Male Migrants Research Articles

Acculturation, Work-Related Stressors, and Respective Coping Strategies among Male Indonesian Migrant Workers in the Manufacturing Industry in Taiwan: A Post-COVID Investigation.

Globalization has prompted cross-cultural migration in search of employment opportunities, and poor adaptation during acculturation is widely known to cause additional psychosocial stress. Hence, the objective of this study was to investigate migrant workers’ perceptions of acculturation, identify work-related stressors, and understand the respective coping strategies among male Indonesians in the manufacturing industry, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Fifteen workers were recruited and interviewed on their acculturation experiences. We found that the workers were susceptible to forced adaptation to stressful conditions relating to work organization, economic distress, interaction with the manpower agencies, language barriers, and so on. During the pandemic, workers experienced overload, economic hardship, suspended home visits, isolation, discrimination, and fear of cluster infection in the crowded dormitory. We also found that workers were able to adopt coping strategies by capitalizing on resources at the individual, institutional, and governmental policy levels to actively solve problems, increase emotional support, and fortify self-appraisals. The identified coping strategies could inform policy development to assist with positive adaptation and promote the well-being of the migrant worker population.

Occupational strategies of third country migrants on the Romanian labor market

The article analyzes how third country migrants in Romania make use of occupational strategies to access the domestic labor market. The analysis develops around formal and informal occupational strategies, the latter ones further divided according to Granovetter’s (2018) ‘strong ties’ and ‘weak ties’. Empirical evidence has been collected from the narratives of twenty oral history interviews with migrants in Romania. Results indicate a reliance of third country migrants on formal and informal occupational strategies for securing employment, especially there where the public sector or private businesses fail to create the adequate employment opportunities. Both kinds of strategies are used alike, with the formal strategy strongly depending on education, hard work and free will, while the informal strategy mainly depending on the ‘ties’. Moreover, findings indicate that ‘weak ties’ tend to push migrants towards the secondary labor market of part-time and poorly paid jobs. In addition, research results also spot a tendency of male migrants to easier engage into creating and using either ‘strong’ or ‘weak ties’, while female migrants struggle to secure personal connections with the domestic population that might help them find a (better) job.

Lifestyle risk factors and metabolic markers of cardiovascular diseases in Bangladeshi rural-to-urban male migrants compared with their non-migrant siblings: A sibling-pair comparative study.

The increasing prevalence of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) in developing countries like Bangladesh has been linked to progressive urbanisation. Comparisons of rural and urban populations often find a higher prevalence of CVD risk factors in the urban population, but rural-to-urban migrants might have different CVD risk profiles than either rural or urban residents. This study aimed to describe differences in CVD risk factors between migrants and non-migrants siblings and to determine whether acculturation factors were associated with CVD risk factors among migrants. Using a sibling-pair comparative study, 164 male migrant who migrated from Pirganj rural areas to Dhaka City and their rural siblings (total N = 328) were assessed by interview, anthropometric measurement, blood pressure and blood samples. Comparisons were made using linear or logistic mixed effects models. Physical inactivity, inadequate intake of fruit and vegetables and possible existence of a mental health disorder had 3.3 (1.73; 6.16), 4.3 (2.32; 7.92) and 2.9 (1.37; 6.27) times higher odds among migrants than their rural siblings, respectively. Migrants watched television on average 20 minutes (95% CI 6.17-35.08 min/day) more per day than the rural sibling group whereas PUFA intake, fruit and vegetable and fish intake of the migrants were -5.3 gm/day (-6.91; -3.70), -21.6 serving/week (-28.20; -15.09), -14.1 serving/week (-18.32; -9.87), respectively, lower than that of the rural siblings. No significant difference was observed for other variables. After adjusting, the risk of physical inactivity, inadequate fruit and vegetable intake, a mental health disorder and low HDL were significantly higher in migrants than in rural siblings and tended to be higher for each increasing tertile of urban life exposure. The findings suggest that migration from rural-to-urban environment increases CVD risk which exacerbate with time spent in urban area due to acculturation. This study gives new insights into the increased CVD risk related with migration and urbanization in Bangladesh.

