Migrant People Research Articles

Migration, race, and gender: the policing of subversive solidarity actors in Morocco

The policing of racialised migrant people in Morocco and across the Maghreb has been violent since the 1990s. The intimidation of those who support migrant people and seek to denounce human rights abuses against them has become an important dimension of border control. This article investigates the policing of “subversive solidarity actors”: human rights defenders and activists who publicly or covertly engage in a critical stance on migration control policies and practices in Morocco. These forms of activism are considered a threat by the state because they make visible the brutality of migration governance and control in the country, which the state seeks to conceal. As objects of state mistrust and suspicion, solidarity actors experience everyday acts of intimidation and criminalisation. Drawing on ethnographic material and interviews with migrant people and subversive solidarity actors, this article demonstrates how these solidarity actors - much like migrant people themselves - are differentially targeted according to intersectional differences. Racist and gendered bordering logics characteristic of migration management seep into the differential policing of those who dare act or speak out in support of migrants’ rights. Race and gender provoke particular policing behaviours which are reinforced when people engage in politics or acts of solidarity considered subversive. This is reinforced by the persistence of racial hierarchies of domination in post-colonial Morocco, which still bear the legacy of the active enslavement of Black people in the country and the legacy of the country’s colonisation by Europeans. First, honing in on racial difference, the article sheds light on the differential policing of Black, Moroccan and white-European solidarity actors. While Black solidarity actors are often migrant people who have regularised their status and settled in Morocco, their decision to engage in subversive solidarity work marks them as “ungrateful guests” and relegates them to a position of vulnerability in which their administrative status is compromised. In contrast, white Europeans in Morocco tend to benefit from privileges and freedoms, including within the bureaucratic realm. Those engaging in subversive acts of solidarity may experience state intimidation or punitive acts of administrative exclusion from the country, however these usually (with some stark exceptions) amount to better treatment relative to the experiences of their Black and Moroccan counterparts. Finally, Moroccans engaging in subversive solidarity action are framed as “internal enemies” to the state and are hyper-aware that punitive action might be set in motion against them at any moment. Second, this article focuses on gender, which also plays an important role in determining the ways in which solidarity actors are policed and their scope of action. Gender inequalities remain deeply entrenched in Morocco and social norms profoundly gendered. Particularly for women, activism is considered deviant, giving rise to greater police and social scrutiny of their acts and attempts to govern their behaviour. While men tend to face professional threats as insidious punishment for their activism, attacks on women more often target their family or intimate life. This article emphasises the importance of taking the policing of solidarity actors into account to understand the policing of migration more broadly, stressing how the racist and gendered policing of migrant people bleeds into the disciplining of those who support them. We conclude with a discussion of how this policing impacts subversive solidarity actors and networks, by instilling fear and hindering (coordinated) action. While some interviewees demonstrated an awareness of both intersectional differences and overlapping experiences, we call for solidarity actors to mobilise these differences and experiences to strengthen their action on migration issues and their ability to withstand intimidation from state authorities.

IMPACT OF THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR ON SURAT'S DIAMOND INDUSTRY

The Ukraine-Russia war is a man-made disaster but its economic effects are not limited to the two countries themselves. The direct impact of the tragedy can be seen on the trade and investment of all countries. Diamond industry is the backbone of Surat city. Diamond industry plays a major role in employment generation and income generation in Surat. A large number of people from Saurashtra migrate to Surat and get jobs in this industry. Saurashtra is one of the dry regions of Gujarat and people are dependent on agriculture. Unskilled and less educated people migrate to Surat and run their family. This migrant people work in the diamond industry. Surat was once known for its textile industry which is now known for its diamond cutting and polishing. Out of 12 products of diamond jewelry produced in the world, 11 products are made in India and Surat is the biggest contributor to the diamond industries in the world. This research study was carried out on the diamond cutting and polishing industry of Surat city, Gujarat. Russian rough diamonds are accounting 40% in terms of volume and 50% in terms of value. The Russia-Ukraine war has affected 12 billion of diamond trade. This study tries to get information about the impact of the Russia-Ukraine war on those who are doing work in this industry. The objectives of this study are to find out the impact on diamond rough material and income due to the Russia-Ukraine war. According to this research study Surat diamond industry passed through the economic crisis because of this war.

