Migrant Agency Research Articles

Documentary subversions and migrant agency: Towards an alternative audio-visual portrait of immigrant communities in the United States

The movement of people across different countries has been a constant in the history of human civilization. This has been attested to by the so-called ‘mobility turn’ in the social sciences. One of the most important recent instances of such a movement has been the mass migration of diverse communities to the United States. This migratory transit has been portrayed in numerous ways in different media. Among these, documentary films have played a crucial role in their approach to these migrant flows. In both, traditional forms and new web platforms, we find multiple examples of non-fiction that focus on portraying these communities. This article focuses on one of these platforms: Immigrant Nation Media. By highlighting the resistance practices the platform offers, this analysis focuses on its collaborative and educational dimensions, as well as its dedication to migrant empowerment.

The Forgotten Bonds: A Coevolutionary Framework on the Diffusion of Tzu Chi in Four Southeast Asian Countries

The literature on the diffusion of new religion is strongly influenced by the voluntaristic paradigm that highlights the agency of individual migrants. This article examines and compares the diffusion process and outcome of Tzu Chi (Buddhist Compassion Relief Tzu Chi Association) in four Southeast Asian countries—Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, and the Philippines—to illustrate the complex relationship between migration, diffusion, critical events, and local conditions. Using a comparative research design and original materials, this article proposes a coevolutionary framework inspired by organization studies on the emergence of novelty. This article argues that the different diffusion processes and diffusion outcomes in the four cases are best explained through looking at network genesis mechanisms. This research contributes to the current studies on the diffusion of religion and scholarly interests in the global Tzu Chi movement.

Settler-Colonial Spatial Logics and Indigenous internal (non)Migration in Australia

In Australia, the nebulous concept of ‘remoteness’ is central to Indigenous Affairs social policy. An enduring settler-colonial spatial imaginary positions remote Australia as simultaneously both the heartland of authentic Indigeneity, and a wicked policy problem. Over the last 50 years, the small Indigenous communities that predominate in remote Australia have been cyclically and discursively positioned as essentially parasitic: economically unproductive (in a neoliberal market sense), socially dysfunctional, and a consequent drain on government social spending. The state argues that continued investment in essential infrastructure and services in these small communities is not sustainable. The complex and important historical geographies of spatial and procedural justice that produce such renderings demand their own careful analysis and critique. The task of this paper, however, is to critically consider the preferred policy “solution” to the perceived predicament of governing Indigenous remoteness. Specifically, there are tacit, and largely untested, assumptions within Australian public praxis that greater Indigenous migration from small remote and rural communities to larger towns and cities, as a means of increasing Indigenous education and employment outcomes, will more or less automatically resolve this wicked policy problem. The empirical data presented in this paper suggest that the Indigenous Australian population is probably experiencing an urban transition at a similar rate to many more rurally-based societies in Asia and Africa. However, the context, regulation, management, experience and outcomes of remote/rural-urban migration are arguably vastly different in settler-states such as Australia than in low- and middle-income countries and not necessarily always aligned with State social policy objectives. This paper therefore considers alternative approaches to geographical theorising about Indigenous migration. In particular it returns to Mabogunje’s [1970] systems theory of rural-urban migration which is attentive to the specifics of both the wider economic, socio-cultural and political environment within migration occurs, as well as migrant agency, logics, decision-making processes and outcomes. This facilitates a move beyond what Kukutai and Taylor [2012] refer to as conventional ‘postcolonial demography’, to explore how we might engage in decolonising scholarship of Indigenous migration decisions, categories, experiences and outcomes.

Gramscian perspectives on citizenship: snapshots from the experience of regional migrants in the Republic of Cyprus

ABSTRACT This article conceptualises citizenship in Gramscian terms, as a contested element of struggles for hegemony within civil society. Based on ethnographic snapshots from Cyprus, it is shown how the agency of migrants from the nearby region not only subverts a restrictive border regime, but also challenges a hegemonic paradigm of citizenship shaped by colonialism, ethnic conflict, as well as crisis and austerity. At the same time, struggles for legal recognition occur in a state of relative autonomy from this social contestation of citizenship. They rather express a desire for freedom of movement as a right in itself, in a context where legal citizenship is becoming synonymous with mobility.

