Transnational Migration Research Articles

Salud mental de personas migrantes en un refugio de Tabasco, México durante la epidemia de COVID-19

Migration is a global phenomenon that must be recognized as a social de-terminant of health. In 2020, there were 280 million international migrants in the world. Undoubtedly, Mexico plays a fundamental role in transnational migration due to the large flow of migrants who transit through its borders. Research on mental health and migra-tion suggests a high prevalence of mental disorders due to the conditions of the migration process; this scenario may be aggravated as result of the health contingency caused by CO-VID-19. Methodology: This research is intended to identify the relationship between the mental health of migrants, the migratory process, and the COVID-19 epidemic. Therefore, it is a qualitative study with a deductive approach. A sample evaluation of Central Ameri-can migrants living in a shelter in Tabasco, Mexico in December 2020 was used. Results: Some factors impact the mental health of migrants in the place of origin and during transit (forced migration, persecution, and the lack of possibilities to achieve a decent standard of living...). Moreover, positive, and negative manifestations were reported in the dimensions of mental health, because of the migratory process and COVID-19. Conclusions: Migration has become an option for survival and well-being given the limited opportunities that exist in the regions of origin. Efforts must be made to develop migration and health policies that benefit this group. Unfortunately, some limitations of data collection emerged due to Covid 19. Finally, it is suggested to replicate the study among other areas of the southern border of Mexico with a high flow of migrants.

Transnational Migration, Identity, and the African Literary Experience

This essay seeks to examine transnational migration by looking primarily at 20 th- century writers historicizing the concept of the ‘post-colonial’ and pointing to its development as captured in their writing. In the paper, transnational migration is viewed as the movement of persons across national boundaries where the migrants live their lives across borders, participating simultaneously in social relations that embed them in more than one nation-state, and in which there is a process by which such immigrants forge and sustain multi-stranded social relations that link together their societies of origin and settlement. Going by this definition, all major African writers (such as Ayi Kwei Armah, Chinua Achebe, Ben Okri, and the like), with the possible exception of Ayi Kwei Armah, are transmigrants. This is because their migration took place—is taking place—within fluid social spaces and identity-forming contexts, which are constantly reworked through their simultaneous connectedness to more than one society. In this case, the term that better expresses this situation is ‘post-colonial’. Although there is a growing community of African writers and artists living in the West, it is uncertain how they might influence the events, politics, and cultural discussions within their original homeland. The conclusion is that it is not clear how the transmigration of African intellectuals could help shape the identity and tenor of the post-colonial African literary experience, which has been historically and culturally shaped by the impact of the African colonial experience. In this sense, then, recent migration by the African literati (specifically novelists) to the West is only the latest version of the pull that Europe and the United States of America exert on African post-colonial identity. This is not likely to slow down in the foreseeable future.

Views on migration partnerships from the ground: Lessons from Nigeria

AbstractWhat is the current situation of migration partnerships and governance and how has it evolved? The perceived rise in migratory movement of African migrants towards Europe created legal and policy chain reactions in Europe focused on stemming irregular migration. These changes include the establishment and externalisation of an EU‐led migration governance in Africa and increased EU–African political engagement through migration dialogue and partnerships. This study investigates the state of play of EU–Africa migration partnerships to unpack lessons learned on transnational migration governance, using Nigeria as an example (The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to privacy or ethical restrictions.).

Relational enforcement: The family and the expanding scope of border enforcement

Scholars have increasingly focused on the role of the family within border enforcement practices. In this paper, we build on and extend these research efforts to propose a research agenda driven by a new understanding of the relationship between families and immigration enforcement. Drawing on examinations of emerging enforcement strategies, including family separation and public information campaigns, we suggest that the family as a social unit and set of relationships is increasingly targeted within the regulation of transnational migration, what we term “relational enforcement.” Greater attention to relational enforcement tactics, processes, and impacts helps to frame geographies of border enforcement.

Homelands and dictators: migration, memory, and belonging between Southeastern Europe and Chile

ABSTRACT In the last three decades, a ‘memory fever’concerning past dictatorships and political violence emerged both in the Latin American Southern Cone and in Central and Eastern Europe. Both regions witnessed the creation and then consolidation of memory regimes related to remembering military dictatorships and state socialism, respectively. This article interrogates how transnational migration experiences between the two regions challenge nationally framed memory regimes, with a focus on Chile, Romania, and Croatia. By tracing individual migrants and exiles between Romania and Chile, as well as the Croatian Chilean diaspora, this article discusses the entanglements between Chile and Southeastern Europe in the remembrance of the Pinochet and Ceausescu dictatorships, as well as the Tito´s Yugoslavia. First, it shows how migrants who experienced dictatorships in both regions operate their own vernacular comparisons between the two experiences. These reframe the tropes existing in dominant memory narratives in each country and create hierarchies of suffering and oppression (i.e. in the case of the Romania–Chile comparison, with a more negative valuation of the Ceauşescu dictatorship). Second, by discussing intergenerational memory for those who did not experience dictatorship, as well as diasporic memory formations (e.g. Croat Chileans), it shows that, in these instances, comparisons are more under the influence of dominant national memory frames, but also of memory entrepreneurs who mobilize specific threads. Moreover, the article discusses how these various migrant experiences constitute and reframe senses of belonging, interrogating both the formulations of home and transnationality.

