Beyond the ‘Migrant Network’? Exploring Assistance Received in the Migration of Brazilians to Portugal and the Netherlands

This paper explores the tenability of three important critiques to the ‘migrant network’ approach in migration studies: (1) the narrow focus on kin and community members, which connect prospective migrants in origin countries with immigrants in the destination areas, failing to take due account of sources of assistance beyond the ‘migrant network’ like institutional or online sources; (2) that it is misleading to assume a general pattern in the role of migrant networks in migration, regardless of contexts of arrival or departure, including the scale and history of migration or the immigration regime; and (3) that ‘migrant networks’ are not equally relevant to all migrants, and that important differences may exist between labour migrants and other types of migrants like family migrants or students. Drawing on survey data on the migration of Brazilians to Portugal and the Netherlands we find support for these critiques but also reaffirm the relevance of ‘migrant networks’.     

Empowering youth sport and acculturation: Examining the hosts’ perspective in Greek adolescents

ObjectivesResearch on the role of sport as a context for the acculturation of young migrants has mainly focused on migrant populations. Considering that acculturation is a two-way process involving both the migrant and the host populations, research investigating the perspective of the hosts will enhance our understanding of the acculturation process. The purpose of the present study was to explore acculturation attitudes and perceptions of adolescents from the host population as a function of sport participation. Furthermore, for those adolescents participating in sport, the role of the sport motivational climate and its relation to acculturation attitudes was investigated.Design and MethodA cross-sectional quantitative design was adopted. Participants were 626 (316 girls) Greek, high school students (13.88 ± 1.01 years of age). Among them, 271 (92 girls) were athletes competing in individual and team sports. While all participants completed measures of acculturation attitudes, the athletes additionally completed measures of motivational climate, basic need satisfaction, and controlling coaching behavior.ResultsAthletes scored higher than non-athletes on attitudes towards multicultural contact. Analysis of structural models revealed that a motivational climate characterized by a mastery climate, supportive of the needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness, was positively linked to attitudes favoring migrants’ maintenance of their culture and development of interaction with the host culture, whereas a motivational climate characterized by a performance climate and controlling coaching behavior was negatively linked to such attitudes.ConclusionThese findings provide useful insights concerning the perspectives of the host population regarding migrants’ acculturation and the role motivational climate play in promoting integration.     

Immigrants’ Transnational Entrepreneurial Activities: the Case of Ghanaian Immigrants in Canada

Immigrant entrepreneurship comes in two forms: domestic and transnational entrepreneurship. Domestic immigrant entrepreneurs depend on the host society for business success while transnational immigrant entrepreneurs depend on the contacts and partners in their countries of origin and other countries. In recent years, immigrants’ entrepreneurial activity has moved from the domestic to the transnational level because of the simultaneous business activities that such entrepreneurs conduct between their home and host countries. Transnational entrepreneurship has become one of the pathways that immigrants use to settle and integrate into the host society’s labor market, and at the same time contribute to their countries of origin. From this perspective, this paper explores the causes, nature, and practices of transnational entrepreneurial activities of Ghanaian immigrants in Canada. Using in-depth interviews and focus groups, the study finds that transnational entrepreneurship has become an essential strategy among Ghanaian immigrant entrepreneurs due to the large and growing number of immigrant communities and demand for ethnic products and services that are not produced in Canada. The study also finds that transnational entrepreneurship has become an avenue for immigrants to connect and create ties with Ghana and contribute to its economic development.     

The ethics of return migration and education: transnational duties in migratory processes

ABSTRACT

This paper argues that most prominent normative theories on immigration neglect a critical dimension of the migratory phenomenon, a neglect that blinds them to important rights that, under some circumstances, immigrants ought to have as a matter of justice. Specifically, the paper argues that these theories fail to appreciate that the children of immigrant families, regardless of whether they were born in their parents’ country or in the host country, should benefit from educational rights addressing needs that are particular to their situation. These children may be forced to move between these two countries. This situation generates an obligation for both states (‘receiving’ and ‘sending’) to act jointly to provide educational opportunities so that these children are fully conversant with both cultures and in both languages. Put succinctly, then, we argue that since children of immigrant families lack any certainty of permanent residence in the host society owing to the threat of deportation and the precarity of their legal status, host and home societies bear the duty to offer an education that allows them to be functional in both societies.     