La activación de la inmigración

Los enfoques convencionales sobre las migraciones han tendido a considerar frecuentemente a los inmigrantes como sujetos pasivos en sus procesos de incorporación a las sociedades de recepción. En cambio, cada vez contamos con más muestras de la iniciativa de los propios inmigrantes como actores de procesos de cambio, así como nuevas perspectivas de investigación que tratan de dar cuenta de este giro: el reconocimiento de la autonomía de las migraciones, la relevancia de las capacidades y la agencia de los migrantes en diferentes ámbitos y su contribución al desarrollo de las sociedades de recepción. En realidad, los inmigrantes despliegan diversas estrategias, luchas y resistencias contribuyendo así a crear procesos de transformación social en diversos terrenos: en el campo económico y el emprendimiento, en el de las organizaciones de la sociedad civil o en el político.

The Great Displacement: Reading Migration Fiction at the End of the World

This paper examines how contemporary works of fiction and nonfiction reflect on anticipated cases of climate dislocation. Building on existing research about migrant agency, climate fiction, and human rights, it traces the contours of climate migration discourse before analyzing how three twenty-first-century novels enable us to reimagine the “great displacement” beyond simplistic militarized and humanitarian frames. Zooming in on stories by Mohsin Hamid, John Lanchester, and Margaret Drabble that envision hypothetical calamities while responding to present-day refugee “crises”, this paper explains how these texts interrogate apocalyptic narratives by demilitarizing borderscapes, exploring survivalist mindsets, and interrogating shallow appeals to empathy.

Migration in sub-Saharan Africa: The Somali refugee and migrant experience

Abstract:This forum contributes to debates on migration, displacement, and place-making in contemporary sub-Saharan Africa. We bring together an interdisciplinary group of scholars to move the existing literature beyond the dominant focus on thecausesof displacement to a rich and granular exploration of itsconsequences. The forum focuses on Somali refugees and migrants for two reasons. First, Somalia is one of the largest refugee-producing countries in the world. Second, depending on the host states in which they find themselves, Somali migrants and refugees can encounter many different fates, ranging from living in refugee camps to migrating to other countries in sub-Saharan Africa to a small minority being resettled in countries of the global north. These varied circumstances make it possible to study strategies of place-making among Somali communities from several different perspectives. A central theme of this forum is to highlight the agency of migrants and refugees and to emphasize the fact that these groups are more than mere victims of their circumstances. The articles in this volume will be of interest to scholars of African studies, anthropology, comparative politics, migration studies, peace studies, and Somali studies.

A society which is not: Political emergence and migrant agency

This essay represents an effort to rethink the relationship between political emergence and migrant agency. This undertaking has a theoretical motivation. Mainstream human and social sciences seem to be at an impasse because of their structural inability to interpret and explain systemic crises and contradictions. While this is a topic far too complex to be dealt with in a brief essay, the following pages will explore three expressions of this impasse. First, the social sciences often analyse migration without acknowledging its profound political implications. Second, European history and sociology rarely recognize histories of imperial dominance and anticolonial resistance as intrinsic to European history and society. Third, mainstream social and political theories often ignore the structural significance of collective protests and resistance movements for the realization of democracy. The article frames the analysis of these problems via two different theoretical contexts in which we can observe ongoing conceptual or methodological shifts or ‘turns’ that respond to the said impasse. In studies of democracy and citizenship there has thus been a clear turn toward ‘borders’. In migration studies, there is a corresponding turn toward ‘agency’. By analysing the interconnections between these theoretical contexts the article suggests ways of resolving the three problems at hand. It starts by examining the first one, or the inability to acknowledge the profound political implications of migration. This discussion will then offer an approach to the other two, concerning the legacies of colonialism and the significance of political agency and protest.

