Migration Studies Commons^™

Destination Diploma: How Chinese Upper-Middle-Class Families “Outsource” Secondary Education To The United States, Siqi Tu

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This research examines the emerging phenomenon of Chinese urban upper-middle-class families sending their only children, the so-called “parachute students,” to American private high schools in a triple framework of transnational elite education, the emerging global middle class, and the complicated formation of citizenship, membership, and identities across borders. This study draws from data collected through multiple qualitative research methods, including content analysis of online advertising materials of educational agents, ethnographic participant-observation of school recruitment and application consulting workshops, and in-depth interviews with Chinese parents, students, and educational consultants.

I investigate why and how Chinese urban upper-middle-class families make educational decisions …

Precarious Empowerments: Sexual Labor In The Coffee Shops Of Santiago, Chile, Pilar Ortiz

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Precarious Empowerments analyzes sexual labor in ‘tinted cafes,’ spaces hidden from public view where women dance for their male clients and clandestinely perform sexual services. Drawing from an embodied ethnographic account of the everyday lives of five coffee shops that fit into the lower status ‘tinted cafes’ where sexual labor is common, this thesis examines sex workers’ experiences at the intersection of class, racial, and gender hierarchies. From an intersectional perspective, my study examines how inequalities based on class, gender, race, nationality, and body capital are reproduced and contested by sex workers. Based on the multiple facets of the precariousness …

Migratory Timescapes: Experiences Of Pausing, Waiting, And Inhabiting The Meanwhile Of Migrants And Asylum Seekers In Mexico, Isabel Gil Everaert

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Mexico´s southern border with Guatemala, this dissertation provides insights into contemporary experiences of migration in Mexico by engaging with the notions of movement, control, and settlement from a critical perspective. I explore these experiences through the idea of migratory timescapes, defined as structural temporal-relational contexts in which migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers are socially embedded. In the case of this dissertation, I unpack three migratory timescapes which are situated in a regional context of growing displacement and increasingly restrictive migratory and asylum policies, what I call the block-and-wait system.

First, I introduce the idea …

Experiences Of Latinx's Adult Transition To The U.S. And The Clinical Implications That Arise In Acclimating Into The Dominant Culture: An Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis, Gabriela Olavarrieta

Doctoral Dissertations

There has been a significant gap in the literature regarding the lived experience of the Latinx adult transition to the United States and the clinical implications that arise in acclimating to the dominant culture, particularly under the Trump Administration. The approach for the current research examined Latinxs’ adulthood transitions to the United States, experiences of acculturative stress, including instances of discrimination as well as their experiences acclimating or assimilating into the dominant culture. This study also examined what seeking, or being unable to seek, mental health services looked like in the current sociopolitical climate. Interpretive phenomenological analysis was utilized to …

Exploring How Social Networks Contribute To African Immigrants’ Ability To Procure A Sustainable Livelihood In New York City, Richmond Opoku Donyina

Capstone Collection

This research explores the effects of social networks on the ways that African immigrants in New York City secure, and sustain their livelihoods. Through lines of inquiry including social capital, livelihood resources, and economic activities, this research explores possible livelihood outcomes of Africans immigrants in New York City in relation to their social networks. By exploring themes through case studies of immigrants from different countries on the African continent, this research illustrates how becoming embedded in social networks in ones’ geographical jurisdiction widens an individual’s social capital, which in turn contributes to the probability of that individual in securing and …

A North Korean Diasporic Community Of Performers, Sunhong Kim

International Programs

The purpose of this study is exploring music’s role to a North Korean diasporic community.

