Migration Studies Commons^™

Urban Informality And Migrant Entrepreneurship In Southern African Cities: 10–11 February 2014, Cape Town, South Africa, Jonathan Crush

International Migration Research Centre

• The informal sector is the big story in African cities. To respond effectively, data collection and monitoring tools need dramatic improvement.
• Informal trading largely happens outside official city planning. This absence of recognition may be unconscious but is not benign.
• Ethnic networking and business positioning are of crucial importance for migrant-run small businesses.
• Those working in the informal sector in South Africa generally operate under hostile conditions.
• Volumes of trade and duties paid by cross-border traders show that this sector is significant to SADC governments.
• There is a policy contradiction between the government’s promotion of business tourism and the increasingly …

No. 65: Brain Drain And Regain: The Migration Behaviour Of South African Medical Professionals, Jonathan Crush, Abel Chikanda, Ivy Bourgeault, Ronald Labonté, Gail Tomblin Murphy

Southern African Migration Programme

Since the end of apartheid, South Africa has experienced a significant outflow of health professionals. The out-migration of health professionals from the country is part of a broader global trend of health professional migration from the Global South to the Global North. In the health sector, this “brain drain” has led to a significant decline in the quality of care in affected countries. The costs of health professional migration for countries of origin are usually measured in terms of lost investment in training and the gaps in medical care left by their departure. One recent study, for example, estimated that …

No. 67: Migrant Entrepreneurship, Collective Violence And Xenophobia In South Africa, Jonathan Crush, Sujata Ramachandran

Southern African Migration Programme

The remarkable growth of informal migrant entrepreneurship in South Africa since 1990 would have been much lauded had it not been for the striking detail that the actors in question are seen as “foreigners” or “outsiders”. As such, they are uniformly viewed as undesirable and disadvantaging poor South African citizens. The growing presence of migrants in the informal sector has created various tensions in South Africa, including in government circles, ignoring the fact that in the free market economy of South Africa, immigrants and refugees, like citizens and commercial enterprises, would otherwise enjoy the freedom to establish, operate and expand …

No. 66: Xenophobic Violence In South Africa: Denialism, Minimalism, Realism, Jonathan Crush, Sujata Ramachandran

Southern African Migration Programme

Violent xenophobia has become a regular feature of South African life. Everyday animosity frequently spills over into violence against individual migrants and refugees and their economic enterprises. Some of these incidents reach the scrutiny of the media and officialdom, but most remain invisible and unremarked. The fact that most of the violence occurs in marginal urban locations of informal settlements, townships and inner-city suburbs in South Africa has prompted intense debate over the nomenclature and identification of the underlying causes. Explanations for the large-scale anti-migrant violence that swept the country in May 2008, and continues in more isolated and sporadic …

Migrant Entrepreneurship, Collective Violence And Xenophobia In South Africa (Migration Policy Series No. 67), Jonathan Crush, Sujata Ramachandran

International Migration Research Centre

The remarkable growth of informal migrant entrepreneurship in South Africa since 1990 would have been much lauded had it not been for the striking detail that the actors in question are seen as “foreigners” or “outsiders”. As such, they are uniformly viewed as undesirable and disadvantaging poor South African citizens. The growing presence of migrants in the informal sector has created various tensions in South Africa, including in government circles, ignoring the fact that in the free market economy of South Africa, immigrants and refugees, like citizens and commercial enterprises, would otherwise enjoy the freedom to establish, operate and expand …

Brain Drain And Regain: The Migration Behaviour Of South African Medical Professionals (Migration Policy Series No. 65), Jonathan Crush, Abel Chikanda, Ivy Bourgeault, Ronald Labonté, Gail Tomblin Murphy

International Migration Research Centre

Since the end of apartheid, South Africa has experienced a significant outflow of health professionals. The out-migration of health professionals from the country is part of a broader global trend of health professional migration from the Global South to the Global North. In the health sector, this “brain drain” has led to a significant decline in the quality of care in affected countries. The costs of health professional migration for countries of origin are usually measured in terms of lost investment in training and the gaps in medical care left by their departure. One recent study, for example, estimated that …

"How Did They Do It? A Structural Analysis Of Portuguese American Political Incorporation In Rhode Island (1937-2012).", Dulce Soares Scott, Marie R. Fraley

Elected and Appointed Officials Project

No abstract provided.

