Transnational Migration Studies Research Articles

Transatlantyckie trendy migracyjne na przestrzeni stulecia. Studium przypadku wychodźstwa z powiatu strzyżowskiego

Joanna Kulpinska's book Transatlantyckie trendy migracyjne na przestrzeni stulecia. Studium przypadku wychodźstwa z powiatu strzyżowskiego is another installment in the series edited by Professor Bogdan Szlachta. The Societies series published by the Jagiellonian University presents books on history, political science, international relations, and cultural studies. Kulpinska is a teaching assistant at the Institute of American Studies and Polish Diaspora at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, and this is her first monograph.Joanna Kulpinska's book offers an analysis of migration trends from the Polish countryside to the United States from the point of view of both the community and the individual. This work is an addition to the historiography of transnational migration studies, and it provides relevant research by continuing the work of Krystyna Duda-Dziewierz's “Wies malopolska a emigracja amerykanska. Studium wsi Babica, powiatu rzeszowskiego (Warsaw, 1938) as well as more recent work by Dorota Osipowicz “Rola sieci i kapitału społecznego w migracjach zarobkowych. Przykład Moniek” (Warsaw, 2002) among others.Divided into eight chapters, the volume starts with a description of an interdisciplinary approach to the subject: a combination of cultural, historical, and sociological analysis, and the usage of methods such as ethno-polls, participant observation, life story interviews, and documents. Kulpinska proposes the analysis of migration trends from a diachronic perspective (mobility from the studied area over the course of a century) and synchronous perspective (mobility trends from Babica in relation to other towns of the region and other Polish towns). In the theoretical section, Kulpinska positions her book as an addition to the literature on migration by presenting a microanalysis conducted from the point of view of the country of origin and a destination country. Further, the process is described from the first migration streams to the present day. Chapters three to six offer analysis of the history of the strzyzowski region; history of coexistence of national and ethnic groups and their migration trends; characteristics of migration routes from particular parts of the region; and traditions and mechanisms of migration from the strzyzowski region. Each chapter presents a chronological account of the topic. Secondary material is enriched by archival sources collected by the author at the Ellis Island Archives and by oral histories conducted with individuals. Based on extensive research, Kulpinska noted the interesting pattern of the migration of Poles, who preferred to travel in groups, and Jews, who usually traveled alone, with some exceptions, such as when a Polish man traveled with a young Jewish woman to provide care for her during the journey. While describing migration and gender, the author writes that the migration of women changed over time from one directional migration to repetitive (circular) migrations often based on job-sharing system. In this section of the book, Kulpinska illustrates her narrative with various charts, maps, and diagrams. As much as I understand the necessity to organize collected data in the process of writing a doctoral dissertation, the number of diagrams feels overwhelming to a reader from outside of the field of sociology.The most interesting part of Joanna Kulpinska's book is presented in the last two chapters, where the author writes about contacts between immigrants from neighboring villages in the country of settlement. Material gathered by Kulpinska demonstrates that although in America Poles from different villages often lived in the same neighborhood, they continued to maintain close ties, mainly with members from their own village. The only exception was when they collaborated on initiatives supporting their communities back home. In that case, everyone fundraised together regardless of the fact that they would not benefit from it upon return. Kulpinska continues the analysis of these processes in the twentieth century and concludes that even though immigrants are open to contacts with people from other regions of Poland, much like their ancestors, they still cultivate regional stereotypes often created at the place of settlement, ones that did not exist in Poland.Interdisciplinary methodology allows Kulpinska to consider the changes, which occurred both in the sending and receiving place. Transmigration resulted in modifications in the social structure of the village. Babica is no longer a closed, self-sufficient community where people rely on familiar and neighboring connections. Further modifications refer to types of networks; contemporary networks are built on individuals or families, unlike the old ones which relied on a broader village community. Therefore, Kulpinska's focus on a history of particular families shows the reader a new type of chain migration, which is described as an imagined community and is best illustrated by multigenerational stories of migration as a family tradition.This monograph is an important voice in transmigration studies. It provides useful analytical material for sociologists and begins a microhistory of families from strzyzowski region that might be of interest to historians. Unfortunately, the publisher confuses the reader by repeating the first twenty pages.