Modalities of Minangkabau Migrant Legislative Candidates in the 2019 Legislative Election

This research discusses the modalities in the victory of migrant Minangkabau candidates in the 2019 Legislative Election. Minangkabau is one of the ethnic groups in Indonesia synonymous with a matrilineal kinship system and an institutionalized tradition of migrating. Migrating is a valuable capital utilized by Minangkabau migrant Legislative Candidates to gain support for votes in electoral contests. The research was conducted on two Minangkabau migrant Legislative Candidates who took part in the contestation in the Legislative Elections for the House of Representatives of the Republic of Indonesia. The research method is qualitative with a case study type. Data were collected through interviews with Minangkabau migrant candidates, voting communities, and people involved in winning candidates, such as traditional leaders and the Minangkabau community in the realm and overseas. The results of the research concluded that Fadli Zon (Gerindra Party Legislative Candidate, Electoral District of West Java V) and Jon Erizal (National Mandate Party Legislative Candidate, Electoral District of Riau I) as two of the Minangkabau migrants, the legislative candidates for the House of Representatives of the Republic of Indonesia succeeded in utilizing existing social capital and successfully elected in the 2019 Legislative Election 2019 contestation overseas. Both are considered to have good leadership figures, able to carry out the mandate, and caring, humane, and responsible individuals. Joined in the same social entity, namely the network of Minangkabau migrants who gather through the Minangkabau migrant community, the Minangkabau Family Association. Fadli Zon became General Chairman of the Central Executive Board of the Minangkabau Family Association, and Jon Erizal served as Vice General Chairman of the Riau Minangkabau Family Association. Besides building intensive communication with the community in the election contestation.

Sexual and reproductive health and access: Results of a rapid epidemiological assessment among migrant peoples in transit through Darién, Panamá.

The foot transit of migrant peoples originating from the Caribbean, South America, Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa through the Darién Forest (DF) in Eastern Panamá towards North America has increased in recent years from approximately 30,000 people/year to >133,000 in 2021. In the DF, there is no food/housing provision nor healthcare access. Very little is known of sexual and reproductive health (SRH) among this population. This study used rapid epidemiological methods to describe the SRH situation among migrant peoples in transit through the DF. This cross-sectional study randomly selected migrant people in transit (men and women) at a Migrant Reception Station in Darién, Panamá, between January 4-11, 2022. Data collection included a self-applied questionnaire (≥18 years); clinical screening (≥12 years); and HCG, treponemal antibodies, and HIV(I/II) lateral-flow tests with blood samples (≥12 years). Descriptive analyses were used to report findings. In all, 69 men and 55 women participated in the self-applied questionnaire, 70 men and 51 women in clinical screening; 78 men and 63 women in HCG, treponemal antibody and HIV testing. Overall, 26.1% (18/69) men and 36.4% (20/55) women reported sexual intercourse within the past month. The last sex partner was casual among 43.0% (21/49) of men and 27.8% (10/36) of women; of those, 42.9% (9/21) of men and 80.0% (8/10) of women reported this sex was condomless. Among women, 20.0% (11/55) tested positive for pregnancy; 5 of these pregnancies were planned. Of those screened, a reproductive tract infection symptom was reported by 5.7% (4/70) of men and 58.8% (30/51) of women. A total of 32.7% (18/55) of men and 18.2% (8/44) of women reported no prior HIV testing. Of 78 men, HIV and treponemal antibodies were found among 1.3% (n = 1) and 2.6% (n = 2), and among 63 women, 3.2% (n = 2) and 3.2% (n = 2), respectively. This rapid epidemiological assessment found high recent sexual activity, low condom use with casual partners, and a need for increased HIV and syphilis testing and treatment. There is a need for increased testing, condom provision, and SRH healthcare access at migrant reception stations that receive migrant peoples in transit through Panamá.

