Migration Experience Research Articles

Passing the Whiteness Threshold

This paper examines the underexplored implications of long-term international academic mobility among Turkish academics in the UK, a group not adequately captured by the Black and minority ethnic (BME) category. Within this international context, the study probes how ethnicity, gender, and religion intersect to shape these migrant academics' experiences while working in the UK. Grounded in social constructivism and employing intersectionality as a theoretical framework, the methodology entails 50 semi-structured interviews analyzed through NVivo to uncover thematic insights. The main finding reveals a "Whiteness threshold" impacting the integration and success of Turkish academics. Those who pass this threshold experience professional recognition and inclusion, while others face discrimination, isolation, and estrangement. This study contributes to comparative and international higher education by challenging the BME framework and advocating for nuanced policy considerations that recognize the diversity of migrant academics' experiences, highlighting the need for inclusivity and a reassessment of the BME categorization in the UK academic sector.

Enforced Disappearance as a Border Management Tool: The Case of Border Patrol Detentions of Immigrant and Asylum-Seeking Families in the United States1

Executive Summary This study examines the experiences of international migrants and asylum-seeker families recently released from the custody of the United States Border Patrol (BP) to assess their ability to make phone calls while in BP detention. The focus on phone access is critical to determining whether respondents experience enforced disappearance under international law, given that BP custody is usually incommunicado. To determine whether some BP detainees experience enforced disappearance in custody, authors collected and analyzed data from 117 respondents using a novel questionnaire. Respondents were heads of families. These families consisted of at least one adult and at least one minor child who were released to a non-profit short-term shelter in the United States (U.S.). Findings show that 78 percent of the respondents who were in BP custody experienced an enforced disappearance because they were not able to make phone calls and there was no reliable publicly accessible locator system to otherwise locate them. While this study provides critical context to how one distinct group of individuals released from BP custody (i.e., families released into the U.S.) experienced enforced disappearance, we note the importance of future studies that assess the situation of additional groups, including single adults released from BP into the U.S. and groups and individuals forced back (typically) to Mexico upon release from BP custody. We discuss policy recommendations to mitigate and prevent continued enforced disappearances in BP custody and to prevent additional human rights violations that are facilitated by enforced disappearance, including the right to access counsel, the right to due process, the right to seek asylum, the right of non-refoulment, and that may constitute a grave threat to the right to life.

Paradox within the Healthcare System: An Intersectional Analysis of Health Seeking Experiences of Migrants in the U.S.

ABSTRACT This study examined the complexities surrounding migrants’ health-seeking behaviors in the United States. Using intersectionality as a guiding analytic, we conducted in-depth interviews with 15 visa-holding migrants from West African, East, and Southeast Asian countries to understand their experiences navigating healthcare in another country. Participants mentioned the convergence of three power systems: nativity/language of origin status, education status, and migration (legal) status. Based on participants’ experiences navigating these converging systems, we identified two paradoxes migrants’ experience when seeking health information: (1) the empowerment and disempowerment in the pursuit of health information and (2) the scarcity and sufficiency in the accessibility of health information. Our findings offer a more nuanced understanding of migrant health processes. In particular, we propose that more theorizing and practical interventions should consider intersectional tensions and paradoxes that emerge from individuals whose identities grant them both access and limitations when it comes to seeking healthcare information.

Beyond the eternal present of migration. Time and biographies in migrants’ collective action

ABSTRACT The proliferation of media, political and academic discourses on migration has contributed to the construction of an often fixed and stereotyped image of migrants, built in a context of ever-present crisis. A key feature of this process of objectification is a temporal stasis that traps people in what can be described as an eternal present of migration: an existence that begins with the act of migrating, to which one is continually brought back and reduced. This paper engages in a reflexive critique of the quasi-objectified status of migrants by focusing on the empirical case of migrants’ collective action. It examines the micro-level of participants who mobilize as migrants in the public sphere and explores how they make sense of the term migrant itself. Building on the analysis of life histories of participants, this paper outlines a temporal approach that gives primacy to their subjective time. Findings suggest that the experience of migration itself plays a marginal role in the decision to mobilize for migrants’ rights: friendships, family and community histories, experiences at work, ties with the local movement area provide complementary or alternative sites that trigger participation. Bridging the biographical and temporal dimensions, this work explores the internal reasons and meanings that sustain participation, beyond externally imposed labels that trap participants in the eternal present of migration. The temporal approach proposed complements the literature on migrants’ collective action, which has generally privileged a focus on space, and has wider implications for the study of activism by marginalized and precarious actors.