Marriage, Divorce and Mutual Indebtedness

This article offers an original insight on the gift economy in Tajikistan. As long shown by the literature, ceremonial expenditures sustain social status and convey moral obligations and social order. In this context, we find that marriage breakdown sheds a new light on social cohesion and the sense of indebtedness in Tajik society. In the case studies provided, the material and symbolic meaning of marital breakdown is analysed from the perspective of divorced women. In the context of high ritual expenditure, we ask what are the effects of divorce (and more broadly, demarriage) on women’s perceptions of gender and marital roles in a context of economic crisis and mass male migration to Russia. Specifically, we are interested in the language of debt that shapes women’s discourses about their former marital bond, and how it disrupts the principles of the gift economy that derive from traditional gender and generational roles. In particular, the notion of debt allows divorced women to condemn their ex-in-laws’ failings towards them. The end of the marriage opens the way for the denunciation of broken promises, the expression of unfulfilled expectations and the breaking of marital, gender and collective obligations towards the spouse. While it brings with it a demand for recognition and social justice, it also expresses the contradictory tensions that run through society, its norms and the traditional social roles associated with conjugality.

Does being “left–behind” in childhood lead to criminality in adulthood? Evidence from data on rural-urban migrants and prison inmates in China

Large scale rural-to-urban migration and China’s household registration system have resulted in about 61 million children being left-behind in rural villages when their parents migrate to the cities. This paper uses survey and experimental data from male rural-urban migrants – prison inmates and comparable non-inmates – to examine whether parental absence in childhood as a result of migration is associated with increased criminality in adulthood. Control functions and sibling fixed effects are used to identify causal impacts. Parental absence due to migration is found to increase the propensity of adult males to commit crimes. Being left-behind decreases educational attainment and increases risk-loving behavior, both of which increase criminality.

How housing rent affect migrants’ consumption and social integration? ——Evidence from China Migrants Dynamic Survey

In this paper, we examine the impact of housing rent increase on migrants' household consumption and social integration. Using the China Migrants Dynamic Survey 2011–2014, we find that rent increase significantly reduces migrants’ non-housing consumption and leads to deteriorating social integration. Heterogeneous analyses find that rent increase has a larger impact on male migrants, older people with high school degrees or above, and those who work in the service industry. Additionally, rent increase exacerbates residential segregation between migrants and local residents. Our study provides implications for how policies can help migrants adapt to urban life.

Labor market impact of COVID‐19 on migrants in South Korea: Evidence from local outbreaks

AbstractDespite the growing importance of migrants and their role in the South Korean economy, how much and in which ways COVID‐19, as an adverse labor market shock, has affected them has received too little attention, with no single study published to date yet. Motivated by such a paucity, this paper investigates the impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic crisis on employment for migrants in South Korea, with special emphasis on quantifying the magnitude of its causal effect. In doing so, this study exploits the unique fact that only one specific region in South Korea had a substantial number of COVID‐19 infections in the early stage of the pandemic so that estimations can be made using a difference‐in‐differences (DD) model. The DD estimates suggest that COVID‐19 lowered migrants’ overall employment probability by 2.5 to 3.2 percent points. However, strong heterogeneity between the genders is apparent: the pandemic severely hurts female migrants’ employment, with male migrants weathering it relatively unscathed. Furthermore, female migrants seem considerably harder hit than female host populations. Heterogeneity analyses reveal that (i) a duration of stay exceeding 5 years and (ii) fluency in Korean (as a local language) protect migrants from being heavily affected by the COVID‐driven employment shock.

An inflated probability models for adult out-migration

In this paper an inflated probability model developed under the certain assumption for the adult male migrants, from the households. The parameters involve in the model have been estimated and suitability of the model has been carried out by the adult male migration data.