We Do Not Have Borders: Greater Somalia And The Predicaments Of Belonging In Kenya, Bashir Haji

The Journal of Social Encounters

Karen Weitzberg opens her book with a proverb from the early Somali independence era: “wherever the camel goes, that is Somalia.” This quote sets the precedence for the book illustrating Somalis’ rocky relationship with borders. Originally, Somalis were nomadic pastoralists that frequently moved around, crossing borders. However, after many African countries gained independence, new border lines were drawn up. As a result of this new reality, many Somali clans were forced to claim their territorial land and were also shut out from other regions, thereby impacting their way of life. Weitzberg, a Stanford graduate with a background in African and …

Issue 18: Disaster Displacement: Examining The Post-Dorian Experience On Eleuthera, Kearney Coupland

International Migration Research Centre

In September, 2019, Hurricane Dorian made landfall on the island of Abaco, its surrounding cays, and on Grand Bahama in The Bahamas. As a result of the storm, an estimated 12,000 homes were damaged or destroyed. Marsh Harbour, the commercial hub of Abaco, and the surrounding cays, the small, low-lying islands off the coast of Abaco, received the majority of the damage. In addition to housing some of the most expensive resorts in The Bahamas, Marsh Harbour had two large shantytowns, the Mudd and the Peas, which were largely home to Haitian migrants who worked at the resorts and private …

Développer Le Contenu D'Un Outil D'Aide À L'Amélioration Des Compétences Interculturelles Des Intervenants De La Cnesst À Partir D'Une Démarche De Coconstruction, Daniel Côté, Jessica Dubé, Nicolas Bastien, Sylvie Gravel

Rapports de recherche scientifique

Selon les intervenants de la Commission des normes, de l'équité, de la santé et de la sécurité du travail (CNESST), presque 50 % des travailleurs touchés par une lésion professionnelle sur l’île de Montréal seraient issus de l’immigration (ou de groupes ethnoculturels) (CNESST, 2010). Il ne s’agit que d’une estimation, puisque les indicateurs ethnoculturels tels que le pays de naissance, la langue maternelle ou autres ne sont pas des données colligées par la CNESST. Dans le cadre du projet de l’IRSST intitulé Comprendre le processus de réadaptation et de retour au travail dans le contexte des relations interculturelles (Côté et …

The Network Structure Of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Among Filipina Migrant Domestic Workers: Comorbidity With Depression, Melissa R. Garabiles, Chao K. Lao, Brian J. Hall

Psychology Department Faculty Publications

Background

Labour migrants are exposed to potentially traumatic events throughout the migration cycle, making them susceptible to developing mental disorders. Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is often comorbid with depression. Comorbidity worsens the course of illness, prognosis, treatment response, and increases suicidal risk. Using network analysis, this study examined the structure of PTSD and depression in a sample of migrant domestic workers, an especially vulnerable community of labour migrants. This study sought to derive the central or most important symptoms, strongest edges or relationships among symptoms, and bridge symptoms between PTSD and depression.

Methods

Data were obtained from 1,375 Filipina domestic …

Latinos In Massachusetts: Mexicans, Phillip Granberry, Krizia Valentino

Gastón Institute Publications

The Gastón Institute’s 2020 Latinos in Massachusetts series focuses on the ten largest Latino populations located throughout the state. In order of size, these Latino populations are Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Brazilians, Salvadorans, Guatemalans, Mexicans, Colombians, Cubans, Hondurans, and Ecuadorans. This report analyzes Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) data from the 2017 American Community Survey (ACS) conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. Our descriptive analysis uses both household- and individual-level data to estimate population size and percentages and to compare Mexicans to Other Latinos and Non-Latinos in the state.

Latinos In Massachusetts: Guatemalans, Phillip Granberry, Krizia Valentino

Gastón Institute Publications

The Gastón Institute’s 2020 Latinos in Massachusetts series focuses on the ten largest Latino populations located throughout the state. In order of size, these Latino populations are Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Brazilians, Salvadorans, Guatemalans, Mexicans, Colombians, Cubans, Hondurans, and Ecuadorans. This report analyzes Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) data from the 2017 American Community Survey (ACS) conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. Economic factors have historically affected the migration patterns of Central Americans such as Guatemalans. Prior to the 1980s, Central American migration to the United States showed a marked bipolarity. The majority of migrants were upper- and middle-class individuals who …

Latinos In Massachusetts: Cubans, Gaston Institute, University Of Massachusetts Boston, Phillip Granberry, Krizia Valentino

Gastón Institute Publications

The Gastón Institute’s 2020 Latinos in Massachusetts series focuses on the ten largest Latino populations located throughout the state. In order of size, these Latino populations are Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, Brazilians, Salvadorans, Guatemalans, Mexicans, Colombians, Cubans, Hondurans, and Ecuadorans. This report analyzes Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) data from the 2017 American Community Survey (ACS) conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. Our descriptive analysis uses both household- and individual-level data to estimate population size and percentages and to compare Cubans to Other Latinos and Non-Latinos in the state.