From anti-imperialism to multiculturalism. (Post)-migrant media in postcolonial France

ABSTRACT The paper analyzes how (post)-migrant media outlets discussed the position of (post)-migrant people in France. (Post)-migrant media are periodicals, radio stations, and other forms of media produced by (post)-migrant actors and addressed to them. I argue that changes in the Global Cold War order, French national politics, and social changes in French (post)-migrant communities fostered a transition from anti-imperialist to multicultural understandings of migration in the examined media. The paper shows how these changes affected the experiences and identities of (post)-migrant people and adds a global history perspective to existing explanations about generational change and national political developments. It tracks how (post)-migrant media offered a space to negotiate the position in France against the backdrop of global developments such as the Cold War, decolonization, the disillusion with postcolonial governments, and the rising human rights movement.

Sedentary and migrant peoples: The sketch of a paradigm

Often, during the modern age, the idea of the people was linked to the sedentariness of life on a specific territory, and there is no doubt that the essence of an environment, that is its morphology, its endowments in terms of resources constitute a strong influence on the culture of a human community. Nonetheless, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries it was often forgotten that many peoples developed within large human movements, just as for some cultures the transience of the environment of birth is a central element of their tradition. This article aims to give a partial and non-exhaustive vision of how stability and transience can both form the vision of the world of a people or of a cultural tradition, and to propose a draft of integration of these two perspectives within an institutional point of view.

Chagas Disease and Domestic Medical Screening Guidance for Newly Arrived Individuals Under a Humanitarian-Based Immigration Status: A Call for Action.

Chagas disease is considered one of the most important neglected tropical diseases in the Western Hemisphere, given its morbidity, mortality, and societal and economic burden. The United States has the fifth highest global burden of Chagas disease. Every year, thousands of migrant people from Latin America and throughout the globe travel to the U.S.- Mexico border searching for asylum. The U.S. CDC's Guidance for the U.S. Domestic Medical Examination for Newly Arriving Refugees provides recommendations to safeguard the health of individuals who enter the United States with a humanitarian-based immigration status as defined by the CDC's guidance under Key Considerations and Best Practices. We encourage the inclusion of Trypanosoma cruzi infection screening recommendations in this guidance as an important step toward understanding the risk and burden of Chagas disease in this vulnerable population, strengthening their access to care and contributing to the 2030 objectives of the WHO's neglected tropical diseases road map.

Successful Transitions? Tracing the Experiences of Migrant School Leavers in Scotland

This paper examines the experiences and aspirations of migrant young people in Scotland. It focuses on students approaching the end of compulsory education and presents findings from a study on the outcomes of young migrants in the transition to adulthood. The research is based on empirical fieldwork carried out with students in two schools (n = 95 in depth interviews). It finds evidence of unique and distinct educational pathways for school leavers with a migrant background. Three themes emerge about the practice of transition for young migrants, (1) the significance of family support and expectations, (2) the impact of the migration process and (3) the changing nature of migrant identity through transition. The study highlights the need for local and national policies which support transition for young migrants.

CAER: Co-creating a Collaborative Documentary about the Lives and Rights of Trans Latinx People Working in the Sex Industry in Queens, NYC

This short article describes the co-creative production process of the film CAER—a collaboration between a researcher/film director and the Colectivo Intercultural TRANSgrediendo: a collective of migrant Latinx trans people in Queens, New York. It shows how the filmmaking process was guided by the concerns of the community, whose members co-wrote the script and took an active part in editing the raw material. The collaboration was born out of the shared belief that communities impacted by policies need to own the terms of their representation.

Involuntary Weight Loss and Dietary Patterns of Migrant Peoples Who Transit Through the Darien Forest in Panama: A Rapid Epidemiological Study

Upon completion, participants will be able to describe dietary patterns and reported involuntary weight-loss among migrant peoples who transit through DF and to identify interventions to protect this population's health.

Experiences of Migrant People Living with HIV in a Multidisciplinary HIV Care Setting with Rapid B/F/TAF Initiation and Cost-Covered Treatment: The 'ASAP' Study.