Migration and the Autonomy of Women Left Behind

This paper provides new evidence on the impact of migration of male household heads on the autonomy of their spouses. Using panel household survey data from Ethiopia, the methodology mainly relies on an instrumental variables approach that addresses the endogeneity inherent in the relationship and carefully pays attention to the role of remittances. After correcting for endogeneity, we find consistent evidence that male migration increases female self-determination and decision-making power, and (to a lesser extent) the ability to protect one’s interests. As all these variables measure autonomy, our results suggest that migration of husbands offers an opportunity for women to become more autonomous in traditional societies.

Back to parents: earnings of young adults and informal care

ABSTRACT Return migrants are often considered to be disadvantaged in terms of earnings. However, family needs might affect an individual’s migration decision and allocation of his (her) time between formal employment and informal care. The generalized Roy model employed to account for self-selection in migration decisions shows that the losses in earnings of return migrants are overestimated for female young adults when family characteristics, such as the presence of children or parents in need of care, are not accounted for. The study is based on age- and gender-specific samples of individuals born in 1974 and followed between the ages of 25 and 32 years drawn from Swedish longitudinal data. The results suggest that female internal return migrants rely on grandparenting to reconcile their family and working life. In particular, mothers of children under eight years old earn more when they reside close to their parents. The negative self-selection of male return migrants remains after controlling for family characteristics. This likely relates to differences in the labour supply as returns on education do not differ by residential location choice. The estimates do not demonstrate any link between potential informal elder care and a change in the earnings of young adults.

Trapping: An Identity Work Strategy of a Non White Mate Migrant to be Visible in the Workplace

We give voice to a unique individual migrant identity story of extraordinary resilience. In this special issue we analyse an identity work strategy which is so far not accounted for in the identity work literature. This paper aims to uncover the identity work of our first author, a non-white male migrant who is a multi-discipline qualified and a tenured public health academic in his early forties but also a product of post-colonial globalisation and thus an artefact of considerable identity work. The evolution of his identity started with his original identity as a Tamil Malaysian boy. We narrate his story of a seemingly never-ending struggle to 'breathe', stay afloat, and achieve visibility in the workplace through a collaborative, reflective autoethnographic process. The array of multi-location identity work across the globe, from trying to find a voice as a third-generation migrant in his own birth country, Malaysia, in the Russian medical society as an aspiring paediatrician, and a first-generation skilled migrant in Australia made our first author a unique case of identity work. The identity work discovered here is of particular significance to this special issue due to the micro, meso and macro-level implications.

Punjab to Abroad- Factors, Causes and AdvantagesA Case Study of the International Migration From Rural Punjab

International migration is a global phenomenon and it affect almost every country of the world. This study is based on the international migration from rural Punjab, especially from Doaba region. In this research paper reasons behind the choice of destination country, earning amount before and after migration, amount of household assets etc. have been discussed. It is observed that the ratio of male migrants is much higher than the females. There are two main motives of the young migrants, first is to get higher education and the other is to explore better job opportunities. During the study it is noticed that majority of the households have repaid their loans. In this study it is also observed that people mainly use remittances to purchase household goods and to purchase four wheeler (cars) and furniture. This paper explored that after migration the household conditions of the migrants' have improved a lot and they have purchased a number of luxurious items which they have not been possessed before migration.

The impact of equalisation of basic public health and medical services on the long‐term urban settlement intentions of internal migrants in China

Using China Migrants Dynamic Survey Project data from 2012 to 2018, this paper evaluates the causal impact of equalisation of basic public health and medical services on the long‐term urban settlement intentions of internal migrants by the difference‐in‐differences approach. The results reveal that the equalisation of basic public health and medical services has a negative impact on the long‐term urban settlement intentions of internal migrants of 4%. Male, middle‐aged, and unmarried internal migrants have a much stronger negative response, in terms of long‐term urban settlement intentions, to changes in basic public health and medical services. Moreover, more recent internal migrants, those in first‐tier cities and those in cities in eastern regions also have a much stronger negative response. Mechanism checks imply that the negative impact on the long‐term urban settlement intentions of internal migrants is caused by social integration decline after implementation of equalisation of basic public health and medical services.