The Perception of Myanmar Development on its Return Migrants: Implications for Burmese Migrants in Thailand

Recent development in Myanmar has created stronger pull factors on emigrant Burmese workers to return to their motherland. Using a survey of 433 Burmese migrants in Thailand as a case study, this paper examines the impact of Myanmar’s development on the probability of the return of Burmese migrants to Myanmar from Thailand. Development factors such as more foreign direct investment, deregulation, and improvement of public services will encourage Burmese migrant workers to return home. Additionally, in terms of economic development, better job opportunities and political stability are also major pull factors for return migration. The main policy implication of these findings is that the chances that Burmese migrant workers will return home are high if investment opportunities followed by job availability and adequate wages can be found in Myanmar. Myanmar and Thailand should implement education programs set up by the Thai government and facilitate Burmese migrants’ children’s access to these programs as well as protecting migrants’ rights during the period of structural adjustment in Thailand.     

Multidimensional disadvantages and educational aspirations of marginalised migrant youth: insights from the Global South

ABSTRACT

This article provides a Global South perspective on marginalised migrant youth and higher educational aspirations, with a specific focus on South Africa. We use data from a case study in Johannesburg to illustrate how marginalised migrant youth experience particular forms of disadvantage in their endeavours to realise their educational aspirations. Yet, educational opportunities and the achievement of educational aspirations may enhance dimensions important for individual wellbeing. Through education, marginalised migrant youth become better positioned to pursue what they have reason to value, including escaping poverty in both their home and host countries. Using the human development and capability lens, the paper also presents what the disadvantages experienced by marginalised migrant youth may mean for human development. We argue that constrained educational aspirations can result in corrosive disadvantage and ultimately systemic poverty. We conclude the paper by highlighting how the capability approach (CA) could be used to inform social and educational policies in contexts of marginalisation.     

Sense of community among Muslims in the Brazil–Paraguay border: narratives of belonging and generational differences

ABSTRACT

The so-called ‘Triple Frontier’—the border between Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina—is the ‘host society’ of an important Muslim community, composed mainly of Lebanese immigrants and their descendants born in Brazil and Paraguay. In less than two decades, Shi’i and Sunni Arab Muslims created mosques, religious centres, a cemetery, and three schools. Mosques, schools, and religious centres are spaces for the production of a sense of community. The institutional discourse of these entities emphasises the connection between religion and community origin, considering Islam as part of ‘Arab culture’. Taking generational differences into account, this article aims to analyse the narratives of plural identity expressed in the meanings attributed to the immigrants’ self-identification as Muslims. Based on fieldwork in the South American border area, this work aims to shed light on the way in which immigrants and their descendants reinterpret their religious belonging, informed by the new experience of living in multi-religious societies.     

Examining Islamic Associations of Pakistani and Bangladeshi Immigrants in Greece

Abstract

Since the mid-1970s the territory of Greece has turned from an emigration to an immigration space. A considerable number among the thousands of immigrants that arrive every year in the country are of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin and of Muslim faith. Their Muslim background plays a significant role in the organisation of their communities. Islam is a strong factor when it comes to the development of their social life and in this sense it influences the process of immigrants' acculturation within the host society. The informal worship place (informal mosque) is the space where the faithful fulfil their religious duties, meet each other and spend much of their free time discussing and exchanging views on mundane and more serious matters. However, the majority of the informal mosques are related to various Islamic associations which hold their own views on religion, society and life. The Pakistani and the Bangladeshi Islamic associations in Greece fall into two broad categories: the missionary movements and groups and the organisations with a ‘political dimension’. An examination of the Islamic associations' discourse, activities and aims shows that the organisations of the first category promote a very conservative stance for their constituencies towards the host society, whereas those of the second category encourage the immigrants to integrate, while preserving, however, their ‘Islamic values’. Meanwhile, the efforts of the Greek state and society to integrate the Muslim immigrants with a long presence in the country lack in determination and effectiveness.     

