Migration Studies Commons^™

Naturalization Ceremonies And The Role Of Immigrants In The American Nation, Sofya Aptekar

Publications and Research

Although immigration is an essential element in the American national story, it presents difficulties for constructing national membership and national identity in terms of shared intrinsic values. In this article, I analyze speeches made at naturalization ceremonies during two time periods (1950 – 1970 and 2003 – present) to examine the evolving roles of immigrants, as articulated to immigrants themselves. Naturalization ceremonies are a unique research site because the usually implied nationalist content is made explicit to brand new members of the nation. I find a shift in the framing from immigrants as potential liabilities and weak links in the …

Indirect Pathways Into Practice: A Comparative Examination Of Indian And Philippine Internationally Educated Nurses And Their Entry Into Ontario’S Nursing Profession, Margaret Walton-Roberts, Jenna Hennebry

International Migration Research Centre

In Canada half of all internationally educated nurses (IENs) are employed in Ontario, and in 2010 the top three countries where new IENs had received their training were the Philippines, India and China. This presentation reports on preliminary results from an ongoing research project examining the experiences of IENs from the Philippines and India who intend to enter Ontario’s nursing profession indirectly via temporary migration streams. The preliminary survey results will be presented, including differences in the characteristics and experiences of the two groups as they follow migration and occupational pathways to enter Canada and the nursing profession in Ontario. …

The Housing Preferences And Location Choices Of Second Generation South Asians Living In Ethnic Enclaves, Virpal Kataure, Margaret Walton-Roberts

International Migration Research Centre

Canada has experienced the development of suburban ethnic enclaves by established immigrant diaspora groups surrounding major metropolitan centres. However, less is known regarding the housing and location preferences of their maturing offspring population, known as the second-generation. This paper seeks to explain the housing preferences and location choices of second-generation South Asians residing in Brampton's ethnic enclaves, a suburban city on the periphery of Toronto. This research draws on the home leaving process and integrates the theoretical perspectives of ethnic enclaves and the life cycle. A telephone survey conducted in Brampton's ethnic enclaves suggests a dominant preference of low-density, detached-style …

The Arab Spring And Migration In Egypt, One Year On: Impacts, Perceptions And Attitudes, Hend Hafez

Faculty Journal Articles

In reviewing migration flows in and out of Egypt after the Arab ‘Spring” and the events leading to the Egyptian Revolution in January 25th, 2011, the initial suspicion and resistance to any information dissemination was noted by the researcher as a definite change in attitude in the country after the revolution. This may be attributed to recent raids on U.S. funded pro-democracy NGO’s among others and accusations of foreign interference in domestic affairs. Along with the volatile political situation in the aftermath of the revolution, distrust runs rampant, as well as a low prioritization with regards to migration issues in …

Remittances To Transit Countries: The Impact On Sudanese Refugee Livelihoods In Cairo, Karen Jacobson, Maysa Ayoub, Alice Johnson

Faculty Journal Articles

Transit countries are way stations or stopping points in the journey of migrants and refugees from their countries of origin to their intended destination countries. Many migrants and refugees become ‘stuck’, often for years, unable to either move onward or to return to their home countries. They may be blocked by the inability to gather the funds needed for travel, or by hazardous travel conditions or by immigration policy shifts (such as resettlement policy). This study sought to fill gaps in our knowledge about the livelihoods of refugees in the urban centers of transit countries. ‘Stuck’ migrants engage in a …

Remittances To Transit Countries: The Impact On Sudanese Refugee Livelihoods In Cairo, Karen Jacobsen, Maysa Ayoub, Alice Johnson

Faculty Journal Articles

Transit countries are way stations or stopping points in the journey of migrants and refugees from their countries of origin to their intended destination countries. Many migrants and refugees become ‘stuck’, often for years, unable to either move onward or to return to their home countries. They may be blocked by the inability to gather the funds needed for travel, or by hazardous travel conditions or by immigration policy shifts (such as resettlement policy). This study sought to fill gaps in our knowledge about the livelihoods of refugees in the urban centers of transit countries. ‘Stuck’ migrants engage in a …

A Call To Integrate Religious Communities Into Practice: The Case Of Sikhs, Muninder Kaur Ahluwalia, Anjali Alimchandani

Department of Counseling Scholarship and Creative Works

Sikhs, an ethnic and religious minority group in the United States, have seen a significant shift in their social location since 9/11. They have experienced harassment and violence beyond race and ethnicity to the visible markers of the religion (e.g., turbans). In this article, we address how counseling psychology is uniquely positioned to work with Sikhs given these circumstances. We provide an overview of Sikh Americans, including specific experiences that may affect treatment such as race-based traumatic injury, identification as a part of a visible religious minority group, and the impact of historic community-level trauma. We discuss recommendations for practitioners …