A Review of Katarzyna Grabska, Marina de Regt, Nicoletta Del Franco, Adolescent Girls’ Migration in the Global South: Transitions into Adulthood. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019, 272 pp.

The book investigates the migration of adolescent girls in the Global South and the interconnection between this migration and the girls’ transitions into adulthood. It contains a number of detailed cases of adolescent girls’ migration collected in Ethiopia, Sudan and Bangladesh. The review focuses on the way the authors approach migration studies. They criticize the negative discourse on migration and attempt to uncover the agency of adolescent migrants. Adolescents girls are presented not as victims subjected to structural forces but rather as active agents in complex social contexts. This allows the authors to present a more nuanced language to deal with the causes and long-term effects of migration in the Global South.

Exercising agency in a hostile environment: How do refused asylum seekers find work?

Using Anthony Giddens’ structuration theory, this article analyzes the specific ways refused asylum seekers use agency to find employment, despite a legal framework that prevents them working. It is based on a total of 34 semi-structured interviews conducted in Paris. Three points are to be noted. Firstly, there is a hierarchy in the type of jobs available: the most popular jobs can be accessed by borrowing the identity of a third person with regular status, while people who cannot use this means are confined to jobs on the more precarious fringes of the job market. Secondly, our research highlights the existence of an informal labor market that asylum seekers can approach, sometimes even before their asylum application is filed. It is also a space for discussion, advice, and contact with other undocumented job seekers, accessible in specific locations or via the Internet. Thirdly, any long-term prospects are hindered by the precariousness of a person’s migration status: although French legislation officially makes regularization possible, under certain conditions, for people who can justify working without ID, our research reveals a series of obstacles on the ground that make this prospect unlikely. In addition to analyzing the current institutional situation, this research focuses on migrant agency, which is crucial to understanding the hidden aspects of migration.

El enfoque de sistemas migratorios revisitado. Una propuesta teórica para el estudio del sistema migratorio de América Latina y el Caribe

Resumen El objetivo de este artículo es revisitar los orígenes, desarrollo, límites y potencialidades del enfoque de sistemas migratorios, para formular una propuesta teórica que, a la hora de analizar la conformación, retroalimentación y reconfiguración de los sistemas migratorios, considere el papel de la estructura, de los factores de carácter meso (como las instituciones o los colectivos) y de la agencia migrante (individual y colectiva). Partimos para ello, de una perspectiva crítica dialéctica que establece un vínculo entre los elementos del sistema con los condicionantes estructurales, al tiempo que recupera la agencia migrante, principalmente en su dimensión colectiva. Nuestra propuesta será aplicada exploratoriamente al estudio del sistema migratorio de América Latina y el Caribe en el periodo 1970-2018. Más allá de una mera descripción de los principales rasgos del sistema y sus subsistemas, tratamos de mostrar los elementos que condicionan su estabilidad y evolución, resaltando, además de los elementos clásicos de los sistemas, el peso de los condicionantes estructurales, así como de las resistencias y estrategias desarrolladas por los colectivos migrantes.

The Double Articulation of Sovereign Bordering: Spaces of Exception, Sovereign Vulnerability, and Agamben’s Schmitt/Foucault Synthesis

ABSTRACT With the rise of authoritarian populism and critical border studies, as well as the continued presence of the Minutemen and borderlands studies, it is safe to say that sovereign borders are receiving increasing attention from a diverse set of actors within and beyond academia. One strain of research, building on the work of Giorgio Agamben, has examined the border as a space of exception. However, Agamben’s conceptual development of biopolitical sovereignty has come under fire, as critics assert his uneasy synthesis of Carl Schmitt and Michel Foucault is disproven by the agency of migrants proving themselves capable of resisting sovereign control at the border. This article responds to Agamben’s critics by rebalancing the Schmittian and Foucauldian sources of Agamben’s work. While much of the conceptual development of the border-as-exception has focused on the experience of the border-crosser as a capillary manifestation of control, I argue that the exception is as important for the sovereign as for the object of sovereign power. Every decision on the exception is also a process of defining who the sovereign is, and if we understand the border is a space of exception, then we also must recognize the vulnerability that this produces for the sovereign.