Socio-culturally induced distress among migrant labourers in India: a qualitative inquiry

The present study has explored the experiences of distress among Indian migrant labourers with the help of qualitative method. The data were collected using a semi-structured interview schedule where 40 unskilled migrant labourers, 20 males and 20 females participated in the study. The obtained data were analysed using constructivist grounded theory. Findings have given an insight of the dialects (idioms of distress) used by migrants to express their distress. Further, findings divulged that the essence of the migrant labourers’ distress is largely rooted in their culturally defined roles, prevailing socio-cultural norms, apathy of legal and structural system to address their needs and to protect their rights in the host culture (place of migration). The findings draw our attention to design health intervention programmes for migrant and immigrant communities, in India as well as across the world, that amalgamate the elements of collectivistic culture in order to ensure the complete social, psychological, and physical wellbeing of above said communities.     

‘New Rules for Labour Immigration’: Delving into the 2008 Swedish Reform of Labour Migration and Its Effects on Migrants’ Well-Being

I have investigated the nature of the transformation triggered by the reform of labour mobility entitled ‘New Rules for Labour Immigration’, introduced in Sweden in 2008, and its impact on migrants’ well-being. By applying the methodology of the ‘What’s the problem represented to be?’ approach (Bacchi 2009), I show that the problem at which the reform was aimed is represented as a shortage of skills and labour. I argue that such a representation and the silences it invokes are underpinned by the paradigms of managed migration and of neoliberalism, thus marking a discontinuity in the political rhetoric of universalism which had been endorsed by Sweden since the beginning of the 1970s. I contend that such a formulation of the problem assumes and entails a conceptualisation of migrants as factors of production. This formulation stands in sharp opposition to the one advanced by the Human Development and Capability Approach to migration (UNDP 2009) which recognises migrants as human beings, endowed with capabilities, aspirations, and agency. Such reification of migrants implies that the reform regulates the stay of immigrants in Sweden with the purpose of maximising their contribution to Swedish economic growth, thus putting them in a vulnerable position which is likely to reduce their capability for work (Bonvin 2009).     

What’s Unique About Immigrant Protest?

Increasingly, western democratic countries are bearing witness to immigrant protest, that is, protest by immigrants who are dissatisfied with their status in the host community. In protesting, the immigrants object to the ways in which various laws and practices have proved to be obstacles to their full integration. Because immigrants, upon entering, have consented to abide by the rules and regulations of the host state, it might be thought that these forms of civil disobedience are, effectively, contract violations. Immigrants might therefore be thought to have a particularly stringent duty to abide by the laws of their host state. This paper evaluates whether immigrants are indeed under a special duty to abide by the laws of their host state. First, it suggests that it is useful — although incomplete — to apply the device of the ‘contract’ to understanding the relationship between new immigrants and the host community. Second, it argues that there are limits to what can be demanded of and by immigrants as well as of and by host communities. It then turns to offering principles that help to evaluate the motivations of immigrant protestors, as well as that help guide their actions, when they believe that the community they have joined is treating them unjustly. These principles suggest that immigrant protest actions are subject to the restriction that they do not undermine the possibility of an inclusive democratic community.     

Education of Foreign Children in Japan: Local Versus National Initiatives

Immigration has long been a controversial subject in Japan, with the country’s historic aversion to foreign populations well noted. This article seeks to discuss recent developments in Japanese immigration policy, looking specifically at how both local governments and the national government address education issues for foreign children. Examining the specific case of Kawasaki City’s foreign student educational policies in detail, this article compares local initiatives to national policy developments, arguing that Kawasaki has been a pioneer in many cases and that the national government has ultimately adopted similar resolutions. The national government, for its part, has been slow to take up issues addressing immigrants, trailing more progressive cities like Kawasaki, but has slowly been making efforts to improve foreign student education. In the broader sense, this article argues two additional points: that largely ethnically homogenous countries like Japan are no longer able to completely ignore their immigrant populations and that highly centralized states are moving slowly toward empowering their local governments.     