Defining Immigrant Newcomers In New Destinations: Symbolic Boundaries In Williamsburg, Va, Deenesh Sohoni, Jennifer Bickham-Mendez

Arts & Sciences Articles

This article examines media representations of immigration in Williamsburg, Virginia, a ‘new immigrant destination’ in the USA. Through a content analysis of coverage in Williamsburg's local newspaper, we explore how reporters, columnists and readers draw on nationally and internationally circulating discourses to produce public interpretations of immigration issues and construct symbolic boundaries between and among in-groups and ‘others’ in the community. ‘National boundaries drawn locally’ captures how media actors use nationally recognizable frames to interpret local issues and define the parameters of community and national belonging. ‘Localized symbolic boundaries’ take their meanings from place-based, cultural understandings, specific economic conditions and …

The Engagement Of Highly Skilled Egyptian Migrants In Oecd Countries, Iman Dawood

Faculty Journal Articles

Within the Middle East and North Africa region, Egypt can certainly be considered the number one emigration country in terms of total number of emigrants1 . But even within a larger pool of countries, the developing countries for instance, Egypt still occupies a position within the list of top ten-emigration countries according to the World Bank2 . Egypt is also amongst the top remittance-receiving countries with only thirteen other countries worldwide receiving a higher level of remittances in the year 20103 . While accounts of the actual number of Egyptian migrants vary greatly due to the unavailability of accurate and …

The Engagement Of Highly Skilled Egyptian Migrants In Oecd Countries, Iman Dawood

Faculty Journal Articles

Within the Middle East and North Africa region, Egypt can certainly be considered the number one emigration country in terms of total number of emigrants. But even within a larger pool of countries, the developing countries for instance, Egypt still occupies a position within the list of top ten-emigration countries according to the World Bank . Egypt is also amongst the top remittance-receiving countries with only thirteen other countries worldwide receiving a higher level of remittances in the year 20103 . While accounts of the actual number of Egyptian migrants vary greatly due to the unavailability of accurate and comprehensive …

Issue 03: Backgrounder On Safety And Legal Protection Of Irregular Migrants And Volunteer Workers In Mexico, Andrea Pietrzak

International Migration Research Centre

Every year tens of thousands of irregular migrants from Central America cross Mexico’s southern border and attempt to make the 1,000-mile northbound trek to the United States. These migrants make the journey despite increasing threats of violence from organized criminal gangs, corrupt police and security forces members, and private citizens. An investigation by Mexico’s National Commission for Human Rights in 2010 found that more than 11,000 irregular migrants were kidnapped nation-wide, with an unknown number violently assaulted and raped. In an urgent action report issued on July 27, 2012, Amnesty International stated that irregular migrants, and the volunteers who assist …

Refugees Of The Arab Spring: The Syrian Refugees In Lebanon April 2011-April 2012, Sam Van Vliet, Guita Hourani

Faculty Journal Articles

This review of one year influx of Syrian refugees into Lebanon is meant to reveal the political, communitarian and humanitarian factors that shape the State of Lebanon's policy towards it. The Lebanese government has lately adopted a ‘disassociation’ policy regarding the Syrian conflict with the objective of preventing the spill-over of the conflict and the destabilization of the country. Regional and international powers well understand the reasons for this policy, given Lebanon's geopolitical situation, its history and its 'special ties' with Syria. However, while Lebanon might be able to disassociate itself from the political entanglement of the Syrian crisis, it …

Refugee Resettlement In America: The Iraqi Refugee Experience In Upstate, New York, Christine M. Fandrich

Faculty Journal Articles

This study will document the experiences of Iraqi refugees resettled in a small Upstate, N.Y. city in order to examine resettlement and integration outcomes regarding this population. Research regarding Iraqi refugees and their resettlement before and after the 2003 US-led invasion are few, and therefore this case study will contribute to the literature on Iraqi refugees after resettlement. This study will find that previous theories of integration are inadequate to fully explain the integration of Iraqi refugees as these theories do not take into account: 1) pre-arrival/home related factors; 2) post-arrival/ host related factors; and 3) individual motives and intentions …

Refugee Resettlement In America: The Iraqi Refugee Experience In Upstate, New York, Christine M. Fandrich

Faculty Journal Articles

This study will document the experiences of Iraqi refugees resettled in a small Upstate, N.Y. city in order to examine resettlement and integration outcomes regarding this population. Research regarding Iraqi refugees and their resettlement before and after the 2003 US-led invasion are few, and therefore this case study will contribute to the literature on Iraqi refugees after resettlement. This study will find that previous theories of integration are inadequate to fully explain the integration of Iraqi refugees as these theories do not take into account: 1) pre-arrival/home related factors; 2) post-arrival/host related factors; and 3) individual motives and intentions of …

How Does Satisfaction Affect Migration Patterns Within The United States (2006-2009), Michael Jacobson

