Sociology of Migration

I Centri di accoglienza sono le strutture nelle quali viene offerta una prima ospitalità e assistenza ai migranti. In Italia, negli anni e soprattutto in occasioni di «emergenze umanitarie», sono stati aperti tipi differenti di Centri. L'articolo, oltre a descrivere le differenti caratteristiche delle strutture oggi operative, presenta parte del dibattito in corso tra giuristi, scienziati politico-sociali ed esperti di servizi sociali, evidenziando i principali discorsi retorici sul tema e gli elementi di etichettamento degli stranieri inseriti in un progetto di assistenza.

There are more types of borders today than ever before in history. Borders of all kinds define every aspect of social life in the twenty-first century. From the biometric data that divides the smallest aspects of our bodies to the aerial drones that patrol the immense expanse of our domestic and international airspace, we are defined by borders. They can no longer simply be understood as the geographical divisions between nation-states. Today, their form and function has become too complex, too hybrid. What we need now is a theory of the border that can make sense of this hybridity across multiple domains of social life.

Rather than viewing borders as the result or outcome of pre-established social entities like states, Thomas Nail reinterprets social history from the perspective of the continual and constitutive movement of the borders that organize and divide society in the first place. Societies and states are the products of bordering, Nail argues, not the other way around. Applying his original movement-oriented theoretical framework "kinopolitics" to several major historical border regimes (fences, walls, cells, and checkpoints), Theory of the Border pioneers a new methodology of "critical limology," that provides fresh tools for the analysis of contemporary border politics.

Southeastern Europe 41.3 - Edited issue

Guest editors: Anna Krasteva and Marco Puleri

ARTICLES

Neža Kogovšek Šalamon, Mass Migration, Crimmigration and Defiance: The Case of the Humanitarian Corridor
Dimitris Skleparis, European governments’ responses to the ‘refugee crisis’: The interdependence of EU internal and external controls
Theodor Tudoroiu, Transit Migration and “Valve States”: The Triggering Factors of the 2015 Migratory Wave
Ayhan Kaya, Istanbul as a Space of Cultural Affinity for Syrian Refugees: “Istanbul is safe despite everything!”

BOOK REVIEWS

Angela Ilić, Gorana Ognjenović and Jasna Jozelić (eds.), Politicization of Religion, The Power of Symbolism: The Case of Former Yugoslavia and its Successor States
Višeslav Raos, Igor Štiks, Nations and Citizens in Yugoslavia and the Post-Yugoslav States: One Hundred Years of Citizenship
Mateja Sinčić, Dino Abazović and Mitja Velikonja, eds., Post-Yugoslavia. New Cultural and Political Perspectives
Maria Todorova, Stefan Rohdewald. Götter der Nationen: Religiöse Erinnerungsfiguren in Serbien, Bulgarien und Makedonien bis 1944

Cross-border solidarity has captured the interest and imagination of scholars, activists and a range of political actors in such contested areas as the US-Mexico border and Guantanamo Bay. Chandra Russo examines how justice-seeking solidarity drives activist communities contesting US torture, militarism and immigration policies. Through compelling and fresh ethnographic accounts, Russo follows these activists as they engage in unusual and high risk forms of activism (fasting, pilgrimage, civil disobedience). She explores their ideas of solidarity and witnessing, which are central to how the activists explain their activities. This book adds to our understanding of solidarity activism under new global arrangements, and illuminates the features of movement activity that deepen activists' commitment by helping their lives feel more humane, just and meaningful. Based on participant observation, interviews, surveys and hundreds of courtroom statements, Russo develops a new theorization of solidarity that will take a central place in social movement studies.

On the Shoulders of Grandmothers can easily be enjoyed by academic as well as nonacademic audience as the life stories hold the core of the book. At the same time, the book is not a simple discussion of the struggles and aspirations of Ukrainian grandmothers but rather a valuable source of riveting insights into the everyday life, and the changing moral and gender order, in the post-Soviet period. The clarity of Solari’s writing and the reflexive account of her dilemmas as a researcher makes the transnational, comparative data engaging and fluent. This work should be included in the shelves of various disciplines such as Gender and Women Studies, Global/ization Studies, and Transnational migration studies as well as Area Studies.

