Migration Theories Flashcards
Aspirations-Capabilties Model
A migration aspiration is “conviction that migration is preferable to non-migration, it can vary in degree between choice and non-choice” [Cap]ability is the individuals possibilities to do so(economically, socially, physically). (Carling)
“With development, both capabilities and aspiration to migrate can increase fast, which explains that paradox that rapid development in low and lower middle income societies often coincides with increasing migration” “As long as aspiration grow faster than livelihood opportunities in origin communities, out-migration is likely to continue or even increase”
Voluntary non-migrants
People who stay because they believe that non-migration is preferable
[Revisiting Aspiration and Ability in International Migration by Carling and Schewel 2018]
Globalization
“The increased access to the world (with media and technologies), creates the feeling that ‘one is with the world’”. People know that Western countries are not paradises, still being in movement is the only way to be in an advantage position. (AdboulMadiq)
World has become more globalized but not more migratory. Simply, migration flows have changed: more countries of origin, less countries of destination (Europe has switched-Western bias); longest routes, technologies help migraiton but not augoment them. (Czaika & De Hass)
The New Economics of (Labor) Migration. (NELM)
” New Economics of Labor Migration (NELM) views migration as a group or family based decision which allows families from an origin community to diversify their income and guarantee [income] stability by sending a member of a family to a new location. This can be both internal or international, and rural → urban. It minimizes economic risk for a family
Sense of being and belonging
Actual social relations and practices that invididuals engage in even if they don’t identify with any label or cultural politics vs. concrete practices that signal or enact an identity, which demonstrates a conscious connection to a particular group (sense of identity) (Levitt)
What theory explain why people may migrate even if there isn’t a stark difference in income/wages between sending and receiving countries.
NELM
Infrastructures
Myriad of infrastrcutures daily support the movements of people (e.g. roads, aurports). However, infrastructures are not just tools; they have social and political meanining and international migration is shaped by (and shapes) them. (Wiquiang Lin) Infrastructural approach: not focused on why, from and to where people move, but how. Essential infrastructures such as visas, passports, residence permits, etc. create a spectrum of categories that is usually asymmetrical and discriminatory. Borders are to be considered political infrasctructures, too. They are not natural or neutral even if we (Western people) often give them for granted. (AbdouMadiq) Migrayion industry (Carling &Collins)
Diaspora
A form of transnational community of people displaced or dispersed by force: to 2 or more foreign regions, remaining of a collective memory or myth, a strong ethnic group consciousness and a sence of empathy and solidarity.
Name at least shortcoming of the Push/Pull Model
1) Too linear. (A to B movement)
2) Not comprehensive.
3) Doesn’t explain why all people move outside of forced or involuntary migration
4) Doesn’t account for the involuntary immobile/voluntarily immobile
5) Focuses on North-South Migration and international migration.
6) View the world as set of cause and effects
What is Segmentation in Dual Labor Market Theory? And what are examples in the two segments?
Division in types of labor in “modern capitalist economies”. They are divided into Primary and Secondary job types”
Primary: Finance, research, management → requires education and “membership” in society
Secondary: Precarious jobs(low skilled) that have low status eg. farm work, cleaning, dishwasher. Labeled as bad or migrant work by high society.
Push Pull Model
This model identifies various economic factors which are assumed to to push people out of place of origin and pull them into destination places
What is Neoclassical Migration Theory?
What is its main focus?
When did it first arrise?
“Neoclassical theory sees migration primarily as a function of of geographical differences”
Focus on labor and wage differentials between two locations. Based on individual decision to maximize income. (Massey et al)
Beginning of 20th century
What is the myth of the immobile peasant?
What migration theory does it critique?
Implicit assumption that pre-modern societies consisted of isolated, stable, homogenous and egalitarian peasant communities, in which migration was exceptional”
World Systems Theory
What are Multilayered Migration Hierarchies?
Migrants from middle-income countries move to high income countries, but middle income countries attract migrants from poorer countries
Transnationalism
New approach established in the 90s that allowed analysis of migration to go “beyond looking at migrants within either ‘sending’ and ‘receiving’ countries”. Abandoned the linear conception of migration. (Carling & Collins)
Transnationalism from below: activities that are the result of grass-roots initiatives by immigrants and their home country counterparts.
Transnationalism from above: activities conducted by powerful institutional actors, such as multinational corporations and states.
An approach more than a theory. It’s a way of observing a previously existing phenomenon. It’s not completely new, but it has been improved by globalization and helps consider the fluid society we live in and critique the concept of linear migration and integration/association as entering in the modern society and getting rid of old traditions (North American context).
A methodology needed that moves beyond the binaries homeland/new land, citizen/non-citizen etc. and ethnography is particular suited for studying the social field. (Levitt)
Migration Transition Theory
It’s process during the development of a country in which it goes from being net emmigration to net immigration.
As countries develop, emigration increases rapidly while immigration slowly also slowly increases as well. Eventually the emigration plateaus and then decreases while immigration starts to increase.
Pre development countries: low emigration, low immigration
Developing countries: Highest rate of emigration, and increased immigration in fact.
Developed countries/late transitional: Net immigration countries.
“The underlying idea is that improvement of infrastructure, income, education, and information increase peoples capabilities and aspirations to migrate” Age of migration (293) Tie in with aspirations-capabilities model: “As infrastructure, education, and living standars have improved in most countries in the world., more people than ever have the capabiltiies to migrate.” (Czaika, de Haas 2014. p 315)
Migration Transition Theory
It’s process during the development of a country in which it goes from being net emmigration to net immigration.
As countries develop, emigration increases rapidly while immigration slowly also slowly increases as well. Eventually the emigration plateaus and then decreases while immigration starts to increase.
Pre development countries: low emigration, low immigration
Developing countries: Highest rate of emigration, and increased immigration in fact.
Developed countries/late transitional: Net immigration countries.
How do migration and class intersecate?
Western bias leads also democratic states to shape their population according to "middle-class ideals", forcing people to demonstrate their status and to meet irrealistic income requirements (e.g. for family reunifications) Class (upper mobility) doesn't forcibly lead to a weaker identification with one's ethnic-minority background. Sometimes they become more at ease embracing their identity. (Bonjour & Chauvin) Importance of feminist approaches (1990s): they have emphasized the "constructedness of identities and subjectivities, dismissing the notion of the migrant as simply a calculating autonomus self". The migrant is an "on-going process of subjective becoming" (Carling & Collins)
What micro-theory can we relate to Migration Transition Theory?
Aspirations and Capabilities
“The underlying idea is that improvement of infrastructure, income, education, and information increase peoples capabilities and aspirations to migrate” Age of migration (293) Tie in with aspirations-capabilities model: “As infrastructure, education, and living standards have improved in most countries in the world., more people than ever have the capabilities to migrate.” (Czaika, de Haas 2014. p 315)