From Being Aware to Going There: On the Awareness and Decision-Making of (Prospective) Migrants

It does not always take a wall to deter migrants from irregular entry. Many countries rely on so-called migration management measures in aspiring migrants’ countries of origin, which also include (mass-)mediated awareness-raising campaigns. These are designed to educate prospective migrants about the dangers and challenges awaiting them en route and after arrival in the destination country. Such campaigns’ effectiveness has long been questioned. Theoretically, this article contributes to the debate by combining de Haas’ conceptual framework of agency and structure in migration processes with Bakewell and Jolivet’s concepts of migratory network and broadcast feedback. Empirically, through qualitative field research in four sub-Saharan African states, it questions the supposed causal connection between migrants’ awareness of risks and their attitudes toward migration in decision-making. It concludes that awareness-raising strategies deny migrant agency and convey a distorted picture of migrants’ alleged nescience.

Migrants straddling the “here” and “there”: Explorations of habitus and hybrid identities among Sri Lankan migrants in New Zealand

AbstractMigrant settlement is of particular interest to the field of psychology due to a notable increase in the movement of people over the past few decades. This article explores the ways in which Sri Lankan migrants in New Zealand establish a sense of continuity between the host nation and country of origin. The theoretical framework for this research is informed by elements of ethnographic and indigenous research. We provide a rich understanding of migrant experiences that foregrounds the agency and resilience of migrants, and acknowledges the complexities of the notion of identity and migrant settlement. We explore complex, fluid, and hybrid cultural identities as experienced by Sri Lankan migrants and their negotiations of space and place, material practices, and objects of significance, such as an educational institution, antique dinnerware, and furniture with colonial origins. The present research thereby, argues for the need to acknowledge both the historical and current contexts that shape migrants' sense of habitus and cultural identities.

Between the denial of realities and pragmatism: migration-led regeneration in Genova and Manchester

Starting from the assumption that urban politics are a fundamental part of an evolving local governance of migration, this article investigates the overlappings between migration-related policies and migrant agency on one hand and urban regeneration policies on the other hand. As European cities are embedded in (supra-)national migration regimes, the institutional responses on migration vary accordingly. The here presented comparison between two cities in two migration regimes allows for an understanding of common traits and differences of the urban governance of migration across the different migration regimes. For this purpose the situation in Genova (Italy) and Manchester (UK) is in the focus of the analysis. The comparison reveals that as well cities with long-established migration policies as those with a poorly developed institutional setting strongly rely on the agency of the civil society. Migration-led regeneration takes place, but is not framed explicitly within the urban policies and strategies of regeneration.

The migration–urbanisation nexus in Nepal's exceptional urban transformation

AbstractThe dynamic relationship between urban transformation and migration pathways formed by multiple attractions and mobilities to, within, and beyond urban areas constitute what we, in this paper, refer to as the migration–urbanisation nexus. Drawing on case studies of urban growth in three urban sites of Nepal, this paper explores how migration practices, including rural–urban, international and return migration, and the migrant economy, exemplified by returns of remittances, intersect with the socioeconomic and spatial dynamics of urban growth. The analysis combines quantitative and qualitative data on migration pathways, including the historical timing of migration, the shifting drivers of rural–urban migration, and examinations of the links to an international migration and remittance economy. The findings show how rural–urban migration during the 10 years of conflict is setting urban growth in motion. However, most importantly, the analysis reveals how urban growth and form are stimulated by the migrant agency related to translocal migration economies, in particular, urban investments of international remittances. In conclusion, it is suggested that the migration–urbanisation nexus approach developed in this paper has potential to be used beyond Nepal in studies of migration and urban growth.

