Migration and Diversity

Guest Editor’s Introduction for Special Dossier on Uncertain Mobilities

2024-04-24T12:30:38+00:00

Uncertain Mobilities as a special dossier for Migration and Diversity journal originates from the workshop with the same name I organized at the Department of Sociology, University of Siegen in October 2022. The second day of the workshop witnessed participation from early career scholars, including doctoral and postdoctoral researchers, who presented their ongoing research outcomes based on fieldwork conducted across the continents. The day-long discussion paved the way for several subsequent discussions that some of us also pushed further in individual academic publications. As a group of scholars invested in uncertainties and risks in migration research we observed growing interest among academic peers to engage further in this discourse. This special issue is a long-drawn outcome of this collective interest, which authors presenting at the workshop and outside have contributed.

The au pair as a mediating springboard: the shifting aspirations of Chinese youth in migration

2023-08-17T05:34:18+00:00

Since the 1980s, China has undergone a dramatic transformation through reforms and economic liberalization. Among these, the theme of migration has also developed. To complement this context, relying on an empirical study of young Chinese au pairs in Germany implemented in 2019, this paper aims to build a migration picture of au pairs’ youth transitions in a transnational context.

The Au Pair programme is a 1-year cultural exchange project experienced by youth between the ages of 18 and 27 who exchange simple household chores for accommodation in a host family in a foreign country with the purpose of learning language. This study reveals that prior to joining the program, participants held a positive perception of Germany and the program. However, their experience in Germany led to a complex evaluation of this journey. Participants had to re-evaluate their visions of the future and adjust their initial idealized notions of the international experience. The ever-changing aspirations that arise in a dynamic social environment drive the shift and reshaping of the migration process and promoting unexpected personal development. The Au Pair experience acts as a springboard, giving these young people a buffer to (re)orientates for the future.

Shifting Shadows of Uncertainty: The Utilitarian Migration and Intersectional Risks Among Moroccan Women Agricultural Workers in Spain During COVID-19

2024-01-06T03:29:43+00:00

This article examines the shift of uncertainty and risk to Moroccan female agricultural workers in Spain during the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically under the GECCO program. It argues that Spain’s agricultural policies enforce a precarious labor environment for these women, trading their well-being for global market competitiveness. The study delves into recruitment, working, and living conditions, utilizing theories of intersectionality, risk, migratory utilitarianism, and coloniality of power to highlight how the pandemic amplifies risks along existing lines of inequality, altering patterns of gendered mobility and immobility.

The paper concludes with a call for a profound reassessment of the European agricultural labor model towards fairness and justice. It pushes for a paradigm shift in migration studies to a critical decolonial view that honors the lived experiences of marginalized migrants. This perspective is essential for dismantling oppressive structures and broadening our understanding of migrant experiences.

In Transit: The Making of Urban Migrants in India

2024-02-28T21:58:12+00:00

The neo-liberal transformation of India was aided by the restructuring processes launched by the SAP in 1991 and brought the open market to the centre of economic imagination for new India. As the Indian economy opened up to the global financial capital systems and the private sector expanded, a large proportion of labour was relocated to the private, unorganized sector in India. This sector swallowed a majority of the migrant population that was flowing into the urban centers of India. The “middle class aspirations” that the migrants to the cities harbored materialize as a part of the larger neo-liberal aspiration of being upwardly mobile and living a ‘good life’. Based on an ethnographic study conducted in two phases, this paper accounts the narratives of men and women migrants who are employed in the various service sector units of two shopping malls in the city of New Delhi. This paper maps the diversity in the migrant experience by comparing the experiences of two distinct groups of migrants employed in these sectors in India- the indigenous migrants from North East India and the migrants from the rural hinterlands of North India. By comparing the narratives of two groups of migrants my paper tries to argue that in addition to education and credentials, classifications of caste, community and ethnicity play an important role in determining ‘life chances’ and employment opportunities for migrants in urban India.