Transnational migrants' philanthropy: Its forms, operations, and implications from the perspectives of Ghanaian residents in Europe.

With the emergence of transnational migration studies in the 1990's, migration studies became involved in showing how migrants maintain transnational connections through money and non-monetary philanthropic contributions in their origin countries. However, there is little evidence about the interconnections between different forms of migrants' philanthropy and how they are developed and sustained over time across international borders. This work investigates individual and groups transnational philanthropy and shows how migrants become involved in these forms of philanthropy, highlighting some changes therein over time. We relied on fifty semistructured interviews and six focus group discussions conducted with Ghanaians in the Netherlands, Italy and Germany. Our thematic analyses confirm that transnational migrant philanthropy is about fulfilling certain "moral obligations," to derive a sense of belonging "here" (destinations) and "there" (origins). In performing the self, religious or culturally imposed sense of responsibility for human welfare and institutional development in the home country, Ghana, involved migrants overcome some challenges. For transnational migrant philanthropy to sustain itself, studied migrants think origin country governments must take necessary steps to remove structural obstacles like tedious procedures for clearing philanthropic goods at the ports and harbors. Involved migrants also suggested a need for a more organized platform to collect relevant information on potential beneficiary needs for their preparations to "give back" to their homeland.

Foro: The Civil Rights in Black and Brown Project

In a February 2022 discussion, Stephen Pitti—the director of the Yale Center for the Study of Race, Indigeneity, and Transnational Migration—and the historian Max Krochmal led a conversation with a group of oral historians to discuss practices of Latinx oral history research. The historians, Katherine Bynum, Sandra Enríquez, and Joel Zapata, share their insights on the Civil Rights in Black and Brown Oral History Project and the anthology book that arose from the project. They discuss fieldwork they conducted for the project in East Texas, the High Plains, and along the US-Mexico border, before turning to introductions of their monographs in progress and new and emerging oral history projects in Arizona, Missouri, and Oregon. The conversation further explores the challenges and opportunities of Latinx oral historical practice, including ethical considerations and teaching, as well as the project’s innovative digital humanities website.

‘Why Are You Not Crying?’

Abstract This article analyses the ways in which young people with a migration background develop their own transnational engagement with their or their parents’ country of origin. Drawing on 17-months of multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork in the Netherlands and Ghana, we add to the emerging literature on ‘return’ mobilities by analysing young people of Ghanaian background, irrespective of whether they or their parents migrated, and by looking at an under-researched form of mobility that they engage in: that of attending funerals in Ghana. Funerals occupy a central role in Ghanaian society, and thus allow young people to gain knowledge about cultural practices, both by observing and embodying them, and develop their relationships with people in Ghana. Rather than reproducing their parents’ transnational attachments, young people recreate these according to their own needs, which involves dealing with tensions. Peer relationships—which have largely gone unnoticed in transnational migration studies—play a significant role in this process.

Review and Prospect: A Review of Transnational Migration and Local Social Studies in Wenzhou

The study of transnational migration and Wenzhou local society is an important part of the study of the social and economic history and cultural history of Wenzhou overseas Chinese hometown. Transnational migration plays an important role in the history of Wenzhou local social transformation and Chinese modernization. It has its unique style and regional significance in the international migration movement and the international migration movement of Chinese overseas Chinese society. On the basis of combing and summarizing the academic history and research trends of the related research in recent years, this paper analyzes the characteristics and existing problems of the research, and puts forward the future research orientation and suggestions.

