Presently, there is no agreed upon data‐driven approach for identifying the geographic boundaries of migration networks that international migration systems are ultimately manifested in. Drawing from ...research on community detection methods, we introduce and apply the Information Theoretic Community Detection Algorithm for identifying and studying the geographic boundaries of migration networks. Using a new set of estimates of country‐to‐country migration flows every 5 years from 1990 to 1995 to 2010–2015, we trace the form and evolution of international migration networks over the past 25 years. Consistent with the concept of dynamic stability, we show that the number, size and internal country compositions of international migration networks have been remarkably stable over time; however, we also document many short‐term fluctuations. We conclude by reflecting on the spirit of our work in this paper, which is to promote consensus around tools and best practices for identifying and studying international migration networks.
Strangers No Moreis the first book to compare immigrant integration across key Western countries. Focusing on low-status newcomers and their children, it examines how they are making their way in ...four critical European countries-France, Germany, Great Britain, and the Netherlands-and, across the Atlantic, in the United States and Canada. This systematic, data-rich comparison reveals their progress and the barriers they face in an array of institutions-from labor markets and neighborhoods to educational and political systems-and considers the controversial questions of religion, race, identity, and intermarriage.
Richard Alba and Nancy Foner shed new light on questions at the heart of concerns about immigration. They analyze why immigrant religion is a more significant divide in Western Europe than in the United States, where race is a more severe obstacle. They look at why, despite fears in Europe about the rise of immigrant ghettoes, residential segregation is much less of a problem for immigrant minorities there than in the United States. They explore why everywhere, growing economic inequality and the proliferation of precarious, low-wage jobs pose dilemmas for the second generation. They also evaluate perspectives often proposed to explain the success of immigrant integration in certain countries, including nationally specific models, the political economy, and the histories of Canada and the United States as settler societies.
Strangers No Moredelves into issues of pivotal importance for the present and future of Western societies, where immigrants and their children form ever-larger shares of the population.
A burgeoning literature is currently exploring the rise of a new migratory profile: migrants engaged in Transnational Entrepreneurship (TE). Roughly speaking TE has been described as a ‘social realm ...of immigrants operating in complex, cross-national domains, with dual cultural, institutional, and economic features that facilitate and require various entrepreneurial strategies’ (Drori, Honig, and Wright 2009, 1). Formulated in the simplest way, Transnational Entrepreneurs (TEs) are immigrants who are engaged in border crossing business activities involving their country of origin and destination (Portes, Guarnizo, and Haller 2002; Saxenian 2002; Elo and Freiling 2015).
Our review starts by considering the regional development of East and Southeast Asia. We then address major trends related to international migration within the region. First, we focus on labor ...migration, which has been a dominant type of migration in the region in the last four decades. We highlight consequences such as development in the destination area, remittances, and children who are left behind. Second, we highlight recent developments in research related to migrant domestic helpers. In this review, we argue that most studies about migrants in East and Southeast Asia are descriptive in nature, because limited data are available for detailed analysis. Consequently, there has been little opportunity or effort to theorize the migration patterns in the region. Our review suggests the need to move beyond case studies and descriptive reports and to step up efforts to make theoretical contributions to international migration in East and Southeast Asia.
During China's Cultural Revolution, Chairman Mao Zedong's "rustication program" resettled 17 million urban youths, known as "sent downs," to the countryside for manual labor and socialist ...reeducation. This book, the most comprehensive study of the program to be published in either English or Chinese to date, examines the mechanisms and dynamics of state craft in China, from the rustication program's inception in 1968 to its official termination in 1980 and actual completion in the 1990s. Rustication, in the ideology of Mao's peasant-based revolution, formed a critical component of the Cultural Revolution's larger attack on bureaucrats, capitalists, the intelligentsia, and "degenerative" urban life. This book assesses the program's origins, development, organization, implementation, performance, and public administrative consequences. It was the defining experience for many Chinese born between 1949 and 1962, and many of China's contemporary leaders went through the rustication program. The author explains the lasting impact of the rustication program on China's contemporary administrative culture, for example, showing how and why bureaucracy persisted and even grew stronger during the wrenching chaos of the Cultural Revolution. She also focuses on the special difficulties female sent-downs faced in terms of work, pressures to marry local peasants, and sexual harassment, predation, and violence. The author's parents were both sent downs, and she was able to interview over fifty former sent downs from around the country, something never previously accomplished.China's Sent-Down Generationdemonstrates the rustication program's profound long-term consequences for China's bureaucracy, for the spread of corruption, and for the families traumatized by this authoritarian social experiment. The book will appeal to academics, graduate and undergraduate students in public administration and China studies programs, and individuals who are interested in China's Cultural Revolution era.
When is Migration Voluntary? Ottonelli, Valeria; Torresi, Tiziana
The International migration review,
December 2013, Volume:
47, Issue:
4
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
In this paper we critically evaluate the role that the notion of voluntariness plays in the normative theory of migration. We argue that the notion is currently underdefined and works to undermine ...migrants' claims to see their migratory projects properly recognized. We argue that it is nevertheless important to be able to define when migration can be said to be voluntary if we are to theorize appropriate normative and policy responses to migrants' claims. We propose therefore a series of sufficient and necessary conditions to the definition of voluntary migration. We use the case of temporary migration to illustrate our argument.
Using georeferenced data to map the dramatic flood that hit Bangladesh in August–September 2014, we evaluate how rural households coped with this natural shock. Employing survey data on panel ...households for the period before and after the shock, we estimate a difference-in-difference model with fixed effects of the impact of flooding on income, expenditure, nutrition, and migration outcomes along the wealth distribution. Our results show that the most affected households experienced significant drops in income and expenditure and an increase in the probability of migrating as a coping strategy to compensate for this loss. Internal migration increased by 7 percentage points for low-wealth households, while international migration increased by 3 percentage points for high-wealth households. Remittances received by poorer households from established international migrants represented significant monetary support after the shock, amounting to approximately 40% of the decline in income from self-employment in farm activities and half the decline in food expenditure.
This article discusses major methodological challenges in the comparative study of the drivers of international mobility (between different times and places) when using household surveys. Noting the ...difference between the study of coterminous and stage-specific drivers of migration, I highlight the problems of obtaining data with adequate representation across periods and geographies, which are pressing for all social science research but especially for cross-local comparative endeavors. I discuss the advantages and drawbacks of a broad constellation of prospective and retrospective approaches, paying particular attention to the migration ethnosurvey. After briefly describing the general commonalities and differences of ethnosurvey approaches adopted around the world, I suggest how post hoc case selection and other adjustments can help to ameliorate retrospective biases and comparability problems. I conclude with ideas on a priori case selection that can help to bolster comparative migration studies.
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