Bad gifts,community standards,and the disciplining of Theravāda monks

ABSTRACT

The act of giving is among the most fundamental acts within the Buddhist world, particularly in the Theravāda communities of Southeast Asia. In many of these communities, lay followers give food and other dāna (merit-making gifts), providing monastics with the ‘requisites’ that they need to survive. Yet there is relatively little discussion within Buddhist or scholarly communities about what should be given, with formulaic lists representing the majority of discussions about these gifts. However, sometimes, the gifts given to monastics are not always appropriate, even bad. What to do in those cases is not always clear. In this article, I explore the ways in which monks in Thailand and Southwest China think about gifts that are not good. What becomes clear is that, despite the prevailing view that discipline is a universal process based on the vinaya (disciplinary code of Buddhism), monks have different views about what constitutes a ‘bad gift’ and what to do about it. I argue that paying attention to bad gifts allows us to see that lay communities have significant voice—although this is often implicit rather than explicit—about what constitutes ‘proper’ monastic behavior.     

Manifesting shame in a Philippine migrant village

In this article, I examine how internal migrants in a Philippine village negotiate shame. Specifically, I analyse how shame is embodied and performed by internal migrants in “Little Italy”, a village in the Philippines populated by overseas Filipino workers (OFW), who largely work in Italy, and their families who remain resident in the village. Little Italy's internal migrants are other Philippine nationals who have moved to the village for employment opportunities within OFW households. These intersecting flows of international and internal migration render Little Italy a ‘migrant village’. I interrogate internal migrants' shame in two ways: first, as underpinning the subservience that is necessary for negotiating their nominal membership of the village; and second, in contesting and reframing Filipino stereotypes in relation to local social standing and place-based meanings of paid domestic work. I argue that as much as shame has been viewed as an element of social cohesion in the Philippines, its analysis is also a critical tool for troubling current understandings of social positions in migrant spaces such as Little Italy. My findings contribute to scholarship on migration and emotion by, first, demonstrating how emotion in general, and shame in particular, flows between international and internal migrations; and second, by underscoring the role of emotion in creating new dimensions of shame in spaces of migration.     

The Transformative Effects of Stigma: Coping Strategies as Meaning‐Making Efforts for Immigrants Living in Greece

The present article examines the strategies that immigrants living in Greece use to cope with stigma that arises in their interaction with both Greek society and their communities of origin. Drawing on interviews and focus groups conducted with immigrants from a variety of countries, a dialogical analysis illuminates the ways in which immigrants actively negotiate stigmatizing perspectives and transform themselves. Strategies include the deployment of social categories such as those of ‘human being’ and ‘crazy’ person, and concepts such as those of ‘lawfulness’ and ‘fate’. These were used to construct meanings of equality and inclusion into society, to deny responsibility for stigma and to discredit stigma as absurd. They enabled participants to see themselves as proud, equal, self‐dependent individuals who plan actions for social change. The article suggests that coping with stigma should not only be understood in terms of stress regulation, leading to positive or negative outcomes, as suggested by current literature, but as a meaning‐making effort, through which individuals transform the way they see themselves and act within their world. A meaning‐making approach moves away from individualistic, outcome‐oriented explanations to a socially situated perspective on stigma that studies the processes through which social meanings are subjectively perceived as stigmatizing and are used to challenge stigma. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

“I didn’t understand their system,and I didn’t know what to do”: Migrant Parents’ Experiences of Mandated Therapy for Their Children

In this phenomenological study, we explored the experiences of migrant parents whose children received mandated therapy in Southern California. Migrants are people who move to a host country either voluntarily as immigrants or involuntarily as refugees. Mandated therapy means that the school or court system required that their children receive services from a mental health provider. Parents often participated by having to take parenting classes and join in some sessions with their children; however, the children were the identified clients. We conducted eight, in-depth interviews with migrant parents. We employed Giorgi and Giorgi’s (Qualitative research in psychology: expanding perspectives in methodology and design. American Psychological Association, Washington, 2003; Qualitative psychology: a practical guide to research methods. Sage, London, 2008) phenomenological psychological research approach to analyze data. Analysis revealed four constituents, which are overarching themes related to the essential structure of the shared phenomenon: (a) migrant parents encountered discrimination and devaluation; (b) migrant parents experienced increased exposure to US culture and the mental health system, which accelerated acculturation; (c) the degree of cultural sensitivity exhibited by providers both positively and negatively influenced participants’ attitudes and perceptions toward mental health services; and (d) migrant parents used their mandated therapy experiences as opportunities to examine their family relationships and to learn new skills and concepts.     