The history of return migration is an often overlooked element in migration research. This research, which constituted my degree thesis in "Anthropology and history of the contemporary age" at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, aims to understand not only the reasons behind the need to leave home, but above all those behind  the needs to come back. The research is mainly based on oral sources, recorded in some villages of the Modena Apennines in the years 2013 and 2014. The results give us only some pieces of a larger mosaic that must be studied more and more.

Europe's Transforming Identity. Part 1 of the book Islam and Tolerance in Wider Europe (ed. Pamela Kilpadi) including the articles:
* 'What Values for Europe?' by Michael Emerson
* 'The Role of Islam in Europe: Multiple Crises?' by Amel Boubekeur and Samir Amghar
* 'The Southern Gate to Fortress Europe' by Rutvica Andrijasevic

Based on some key insights of the social recognition theory of Axel Honneth, the paper
argues that a recognition-based theoretical approach to alienation and radicalization
provides a more adequate framework for the conceptualization and empirical investigation
of the alienation and radicalization of migrant youth in European host societies of
international migration. The paper also outlines two clusters of indicators tracing the
relations of recognition between migrant youth and host society and exemplifies them by
employing recent empirical research findings on migrant youth integration in Europe.

DE ALLÁ PARA ACÁ es una serie documental infantil ganadora del Concurso Nacional del INCAA “Series Documentales para ser emitidas por canal Paka Paka (2014)”. La serie forma parte de la grilla de contenidos del primer canal educativo y público diseñado por el Ministerio de Educación de la Nación Argentina. La propuesta documental representa una herramienta educativa y de comunicación innovadora desarrollada a partir de un trabajo interdisciplinar entre la comunicación, la animación, el audiovisual, y la sociología de las migraciones.

La serie cuenta la vida cotidiana de niños y niñas migrantes que residen en la ciudad de Córdoba (Argentina), y retrata la diversidad y la hibridez cultural de la ciudad desde la mirada y vivencia de los niños. Busca representar los relatos de los niños migrantes, sin caer en los estereotipos, simplificaciones o visiones folckorizantes de las culturas de nuestra Latinoamérica y del resto del mundo.

DE ALLÁ PARA ACÁ es una propuesta dinámica, atractiva y reflexiva que permite al público infantil de entre 8 y 12 años acercarse a los conceptos de diversidad, interculturalidad y migración desde la mirada de los protagonistas de la serie: desde niños para niños. La serie no está dirigida exclusivamente a niños que han experimentado un proceso migratorio, ya que plantea temas transversales vinculados a los desafíos propios de la infancia: la relación con los otros, la convivencia, los vínculos, la integración, la discriminación, etc.

Palabras claves: niños migrantes, interculturalidad, identidad, material educativo, migración infantil.

l testo riporta i risultati principali dello studio condotto in Italia per conto dell’EMN nei mesi di aprile-ottobre 2014, con alcuni aggiornamenti. Il quadro nazionale delle pratiche è stato costruito sulla base delle disposizioni in vigore e della pratica dell’intervento sociale. In particolare hanno costituito la base informativa principale dello studio le informazioni raccolte dai siti ufficiali oltre che le disposizioni di Legge. Inoltre è stata svolta un’indagine di campo e sono stati consultati una serie di documenti ufficiali. La parte di intervento pratico e le procedure a livello locale sono
state ricostruite anche sulla base del prezioso lavoro di collaborazione con operatori sociali.

This article examines the representation of home among members of the Lebanese diaspora in New York, Montreal and Paris. Lebanese immigrants view home as both a concrete reality that is achieved physically or in relation with others and a symbolic reference point that ...

The various strategies of reaching out to the diaspora throughout the 20th century and of eventually including it in the building of a nation-state was embedded in transnational relations and ties between Croatian communities and individuals sustained over generations. The paper brings an overview of the history of this relationship as well as it questions the current situation and pose questions for the future development. The authors conclude that the transterritorial definition of the nation, on which the relationship between Croatia and its diaspora has been based from early on, was an inherent element of state-building in the 1990s and has likewise shaped the diaspora strategy applied today.