‘Giving back’ through mobility trajectories: motivations for engaging in development encounters in Ghana among transnational youth

ABSTRACT Literature on diaspora engagement in development activities has centred on the contributions of migrating adults to the ‘homeland’, which range from private transfers to single households, to community development projects. While such studies often focus on the impact of such activities on the country of origin, relatively few have focused on what transpires during development encounters and how this affects migrants’, and especially young people’s, motivation to engage transnationally over time. This paper combines migration and development, transnational migration studies and second generation ‘returns’ literature, to address these gaps. It studies the motivations of transnational youth to engage in development encounters, which they referred to as ‘giving back’, in the context of their mobility trajectories. Drawing on 17 months of multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork in the Netherlands and accompanying young people during trips to Ghana, we show that giving back contributes to a sense of purpose that connects them transnationally. Young people’s expectations of giving back were embedded in community narratives, which framed this as a means to ‘become successful’ in culturally valued ways. While young people sometimes encountered unexpected surprises, emotions experienced during development encounters led to learning that ultimately resulted in enhanced intentions of transnational engagement.

(Community) garden in the city: Conspicuous labor and gentrification

Community gardens are fertile fields of complex political, economic and social relations, on both a local and global level. From environmentalism to urban policy and planning, racial and gender studies, transnational migration, commodity chains and food studies, the garden in the city offers an abundance of research opportunities and analytical resources. This article seeks to contribute to the efforts to understand and contest hegemonic forces in the urban environment, forces that are rooted in what Foucault identified as a set of sacred binaries which underpin a host of power relations that are “given” and form the unquestioned framework of a given set of power relations. This is therefore a project which is bent on a “theoretical desanctification of space” by a disordering of one set of several sanctified oppositions which can be found in the space of the community garden. The article de-sanctifies space by exploring the historical context of the community garden in New York and Oakland California and posits that the work of the gardener is co-opted into a value regime by a process I call “conspicuous labor”. This process is similar to Veblen's conspicuous consumption except the value generated is not in modeling consumption but rather in emulating class patterns and re-configuring the urban poor as a productive, passive and pastoral.

Refugees’ Transnational Practices: Gay Iranian Men Navigating Refugee Status and Cross-border Ties in Canada

Despite the rise in displaced population numbers, refugees’ transnational lives, and those of sexual-racial minority refugees in particular, have remained at the margins of transnational migration studies. In this article, I focus on the case of gay Iranian refugees in Canada and analyze their pre-migration transnational lives and understandings of the asylum process, their post-migration transnational ties, and their activism practices. I underline refugees’ transnational agencies and argue against the rhetoric that represents refugees as passive migrants whose emigration means detachment from home countries. Based on my field work findings, I endorse analytical and methodological shifts to simultaneously explore refugees’ pre-migration and en-route lives in addition to their post-migration lives to stress the power relations that, through social ties, affect refugees’ transnational practices. I connect transnational, forced, and queer migration literature to the Bourdieusian social theory and, in conclusion, argue that it is necessary to deploy de-nationalized methods of inquiry to account for intra-group diversities as well as border-crossing social ties in addition to economic ties.

“Superdiversity”: a new paradigm for inclusion in a transnational world

PurposeTransnational migration has become a defining feature of many societies across the globe. This paper focuses on contributions to diversity theorizing and research available from “superdiversity”, an analytic framework derived from transnational migration studies. “Superdiversity” speaks to the novel social transformations taking place globally and provides new opportunities, albeit with critique, for conceptualizing and studying people, difference and inclusion. The purpose of this paper is to provide innovative ways to rethink hallmark concepts of diversity scholarship by offering new insights about the role of nation-states, the concept of difference and inclusion in the midst of mobility.Design/methodology/approachThe paper relies upon transnational migration studies as an emergent field of inquiry about societal level changes brought upon by the ongoing movement of people. The social, cultural and political transformations growing out of transnational migration are used to theorize new directions for diversity research in the context of management and organization studies. By relying on “superdiversity” and its mobility-based ontology, epistemology and methodology, the paper proposes new ways to think about and carry out research on difference and inclusion.FindingsDeploying the analytic framework of “superdiversity,” the paper offers “belonging” as the new conversation on inclusion and proposes mobile methods as a means to study mobile subjects/objects. In addition, it discusses how the ongoing transformative societal changes by way of transnational migration impact the ways in which the author theorizes and carry out diversity research. Questions and concerns around ethics, (in)equality and representation are considered vital to future research in/around diversity.Originality/valueExtensive changes in societies emerging out of ongoing encounters between/among different kinds of people have taken shape by way of transnational migration. As a result, emergent and novel notions of difference have been forged in a transnational manner across social fields. By examining these transformations, the paper provides new directions and challenges for diversity scholarship in the context of rising societal tensions and rhetoric around difference and “belonging” in nation-states. It also provides alternative considerations for understanding and theorizing inclusion in diversity research.

