Migration Studies Commons^™

No. 78: Comparing Refugees And South Africans In The Urban Informal Sector, Jonathan Crush, Godfrey Tawodzera, Cameron Mccordic, Sujata Ramachandran

Southern African Migration Programme

This report compares the business operations of over 2,000 South Africans and refugees in the urban informal economy and systematically dispels some of the myths that have grown up around their activities. First, the report takes issue with the perception that South Africans are inexperienced and unmotivated participants in the informal economy. Many have years of experience and have successfully grown their businesses. Second, it contests the view that refugees enjoy a competitive advantage because they come to South Africa with inherent talent and already honed skills. On the contrary, over 80% of those surveyed had no prior informal sector …

"Sending Our Petitions To God": Nigerian Immigrant Healthcare Worker Settlement, Gender And The Role Of Religious Networks, Sheri Adekola, Margaret Walton-Roberts

Global Nurse Migration Pathways: A Comparative Project

This paper provides a brief overview of a study aimed at understanding the lived experiences of health care migrants from Nigeria now living in Canada and their individual perceptions regarding their migration experience. We report here on an interesting finding of the research that highlights how Nigerian women migrants cope with the isolating effects of migration of resettlement through a profound attachment to spirituality and religious community networks.

No. 77: Living With Xenophobia: Zimbabwean Informal Enterprise In South Africa, Jonathan Crush, Godfrey Tawodzera, Abel Chikanda, Daniel Tevara

Southern African Migration Programme

South Africa’s crisis of xenophobia is defined by the discrimination and intolerance to which migrants are exposed on a daily basis. A major target of the country’s extreme xenophobia – defined as a heightened form of xenophobia in which hostility and opposition to those perceived as outsiders and foreigners is expressed through violent acts – is the businesses run by migrants and refugees in the informal sector. Attitudinal surveys clearly show that South Africans differentiate migrants by national origin and that Zimbabweans are amongst the most disliked. Zimbabweans are certainly not the only small-business owners to have become victims of …

Universal Design For Belonging: Living And Working With Diverse Personal Names, Karen E. Pennesi

Anthropology Publications

There is great diversity in the names and naming practices of Canada’s population due to the multiple languages and cultures from which names and name-givers originate. While this diversity means that everyone encounters unfamiliar names, institutional agents who work with the public are continually challenged when attempting to determine a name’s correct pronunciation, spelling, structure and gender. Drawing from over a hundred interviews in London (Ontario) and Montréal (Québec), as well as other published accounts, I outline strategies used by institutional agents to manage name diversity within the constraints of their work tasks. I explain how concern with saving face …

No. 76: Refugee Entrepreneurial Economies In Urban South Africa, Jonathan Crush, Godfrey Tawodzera, Cameron Mccordic, Sujata Ramachandran

Southern African Migration Programme

More than 60% of the world’s refugees now live in urban areas, according to the UNHCR. The social and economic impacts of refugee movements are therefore increasingly being felt in the towns and cities of host nations. The notion of “refugee economies” has been adopted to highlight the strong involvement of refugees in the many overlapping processes of production, consumption, exchange and entrepreneurship. As urban refugees increasingly become the norm in the urbanizing Global South, more research on the specifically urban economic impacts of protracted refugee situations is therefore urgently needed. Identifying the economic advantages and benefits associated with the …

No. 74: Informal Entrepreneurship And Cross-Border Trade Between Zimbabwe And South Africa, Abel Chikanda, Godfrey Tawodzera

Southern African Migration Programme

Informal cross-border trading in Zimbabwe has become more than a survivalist strategy and should be seen as an important pillar of the country's economy. This report, part of SAMP’s Growing Informal Cities series, seeks to provide a current picture of informal cross-border trading in Zimbabwe and provides detailed insights into the activities of traders from the capital, Harare, who travel regularly to Johannesburg, South Africa, as part of their business. The traders make a monthly profit that far exceeds the salaries of most Zimbabweans in formal employment. Furthermore, many traders have been able to grow their businesses to such an …

No. 75: Competition Or Co-Operation? South African And Migrant Entrepreneurs In Johannesburg, Sally Pederby

Southern African Migration Programme

International migrant business owners in South Africa’s informal sector are, and have been for many years, the target of xenophobic attacks. This has led to public debates about their role in the South African economy and competition with their South African counterparts, with allegations including that they force the closure of South African businesses, harbour ‘trade secrets’ that give them the edge, and dominate the sector. As a result, at national government level there has been increasing interest in curtailing the rights of international migrants, particularly asylum seekers and refugees, to run informal enterprises.