This study aimed to explore the experiences of migrant people living with HIV (MLWH) enrolled in a Montreal-based multidisciplinary HIV care clinic with rapid antiretroviral treatment (ART) initiation and cost-covered ART. Between February 2020 and March 2022, 32 interviews were conducted with 16 MLWH at three time-points (16 after 1 week of ART initiation, 8 after 24 weeks, 8 after 48 weeks). Interviews were analyzed via the Framework Method. Thirty categories were identified, capturing experiences across the HIV care cascade. At diagnosis, most MLWH described “initially experiencing distress”. At linkage, almost all MLWH discussed “navigating the health system with difficulty”. At treatment initiation, almost all MLWH expressed “being satisfied with treatment”, particularly due to a lack of side effects. Regarding care retention, all MLWH noted “facing psychosocial or health-related challenges beyond HIV”. Regarding ART adherence, most MLWH expressed “being satisfied with treatment” with emphasis on their taking control of HIV. At viral suppression, MLWH mentioned “finding more peace of mind since becoming undetectable”. Regarding their perceived health-related quality of life, most MLWH indicated “being helped by a supportive social network”. Efficient, humanizing, and holistic approaches to care in a multidisciplinary setting, coupled with rapid and free ART initiation, seemed to help alleviate patients’ concerns, address their bio-psycho-social challenges, encourage their initial and sustained engagement with HIV care and treatment, and ultimately contribute to positive experiences.

The mental health of migrant people: Western medical systems facing a globalized society

AbstractThe mental health of migrant populations represents a challenge for the cultural and organizational assumptions of Western welfare systems, and it touches on and problematizes forms of civil coexistence in democratic societies. Starting from scientific literature analysis, the article discusses how the scientific debate is marked by theoretical and methodological characterizations that affect the understanding and representation of the phenomenon and influence the construction and the stability of social and personal identity of migrant people. The prevalence of the refugee and asylum‐seeking population in samples of epidemiological studies and the distorted representation of the actual mental health conditions of the majority of migrants are discussed. Methodological choices, in particular the frequent use of standardized data collection tools and classification systems of medical‐psychiatric derivation, tends to neglect the phenomenological and etiological heterogeneity of the phenomenon.

The COVID-19 Pandemic and the Migrant Population for HIV Diagnosis and Care Follow-Up: They Are Left Behind.

The coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has posed numerous worldwide challenges. The level of social vulnerability of the migrant population is disproportionately higher than other populations. Recent reports have shown that the access to care for the migrant population (i.e., non-French nationality patients) were greatly impacted during this pandemic. Thus, we would like to highlight the significant impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on care follow-up in those migrant people infected with HIV who receive HIV care in France. Two groups of patients were defined: that is, patients with continuous care and patients with a loss of follow-up of at least one year during the COVID-19 pandemic. Among 672 HIV patients, 19 (2.7%) patients were lost to follow-up for at least one year during the COVID-19 pandemic. We found no significant difference for gender (p = 0.332) or age (p = 0.115) between the two groups. However, patients with a loss of follow-up were mainly migrants rather than from the other group (p < 0.001), and the same results were observed for the nation of birth (89.5% vs. 44%, p < 0.001). In our hospital, most of the patients who were living abroad but had HIV care in France before the COVID epidemic (mainly retired migrants) were lost to follow-up during the COVID-19 pandemic. To date, most of them have not resumed HIV care in France and we do not know their present situation. We can only observe that the COVID-19 pandemic has predominately disrupted the HIV care of migrant populations. Do not let them be left behind!

