Study Of International Migration Research Articles

Chronicling Kenyan Asian Diasporic Histories: ‘Newcomers’, ‘Established’ Migrants, and the Post‐Colonial Practices of Time‐Work

AbstractRecent studies of international migration have observed its increasing complexity. Circular, return, and temporary migration between India and Kenya, arising from the economic and political multipolarities of increasing South‐South partnerships, is one example of such complexity. These flows are distinct from the migration patterns of the longer‐established Kenyan Asian diaspora, who settled under the auspices of the British Empire from the 1890s until the beginning of the 1960s. This paper explores how these transformations are negotiated through the dynamics of Kenyan Asians' ongoing post‐colonial liminalities and ambiguities of citizenship, focusing in particular on the temporal production of distinctions between ‘newcomers’ and ‘established’ migrants, even when in practice these distinctions are much more fluid. This paper highlights the regulatory practices of ‘time‐work’ that enfold the migratory chronologies of ‘established’ migrants into the time of the nation, whilst excluding those of ‘newcomers’. It explores the selective remembering, forgetting, and reworking of the colonial past, a process informed by the dynamics of modernity, diaspora, nation, and postcoloniality in contemporary Kenya. It argues that whilst distinctions between ‘established’ and ‘newcomer’ migrants might reflect different positionings in transnational social fields, differences are also negotiated in contradictions between the experiences, meanings, and understandings of time. This demonstrates how space on its own is itself a inadequate conceptual lens with which to examine relationships between ‘newcomers’ and ‘established’ migrants, and that further research is needed that attends to the temporal dynamics mediating the temporal dissonances of contemporary transnational social fields. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Book Reviews

Fabio Sabatini of Sapienza University of Rome reviews “Immigrant Networks and Social Capital”, by Carl L. Bankston III. The Econlit abstract of this book begins: “Examines issues in social capital research, showing how economic and social contexts shape networks in the process of migration, and assesses the strengths and weaknesses of this approach to the study of international migration. Discusses social networks in immigration; immigration and social capital; networks within and across nations; family ties; enclaves, neighborhoods, and communities; the role of formal institutions; adaptation─employment and the economy; adaptation─educational attainment and achievement; and networks, social capital, and immigrants.” Bankston is Professor of Sociology at Tulane University.

The Philippines. Global Filipinos: Migrants' lives in the virtual village By Deirdre McKay Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2012. Pp. 247. Notes, Bibliography, Index.

The Philippines Global Filipinos: Migrants' lives in the virtual village By DEIRDRE MCKAY Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2012. Pp. 247. Notes, Bibliography, Index. In the early twenty-first century, Filipino migrants working overseas comprised the third-largest group of migrant labourers in the world. This global phenomenon has impacted the lives and livelihoods of Filipinos across the Philippine archipelago including indigenous villagers in rural areas in the northern Philippines. How do villagers, both those who migrate to work overseas and those who stay behind, view and interpret migration? How do villagers feel and think about themselves in the world? In Global Filipinos, Deirdre McKay tackles these questions in a multi-sited ethnographic case study of the lives of the villagers of Haliap in Ifugao province, many of whom migrate across the Philippines and overseas. Diverging from previous ethnographic studies of Filipino international migration that have focused on the Philippine government's labour export programme and institutions like the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, McKay persuasively argues for the enduring significance of villagers' relationships and their desires for economic security and dignity as central features of late twentieth and early twenty-first century international labour migration. McKay's fieldwork took place in the 1990s and 2000s, a period of dramatic change in the municipality of Asipulo, where Haliap is located. By the end of the 1990s, Haliap respondents characterised those villages with many workers abroad as 'developed' and 'progressive' places. Progress was made visible by patterns of consumption --most notably new houses outfitted with modern appliances, and specific brands of clothing, such as Merrell shoes--enabled by the remittances sent by workers overseas. It also involved the increasing use of specific technologies such as cell phones, which resulted in the development of two cellular networks in Asipulo by 2002. Perhaps the most dramatic change was that overseas employment created a new category of elite persons in Haliap. Those villagers who had worked overseas became Haliap's 'new kadangyans', a term that referred to the old landed elite. While the chronological focus of the book is the late twentieth and early twentyfirst centuries, McKay emphasises that migration is not a new phenomenon for Haliap villagers. 'Villagers led mobile lives, even before overseas migration really took off (p. 4). They engaged in migration within the region to cope with a local shortage of irrigated paddy fields. Parental migration was a common practice that enabled their eldest children to inherit the family's most fertile fields. However, by the late twentieth century, overseas migration offered new and exciting opportunities for socioeconomic mobility. Earnings abroad transformed some Haliap villagers into a new class of persons who built modern homes, bought new cars, and could afford professional education for their children. These changes also wrought several downsides: villagers' perceptions of the limitless wealth of overseas workers; overseas workers' excessive borrowing that fuelled these misperceptions; and the resultant misunderstandings that created tensions among family and neighbours. …