Honors Theses

This paper investigates whether or not aggregate state satisfaction plays a significant role in the movement of people across state borders. A person’s decision on whether to migrate or not depends on the anticipated utility of the origin state compared to that of the destination state. If the utility of the destination state is greater than the utility of the origin state, the person will relocate, and if the utility of the destination state is lower than the utility of the origin state, the person will not relocate. Utility includes both monetary and non-monetary costs and benefits. The monetary utility …

Post-Conflict Governance In Nahr El Bared Palestinian Refugee Camp: The State's Technologies Of Control And Shifts In Unrwa Practices, Sheeraz Moujally

Theses and Dissertations

On the fifth anniversary of the Nahr El Bared War, this thesis seeks to historicize the re-establishment mechanisms of the post-conflict governance of the Nahr El Bared Palestinian refugee camp, almost razed to the ground following a fierce battle between the Lebanese Army and the Salafi multinational militia Fatah Al Islam in May-September 2007. In Lebanon, Palestinian camps are deprived of classical state-like governance, as Palestinian refugees are excluded from legal protection and civil rights and their spaces have been de-domesticated since 1969. In this context, this thesis captures the interplay of the competing sovereignties, each trying to impose its …

No. 27: Migration And Development In Contemporary Mauritius, David Lincoln

Southern African Migration Programme

Mauritius is a society descended of involuntary and voluntary migrants. After two-and-a-half centuries of settlement as a plantation colony and by the time of its independence from colonial rule in 1968 the island nation’s population had grown to seemingly insupportable levels. But having faced the afflictions of overpopulation, social division and economic despair (and sizeable emigration) at the dawn of its independence, it took just a decade and-a-half for despondency to fade and for Mauritius to begin resembling a tropical idyll of sorts. Though poverty persisted as the small island successfully transformed its economy from colonial plantation to mostly industrial …

Contextualizing The Global Nursing Care Chain: International Migration And The Status Of Nursing In Kerala, India, Margaret Walton-Roberts

International Migration Research Centre

In this article I explore the issue of nursing status in Kerala, India and how over time a colonial discourse of caste‐based pollution has given way to a discourse of sexual pollution under expanding migratory opportunities. Based on survey and qualitative research findings, I caution that the improving occupational status of nursing in India is not directly mapped onto social status, and this is particularly evident in the matrimonial market. In the light of these findings I argue that global nursing care chain (GNCC) analysis must assess more than just workplace contexts in order to conceptualize how global care chains …

Teori Ruang Dalam Sosiologi Perkotaan: Sebuah Pendekatan Baru, Raphaella Dewantari Dwianto

Masyarakat, Jurnal Sosiologi

When New Urban Sociology (NUS) appeared in urban sociology in early 1970s in Europe, by including state and class, it offered a macro view point, to answer the insuficiency of micro frame which had been the characteristic of urban sociology from the Chicago School. However, along with the weakening of welfare state, NUS also lost its significance, and it then chose to deconstruct itself through theory of space. This paper tries to elaborate the origin of NUS and its development, putting it in the present context, to explore the possibility of perspective of the urban as the hub that connects …

No. 62: Heading North: The Zimbabwean Diaspora In Canada, Jonathan Crush, Abel Chikanda, Belinda Maswikwa

Southern African Migration Programme

Studies of the Zimbabwean diaspora tend to focus on migrants in South Africa and the United Kingdom. This is the first major study of Zimbabwean migration to Canada. The report presents and discusses the findings of a SAMP survey conducted across Canada in 2010. It first discusses the recent history of migration from Zimbabwe to Canada and then provides a demographic and socio-economic profile of the Zimbabwean diaspora in Canada. The report also examines the linkages that Zimbabweans in Canada maintain with Zimbabwe, and the potential for return migration.

According to the 2006 Canadian Census, there were 8,040 Zimbabweborn people …

No. 61: Unfriendly Neighbours: Contemporary Migration From Zimbabwe To Botswana, Eugene Campbell, Jonathan Crush

Southern African Migration Programme

Although Zimbabweans have often crossed into Botswana for various reasons, the numbers involved escalated dramatically after 2000 as Zimbabwe entered a prolonged economic and political crisis from which it has still not recovered. While considerable research and policy attention has been given to the migration of Zimbabweans to South Africa, their movement to Botswana has a much lower profile, except when the two countries engage in charges and counter-charges over issues such as the building of electrified fences between the two countries or the corporal punishment of Zimbabwean migrants in Botswana. At such moments, relations between these two close neighbours …

No. 60: Linking Migration, Food Security And Development, Jonathan Crush

Southern African Migration Programme

Two issues have recently risen to the top of the international development agenda: (a) Food Security; and (b) Migration and Development. Each has its own global agency champions, international gatherings, national line ministries and body of research. Global and regional discussions about the relationship between migration and development cover a broad range of policy issues including remittance flows, the brain drain, the role of diasporas and return migration. Strikingly absent from these discussions is any systematic discussion of the relationship between population migration and food security. If the global migration and development debate sidelines food security, the current international food …