Performing Affects: Precarity, Liminality, Belonging, and the Strategies of a Migrant Bandleader within a South African Music Scene

ABSTRACT This paper discusses my experience of migration, exploring the impact of precarity stemming from migrant status on creative choices within the Cape Town music scene. Employing the method of artistic autoethnography, the paper narrates my intra-African migratory and cultural displacement experience, centering on The Jo Kunnuji Experiment, a band I have led for over a decade. The analysis reveals the role of strategic essentialism as a survival mechanism in navigating the politics of discomfort and ultimately carving a distinctive creative niche. Music as a phenomenon for negotiating survival (a social action) thus highlights the economic decisions inherent in the creative process.

Nationhood as ethical orientation among Polish Catholic migrants in Denmark

ABSTRACT This article presents an ethnographic study of diasporic nationhood, Catholicism, and ethical navigation among Polish migrants in Denmark. Focusing on a vibrant Polish Catholic community in Copenhagen, the study utilises fieldwork and 25 semi-structured interviews gathered from 2021 to 2023 to explore the under-researched role of a nationalised Catholicism as a repertoire of guidance in a migratory setting. The conceptual framework combines a praxiological approach to diasporic nationhood with the notion of ethical affordances. Foregrounding specific modalities of connections between Catholic Polish nationhood and ethical guidance, the study expands the perspectives on how migrants actively engage Catholicism amid their lives of transition and accommodation in Denmark. Based on such focus, the analysis shows how this connection enables both an ethical navigation in new terrain, but also an opposition to the secular public outside the church environments. Within the nascent social scientific study of Catholicism and migration, the study contributes by analytically combining these elements – diasporic nationhood and ethical navigation – thereby providing novel insights into the often overlooked ethical and religious experiences of post-accession Polish migrants, and the ethical difference a nationalised form of Catholicism makes.

Social relational notions of successful ageing: contesting dominant individualised conceptions of successful ageing by examining migrant intergenerational lived experiences.

Critiques of the concept of successful ageing (SA) include attention to its foundation on an individualised western medical approach that emphasizes personal choice, agency, and lifestyle. This paper aims to examine how individual notions of SA can be linked to, and co-constituted by, relational and intergenerational notions of personhood within the broader socio-economic, familial, and cultural contexts of migration. Qualitative research was conducted in Australia (2020-2021) with 42 Vietnamese migrants using ethnographic interviews and participant observation. Data analysis applied inductive reasoning and intersectional analysis to investigate the notion of SA from the perspectives of research participants. Vietnamese migrants identified three dimensions of SA as significant: family fulfilment, individual achievements, and social engagement and protection. Family fulfilment is the most important; other dimensions are rendered meaningless without it. We found out that different generations interpreted SA in varying ways. Adult children prioritize personal success, self-independence, and longevity while grandparents place greater emphasis on the success of their adult children and maintenance of intergenerational relationships. Migrant understandings of SA are deeply influenced by the socio-cultural contexts of both their homeland and current residence. The emphasis on family in shaping SA reflects a social-relational understanding that contrasts with dominant individualistic models of SA. Given the social relational dimension of SA, further research should investigate how distinct migrant experiences of SA shape access to wellbeing in later life.

The Reformation of salad: eating and drinking with immigrants in Elizabethan London

Writing about English food in 1614, the elderly Italian exile Giacomo Castelvetro observed: The vast influx of so many refugees from the evils and cruelties of the Roman Inquisition has led to the introduction of delights previously considered inedible, worthless or even poisonous. This article takes Castelvetro’s reflections as a prompt to explore eating and drinking among the ‘strangers’ of early modern England. Using letters and consistory records, it goes beyond the banqueting tables of England’s elite to consider how experiences of migration were shaped by food and drink. Through stereotypes, sociability, and confessional conflict, this article argues that paying attention to everyday practices of eating and drinking offers new insights into stereotypes and solidarities, confessional conflict and social control in Elizabethan England.

The gap between administration and migrants: Terminologies and experiences of urban-rural migration in Japan

This paper analyzes the discourse on urban-rural migration within contemporary Japan's administrative landscape, its representation in academic literature, along with local governments' support measures for urban-rural migrants and their experiences. I seek to unveil the consequences of imprecise definitions and ambiguous classifications of urban-rural migration, which can foster misunderstandings of the phenomenon, influencing both individual self-representation and support schemes. Drawing on ethnographic data collected over two years both online and onsite in two municipalities in northern Kyūshū, this article shows how the UIJ-turn classification and the ijū/teijū (migration/settlement) distinction are employed in Japanese political- administrative discourse and how this affects migrants' experiences. I investigate how administration and migrants conceptualize urban-rural migration differently. The discussion reveals a disconnect between the administrative narrative, which heavily relies on rigid classification terminology, and migrants' actual experiences, emphasizing the implications for support schemes, migrants' self-perception, and their integration into rural communities. This underscores the necessity to acknowledge changes in the rural population for a more comprehensive understanding of the future of rural communities in the Global North.