Level of Economic Prosperity, Social Status and Comfortable Living of Migrant Workers in Tulungagung District, Indonesia

Indonesia provides a particularly intriguing context for a study of international migration of workforce. Most of the villages in Indonesia have been a sender of labor abroad. Remittance from migrant workers working overseas undoubtedly has a positive impact on socioeconomic development of local community in the country of origin. This research has conducted to get a general picture on the level of value-expectancy of Indonesian migrant workers working overseas, particularly in terms of their economic prosperity, level of comfortable living, as well as social status achieved in community. The research, which is using survey design, has been conducted at Tulungagung district, East Java, Indonesia. To meet this objective, 250 Indonesian migrant workers working overseas which are on their leave at the study area have been chosen for interviews. Results of the study show that remittance inflows have a significant impact on the level of economic prosperity, comfortable living, as well as social status achieved in community. Thus, it is not wrong when the main purpose of doing international migration is to improve the economic condition of the family. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n3s2p282

International migration of surgeons, anaesthesiologists, and obstetricians

www.thelancet.com/lancetgh Vol 3 (S2) April 2015 S11 The data provided by our study are relevant to both lower and higher income countries, and can help policy makers understand and predict the supply and demand of their future surgical workforce. For lower-income countries, addressing the shortage of surgical providers is fundamental to meeting the increasing need for surgical care. For higher-income countries that still depend on an influx of surgical professionals from lower-income countries, there should be much greater domestic capacity to meet the demand for surgeons, anaesthesiologists, and obstetricians. The internationally ratifi ed Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel aims to bring awareness in all countries to the importance of national workforce planning, resource allocation, and data collection. Although previous studies of international migration of physicians have used data from even fewer high-income countries, our study is limited by the inclusion of only 14 out of 75 high-income countries. This study is also limited by the fact that not all countries categorise specialists and subspecialists the same way, limiting comparisons between particular specialties. It is important to emphasise that the study results are based on the emigration of medical graduates, not necessarily fully trained specialists. Also, our study design did not address internal migration or the geographical maldistribution of the surgical workforce within countries due to migration into urban settings and to non-governmental organisations and administration, nor did we capture the surgical workforce migrating regionally between lowincome or middle-income countries. These limitations translate into a likely underestimation of the degree of migration out of the most severely affected settings, and we acknowledge that in analysing the surgical work force, one should also International migration of surgeons, anaesthesiologists, and obstetricians

Research Collaboration and Global Migration

This article presents two bibliometric techniques for the study of international scientific migration and international collaboration. The first is based on tracking of an author's career in terms of the institutions from which he or she has published their research articles, and the second on co-authorship relations between researchers active in different countries. To illustrate this analysis, we present results of 17 selected countries.