No. 58: The Disengagement Of The South African Medical Diaspora, Jonathan Crush, Abel Chikanda

Southern African Migration Programme

Conventional wisdom holds that the ‘brain drain’ of health professionals from Africa is deeply damaging to the continent. Recently, a group of North American and European neo-liberal economists has challenged this conventional wisdom, variously arguing that the negative impacts are highly exaggerated and the compensating benefits many. The benefits include various forms of “diaspora engagement” in which those who have left then engage through sending remittances, direct investment, knowledge and skills transfer, return migration and involvement in diaspora associations. A previous SAMP study of Zimbabwean physicians outside the country provided clear evidence for the “diaspora engagement” hypothesis (see No 56 …

No. 63: Dystopia And Disengagement: Diaspora Attitudes Towards South Africa, Jonathan Crush

Southern African Migration Programme

In 2008, South African Brandon Huntley was given refugee status in Canada by the Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB). The unprecedented decision, based on Huntley’s claim that as a white South African he was the victim of racial persecution in South Africa, caused a firestorm. Interest in the case was particularly intense in South Africa itself where the decision was derided in the media and the South African government lodged a formal protest with the Canadian government. Over 140 high-profile South African academics also filed a petition protesting the decision with the Canadian High Commission in Pretoria. Within weeks, …

No. 59: The Third Wave: Mixed Migration From Zimbabwe To South Africa, Jonathan Crush, Abel Chikanda, Godfrey Tawodzera

Southern African Migration Programme

Migration from Zimbabwe to South Africa has been extremely well-documented by researchers. In this paper, we suggest that there is a need to periodize these migration flows in order to understand how and why they have changed over time, not simply in terms of the volume of migration but the changing drivers of migration and the shifting nature of the migrant stream. Few previous studies have taken a longitudinal approach to Zimbabwean migration, primarily because most research takes place at one point in time. SAMP is in the fortunate position of having a large database at its disposal which allows …

No. 57: Patients Without Borders: Medical Tourism And Medical Migration In Southern Africa, Jonathan Crush

Southern African Migration Programme

No abstract provided.

Évaluation De Processus : Programme Filles Eveillées Pour Adolescentes Migrantes Employées De Maison Au Burkina Faso Urbain 2012, Leah Jarvis, Gisele Kaboré

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Le programme «Filles Éveillées» a été conçu pour apporter aux adolescentes migrantes employées de maison les compétences, les connaissances et le capital social qui leur permettent de réduire leurs vulnérabilités et de s’ouvrir de nouveaux débouchés. Les observations tirées de la collecte de données quantitatives et qualitatives ont révélé le succès considérable du programme: il est largement apprécié et a été bien reçu par les participantes, les mentors, les membres de la communauté et tous les autres intéressés. En sa qualité de programme pilote, les obstacles à une mise en œuvre sans incidents auraient été inévitables, mais par leur détermination …

Chapter 5, History, In Intimacy And Community In A Changing World: Sikaiana Life 1980-1993, William Donner

Sikaiana Ethnography

This chapter is a discussion of the legendary and the more recent recorded history of the Sikaiana people from the Solomon Islands.

A related website can be found at www.sikaianaarchives.com

A Comparative Examination Of Women’S Remittance Practices In Two Somali Communities: Johannesburg, South Africa, And Columbus, Ohio, Marnie Shaffer

All Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Women throughout the Somali diaspora are renowned for their commitment to provide financial support to their families abroad (see, for example, Horst 2007). Although it has only been in recent years that women have been migrating to South Africa, their sense of responsibility to remit is equally as strong as those women’s who left Somalia in the early 2000s and before. The author conducted research in Mayfair, a suburb near downtown Johannesburg in Gauteng Province, where the Somali community is most densely populated, and in Columbus, Ohio, where several pockets of Somalis are dispersed around the city. Study results indicate …

Process Evaluation: The Filles Eveillées ('Girls Awakened') Program For Migrant Adolescent Girls In Domestic Service In Urban Burkina Faso, Leah Jarvis, Gisele Kaboré

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

The Filles Éveillées (“Girls Awakened”) program provides migrant adolescent domestic workers in Burkina Faso with the skills, knowledge, and social capital to reduce their vulnerability and increase their opportunities. The program consists of three elements: a safe space for girls to meet, access to same-sex peers to develop social networks, and a female mentor. This report summarizes the results of an evaluation of Filles Éveillées aimed to improve the program in its second cycle. The assessment evaluated: elements of the program that were or were not implemented as planned and obstacles to implementation; and improvements to the structure, implementation, and …