The mediating role of psychological distress in the association between migration experiences and stigma and coping strategies: a cross-sectional study on Ethiopian migrant returnees

BackgroundEthiopian migrants to the Middle East and South Africa are exposed to dangerous traveling and working conditions and their experiences are mostly tragic. They are unwelcomed not only by the situation in the destination but also by the community at home which is an important indicator of stigma and discrimination. However, there is lack of evidence on how psychological distress is associated with migration experiences, stigma and coping strategies. Therefore, it was aimed to determine the mediating effect of psychological distress in the association between migration experiences and stigma and discrimination and coping strategies.MethodsA total of 739 Ethiopian migrant returnees from the Middle East and South Africa were included in the study. A cross-sectional study was conducted in five migration hotspot areas in Ethiopia, namely Addis Ababa, Dessie, Shashemene, Hossana, and Gondar. Data related to socio-demographic, economic, migration experiences, psychological distress, coping strategies, and stigma and discrimination were collected. Psychological distress was measured using the 21- item version of the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale and coping strategies were measured with the Brief-COPE. Structural equation modeling was employed to estimate the relationship among variables.ResultsAbout 395 (57.33%) of the participants reported symptoms of depression, 428 (59.86%) anxiety symptoms, and 313 (45.21%) stress symptoms. The mediated association between physical violence and coping strategy through psychological distress was 0.29 (adjusted β = 0.29, 95%CI: 0.15, 0.44). Denial of salary had positive direct (adjusted β = 1.00, 95%CI: 0.50, 1.50) and mediated (adjusted β = 1.20, 95%CI: 0.71, 1.68) associations with stigma and discrimination through psychological distress. Restricted freedom had positive mediated (adjusted β = 0.39, 95%CI: 0.13, 0.65) and total (adjusted β = 0.94, 95%CI: 0.59, 1.29) associations with stigma and discrimination through psychological distress.ConclusionDepression, anxiety, and stress symptoms are common among migrant returnees. Religious practice is the most commonly used coping mechanism. Psychological distress has positive mediating association with the relationships between denial of salary by employers and stigma and discrimination, physical violence and coping strategy, and restricted freedom and stigma and discrimination. Psychological interventions to deal with the psychological distress and stigma and discrimination of migrant returnees and to encourage the practice of positive coping strategies are warranted.

Motivations behind TikTok content creation among Gen Z expatriates

Abstract This study investigates the motivations behind TikTok content creation among Vietnamese Gen Z expatriates by exploring the interplay of the social comparison theory and the Uses and Gratifications Theory in shaping their engagement with the platform. Through qualitative interviews, we uncover the dual role of TikTok in their lives: a tool for fostering social connection and personal expression and a platform for social comparison and validation. These findings illuminate the complex interplay between digital media use and the experience of digital migration, highlighting how Gen Z expatriates navigate transnational identities and seek belonging in an increasingly interconnected world. The study contributes to the ongoing discourse on digitalization and expatriation, emphasizing the multifaceted role of social media in shaping the experiences of young migrants in the digital age.

Mapping migrants’ narratives: A qual‐GIS approach to Cairns’ urban liveability

AbstractThis study introduces a novel approach to urban liveability research by combining interviews with participatory mapping techniques. More specifically, the research integrates concepts from geographic information systems (GISs) with episodic narrative interviews to develop a qualitative GIS (qual‐GIS) methodology to map and interpret the spatial experiences of recent migrants to Cairns. This qual‐GIS approach involves participants annotating amenity maps with personal narratives, effectively geolocating subjective experiences, and providing visual representations of liveability insights. During mapping sessions, participants identified and highlighted significant locations by annotating maps with pens and sticky notes to express their spatial stories and place attachments. Analysis of annotated maps in ArcGIS enabled the juxtaposition of qualitative insights with quantitative data, offering a rich, spatially informed understanding of liveability in place. The maps transcended their function as mere analytical instruments or memory aides, and the activity evolved into a platform for migrants to articulate experiences of, and emotional ties to the city. This approach enhances understandings of urban liveability from first‐hand experiences and establishes qual‐GIS approaches as valuable tools in urban and regional policy and research.