In memoriam: Graeme John Hugo AO, FASSA, PhD (ANU) 1946-2015

On 20 January 2015 Graeme Hugo, University Professorial Fellow and Professor of Geography at the University of Adelaide, died shortly after being diagnosed with cancer. Professor Hugo was in full stride when his life was prematurely terminated. He was a prodigious writer (over 500 peer reviewed publications), presenter at conferences and meetings (more than 1,000 presentations), and supervisor of postgraduate students (110 completed master’s and PhD supervisions, with 19 PhD students and 2 master’s students under supervision at the time of his death). In addition, his CV lists more than 120 reports for government agencies in Australia, international agencies, and overseas governments. 1 In July 2014 Graeme was presented with the Institute of Australian Geographers’ (IAG) Australia-International Medal “in recognition of his outstanding contribution, as an Australian geographer, to the advancement of geography world-wide”. Two years earlier he had been awarded the civil honour of Officer in the General Division of the Order of Australia (AO) in recognition of his “distinguished service to population research, particularly the study of international migration, population geography and mobility, and through leadership roles with national and international organisations.” In 2009, in a survey of members of the International Union for the Scientific Study of Population (IUSSP), he was voted by his peers as the 34th ranked demographer of all time for the quality of his work.

A Manifesto for Quantitative Multi-sited Approaches to International Migration

The article discusses the concept of quantitative multi-sided approaches (MSA) to the study of international migration. The author attempts to show why cross national boundary data and analysis are crucial aspects of migration theory and government policy, discusses the methodological aspects of several quantitative approaches, and examines the challenges and opportunities presented by integrating MSA to migration research.

Developments and Complementarities in International Migration Paradigms

This paper reviews studies of international migration in the early twenty-first century by critically examining developments in the settlement, assimilation and adaptation paradigms before considering diasporic and transnational approaches, and complementarities in migration studies. The aim is to suggest first where considerations from sub-disciplines can benefit other sub-disciplines, and second, where communications across disciplines can be extended beyond those underway.

Defying the Law of Gravity: The Political Economy of International Migration

Bilateral flows of international migrants exhibit tremendous variance both across destination countries and over time. We argue that along with economic and social conditions migrants consider the political environment when choosing among various destinations. Specifically we hypothesize that a country’s citizenship policy regime and the strength of support for radical right parties are key determinants of destination choice. We test our hypotheses using an original data set of bilateral migration flows from 178 countries of origin into 22 destination countries over the period 1962-2006. And we directly confront the challenge that both the citizenship policy regime and radical right party support are endogenous; that they are in part a consequence of international migration. Our findings have implications for the study of international migration and for the broader comparative and international political economy literatures.

Transnacionalismo migrante: políticas de vinculación del Estado uruguayo y movimiento asociativo de uruguayos en Argentina

This paper examines Uruguayan state emigrant policies toward Uruguayan migrant population and their implications in associations of Uruguayans in Argentina. The article draws on transnational perspectives for the study of international migration that redefined the understanding of integration processes in the context of migration, as well as on anthropological ethnographic work conducted between 2005 and 2012. We approach the institutionalization process of the link between state and migrant population considering the program Departmento 20-La patria peregrina, which was part of a series of policies to include migration issues into the Uruguayan public agenda. These processes are analyzed from the point of view of the migrants themselves, namely the Uruguayan community in Buenos Aires, reorganized through the creation of the Consejo Consultivo at the request of immigration policy for connecting with the State of origin.

Defying the Law of Gravity: The Political Economy of International Migration

Bilateral flows of international migrants exhibit tremendous variance both across destination countries and over time. To explain this variance, studies of international migration tend to focus on economic determinants such as income differentials or on social conditions such as the presence of coethnics in certain destination countries. The authors argue that migration is driven not solely by economic or social determinants; rather, the political environment across destinations plays a substantively large role in influencing bilateral migration flows. They test the importance of the political environment—citizenship rights and the prominence of right-wing parties—using data on migration flows from 178 origin countries into 18 destination countries over the period 1980–2006. They find, even after controlling for a variety of economic, social, policy, and international variables, that variation in political environments across time and destination plays a key role in observed patterns of international migration.