Nationalising minority ethnic athletes: Danish media representations of Nadia Nadim around the UEFA women’s Euro 2017

ABSTRACTWith the rise in nationalism and anti-immigration sentiments in Europe, debate has arisen in several national media when minority ethnic athletes opt to play for the national team of their country of origin. This article aims to examine how minority ethnic athletes who opt to play for the national team in their country of destination express and are ascribed national belonging. To do so, the article draws on Nira Yuval-Davis’ distinction between belonging and the politics of belonging as well as perspectives from transnational migration studies. The article is based on a single case study of Danish newspapers’ representations of the Danish women’s football player of Afghan origin, Nadia Nadim. In the build-up to, duration and aftermath of the UEFA Women’s Euro in 2017, Nadim was ascribed Danish identity, while her popularity as a player rose. However, the article points out how athletes who become exemplary others along ethnic and national lines are deprived of their transnational belonging and of their potentially critical voice. Further, the article discusses how ideas of national unity in sport are enacted in the media through apparently innocent descriptions of patriotism and national archetypes seeking to reconcile current divisions in European societies.

The impact of damage to buildings on displacement during the 2014 Israel–Gaza war: a propensity score matching study

BackgroundThe July 2014 war in Gaza caused more devastation in the area than at any time since the Israeli occupation began in 1967. The 50-day war resulted in more than 2200 Palestinian deaths, over 11 000 injuries, and large-scale destruction of infrastructure and displacement of over a quarter of the Palestinian population in Gaza. In this study, we examined the causal effect of damage to buildings within a neighbourhood on displacement behaviour in Gaza. Identifying demographic and socioeconomic predictors of displacement, given ongoing exposure to chronic violence and precarious living conditions in Gaza, will allow for action to be taken to avert the consequences of modifiable risk factors of displacement in this population. MethodsThe study was based on data from a 2015 cross-sectional survey including a representative sample of households in the occupied Palestinian territory. The study sample included 10 017 Gazans aged 18 years and above from whom complete data were available for 9285 adults, who were included in matching analysis. Through a quasi-experimental design, propensity score matching estimators were used to evaluate causality between exposure and outcome. The exposure effect was whether 5% or more of the buildings in a respondent's neighbourhood experienced damage. The outcome variable was self-reported displacement from residence as a result of the war. Score matching was conducted using age, sex, education, marital status, refugee status, Gaza residence, employment, household age composition, household crowding (≥3 people per room, excluding kitchen and bathrooms), income, injury status, chronic disease status, and car possession status. FindingsOf the 9285 adults in the analysis, 5304 (57·12%) reported displacement and 3005 (32·36%) lived in an area that experienced damage to buildings during the war. Being a refugee in Gaza and having higher levels of educational attainment were found to be protective against experiencing displacement. An analysis of model-based estimates and average treatment effect showed a positive effect of neighbourhood damage on displacement (average treatment effect 0·35; 95% CI 0·33–0·36), indicating that living in an area that experienced damaged due to war caused displacement. InterpretationDamage to buildings had a substantial impact on population displacement during the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict, but was not the sole predictor of displacement. The substantial proportion of individuals who were displaced did not live in areas that experienced damage directly, indicating that they were potentially influenced by perception of danger and fear in general. A limitation of this study is the possibility that not all relevant covariates in the matching stage are accounted for, which would reduce comparability of treatments and control groups, and thus limit assertions of causality. Findings from this study can be used to help inform public health programmes and policies designed to protect and serve displaced civilian populations during humanitarian emergencies such as wars, in Gaza and beyond. FundingThis project was supported, in part, by a research grant from the Yale MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies, and an award from the Yale Center for the Study of Race, Indigeneity, and Transnational Migration.