Finding Ways to Spain: migration experiences in the navigation of Beni Ensar-Melilla border

Existing literature has examined transnational migration in the border zone of Beni Ensar (Morocco) and Melilla (Spain) from various perspectives. However, there is relatively little exploration of the experience of crossing this border. This article aims to address this gap by utilizing qualitative research conducted with migrants assisted by the Spanish Red Cross. The work employs a theoretical framework of migration trajectories and focuses on three types of border crossing experiences: by land, by sea, and as unaccompanied minors. The objective is to comprehend how participants describe the Beni Ensar-Melilla border area, the strategies they employ to navigate the border, and the significance of crossing it for them. I argue that, firstly, in order to navigate this challenging borderland, participants needed to cooperate with other migrants and demonstrate persistence. Additionally, unaccompanied minors relied on specific laws and reception conditions. Secondly, the act of migrating is linked to ideal plans in Europe that, if realized, have the potential to enhance the lives of participants and their families.

Enhancing Conversations in Migrant Counseling Services: Designing for Trustworthy Human-AI Collaboration

Migrants often face a complex situation for navigating services and administrative processes to transition and integrate into a new environment. They rely on guidance from service advisors and informal peers like other migrants to assist them. Service advisors try to understand, explore, and resolve migrant concerns through conversational interaction, while often seeking advice from other domain experts. The emergence of artificial intelligence (AI)-mediated communication holds the potential for enhancing communication between migrants and service advisors while leveraging the expertise of service advisors and facilitating migrants' autonomy in the integration process. Our research investigates the social context, mental models, and challenges encountered in guidance counseling for migrants in Finland, while examining what role AI-mediated communication can play in supporting the process. Based on our findings, we propose design implications for improving shared understanding between service advisors and migrants through salient summarization of conversations and creating collaborative visual narratives. Our findings also indicate the crucial role of leveraging peer-based knowledge between (and within) service advisors, domain experts, and migrants, which can be facilitated by AI-based tools. Our exploratory research offers insights into human-centered AI integration in the migration process, as well as the opportunities and challenges of using AI-mediated communication to improve the migrant experience.

Migration experience and risky financial assets investments of county households: evidence from China

Enhancing the support for inclusive finance in county economies is crucial in achieving the strategic goal of building financial power. Drawing upon the theoretical lens of county-level inclusive financial accessibility, this study examines the effect of the migration experience (ME) of county socialites on their risky financial assets investment (FAI) and the underlying mechanisms. We utilize data sourced from the County Consumption Survey, a nationwide effort by the Department of Sociology of Tsinghua University and the 58 Tongzhen Research Group. Our findings reveal that the ME of county socialites significantly boosts their likelihood of engaging in financial markets. Furthermore, housing inequality factors, such as housing property rights and housing loans, play a moderating role in the impact of individual ME on their FAI. Additionally, the financial concept has a masking effect rather than a mediating effect on the path of the ME affecting FAI. Notably, the promotion effect of ME displays heterogeneity. Specifically, ME has a stronger positive effect on FAI among college-educated groups, members of the Communist Party of China (CPC), and urban hukou residents than on those who have not completed college education, non-CPC members and rural hukou households. In light of these findings, we propose policy recommendations to optimize the distribution of financial services, adjust the housing equality policy, and enhance inclusive financial literacy.

Interrelated drivers of migration intentions in Africa: Evidence from Afrobarometer surveys

Migration is influenced by various factors, including economic, political, social, and environmental drivers. While the multicausal nature of migration has been recognized, there are considerable gaps in understanding how different drivers interact with each other and jointly influence human mobility. This is particularly relevant in the African context, where local communities are faced with multiple, often interlinked challenges that affect their livelihoods, security, and health and well-being. Using detailed data from Afrobarometer surveys for 36 countries, this study analyzes the interconnected nature of 23 potential drivers of migration intentions that span across various domains. Our results show that previous migration experiences at the household level, political conditions and instabilities, the personal economic situation, as well as issues related to personal safety are particularly strongly related to respondents’ intentions to migrate. The drivers are not independent of each other, but closely interconnected, jointly shaping and reinforcing migration intentions in non-linear ways. We also find strong evidence for heterogeneous effects of the drivers across sociodemographic groups, further contributing to diverse patterns in the relationships. Our study emphasizes the need to move beyond analyzing average linear effects and advocates for approaches that consider the interdependencies of various systems of drivers and their interconnected roles in shaping both intended and actual migration behavior.