‘Feminization of migration’: the implications for ‘left-behind’ families in Ghana

ABSTRACT Research suggests that in sub-Saharan Africa, independent transnational female migration is highly prevalent. Despite this prevalence, scholarship on those who are left behind in the migration process largely focuses on women, and there is little research focusing on transnational female migration and the families these women leave behind. Using a qualitative approach, with the push-pull theory and the new household economics of labour migration framework to examine female migration and its impact on left-behind families in Ghana, this study fills a valuable research gap in the migration literature. Twelve in-depth interviews were purposively held with men whose spouses were residing overseas. Findings from the thematic analysis revealed that independent female migration is a common occurrence in the Ghanaian context. Social, economic and cultural opportunities were some of the reasons the respondents identified for the prevalence of transnational female migration. While respondents associated transnational female migration with certain benefits, they explained that it has short-and long-term consequences, including reverse remittances, marital instability and effects on children’s subjective well-being. While the results corroborate the key arguments of the push-pull theory and the new household economics of labour migration framework, which suggest that multiple factors trigger migration, they demonstrate the need for effective planning and careful decision making among spouses in the migration process.

The Role of Social Networks as External Resources in Student Migration to Malaysia: Interaction of Bangladeshi with the Host Society as Transnational Migrants

The Role of Social Networks as External Resources in Student Migration to Malaysia: Interaction of Bangladeshi with the Host Society as Transnational Migrants

Diana Cid García’s story as an Exercise in the Imaginative Reinvention of the Art Worlds

Diana Cid García (1861–1938) is less known than other Latin American women in the arts. Her story has intrigued many scholars working on early Latin American modernism, but it still remains obscure and generates doubts and misunderstandings. This essay partially reconstructs her trajectory in an attempt to draw a larger context for her transnational migration: as an individual, artist, and art historical trope. It focuses on Cid García’s first exhibition appearances in the 1890s and on some reactions that followed. Employing the instruments of feminist critique, the paper demonstrates how the legacy of this woman was (or was not) archived and historicized. With the help of visual analysis and close reading, I suggest revisiting some of the absences in the historical narratives that had been actively forgetting or misrepresenting Cid García in the twentieth century. I explore her involvement with diverse artistic circles in Europe, Argentina, and Brazil, and invite the reader to shift attention from the concept of the autonomous genius to a broader understanding of artistic creation as collective endeavor. For that matter, I weave her story into that of her collaborators, colleagues, friends, and critics as a way to reinvent the worlds of the past and highlight Cid García’s controversial input in many artistic phenomena of the epoch.

Gender and Development: Push and Pull Migration, Transnational Experience and Well-being of Filipina Overseas Migrant Returnees

The global movement of people which coincided with the globalization of the market economy resulted into the feminization of overseas migrate, on given the higher demands for female migrant workers from the low-income developing countries such as the Philippines. This has changed the landscape of overseas migration in the country since the 1970s where the bulk of overseas migrant workers were males as triggered by the oil boom in the Middle East (Ducanes, 2015). This paper examines the social dimension of transnational migration as experienced by Filipina overseas migrant returnees by understanding the motivations for temporary overseas migration, the factors associated with return migration, their narratives of transnational migration and their self-assessment of the impact of migration on their well-being. Qualitative interviews were conducted among seven (7) Filipina migrant returnees from Nueva Ecija. Results revealed the interplay of gender, migration and family in relation to push and pull migration. Likewise, the transnational experiences of these migrant returnees demonstrate the resiliency and agency of women in the context of development and transnational migration.

Where Is My Place? The Second Generation in Italy as a New Kind of Transnational Migrant

The topic of intra-European youth mobility has been under investigation for some time. This contribution discusses a particular youth migration, that of the children of immigrants who leave Italy to move to Northern Europe. What are the motivations behind this de facto migration? How much do discrimination processes count in the decision to move abroad and under what conditions and for what reasons do people leave Italy? This paper – based on my extensive qualitative research on young people of foreign origin, born and/or raised in Italy – discusses the opportunities and limits of these young people’s coping strategies in the face of difficulties in inclusion and entry into the labour market. It does this based on the broader research project, by taking into account the mobility ideas, drivers and relationships between mobile youth and their (ethnic or not) social networks.