The second Brazilian migration wave: The impact of Brazil’s economic and social changes on current migration to the UK.

This article explores the effects of Brazil’s recent economic growth and the narrowing of the inequality gap on the second Brazilian migration wave to the UK over the last two decades. Migration-related research has emphatically argued that this ongoing international mobility results from transnational networks developed by pioneers who encouraged fellow citizens to travel. Although this paper considers social networks as an important factor shaping the movement of Brazilians abroad, we propose to debate contemporary Brazilian migration by shedding light on the national socio-economic policies implemented since the late 1990s. Thus, through a rigorous literature review of Brazilian transnational migration studies and multi-sited ethnography in Brazil and London, we focus particularly on how the opening up of the Brazilian economy to international capital flow, and the implementation of social programmes followed by the enlargement of its domestic consumer market, helps to explain the current increase and diversification of Brazilians abroad.

TRANSNATIONALISM ONLINE: EXPLORING MIGRATION PROCESSES WITH LARGE DATA SETS

The exponential growth of online technologies in everyday life transforms the very contours of social phenomena, processes, and institutions well known to sociologists. We discuss these transformations in two interrelated areas: transnational migration and extremism. First, the paper proposes an approach to examine «transnationalism online» as a sub-set of transnational migration studies. Second, it presents a critical review of how contemporary scholars study extremist activities and discourse of those who are involved in migration with a special focus on online manifestations of extremism. In a concluding part of the paper we present theoretical and methodological comments on the paths in examining the «dark side» of transnationalism online.

Mobilizing in transnational contentious spaces: linking relations, emotions and space in migrant activism

ABSTRACTDespite proliferation of political protest by migrants in recent years, analyses from a social movement perspective remain scarce. This lacuna is not coincidental, but theoretically grounded. According to dominant movement theories, migrants are unlikely subjects of mobilization due to legal obstacles, scarce resources and closed political and discursive opportunities. The article therefore explores how marginalized migrants organize transnational political protest against all evident odds. Drawing from extensive fieldwork and bridging transnational migration and social movement studies, it is argued that migrants mobilize within transnational social spaces, which link relations and emotions acquired on the move with the relational qualities at the locality of arrival. The article illustrates how the transnational spaces most migrants inhabit can be politicized and transformed into particular social formations, for which the term ‘transnational contentious spaces’ is suggested.

Transnationalism reloaded: the historical trajectory of a concept

ABSTRACTIn this commentary, I discuss the importance of Portes, Guarnizo and Landolt’s article, focusing on three specific points. First, I argue that this 1999 article represented a turning point in transnational migration studies, in that it made it possible to address important weaknesses in this field of study. Second, I reflect on the article’s lack of reference to the nation-state and its power to shape transnational fields. Third, I argue that the cumulative knowledge gained over the last two decades – triggered in part by the claims of this 1999 article – have been steadily integrated into this field of investigation, rendering possible important theoretical alterations. These insights have made possible a shift towards a new stance, a transnational perspective whose specific epistemology makes it possible to develop explanatory frameworks for current transformation processes and to revise social theory more generally.