Return Imaginaries and Political Climate: Comparing Thinking About Return Mobilities Among Pakistani Origin Migrants and Descendants in Norway and the UK

The political climate on immigration and diversity in various European societies has previously been analysed in relation to media representations, policy regimes and public opinion. This paper focuses more narrowly on how political climates affect migrant and post-migrant generations, as inhabitants of these European societies. We focus on the impact of ambivalence resulting from perceived lack of recognition as full citizens in European societies among migrants and their descendants. Ambivalence in relation to experiences of particular traits of the political climate is further connected with ideas about mobility—how migrants and descendants may think about return migration—what we discuss in terms of ‘return imaginaries’. Culture, ideology and representations are seen as significant for contemporary politics, not only with expressive but also with formative roles. With this perspective, the analysis explores three politically heated areas of debate: about immigration control, about social cohesion and integration agendas and about terrorist attacks. These three areas were inductively selected, drawing on analysis of qualitative data collected among Pakistani origin migrants and descendants in Norway and the UK. The two countries of residence are purposefully chosen because they in different ways reflect political climates affected by the rise of xenophobia and Islamophobia in Europe.     

Does Generalized (Dis)Trust Travel? Examining the Impact of Cultural Heritage and Destination‐Country Environment on Trust of Immigrants

At least two contrasting perspectives on the roots of generalized trust exist: The cultural perspective emphasizing how trust is a stable trait passed on from one generation to the next through parental socialization, and the experiential perspective, which stresses that trust is subject to change with what we experience in the environment in which we live. Analyzing trust of immigrants is an effective way to contrast the two perspectives, as the cultural perspective predicts that immigrants' level of trust will continue to reflect the level of trust of their home country, whereas the experiential perspective predicts that trust of immigrants will change according to the environment of the destination country. This article examines how first‐generation immigrants from three low‐trust countries of origin (Turkey, Poland, and Italy) are affected by migrating to high‐trust countries in Northern Europe, which hold qualities conducive to trust. In contrast to earlier studies examining trust of immigrants, I build on one data set containing data on both migrants and nonmigrants from the same country of origin as well as on a wide range of relevant covariates of trust. Using the method of matching, the results of the analysis lend most support to the experiential perspective on trust as the destination‐country context has a massive impact on trust of immigrants, who display significantly higher levels of trust than comparable respondents in their country of origin. The results are robust to limiting the destination‐country context to only one country (Germany) and comparing migrants and nonmigrants responding in the same language.     

What Makes a Satisfied Immigrant? Host-Country Characteristics and Immigrants’ Life Satisfaction in Eighteen European Countries

Based on the data from six waves of the European Social Survey collected from 18 European countries between 2002 and 2012, we aimed at explaining the variation in immigrants’ life satisfaction across countries, by focusing on host countries’ characteristics. By adopting the multi-level analysis, we examined the national-level traits from three aspects: namely, the climate of immigrant reception, the extent of public goods provision and the level of economic inequality. Our findings suggest that immigrants are likely to be more satisfied in countries that offer more welcoming social settings. However, this association is significant only when the social setting is measured by attitudes of the native-born towards immigrants, rather than by legal immigration regulations and policies. When taking into account the extent to which host country is able to provide public goods, country’s wealth levels seems not to matter for immigrants’ life satisfaction, whereas countries’ levels of human development is associated with an increase in immigrants’ life satisfaction albeit only at the 10% significance level. The role of economic inequality varies with immigrants’ own socio-economic statuses. On average, immigrants are less satisfied with their lives in host countries with higher levels of economic inequality. However, highly educated immigrants tend not to perceive economic inequality of the country as an obstacle of their satisfaction.