Child Language Brokering in Healthcare: Exploring the Intersection of Power and Age in Mediation Practices

This paper aims to explore young people’s perspectives of a real-life scenario of child language brokering in a healthcare setting (the doctor’s office), when the topic of discussion is sensitive and potentially conflictual. Child Language brokers are migrant young people who translate and interpret for family members, peers and the local community. Often the spaces in which children broker (e.g., healthcare, banks), referred to here as a ‘contact zone’, are dominated by adults in positions of authority and unequal power differentials. The language broker and those for whom they are brokering may be in a less powerful position because of their migration status and/or age status. Existing research has focused mainly from the view of adults and young people’s perspectives on the practice are underexplored. We draw the existing literature to explore how brokers understand the wider societal context and the strategies they employ to manage conflict. Findings are presented from 29 individual qualitative vignette-based interviews with language brokers (aged 13–16) in the United Kingdom which were qualitatively analysed. Findings show how these children play a vital role in protecting those for whom they broker, often navigating sophisticated social interactions and tactics (such as delay and selective modification). Equally, they carry a weight of responsibility trying to manage complicated, perhaps morally questionable, situations. By asking brokers to reflect on a real-life healthcare scenario, we are advancing understanding of migrant youth brokers and the families they support in their day to day lives.

‘They tell us to keep our distance, but we sleep five people in one tent’: The opportunistic governance of displaced people in Calais during the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT When COVID-19 hit France, over 1,000 migrant people were living in insalubrious encampments in the northern city of Calais. A national lockdown was declared in March 2020, and in the face of the health risks the virus posed, it seemed the ongoing struggle between police and displaced people at this border might come to a halt. This article however argues that rather than appeasing tensions, the state leveraged the exceptional mobility regimes the pandemic brought about to strengthen its border deterrence. Drawing on 5 months of ethnographic research in Calais in the first half of 2020, and on interviews with displaced respondents and humanitarian workers through 2020 and 2021, I conceptualise the biopolitical mode of governance mobilised by the state against displaced people during this period as one of necropolitical opportunism. The lockdown period saw displaced people’s survival at the border compromised by continued attacks on their encampments and access to services, as well as on the work of autonomous humanitarians seeking to hold the state accountable for its violence. This article contributes important new insights to debates on border biopolitics and the specific necropolitical agenda pursued by the French state at its northern frontier.

Making place in a place that doesn't recognise you: Racialised labour and intergenerational belonging in an Australian horticultural region

This paper examines the labour experiences of Pacific Islander people living in the Greater Shepparton Region in south-eastern Australia, and the forms of both intergenerational belonging and exclusion that are produced at the intersection of racialised labour and place-making in the settler-colonial state. Shepparton's Pacific Islander community, which has been resident in the area for over thirty years, is heavily involved in seasonal horticultural labour, forming part of an industry workforce that also includes workers from other settled migrant-background communities, refugees and asylum seekers, as well as large number of temporary migrant workers. Nevertheless, Pacific Islanders in the region often feel themselves, and their labour, unrecognised within the context of established narratives that discursively construct localness as white. Here, we pay particular attention to the experiences of Pasifika youth who, in reflecting on the labour of their parents, offer potent perspectives on the kinds of precarious belonging this labour produces. These contrast sharply with the celebrated forms of intergenerational belonging and claims to place that adhere to the labour of white farmers, and that have their origins in the colonial dispossessions on which the region's industry is founded. Still, Pasifika people in the region do make place for themselves and for their youth, both through the waged labour they perform as well as through diverse forms of community labour that also situate them in relation to, and with, Indigenous community. Attention to these diverse forms of labour expands the terms through which the work and labour experiences of migrant and other non-white people are usually figured, and highlights the complex, intergenerational entwining of colonialism and racialisation in white-majority rural places.

Unfolding the Impact of COVID-19 on Reverse Migrants in Uttar Pradesh

Reverse migration was the trending issue in several news articles and channels during the pandemic. The authors attempt to investigate migrants’ sensitivity during COVID-19. Reverse migrants are sensitive to crucial aspects that bother them during their reverse migration such as mental stress, social issues, transportation issues, job loss, and income loss. The Government of India launched several initiatives to help the reverse migrants, but it is not reaching the migrant people adequately. Hence, in this article, authors critically analyzed the Indian Government’s commitment to the post-return situation and sensitivity toward the rural reverse migrants.

Феномен высокорослости афанасьевцев Алтая и Хангая: влияние среды или восточно-европейское наследие?