This report explores the experiences of …

Harnessing Migration For Inclusive Growth And Development In Southern Africa, Jonathan Crush, Belinda Dodson, Vincent Williams, Daniel Tevara

Southern African Migration Programme

The primary goal of this study is to present the results of a comprehensive scope of key opportunities and challenges for harnessing migration for inclusive growth and development at the regional level in Southern Africa. The main objectives were as follows:

• Provide an overview of regional migration stocks and flows identifying regional trends, drivers and impacts from existing research literature and official data;
• Profile migrant characteristics at the regional level including demographic composition, types of migration and occupational profile;
• Examine the relevance of multilateral, continental and regional migration instruments, policies, protocols, agreements and forums with a view to identifying actions …

South Africa Case Study: The Double Crisis – Mass Migration From Zimbabwe And Xenophobic Violence In South Africa, Jonathan Crush, Godfrey Tawodzera, Abel Chikanda, Sujata Ramachandran, Daniel Tevera

Southern African Migration Programme

The protracted economic and political crisis in Zimbabwe led directly to a major increase in mixed migration flows to South Africa. Migrants were drawn from every sector of society, all education and skill levels, equal numbers of both sexes, and all ages (including unaccompanied child migration). Many migrants claimed asylum in South Africa which gave them the right to work while they waited for a refugee hearing. Many others were arrested and deported back to Zimbabwe. Migrants who were unable to find employment in the formal economy turned to employment and self-employment in the informal economy. These migrant entrepreneurs used …

No. 79: Rendering South Africa Undesirable: A Critique Of Refugee And Informal Sector Policy, Jonathan Crush, Caroline Skinner, Manal Stulgaitis

Southern African Migration Programme

To understand the policy environment within which refugees establish and operate their enterprises in South Africa’s informal sector, this report brings together two streams of policy analysis. The first concerns the changing refugee policies and the erosion of the progressive approach that characterized the immediate post-apartheid period. The second concerns the informal sector policy, which oscillates between tolerance and attempted destruction at national and municipal levels. While there have been longstanding tensions between foreign and South African informal sector operators, an overtly anti-foreign migrant sentiment has increasingly been expressed in official policy and practice. This report describes the strategies being …

Little Manila Visualization Software Program, Josh Salyers, Danielle Thomasson, Kyle Sabbatino, Jamie Culilap, Sarah Kuo, Ronnie Sanchez, Hannah Tvergyak

Little Manila Visualization Software Program

This 3d simulation is built using gaming software. The graphics quality and download time can vary significantly based on the specification of the computer running this program.

Instructions:Click on the Download button and save the .zip file to your computer. It will begin to download. (This can take a while initially). Once the file has downloaded, unzip the folder and click on the .exe file to play the game.

Version: The current version is only compatible with Windows operating system.

From Gorbachev To The Present: Russian Migration To The United States, Kate Slavashevich

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

Cultural Integration Of Urban Refugees Into Thai Society: A Case Study Of Pakistani Refugees In Bangkok, Seubboon Chaiyasit

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

The study of Cultural Integration of Urban Refugees into Thai Society: a case study of Pakistani Refugees in Bangkok aims to identify the institutional factors that affects the cultural integration for Pakistani refugees into Thai society while temporarily residing in Thailand and examine the individual and community factors including Thai people attitude towards refugees that hinder or support the cultural integration of Pakistani refugees into Thai society. The research methodology is comprised of 1) The documentary research used as the fundamental information to understand the broad perspectives relevant to the urban refugee issues in Bangkok area including the information, policies …

Two Approaches, One Problem: Cultural Constructions Of Type Ii Diabetes In An Indigenous Community In Yucatán, Mexico, Elizabeth Durden