“A lo lejos” – Aging in place and transnational care in the case of transnational migration between Cuba and Germany

AbstractThis article analyzes family care and aging in place in transnational families between Cuba and Germany. It draws on the results of a longitudinal multi-sited research on transnational families, based on reconstructive analysis of participant observations and biographical-narrative interviews with Cuban migrants in Germany and their relatives in Cuba. Adopting a case level of family histories enables me to see how the exchange of care is negotiated across generations. In this article, two case studies will provide a detailed description of transnational care and aging between Cuba and Germany. Originating from a transnational migration studies background, this article addresses the implications of the transnationalization of life worlds and the possibility to maintain contact via information and communication technologies for the concept of aging in place. Furthermore, it discusses the influence of structural constraints (like restrictions of travel and ICTs access) on aging in a transnational pla...

Introduction: The “material turn” in migration studies

This introduction firstly discusses the ongoing paradigm shifts in the study of transnational migration, in particular the emergent interest in the convergence of migration and material culture (Basu and Coleman 2008), as the starting point of our investigation. It then highlights three aspects that this Special Issue could further in the current study of migration and materialities: namely, historical consciousness in materialising the migration experience and the notion of generational transmission; the everyday experience of body as the site for mutual constitution between subject and object; and the unique value of a language-based, interdisciplinary-oriented approach. In the final part, it summarizes the five articles that follow, highlighting the contribution that each makes to our overall objective of making a “material turn” in migration studies, and discusses some ways it could be further developed.

Marriage Migration and State Interests: Reflections from the Experiences of Marriage Migrants from the People’s Republic of China in Taiwan

Abstract This paper, by building on the empirical case of marriage migration across the Taiwan Strait, problematises the consequences, on migrants’ lives, of state-to-state relations, especially when sending and receiving states hold antagonistic nationalistic interests. This paper aims to contribute to the empirical literature on marriage migration, particularly in the East Asian context, by adding the dimension of state to state relations in shaping contemporary movements for family formation. Furthermore, this paper contributes to the broader debate on transnational migration studies by arguing that the power of the nation-state over contemporary migration flows is not fixed and immutable, but it is rather a dynamic force that changes depending on broader factors related not only to global restructuring but also to the relations between sending and receiving state. Ultimately, migrants may have a degree of agency in responding to sending and receiving country’s nationalistic agendas.

Exploring the role of migrants in transnational occupational learning processes in Estonia-Finland space

The aim of the study was to examine the role of migrants in cross-border learning in occupational contexts. The research data included 78 semi-structured and 20 life-course interviews with people who had migrated from Estonia to Finland or who were transmigrating between these countries. The interview data were analysed qualitatively through a combination of data-based and theory-guided content analysis. The results showed how the migrants had engaged in transnational brokering and boundary encounters between work communities across national borders. Transnational brokering had involved introducing new work techniques, clarifying organizational cultures, conveying best practices and explaining local work requirements and communication styles. These transnational brokers had supported the processes of perspective making and perspective taking by explaining local work practices and, more broadly, mind-sets to non-migrants both in the host society and in their country of origin. Theoretical concepts from situated learning theory and transnational migration studies were applied in the analysis. The study provides a new perspective through which to examine international and multicultural work environments and the transformation processes related to the increasing cross-border mobility of labour.

Informal learning processes of migrants in the civil society: a transnational perspective

The aim of the article is to examine the informal learning processes of migrants particularly in relation to their social engagements in associations, informal groups and transnational networks in the Estonia-Finland space. The theoretical framework relates to socio-cultural, situated learning tradition as well as transnational migration studies. In educational research, transnational perspectives are still relatively new and little explored. The research data (98 interviews) were analysed following theoryguided content analysis. Diverse learning trajectories in relation to the informants’ associational engagement were identified. Engagement in various social groups in transnational environments had widened the informants’ perspectives and understanding, enabling them to explore differences in societal conceptions and practices. Some of the informants had been acting as transnational brokers, conveying conceptions and practices between communities across national borders. There is a need to examine migrants’ learning trajectories in relation to their social engagements not only in the country of settlement but also in transnational spaces.