Household Migration and Adolescent Marriage Choice in Settings with Changing Marriage Systems

This article examines the relationship between family experiences of migration and adolescents’ preferences about who should make the decision about who to marry in two migrant-sending regions. Shifts in familial involvement in spouse choice, like other changes in marriage and family systems, are connected to broader social and economic changes that reduce the centrality of family relationships. Migrant household members may contribute to these changes by reorienting family relationships and interdependencies, or by exposing adolescents to new ideas and values. This study uses data collected in Gaza Province, Mozambique, and Chitwan Valley, Nepal as part of the Family Migration and Early Life Outcomes (FAMELO) project. Using logistic regression, the authors analyze variation in adolescents’ preferences for familial spouse choice by multiple aspects of migration (e.g., timing, receipt of remittances), controlling for adolescent characteristics and other theoretically relevant predictors. Mozambican adolescents in migrant-sending households were more likely to prefer families to choose their spouse than those in households without migration experience. In Nepal, household migration experience was not associated with adolescent spouse-selection preferences. The findings point to a complex association between migration systems and local family structures that shapes adolescents’ ideas about family relationships and their family-formation preferences.

A new life with a new language: Russophone immigrants' reflections about language learning.

This research investigates resilience and lived experiences of transnational Russophone families amidst global changes, with a focus on the intricate dynamics of communities spread across borders. The study emphasizes the importance of considering individual migrant experiences in understanding language learning and integration. We explored perceptions of local language proficiency among Russophones; challenges faced by adult Russophones in learning a new language; attitudes and experiences of adults regarding language learning; and strategies Russophone immigrants use to address gaps in the target language. Methodologically, the research employs ethnographic and thematic analyses, drawing on a diverse array of sources including interviews, social media posts, and personal communications. This approach highlights the necessity of considering both prompted responses and spontaneous discussions to capture authentic opinions on language learning from various perspectives. The study underscores the interconnectedness and interdependence within transnational families, illustrating how their lives are shaped by factors that transcend national boundaries. The examination of their diverse experiences reveals their capacity to endure and overcome challenges of integrating into new societies. Russophone migrants' attitudes toward language learning highlight how learning the host country's language enhances integration and social mobility, while maintaining the native language preserves cultural heritage, although second-generation immigrants often feel disconnected from their linguistic roots. Studies by various authors discuss challenges which immigrants face when adapting to a new linguistic environment. This project emphasizes the impact of language learning on identity and reveals cultural flexibility in attaining social justice in multicultural contexts. These insights suggest that language programs and policies should address both the practical needs of immigrants and the preservation of their cultural identities taking into account their naïve views about language learning.

Death and mourning in times of COVID-19. The experience of Zimbabwean migrants in South Africa

The paper deals with the effects of the regulations and restrictions on the handling of corpses and funerals among Zimbabwean migrant families who lost relatives in South Africa during the COVID-19 epidemic in the years 2020 and 2021. Interviews were conducted with members of this migrant community. The interviews revealed a range of affective and material dimensions entangled in these multiple losses, highlighting therefore experiences of truncated grief. Restrictions on funerals and burials forced immobility on the living and their dead; on bereaved communities, themselves and their corpses are forms of biopower that multiplied losses among cross-border migrant communities. The loss of autonomy of communities around death rituals and burial places constitute realms where the materiality of death is revealed. I look at both the loss of human life and the emotional losses associated with the limitations imposed on the dead body under COVID-19.

Disability-Related Risks Among Women and Girls Who Are Forcibly Displaced from Venezuela

Our study aimed to explore the lived experiences of Venezuelan refugee/migrant women and girls with disabilities to guide humanitarian assistance. The data analysed was part of a larger cross-sectional study whereby refugees and migrants in Ecuador, Peru, and Brazil were asked to share the migration experiences of a Venezuelan woman or girl. The sample for this analysis was drawn from one of the survey questions that asked participants whether the woman/girl in the narrative identified as a person with a disability. Thematic analysis using inductive coding was performed. A total of 126 narratives were included in the final analysis, of which four major themes were identified. Venezuelan refugees and migrants with disabilities described experiences of discrimination, violence, and physical challenges, such as exacerbation of symptoms while in transit. In host countries, refugees and migrants experienced a lack of disability-related accommodations in the workplace and long wait times when trying to obtain healthcare. Since discrimination is a cross-cutting issue, human rights awareness highlighting the dignity of persons with disabilities is imperative. Resources and support for Venezuelan refugee and migrant women and girls with disabilities should aim to create accessible employment opportunities, safe and timely access to medical care, and prioritise violence prevention.