the employment purpose that is embedded in Indian patriarchal society. In contrast, the National Sample Survey data 64th round ‘Migration in India’ reveals that large numbers of the female also remit. The study focuses on how remittance restructured gender relations even it also breaks the stereotype perception for the women in the society. On these backdrops, the paper tries to find out the geographical pattern and socio-economic backgrounds of the women remitter in India. The data show that women and men of the first-quartile class has remit more than the others. A woman of the economically backward states has remits more, except south India, than other states of the country.

Measuring Migration Status Based on the Place of Marriage Overestimates the Share of Male Migrants in Historical Populations. Evidence From Dutch Marriage Certificates

Thanks to the construction of large databases such as LINKS and GENLIAS based on Dutch civil certificates, our knowledge of individual demographic behavior in the past has improved significantly. However, the use of such research infrastructures also introduces some potential pitfalls, as these databases do not contain all information available from the original sources. For instance, variables that are available on the original source but lacking in LINKS are the places of residence of the bride and the groom at marriage. A common practice among researchers using LINKS and GENLIAS is therefore to identify migrants by comparing an individual’s birth place with the place of marriage. The place of marriage, however, is not necessarily identical to the place of residence, because couples traditionally contracted their marriage in the bride's or bride's parents' municipality of residence. It is therefore particularly likely that grooms are erroneously considered as migrants even though they had never moved before marriage. In this paper we explore whether this poses a problem to studies using the place of marriage as an equivalent to the place of residence. This will be achieved with the help of the marriage certificates release from the Historical Sample of the Netherlands (HSN), which, unlike LINKS, contains both the place of marriage of the couple and the residence of the bride and groom, and allows us to compare the findings derived from both approaches. The analyses show that identifying migrants based on place of marriage causes indeed a significant overestimation of male migrants, but not of female migrants. We therefore suggest the use of a couple's place of first childbirth as a robustness check to avoid overestimating male migration in the past.

Population responses to the 1976 South Dakota drought: Insights for wider drought migration research

AbstractDroughts on the North American Great Plains once led to elevated levels of out‐migration from rural areas. Large‐scale drought migration has not been observed since the 1950s due to changes in land management and agricultural systems that lessened farm‐level vulnerability to drought. Have droughts had less observable population impacts in subsequent decades? Here, we present findings from an investigation of an unusually severe, localised drought that struck eastern South Dakota in 1976 and caused staggering financial losses to farms. County‐level population and net migration rates show an anomalous increase of migration into drought‐affected counties by male migrants in the age group 30–35 years, likely being return migrants coming to help on the family farm. Newspaper archives and interviews with retired farmers suggest that few people moved away during the 1976 drought; most adapted instead by selling off their livestock herds and taking on greater debt. However, a commonly expressed view is that the drought ‘softened up’ area farmers, increasing their vulnerability to interest rates that quadrupled in the three following years. The early 1980s saw high rates of farm failures, unemployment and population decline in counties that experienced the worst impacts of the 1976 drought, suggesting the drought had a lag effect on population patterns. The findings from this case study are consistent with the ‘lessening hypothesis’ that social and technological innovations reduce economic and population impacts of recurrent climatic risks but elevate vulnerability to less frequent, unusually severe events.

“Moving on” with gendered aspirations: Sudanese migrants navigating controlling welfare states, labour markets and migration regimes in the Netherlands and the UK

ABSTRACT The ongoing political unrest and severe economic hardships in Sudan have led many Sudanese to arrive in Europe as asylum seekers. Throughout the years, after obtaining refugee status and becoming European citizens, many settle in the host countries of which they are citizens, while others move onwards to other EU countries as European labour migrants. As the migrants’ legal statuses change during these different stages, so do their welfare and labour-market entitlements, as well as their aspirations and possibilities to achieve them. Drawing on 14 months of ethnographic fieldwork with Sudanese families across the Netherlands, the UK and Sudan, this article explores the strategies deployed by male and female migrants to navigate the current welfare states, labour-market and migration regimes according to their life-course-related needs and aspirations. The article evidences the existing expectations and contradictions in these regimes towards mobile populations and the consequent social and gender inequalities they perpetuate.