From the end of the 4th millennium BC, a new proto-Caucasian population that characterized the Afanasyevo culture spread in the interior regions of Asia. This contrasted with the intermediate Mongoloid-Caucasoid anthropological appearance of the local Asian populations. The Afanasyevo bearers from Altai and Khangai are distinguished by the largest body stature among the ancient human groups of Eurasia. The craniological and osteometrical differences of the Afanasyevo populations are likely related with the adaptation of the migrant people to the harsh bio-climatic conditions of the mountainous regions of the Southern Siberia and Central Asia, which resulted in greater increase of the head and body size. A statistical comparison of the Afanasyevo craniological series and the Eneolithic ancestral groups (more than 150 crania), Early and Early Middle Bronze Age (about 520 crania) from the south of Eastern Europe allowed to discover a complex of traits that distinguish the Yamnaya population from the previous Eneolithic groups. The Afanasyevo bearers from the low-mountain regions of Altai, the Minusinsk Basin and Khangai mountain are most similar to the Yamnaya people of the forest-steppe and steppe regions of the Volga and Urals, which thus determines the origins of the Afanasyevo population. The craniological series of the Afanasyevo population from the Altai highlands are morphologically combined with the Eneolithic Eastern European groups (Sredny Stog and Repin cultures, Berezhnovka type), which suggests that their descendants could contribute towards the formation of the Afanasyevo population.

From Pure Land to Hell: Introducing four culturally hybrid UNESCO World Heritage sites in the Gotō Archipelago

The islands in the Gotō region off Kyushu Island were refuges, mountains providing both terraces for growing potatoes and rice; and hideaways for clandestine religious practices; seas and bays providing fish and seaweed. Religious refugees arrived here in the 18th and 19th centuries, but had to contend with a harsh winter climate, the strong prejudices of indigenous inhabitants, and the long arms of the Nagasaki magistrate. This article locates a migrant people known variously as the senpuku, the kakure, kirishitan, or Hidden Christians (HC), and their descendants who acknowledge the natural world’s imprint on them: their characteristics and cultural heritage are shaped by the interstitial spaces of the islands in which they subside(d). World Heritage Cultural listings in 2018 included sites on the islands and were rightly acclaimed. Yet, here, as in other places, the World Heritage campaign was at times driven by shallow motivations reflecting exotic and unfounded prejudices and tourist-related economic aspirations. Even in the nomenclature, the World Heritage listing mentions the HC, but this group of people are not singular, and require more careful definition. This article seeks to demonstrate how by examining new sources of oral history, we stand to enrich our knowledge by a ‘deep’ engagement, taking account of both human and non-human processes, practices and awareness of place. Secondly, by focusing on this region we may re-orient our understanding of Japanese and East Asian History in a wider context than often understood, and inclusive of this coastal and marginal place. An analysis four of the sites of World Heritage ascribed by UNESCO on the Gotō Archipelago off Nagasaki Prefecture Japan alongside the historic documents and supported by oral history reveals a religious cultural hybridity integrated into a severe environment.

U.S. bound journey of migrant peoples InTransit across Dante's Inferno and Purgatory in the Americas

Rapid rise of population migration is a defining feature of the 21st century due to the impact of climate change, political instability, and socioeconomic downturn. Over the last decade, an increasing number of migrant peoples travel across the Americas to reach the United States seeking asylum or cross the border undocumented in search of economic opportunities. In this journey, migrant people experience violations of their human rights, hunger, illness, violence and have limited access to medical care. In the ‘Divine Comedy’, the Italian poet Dante Alighieri depicts his allegorical pilgrimage across Hell and Purgatory to reach Paradise. More than 700 years after its publication, Dante's poem speaks to the present time and the perilious journey of migrant peoples to reach safehavens. By exploring the depths and heights of the human condition, Dante's struggles resonate with the multiple barriers and the unfathomable experiences faced by migrant peoples in transit across South, Central, and North America to reach the United States. Ensuring the safety of migrant peoples across the Americas and elsewhere, and attending to their health needs during their migratory paths represent modern priorities to reduce social injustices and achieving health equity.