Urban diaspora space: Rural–urban migration and the production of unequal urban spaces

Rural–urban migration contributes to urban growth across the world. However, the processes of becoming urban are not equal for all migrants, nor are their role in producing and transforming urban space. By regarding the urban as an ‘urban diaspora space’, this paper provides a new framework for understanding the unequal process of becoming urban by examining how migrant agency and translocal belonging translate into exclusionary practices in the production of urban diaspora space. The paper draws on empirical research, including a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods in Birtamode, an emerging urban centre in Nepal. The paper opens with an introduction of the ‘urban diaspora space’ as a conceptual framework drawing on existing writings on diaspora, translocality and transient urban spaces. Following this, the analysis demonstrates how a diasporic religious community emerges among diasporic subjects and how it translates into social and political communities that come to define social and political agendas within the urban space. By treating the urban as a diasporic space, the paper demonstrates how diasporic communities form spaces in which migrants can regain the status and positionality they had in their rural places of origin, thus enabling a discussion of processes of inclusion and exclusion in the production of unequal urban spaces. The paper concludes that the urban diaspora space can unveil how social and political geographies are reproduced in the urban environment by creating unequal urban spaces.

‘Escaping’ managed labour migration: worker exit as precarious migrant agency

ABSTRACT This article narrows in on the mundane yet extraordinary events surrounding migrant farm workers’ decisions to leave their state-approved employment and to seek a better life in Canada outside of state-managed circulatory labour migration. In so doing, this research contributes to conceptualisations of precarity, and of precarious status in particular, that are beginning to recognise its effects not only on workers’ economic survival, but also the more ordinary daily conditions surrounding workers’ sense belonging and personal autonomy. In their refusal to accept the terms of their contractual circulatory labour migration agreements through what is conceptualised here as an act of ‘escape’, workers claim a space of belonging that contradicts the precarity of their formal citizenship status. In carving out a space in which they may perform autonomy and self-determination in daily life, however, this rejection of contingent citizenship status intensifies the precarious material conditions governing workers’ relationship to the state.

Dominant Language Acquisition in Destination Countries: Structure, Agency and Reflexivity

This article advances understanding of the structural and agentic factors which influence how migrants in low-paid work reflexively acquire the dominant language of destination countries. Bourdieu’s theories on the symbolic power of language and habitus, and theories of reflexivity by Archer and others underpin our analysis of how migrants acquire English in the UK. Analysis of data generated from in-depth qualitative interviews with 31 migrants from EU and non-EU countries in low-paid work reveals that the agency of migrants in increasing proficiency in the language is shaped by access to resources, conscious and unconscious reflexive processes, aspects of embodiment and perceptions of identity by the self and others. We argue that closer attention to the social, political and economic context in which migrants acquire the dominant language of destination countries is needed, as well as greater awareness of the multi-dimensional nature of reflexivity and the constraints on agency.

Getting rural migrant children into school in South China: migrant agency and parenting

ABSTRACTScholarship has examined how immigrant parents in North America and Europe acculturate their children to the education system in their receiving societies, with a focus on overcoming language barriers and coping with cultural differences in education between home and host societies. However, relatively less attention has been paid to the efforts of migrant parents in circumventing structural obstacles to the education access of their migrant children. To address that gap, this study draws on the qualitative data obtained from 23 rural-urban migrants in South China to investigate how these parents help their migrant children access urban education resources in a social context where structural obstacles outweigh cultural/racial differences. This study defines migrant parents as active agents who use strategies and actions to adapt to, manoeuvre within or circumvent the structural constraints to augment urban education resources for their migrant children. The migrant parents’ agency includes persistent efforts in obtaining urban hukou for their children; applying strategies to increase their children’s qualification for public schools that use a point system; exploring guanxi and using tiger parenting to get their children into public schools; exchanging economic resources for education opportunities in elite private schools; purchasing extracurricular education services; and actively maintaining parent-teacher partnerships to support their children’s schooling. While valuing the migrants’ agency, this study also indicates that the efficacy of their actions and strategies is affected by disparities in their socioeconomic resources.