Short‐Term Labour Migration: Brazilian Migrants in Ireland

AbstractShort‐term low‐skilled labour migration has increased internationally during the past two decades of rapid economic growth, in response to deficiencies in local labour supply in developed countries. Ireland was one of the newer states to recruit labour internationally on a large scale from the late 1990s until the global economic downturn in 2008. Various forms of short‐term migration, as well as both documented and undocumented employment, followed. This paper discusses the experience of Brazilian migrants in Ireland who assume particular interest because of being a new migration stream over a great distance, which involved relatively short sojourns in Ireland for many before returning to Brazil. Changing government work permit policies for non‐European Economic Area citizens, European Union enlargement, and economic recession all contributed to reduce the opportunities for legal employment in Ireland. This paper is based on research with workers who were initially recruited for the agricultural processing sector in two small towns in western Ireland through an existing link with the province of Goiás in Brazil. The evidence differs from some other studies of international labour migration in that data collection took place in both Ireland and Brazil. It highlights in particular the vulnerability of short‐term migrants to labour policies and the economy in host countries. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Revisiting contemporary Irish migration: new geographies of mobility and belonging

Though immigration has become one of the key issues facing Irish society, geographers in Ireland have been slow to respond. This is despite a long tradition of studying migration, particularly emigration, within Irish geography. This is even more surprising given recent developments within the discipline, as geography moves to assert its centrality to the study of international migration. This paper outlines the ways in which geographers in Ireland could contribute to broader debates about migration, both empirically and theoretically. It also introduces the five papers in this special issue of the journal, which provide a comprehensive overview of research on Irish migration, as well as detailed discussions of Irish migration to the UK, return migration and migration to Ireland from Poland, China and Nigeria.

Empirical research on international environmental migration: a systematic review.

This paper presents the findings of a systematic review of scholarly publications that report empirical findings from studies of environmentally-related international migration. There exists a small, but growing accumulation of empirical studies that consider environmentally-linked migration that spans international borders. These studies provide useful evidence for scholars and policymakers in understanding how environmental factors interact with political, economic and social factors to influence migration behavior and outcomes that are specific to international movements of people, in highlighting promising future research directions, and in raising important considerations for international policymaking. Our review identifies countries of migrant origin and destination that have so far been the subject of empirical research, the environmental factors believed to have influenced these migrations, the interactions of environmental and non-environmental factors as well as the role of context in influencing migration behavior, and the types of methods used by researchers. In reporting our findings, we identify the strengths and challenges associated with the main empirical approaches, highlight significant gaps and future opportunities for empirical work, and contribute to advancing understanding of environmental influences on international migration more generally. Specifically, we propose an exploratory framework to take into account the role of context in shaping environmental migration across borders, including the dynamic and complex interactions between environmental and non-environmental factors at a range of scales.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s11111-014-0210-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Bidesh sredi Sredozemskega morja: biografske poti in migracijski vzorci bangladeške diaspore v Italiji

Članek izhaja iz širšega raziskovalnega konteksta, osredotočenega na bangladeško skupnost v lokalnem, visokoindustrializiranem okolju na severovzhodu Italije. Raziskovalno delo vključuje daljša obdobja opazovanja z udeležbo in etnografske raziskovalne prakse tako v Italiji kot v Bangladešu, pri čemer je bilo izvedenih štiriinsedemdeset poglobljenih intervjujev z Bangladeškimi imigranti v Italiji in z njihovimi družinami v Bangladešu. Nekateri intervjuji so bili izvedeni tudi z izbranimi relevantnimi pričami in drugimi deležniki.Fokus raziskave se tako nagiba k dejavnikom (objektivnim in subjektivnim ter strukturnim in individualnim), ki oblikujejo segment bangladeške diaspore, usmerjen k sredozemski Evropi, natančneje, Italiji. Po drugi strani pa je fokus usmerjen k izkušnjam migrantov – večinoma neporočenih moških – in učinkom, ki jih ima migracija na njihove družbene in biografske trajektorije. Prispevek najprej oriše zgodovinski razvoj izvora respondentov in izpostavi strukturne determinante, nato pa pokaže, kako je lahko migracija izkušena in percipirana kot: družinska strategija soočanja s kriznimi situacijami; ključ do dosega individualne in kolektivne družbene mobilnosti (navzgor); zagotavljanje boljših življenjskih pogojev; pobeg pred politično represijo; način izboljšanja položaja na trgu poroke; pot v moško odraslost.