Between Ghurba And Umma: Mapping Sudanese Muslim Moralities Across National And Islamic Space, Anita H. Fabos

Faculty Works

“Muhammad¹” is a thoughtful and dedicated youth worker for the local council of a small coastal town in the United Kingdom, where he has been an especially important role model for young refugees from the Horn of Africa, including Sudan and Somalia. Muhammad, a member of Sudan’s dominant Muslim Arab professional class, claimed asylum in the United Kingdom in 1993 along with many other Sudanese.² After establishing himself professionally, Muhammad applied to the UK Home Office for his wife and four children back in Sudan to join him in the United Kingdom in the late 1990s. Over …

Snapshots From The Margins: Transgressive Cosmopolitanisms In Europe, Feyzi Baban, Kim Rygiel

Political Science Faculty Publications

Right-wing parties and governments in Europe have recently expressed greater hostility towards cultural pluralism, at times officially denunciating multiculturalism, and calling for the closure of borders and denial of rights to non-European nationals. Within this context, this article argues for rethinking Europe through radically transgressive and transnational understandings of cosmopolitanism as articulated by growing transnational populations within Europe such as immigrants, refugees, and irregular migrants. Transgressive forms of cosmopolitanism disrupt European notions of borders and identities in ways that challenge both liberal multiculturalism and assimilationist positions. This article explores the limits of traditional cosmopolitan thinking while offering a vision of …

Perceptions Of Immigrant Criminality: Crime And Social Boundaries, Deenesh Sohoni, Tracy W. P. Sohoni

Arts & Sciences Articles

Researchers studying the relationship between immigration and crime frequently note the discrepancy between actual rates and public perceptions of criminal behavior by immigrants. Analyzing staff‐ and reader‐generated texts in a local newspaper, we find that this connection is maintained through a conflation of key terms, assumptions of the legal status of immigrants, and a focus on high‐profile criminal acts. We argue that the discourse of immigrant criminality has been critical in constructing social boundaries used in recent immigration legislation. Our analysis helps explain why current scholarly findings on immigration and crime have had little influence in changing public opinion.

Pro-And-Anti Immigration Activities In Iowa's 4th Congressional Districts: A Community Capitals Framework Perspective, Anne Junod

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The foreign-born immigrant population in Iowa is increasing. Across Iowa’s 4th Congressional District, communities that have never had statistically significant populations of non-Anglos have in recent decades experienced dramatic influxes of predominantly Latino immigrants. Today, Latinos comprise upwards of 25 percent of the population of some counties and well over 35 percent of the population of many towns. At the same time, many other communities in Iowa’s 4th Congressional District remain almost exclusively white. How are communities responding? This research centers on the statements and activities of individual and group actors representing various market, state, and civil society sectors, examining …

Reversing The Flood Of Forced Displacement: Shedding Light On Important Determinants Of Return Migration, Prakash Adhikari Ph.D., Wendy L. Hansen Ph.D.

Himalayan Research Papers Archive

Most current research on forced migration focuses on explaining patterns of displacement during armed conflicts and the role that social networks play in pulling people away from conflict torn areas. But what happens to displaced persons after a conflict ends? While many of these individuals are able to resettle in the place to which they fled during conflict, some individuals return to their places of origin while others remain in limbo. This research seeks to better understand behavior after flight. Using a rational choice framework, we theorize that people are strategic in their calculations of the costs and benefits of …

Remittances From Puerto Rico: Unsuspected Transnational Locality In Times Of Crisis, Sheila I. Velez Martinez

Articles

This paper looks at immigrant remittances from Puerto Rico as a tool to understand how immigrant communities have faced and engaged the economic crisis. For example, from the data reviewed, it stems that immigrant remittances sent from Puerto Rico do not follow the same patterns as remittances sent from the United States and Europe inasmuch as they seem less affected by the global financial crisis and local unemployment rates. The research conducted also tends to indicate that money transfers from Puerto Rico might allow us to grasp the growing economic transnational relationships that are being maintained by varied immigrant communities …

Issue 04: Inventory Of Services Provided To Immigrants And Refugees In The Waterloo Region, J. Fernando Reyes, Margaret Walton-Roberts, Jenna Hennebry