The Production of Global Space Under the Transnational Entrepreneurship: Empirical Study on Yiwu, Zhejiang Province, China

This research probes into the process, impact, and mechanism of the production of global space in Yiwu under the transnational entrepreneurship, utilizing the „spatial ternary theory” and methods of field investigation and in-depth interview. It focuses on analyzing how the local government, state-owned enterprises, transnational traders, local residents, and domestic migrants act and interact in the production of global space since the 1980s. Results showed that the production of global space in Yiwu goes through a process from delocalization, globalization to relocalization, indicating the local construction and reconstruction of economic, social, and living relationships in small- and medium-sized cities influenced by transnational entrepreneurship. The production of global space in Yiwu is jointly promoted by top-down government power and bottom-up social strength, and local governmental entrepreneurialism that has been directly influenced by globalization is a key engine. Field investigation also discovered that there is a phenomenon of transnational traders’ apparent integration and invisible isolation with local residents and domestic migrants in the new social relationships in Yiwu. These findings will enrich the empirical research on the global space in small- and medium-sized cities in the context of China, and on the dialectical and interchangable relationship of the trinity of ternary elements in the spatial ternary theory; and help deepen the understanding on urbanization and globalization of small-and medium-sized Chinese cities, and optimize the governance of transnational migrants and the ethnic enclaves they live.

Amulya K Tripathy and Sivani Baral, India-China relations: Vajpayee, Manmohan and Modi Periods, New Delhi: Authors Press, 2022, pp. 177.

In the 1990s globalization triggered the process of transnational migration, mainly from underdeveloped to developed countries. The huge migration resulted in changing the social and demographic landscape of the recipient societies; homogeneous societies began to turn heterogeneous. Increasing heterogeneity in such societies created many challenges to the existing socio-political structure and state policies. One of the major challenge that got the attention of leading political scientists to revisit the centuries old concept - universal citizenship. Consequently, the debate surfaced in western democracies over current state of citizenship, aiming to cope up with the growing ethno-cultural diversity and finding solutions of emerging challenges. Universal citizenship embraces every citizen similarly, and provides equal rights, entitlements, and obligations regardless of any difference, however, the marginalized groups, mainly immigrants seek different entitlements. So, the present study focuses on theoretical foundations and justifications of the changing nature of citizenship. The paper begins with a brief historical overview of the concept of citizenship. The second part discusses three generations of rights within the framework of ‘universal’ citizenship. The third views the multicultural rights (group- differentiated rights) as fourth generational rights. The fourth explores the practice of citizenship over different ethnic groups in Canada by taking the example of two ethnic groups- Sikhs and Muslims as citizens. The last draws outcomes of the study.

Scalable Co-presence: WhatsApp and the Mediation of Personal Relationships during the COVID-19 Lockdown

This article sheds light on how adults in Barcelona (ES), Groningen (NL), and Milan (IT) utilized WhatsApp to compensate for the lack of face-to-face interactions and to fight social isolation during the first 2 months of the COVID-19 lockdown. We argue that practices of WhatsApp usage have multiplied and diversified experiences of co-presence at distance and made group socialities even more important than before. Building on the concepts of “scalable socialities” and “polymedia,” the article formulates the concept of “scalable co-presence” to account for ways in which WhatsApp has enabled multiple experiences of proximity to others across different scales of sociality, from one-to-one to large groups interactions. In this article, we also argue that the concept of “scalable co-presence” is relevant to bring the study of mediated co-presence out of media and migration studies into the broader field of media and cultural studies. With reduction in mobility, increased social distancing, and ubiquitous connectivity, the role of communication technologies in mediating proximity at distance has become crucial for many more people around the world outside the context of transnational migration. The concept is also relevant to acknowledge the increased importance of mediated group interactions and communications in (post)-pandemic digital societies.