Faculty Journal Articles

The emerging epidemic of obesity and type II diabetes in Mexico has recently propelled the nation into the public health spotlight. In the state of Yucata n, the experience of diabetes is greatly impacted by two cultural constructions of disease. In this setting, elements of Yucatec Mayan health practices as well as the biomedical model affect the approach to type II diabetes. Both frameworks offer unique un- derstandings of the etiology of diabetes and recommend different ways to manage the condition. Based on in-depth and semi-structured interviews with both community members and clinicians, the present study seeks to understand how …

Welcome The Stranger? Recent History Of American Christianity And Refugee Policy, Brenda Edith Cuellar

Masters Theses

Immigration is a controversial and complex issue. The United States has a history of welcoming millions of immigrants and refugees. Recent political rhetoric surrounding immigration has been negative and associated with danger and terrorism. Religious leaders along with their congregations have a history of advocating on behalf of the marginalized as well as combating against a broken immigration system that leaves eleven million people undocumented. This research paper uses a case study to explore the Sanctuary movement, a religious and political campaign that provided shelter for thousands of Central American refugees fleeing war. Interviews with seven religious leaders in Arizona …

Sexual Violence As The Language Of Border Control: Protecting Exceptional Difference, Miriam Ticktin

Publications and Research

When I first arrived in the Paris region in 1999 to do research on the struggle by undocumented immigrants (les sans papiers) for basic human rights, discussions of violence against women were remarkably absent from the public arena. Nongovernmental organizations and researchers had begun to broach the topic, but with little public visibility. However, this changed in late 2000, with a media explosion on the issue of les tournantes, or the gang rapes committed in the banlieues of Paris. Such tournantes involve boys »taking turns« with their friends’ girlfriends, both parties usually being of Maghrebian or North …

The Latino Population Of New York City, 1990 - 2015, Laird W. Bergad

Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies

This report is an update to the CLACLS report "The Latino Population of New York City, 1990-2010" issued in November 2011. It uses the most current data from the U.S. Census Bureau's 2015 American Community Survey released in October 2016. The report examines a wide range of social and economic variables tracing how these changed for Latinos in general within the City in comparison to non-Hispanic whites, non-Hispanic blacks, and Asians. It also examines the changes within the five largest Latino nationalities in the City: Dominicans, Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, Ecuadorians, and Colombians. There has been a definitive transformation in Latino …

Navigating Musical Identities, Knowledge Production And "Authenticity" In The Diaspora, Anita Fábos

Faculty Works

In this chapter, through dialogue between co-authors Alsarah and Anita Fabos, we attempt to capture and explore the musical and personal identity of singer/songwriter/bandleader Alsarah—at a particular point in time. The partial transcript and analysis presented here demonstrates the opportunities but also real dilemmas inherent in navigating identity and producing knowledge as a person from, but not in, or in some ways, of Sudan.

Issue 10: Global Care Chains: Addressing Unpaid Reproductive Labour In The Philippines, Harrison Ellis

International Migration Research Centre

This brief examines policy options to address the gender disparities of unpaid care work created by the global care chain. Examining the Philippine context, potential responses include equalizing maternity and paternity leave, expanding state childcare services, partnering with money transfer businesses (MTBs), and promoting the recruitment men for care positions. This issue has been recognized by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Target 5.4 of the SDGs calls for the recognition of the value of “unpaid care labour and domestic work through the provision of public services, infrastructure and social protection policies and the promotion of responsibility within the household and …

Issue 09: Temporary Migration Policy, Trends, And Ontario’S Economy: 2000-2012, Keegan Williams

International Migration Research Centre

Ontario is unique when it comes to international migration in Canada. It is the leading province in overall flows, including individuals participating in the temporary foreign workers (TFWs) program. Employers hire TFWs on a contractual basis to work here, and from 2000 to 2012, about 800,000 came to Ontario – representing 40% of Canada’s total TFWs. Despite their growing numbers, economic importance, and the rapidly changing landscape of federal immigration policy, there is little work looking at the Temporary Foreign Worker Program or its economic impact on the province. In this research, we found that employers in specific industries, like …