Climate Change Induced Migration: A Gendered Conceptual Framework

2024-04-28T08:24:26+00:00

An emerging body of research explores the relationship between climate change and migration. Much of this literature has been gender-blind, but where gender has been considered, the literature suggests that migration responses have differed between men and women. Existing theoretical approaches to migration do not provide a conceptual framework for understanding these differences. In this paper, we ask how existing conceptual frameworks explaining migration might be combined and extended to specifically incorporated gendered climate impacts and responses, and we propose such an extended conceptual framework. Specifically, this paper does three things. First, it critically reviews existing theoretical frameworks on migration through a gender lens. Bringing insights from feminist economics and related empirical research to bear on existing frameworks explaining migration, we identify five pathways through which gender differences can influence climate-induced household decision-making about migration. Building on this, we propose a gender-aware conceptual framework to explain the gendered decision-making processes behind climate change-induced migration.

Irregular Migration from Türkiye to The United States

2024-02-18T17:19:26+00:00

The United States’ southern border has been witnessing a record increase in illegal entrance of Turkish citizens. According to the data provided by the United States border patrol, during the 2023 fiscal year, 15.542 Turkish citizens entered the country illegally through the United States-Mexican border. This number was under 100 per year over the last decade. Although it has not gotten much attention in media and academic circles, the rate of the increase in the number of Turkish citizens entering the United States illegally is alarming. While the main reasons of the high numbers of people migrating from Erdogan’s Türkiye include general insatiateness regarding economic and political problems, substandard working conditions and underdeveloped fundamental human rights protection system United States’ prestigious image in the world, strong economy and promising future can be counted among the main reasons that migrants prefer it as destination country. The surprising rise of Turkish citizens choosing Mexico as a transit country to enter the States is attributed to the transnational criminal organizations’ connections to Türkiye. The dire circumstances Turkish people experience and their endeavor to find a way to “get out of Türkiye” plays into the hands of cartels. The article points out this multilateral phenomenon and sets forth the push and pull factors, elaborating the involvement of transnational criminal organizations in Mexico.

Shaping Strict Migrant Policies through Housing Strategies in Denmark

2024-01-06T04:17:20+00:00

In Denmark, approximately one million people reside in public housing. This sector encompasses over half of all “immigrants and their descendants from non-Western countries “. Educational attainment and employment rates among public housing residents are notably lower than the na-tional average, and a significant proportion rely on transfer income (Landsbyggefonden, 2022). In 2020, the Housing and Planning Authority designated 25 public housing areas as 'disadvantaged residential areas.' According to the Ministry of Housing, these areas are beset by several chal-lenges, including higher unemployment rates, lower educational levels, increased criminal activity, a predominance of residents with only basic education, and substantially lower incomes compared to the broader population (Bolig- og Planstyrelsen, 2020).

The political strategy for addressing these disadvantaged areas has significantly changed in recent years. Since 2018, the Danish parliament, supported by a broad majority, has implemented the Parallel Society Agreement (PSA). Key elements of the PSA include mandatory childcare from age one for children in these areas, a prohibition on individuals receiving transfer incomes from relocating to the most severely affected 'ghetto areas,' language assessments for children beginning in kindergarten, and a cap of no more than 40% public housing in these areas. This is to be achieved by demolishing existing public housing and developing new private properties (PSA, 2018).

These regulations, unique to areas predominantly inhabited by ethnic minorities, prompt questions about whether this represents a singular approach to housing policy or a continuation of practices that have been evolving since the 1980s with the increase in labor and refugee migration.

This article will demonstrate, through policy document analysis and three case studies in Denmark, how politicians and the media construct a narrative that ethnic minorities in disadvantaged housing areas, often labeled as ghetto areas, lack the desire for cultural interaction and integration with the wider Danish society. This perception paves the way for legal and administrative practices that systematically discriminate against ethnic minorities, illustrating how housing policy is intricately connected to migration policy in Denmark.