Mass Migrations And The Emerging Socio-Political Constructs Of Identity, Interest And Security In Hosts State

Mass Migrations And The Emerging Socio-Political Constructs Of Identity, Interest And Security In Hosts State

Bootlegged Aliens: Immigration Politics on America's Northern Border

Bootlegged Aliens: Immigration Politics on America's Northern Border

Newly arrived refugees’ perception of health and physical activity in Denmark

Refugees health status after receiving asylum in their new country is often poor, both physical and mentally. Despite that, European countries rarely offer programmes specifically targeted health and health behaviour for newly arrived refugees. This study investigated newly arrived refugees’ perspective on health and in particularly physical activity (PA) upon granted asylum in Denmark. A transnational migration perspective provides the theoretical framework in this study. Semi-structured interviews with twenty newly arrived refugees provide data for the interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). Health manifests itself in varied ways to the newly arrived refugees and a broad and holistic perspective on health, was evident. Overall PA had important benefits, such as pain relief, better physical fitness, lose weight, a stronger body, to stay active, cater to mental health and in general something of interest to the newly arrived refugees. However, the informants experienced several barriers for doing PA and living healthy lives. Time, pain, low income, job insecurity, mental strain, discourse of health and PA (health promotion), external expectations and demands (municipality and government in Denmark), precariat living conditions and general worrying were amongst the most explicit barriers. Based on the results, we underline the importance of involving refugees in developing health promotion activities while considering of their unique experiences and transnational background.

Idioms of polymediated practices and the techno-social accomplishment of co-presence in transnational families

AbstractDrawing on data from a comparative ethnographic study on media usage in transnational families, this paper contributes to a reappraisal of polymedia theory. Two main theoretical assumptions are reconsidered. First, it is demonstrated why the equal availability assumption has to be revised in light of the complex interactions between the corporeal, communicative and social mobilities which together constitute transnational migration. Second, it is argued that the techno-socially accomplished co-presence in transnational families depends more on the creative appropriation and combination of different media channels and communication forms than on the choice between them. In order to empirically investigate the specific needs for, and forms of co-presence in families, the concept of ‘registers of presence’ is proposed. It allows us to understand in detail in what ways and in which constellations transnational families create togetherness with the help of communication technologies.

Social Construction of the Role of Women in a Global Capitalist System

This article begins with idea of ‘housewifization’ borrowed from Maria Mies, to problematize the genealogy of the social construction of ‘non-working’ housewives whose contributions to capitalist development are often invisibilized and rendered as ‘shadow-work’. Parallels have been drawn between the ‘other’ of capitalist structures and housewives, which legitimizes their exploitation. This essay illustrates how the taken for granted ‘natural’ binaries need to be deconstructed and trace its social construction; in order to strive towards a more egalitarian society. The construction of the role of the housewife is also embedded in the interplay between the patriarchal social structures and the economic structures; with male capital owners subordinating women as dispossessed housewives. The social construction of the dialectic of the ‘private’ and the ‘public’ space in the course of the changing labour relations is also crucial to the legitimization of this process. However, this essay also tries to deconstruct the ideas of public and private as well; focusing on instances where such distinction gets blurred. It strives to analyse the parallels between a housewife and a slave, in order to elucidate the deplorable condition of each. These dominant ideologies and patterns of exploitation bear similarities with the structures of colonialism, with women being seen as ‘the last colony’. Discussions have centred on how the transnational migration of care workers is fostered by rising employment of middle-class women. They have varying tasks and responsibilities, which often resemble the traditional role of the housewife, with many of them living inside or close to the house of the employing family. Hence, this essay attempts to analyse how ‘becoming a housewife’ has less to do with one’s gender, but more to do with a range of socially constructed ‘feminine’ activities that both men and women partake.

The transnational state and migration: Reach, flows and Policies

For long, state building has been addressed as the expression of an exclusive power over a portion of space and population. In recent years, the scholarship moved away from such a conception by regarding state building as an assemblage of multi-scalar public and private actors, beneath and beyond its territorial borders. This paper adds to this conversation by focusing on the way states transform as they engage with migration-induced transnational flows. This paper defines the transnational migration state as the set of policies, concepts and institutions designed to make the most of “profitable” migration-related flows (of people, money, ideas, etc.) while filtering out unwanted ones. Next to the national-level administrations in charge of the management of human, financial and immaterial flows, states seek to extend their reach by rescaling their engagement and relying on a range of private and civil society actors, including local authorities. This paper is a theoretical contribution to the debate on state reconfiguration in a world of globalised migration. It distinguishes and conceptualises two types of migration-related transnational migration states: emigration and immigration states tackling incoming and outgoing flows respectively.

The “Africanization” of an African Diaspora Household: Toyin Falola and the Idea of Diasporic Home-Making

This essay is an exercise in the interrogation of cultural globalization, and how the idea of transnationalism generates identity responses. The authors used the concept of home-making to examine how Toyin Falola deployed an aesthetic sensibility of African art as ideological dynamics for the personalization of his home situated in a suburb in Austin, Texas. The Africanization agenda that the Falola house operationalized points at the critical role that interior decoration can play in African diaspora homes. The project is crucial because it undermines the homogenizing reach of globalization that dislocates the sense of identity of an average African transnational migrant. In the Falola home, we confront an assemblage of aesthetic consciousness, dynamics of Africanity, and identity construction.