Uzbek Migrants in Türkiye: Gender, Satisfaction in Türkiye, and Return Intentions

This study examines the life satisfaction of migrants from Uzbekistan who have individually chosen Türkiye as a migration destination. Within the significant migration flows from post-Soviet countries to Türkiye, female migrants, including migrants from Uzbekistan, outnumber male migrants at least two to one. This gendered influx into Türkiye is puzzling: studies on labor migration from Central Asia overall show that male migrants outnumber females by orders of magnitude, which is explained by normative attitudes that women should stay at home. This article contributes to understandings of gendered migration flows through attention to women migrants' explanations of their satisfaction with employment in Türkiye in relation to their migration goals.

Ancient DNA reveals five streams of migration into Micronesia and matrilocality in early Pacific seafarers.

Micronesia began to be peopled earlier than other parts of Remote Oceania, but the origins of its inhabitants remain unclear. We generated genome-wide data from 164 ancient and 112 modern individuals. Analysis reveals five migratory streams into Micronesia. Three are East Asian related, one is Polynesian, and a fifth is a Papuan source related to mainland New Guineans that is different from the New Britain-related Papuan source for southwest Pacific populations but is similarly derived from male migrants ~2500 to 2000 years ago. People of the Mariana Archipelago may derive all of their precolonial ancestry from East Asian sources, making them the only Remote Oceanians without Papuan ancestry. Female-inherited mitochondrial DNA was highly differentiated across early Remote Oceanian communities but homogeneous within, implying matrilocal practices whereby women almost never raised their children in communities different from the ones in which they grew up.

Migration and Gender Dynamics of Irrigation Governance in Nepal

Nepal has a long history of irrigation, including government and farmer-managed irrigation systems that are labor- and skill-intensive. Widespread male migration has important effects on Nepalese society. How institutions such as Water Users’ Associations (WUAs) respond and adapt, is therefore critical to the understanding of rural transformation and the likely impact on gender equality, food production, and rural livelihoods. This paper examines the effects of male migration on institutional change in WUAs, women’s roles, technological change, and outcomes affecting effectiveness of irrigation systems based on a mixed methods study, combining a phone survey of 336 WUA leaders from all provinces in Nepal with qualitative data from case studies in 10 irrigation systems. Results indicate WUAs have adapted rules to increase women’s participation, and to monetize the contributions for maintenance. Women exercise agency in whether and how to interact with WUAs. Mechanization has reduced the need for some male labor, though the ability to mechanize is limited by hilly terrain and small plot sizes. Overall, systems are adapting to male migration, with relatively low idling of land or labor shortages causing deterioration of the systems, though there are concerns with the high levels of women’s labor burdens.

Pets: Theological Dilemmas and Spatial Accommodation Among Turkish-Speaking Migrants in the Northwest of England

Based on individual interviews in the Northwest of England, this article examines how Turkish-speaking (TS) migrants experience pet practices. Building on approaches to space-making practices, as well as studies on everyday lived religion, this article explores how TS migrants constitute pet practices within their understanding of Islam and the context in where they live.This article shifts the emphasis from the study of texts to the study of lived practices. This study explores how texts are employed in distinctive ways by individuals in everyday life. Additionally, it has been discussed that Muslims’ lives cannot be reduced to text only. Instead, the text and the context mutually reconstitute individuals’ everyday lives. TS migrants established a way of life by taking seriously into account the mutual relationships between the text and the context. They lived in a certain context without excluding the text. This study explored that their everyday lives are inspired by the text. Particularly, pet practices are chosen to demonstrate the negotiation between the text and the context.Despite the increase of pet practices among Muslims in Europe, including Britain, it is less researched. Examining the stories of six men in the UK who are mixed married, this article pushes further the discussions of Islamic views on dogs, by exploring the challenges that male migrants face theologically and socially, and strategically adapting to deal with unique situations and their everyday experiences. It reveals that mixed married TS migrants come across two main strategies to deal with this practice: convincing kids to avoid dog adoption or creating religious spaces in the home sphere by not allowing dogs to enter certain rooms.