Linking tourism, retirement migration and social capital

A general trend in the study of international retirement migration has been the increased attention paid to the social contacts and network connections of the migrants in both the destination and the origin areas. These studies have examined the extent to which migrants build social relationships with their neighbours and the host society while also maintaining social links with their countries of origin, addressing the central role that leisure travel plays in sustaining increasingly dispersed social networks and maintaining the social capital of these networks and of the individuals involved in them. Using a case study approach to examine British retirement migration to Spain, we explore the relevance of transnational social networks in the context of international retirement migration, particularly the intensity of bidirectional visiting friends and relatives (VFR) tourism flows and the migrants’ social contacts with friends and/or family back in their home country. Building on the concept of social capital and Putnam's distinction between bonding and bridging social capital, we propose a framework for the analysis of the migrants’ international social networks. The results of a study conducted based on a sample of 365 British retirees living in the coast of Alicante (Spain) show both the strength of the retirees’ international bonding social capital and the role of ‘VFR's travel and communication technologies in sustaining the migrants’ transnational social practices and, ultimately, their international bonding social capital. It also provides evidence for the reinforcing links between tourism-related mobility and amenity-seeking migration in later life.

Learning Wisdom Through Geographical Dislocations

Wisdom is at once one of the most elusive and most valued kinds of knowledge. Empirical research shows that, indeed, across cultures, people hope that life experience will eventually make them wiser. The problem is that, to date, the academic study of wisdom and of the processes by which it can be learned has been dominated by psychologists. The first part of the article reviews the state-of-the-art psychological scholarship on wisdom to show how that conceptualization lacks geographical sensitivity and therefore misses some of the crucial geographical mechanisms by which people become wiser. The second part of the article singles out and focuses on one such mechanism, namely, the learning of wisdom through geographical dislocations. By drawing on insights from the study of international migration, exile, and transculturation in postcolonial contexts, the final part of the article suggests specific learning processes that might strengthen the hypothesis that geographical dislocations and the attendant cross-cultural experiences they generate are often conducive to wisdom.

Mapping migration within and from India: Mobilities and networks

The books under review represent different facets of the relatively under-developed field of migration studies in and on India. The volume edited by Irudaya Rajan is concerned primarily with mobility within India while the other two deal with international migration; the Khadria and Rajan volumes are based mainly on statistical sources while the Poros book draws on qualitative research; and the first two volumes reflect the standard economic framework that views migration patterns as emerging from a series of individual decisions, while the third foregrounds the social networks that enable and constitute migration. This range of approaches and themes also illustrates several fundamental fissures that plague migration studies in general—the split between qualitative/ethnographic and quantitative methodologies; between studies of international and internal migration; and between diaspora and transnational studies on the one hand and migration studies on the other. Currently, dominant thinking within international development circles proposes that migration is...

Anti-prostitution Campaigns in Japan and the American West, 1890–1920

Prostitution became a thriving business in Japan and Japanese migrant communities in the western United States in the last years of the nineteenth century, and Japanese reformers organized against it on both sides of the Pacific to protect Japan’s reputation as a “civilized” country. By 1920 Japanese prostitution had visibly declined in Pacific Coast cities, whereas it continued to be a regular feature of public life in Japan. This article examines the emergence of transpacific reform networks in the 1890s as well as the different ways the reform movements developed in the two Pacific regions after 1900. It argues that transnational and comparative approaches are not in opposition to but complementary to one another in the historical study of prostitution, social reform, and international migration.