Immigrants And Crime, Daniel L. Stageman

Publications and Research

The gap between public perception of immigrant criminality and the research consensus on immigrants’ actual rates of criminal participation is persistent and cross-cultural. While the available evidence shows that immigrants worldwide tend to participate in criminal activity at rates slightly lower than the native-born, media and political discourse portraying immigrants as uniquely crime-prone remains a pervasive global phenomenon. This apparent disconnect is rooted in the dynamics of othering, or the tendency to dehumanize and criminalize identifiable out-groups. Given that most migration decisions are motivated by economic factors, othering is commonly used to justify subjecting immigrants to exploitative labor practices, with …

"Obstinate, Impertinent, Ill-Conditioned": Child Labor, Exploitation And Xenophobia In The British Home Children Movement, Hannah Lauren Palma

History

An examination of the British Home Children program as a movement rooted in child labor, misguided philanthropy, and the exploitation of poor child immigrants.

La Mera Verdad: Exploring Immigrant Latino Fatherhood, Jessica Martinez

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to gain a better understanding of the current experiences of immigrant Latino fathers and their families in Southern California, and to examine the barriers and facilitators that impacted their paternal involvement. The literature suggests that father-absence diminishes the ability of a child to thrive in life and yet immigrant Latino fathers are more at risk of all the factors that lead to father-absence, such as poverty and other added stressors. Likewise, these fathers have been noted to experience a lack of fathering in their childhood, which speaks on generational trauma creating the father wound …

Raising Haiti: The Transmission Of Ethnic Culture Across Generations, Vadricka Y. Etienne

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

“Raising Haiti” analyzes how ethnicity structures the romantic and familial lives of second-generation Haitian Americans living in Miami, FL to explore the continuance of ethnic culture into the third generation. Drawing on forty-one interviews and ten months of ethnographic fieldwork, I investigate the (re)construction and inculcation of Haitian cultural heritage via childrearing practices. I argue that Haitian American families negotiate the transmission of ethnic heritage, within a context of global anti-black racism, poor relationship with their proximal hosts, and the social value of ethnicity in multicultural Miami, through an understanding of the precarity of Haitian ethnicity. Without concerted effort through …

Afghan Refugees And The Coronavirus Pandemic, Grant M. Farr

Sociology Faculty Publications and Presentations

The coronavirus, along with international economic sanctions and the collapse of the world oil market, has devastated Iran and its economy, bringing the jobs that Afghan refugees have depended on for a livelihood to a halt. Over the last four decades thousands of Afghans have fled their war torn country and have been living in Iran. Now these Afghan refugees are returning to Afghanistan. Although some of the refugees are leaving on their own, many thousands are being forcefully expelled. These returning refugees are overwhelming the meager medical resources of Afghanistan, spreading the coronavirus across the country. These returning refugees …

Time Machine Research And Approach, Tarek Bouraque

Theses and Dissertations

Time Machine is a hybrid documentary that explores the logics of enslavement, colonialism, eurocentrism and their interconnectedness in our globalized world. Mustapha Azemmouri, born in 1502, undertakes a journey to the 21st century to recount his own story of enslavement and exploration, and reflects on a collective puzzle of 500 years of hidden history.

International Migration, Development, And Policy: Reconsidering Migration Transition Theory—A Way Forward, Karin A. C. Johnson

Hatfield Graduate Journal of Public Affairs

Migration transition theories have been contested as they informed immigration policy in the Global North, which—based on assumptions that immigrants from developing countries may be a threat to social stability and economic opportunity—aimed to diminish emigration from the South. Development policies were proposed that could produce a “migration transition” in the South, where it was assumed that improved economic development would act as a substitute for migration and lead to minimal emigration, thus reducing overall immigration to the Global North. However, policies did not result in a migration transition. Acknowledging problematic rhetoric and contradictory policy and outcomes, this paper addresses …