International Migration Research Centre

In this issue of Policy Points we have provided an inventory and assessment of immigrant services providers currently delivered in the Waterloo Region. Local communities play an important role in the settlement of newcomers and their integration into society. Waterloo Region has the fifth-highest immigrant rate in Canada (Statistics Canada, 2007), and in 2009 the Kitchener Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) was 11th highest nationally in terms of the number of immigrants arriving, and the fourth-highest in Ontario (Citizenship and Immigration Canada, 2011). Furthermore, Waterloo Region is expected to have a significant increase in the immigrant population over the next decades …

The Queries To Google Search As Predictors Of Migration Flows From Latin America To Spain, Dawid Wladyka

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Recently, the development of global network and ITC technology provided new opportunities to improve the estimations and predictability of migration flows. The activity of users of e-mail and other web-based services was compared in time and space in order to track international human mobility. At the same time, the IP based geolocation linked to Google Search proved to be efficient in geographically tracking the outbreaks of several illnesses, and also in predicting changes in economic indicators and travel patterns. This research draws from both experiences. It compares the popularity of migration-to-Spain related queries introduced to Google Search in Argentina, Colombia …

Inserting Migrants Into The Global Social Protection Floor, Marie-Hélène Ratel, Gabriel Williams, Keegan Williams

International Migration Research Centre

• The social protection floor (SPF) is a global initiative led by the International Labour Organization (ILO) to provide social security to vulnerable groups.
• The SPF neglects the rapidly growing population of international migrants and focusses principally on citizens from lower-income countries.
• The SPF requires a method to evaluate the social protection gap that exists between citizens and non-citizens in countries that receive migrants in order to improve protections for all.
• The SPF Advisory Group must collaborate more closely with transit and receiving countries, middle- and high-income countries, and regional organizations to reduce the gaps in social protection between citizens and …

Effectively Engaging Diasporas Under The New Canadian Department Of Foreign Affairs, Trade And Development, Manuelle Chanoine, Meredith Giel, Tâmara Simão

International Migration Research Centre

• With the amalgamation of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) into a new Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD), new opportunities will emerge for a coherent approach to diaspora engagement initiatives that combine the existing policy directions under a single umbrella.
• DFATD should work with diasporas in Canada to facilitate and improve engagement with the sending regions. This engagement can occur through current programs, as well as the creation of a new pilot project requiring cooperation between the different policy approaches.
• Engagement should vary according to the different …

Religious Practice And The Phenomenology Of Everyday Violence In Contemporary India, Vikash Singh

Department of Sociology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

This article focuses on ‘dread’ in religious practice in contemporary India. It argues that the dread of everyday existence, which is as salient in a biographical temporality as it pervades the phenomenal environment, connects and transfers between religious practices and everyday life in India for the marginalized masses. For such dread, dominant liberal discourses, such as those of the nation, economy, or ego-centric performance, have neither the patience nor the forms to represent, perform, and abreact. Formulated in dialogue with critical theory, phenomenology, and psychoanalytic theory, this article conceives of religious practices in continuum with the economic, social, ethical, and …

Entre Expatriation Et Apatridie : Les Romans De Gaston-Paul Effa Et Henri Lopes, Yves Abel Feze

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

The stories of exile and return from exile of novelists Gaston-Paul Effa and Henri Lopes give themselves to read on how to register a double “desappartenance” and focuses in the heart of their narratives the figure of a now be stateless, alien to itself and to the Other. We propose, therefore, to study the reconstruction of identity as it is the result of emigration and return on the homeland. This leads thus to the conclusion that the stateless defies the nation in order to situate itself and his stories in a transnational space.

Mères Migrantes Et Fi Lles De La République : Identité Et Féminité Dans Le Roman De Banlieue, Mame-Fatou Niang

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

This article examines the writings of female authors from the French suburbs, whose novels feature female protagonists born in immigrant families and engaged in a quest to redefine self. The novels explore the generational differences between these characters and the impact of the quest for self on mother-daughter relations. Their analysis brings light to the authors’ attempt at conjuring the stereotypes generally attached to the banlieue and to immigrant women. I argue that through the evocation of non-hegemonic visions, these novels present the banlieues as dynamic spaces allowing for a new discursive practice of identity and citizenship.