Effects of hunting pressure and timing of harvest on bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) horn size

Trophy hunting can affect weapon size of wild animals through both demographic and evolutionary changes. In bighorn sheep ( Ovis canadensis Shaw, 1804), intense harvest of young males with fast-growing horns may have partly driven long-term decreases in horn size. These selective effects could be dampened if migrants from protected areas, not subject to artificial selection, survived and reproduced within hunted populations. Bighorn rams undertake long-distance breeding migrations in the weeks preceding the late-November rut. We analysed records of >7800 trophy bighorn rams shot from 1974 to 2019 in Alberta, Canada, to test the hypothesis that high harvest pressure during breeding migrations was correlated with a greater decrease in horn size. We compared areas with and without a pronounced harvest peak in late October, when male breeding migrations begin. Areas without a pronounced harvest peak in late October, which likely experienced a lower harvest rate, showed a similar temporal decline in horn size, but no increase in age at harvest suggesting a possibly weaker decline in horn growth. Our study suggests that unselected immigrants from protected areas could partly buffer the effects of intense trophy hunting only if harvest pressure was reduced when breeding migrations commence.

“Wives Wishing to Join Their Husbands”: Colonial Forgery, Gender Legibility, and Labor Migration in West Africa

AbstractEuropean mobilizations of Africans for labor relied on the forgery that Africans can be harnessed into modern units of capitalist production only when organized into households led by wage-earning men supported by domesticated women. Between the 1930s and 1950s, Nigerian male labor migrants to Fernando Po and Gabon, as well as their wives, advanced diverse forgeries in response to the legibility protocols that European states used to control African migrants. Nigerian men used colonial documentation of their status as husbands to claim women’s bodies. Nigerian women used colonial documentation as wives and mothers to mask autonomy, illicit mobility, child trafficking, and sex work. This article develops a historical theory of forgery to explain how colonial legibility protocols and African manipulations of colonial documents constituted gendering practices. It focuses on the diverse documentary strategies women developed to evade colonial surveillance, including photographs to manufacture kinship and colonial court records to generate identities as temporary wives and fictive mothers. As European agents and African men strove to exploit women’s economic and sexual capacities, women used documentary and social forgeries to exploit fissures in colonial rule and create autonomous spaces of mobility and economic opportunity.

Experience of Violence due to COVID-19 among Returnee Migrants of Far-Western Province of Nepal

Migration has been a main pillar of the nation as well as the household economy of Nepal. However, COVID-19 has caused stigma and discrimination and increased risks of violence, disrupting GBV prevention and response mechanisms. The objectives of the study are to examine the prevalence and determinants of experience of violence due to COVID-19 among returnee migrants of the Far-western province of Nepal. Data for this survey were collected through a cross-sectional research design using quantitative methods in the Far-western province of Nepal. A total of 1182 respondents were surveyed to gather quantitative information. Univariate, Bivariate and multivariate analyses were applied to data. In addition, multivariable analysis was used to identify whether independent variables affected the risk of Gender-Based Violence. An overwhelming majority of returnee migrants were male (94.2%), while about 6 percent were female. One-third of respondents were youth aged below 25 years. Thirty-two percent of them had primary or below education. Eighteen percent of returnee migrants do not have food sufficient for a month in their household. Three in five returnee migrants (60%) reported that they had experienced violence. Multivariate analysis shows that female migrants were more likely to experience violence (aOR=2.1, 95% CI=1.02-4.3) than male migrants. Older age migrants were more likely to experience violence than younger migrants aged below 20. Migrants from poor households were more likely to experience violence (aOR=4.5, 95% CI= 3.1-6.7) than rich households. Physically disabled migrants were 4 times more likely (aOR=4.5, 95% CI= 2.6-7.5) than those who are not disabled. Experience of violence is very high among returnee migrants of Sudurpashchim province of Nepal. Our study found that female migrants, physically disabled migrants, who had elderly in their houses, and migrants from poor households were more likely to experience violence. Therefore, there is a need for a comprehensive awareness program and services that can help to prevent violence among returnee migrants.