The  challenges  that  official  migration  statistics face in the 21st century are manifold. In line with intensifying globalisation processes, and new patterns  and  types  of  migration,  new  routes  and new  migrant  identities  have  been  emerging. However,  the new trends also  offer  new, potentially usable data sources, tools, and methods for
the measurement of this changing phenomenon. Attempting to  provide  an  overview  of  the Hungarian migration statistical system, the aim of this paper  is  to  promote  interdisciplinary  scientific dialogue  on
migration  and share  some  of  the most  important  figures  and  trends  of  international  migration  in  Hungary,  highlighting  its  remarkable  geographical  aspects  in  the  European context,  and  the  peculiarities,  challenges,  and opportunities of its measurement.

Global migrations are an overwhelmingly complex phenomenon, involving millions of unique individuals and multifaceted social, economic, political and technological infrastructures. Faced with such complexity, we are forced to simplify in order to understand. A popular quote about science, attributed to Albert Einstein, says that " everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler. " As social scientists working on migration, we should use this observation to reflect upon the work we do but shift the focus from degrees of simplicity to ways of simplifying. The choices that we make along the way reflect our views about what is essential and what is not; these choices are subjective and contextual, perhaps political, and open to challenge. It therefore takes courage and insight to simplify in meaningful ways. An equally difficult task is to pinpoint why particular simplifications are unhelpful and specify how they should be reworked. A much easier option, which social scientists too often resort to, is to merely claim that things that are " more complex " call for " greater nuance " (Healy, 2017). As a starting point for exploring meaningful simplifications of global migration, I pose a simple and familiar question: why do people migrate? It is a question more associated with introductory courses on migration than the research frontier but it can be leveraged for insights into how we might answer an impossibly complex question. I could start by providing tentative answers. What I will do instead is to examine seven types of answers that might be possible and meaningful. 1. People migrate for the reasons for which they are admitted as immigrants. In practice, this is how we implicitly describe why people migrate. Most high-income destination countries have no generic legal provisions for immigration but rather combine a general prohibition with specific exceptions. Immigrants are therefore admitted as labour migrants, as family migrants, as international students and as refugees, for instance, under particular conditions. These conditions are (except for refugees) not linked explicitly to motivations but assumed motivations make up the logic that differentiates them. This way of thinking about the reasons why people migrate has spread far beyond the regulatory system itself. 2. People migrate because they have the aspiration and the ability to do so. The regulatory barriers to migration ensure that not every person who wants to migrate will be able to do so. We can therefore distinguish between two components in the explanation of migration:

"Cet article présente une analyse comparative de la participation des membres de deux familles salvadoriennes, dont l’une compte des enfants adultes installés en Australie et l’autre en Belgique, au soin de leurs parents âgés. Nous verrons qu’en dépit de la distance, ces migrants fournissent à leurs parents un soutien financier, émotionnel et pratique en mobilisant les membres de leur réseau familial transnational. Partant d’une définition des familles transnationales comme étant des « familles qui vivent tout ou la plupart du temps séparées, mais qui tiennent ensemble et créent ce qui pourrait être considéré comme un sentiment de bien-être collectif et d’unité, autrement dit un ‘sens de la famille’, même au travers des frontières nationales » [Bryceson & Vuorela, 2002b, p. 18], nous verrons que c’est notamment en s’engageant dans les soins transnationaux [Baldassar et al, 2007] que les migrants salvadoriens et leurs proches créent et maintiennent vivante leur inscription dans le groupe familial.

This paper presents a comparative analysis of the participation of Australia and Belgium-based members of two Salvadorian families to the care of their ageing parents. In spite of the distance, these migrants provide financial, emotional and practical support to their parents via the mobilisation of transnational family networks. Based on a definition of transnational families as “families that live some or most of the time separated from each other, yet hold together and create something that can be seen as a feeling of collective welfare and unity, namely ‘familyhood’, even across national borders’ [Bryceson & Vuorela, 2002b, p. 18], I will argue that Salvadoran migrants and their kin create and maintain a sense of family through the provision of transnational care [Baldassar et al, 2007]"

This chapter focuses on how the political right in the United States, particularly in California, has propagated a highly charged political rhetoric in which Third World migrants, Mexicans in particular, are deemed to present a threat to the welfare of the nation. This sort of rhetoric has given rise to and legitimated numerous efforts to exclude the immigrant from the body politic. One way to interpret these practices of exclusion is in terms of what Michel Foucault called biopower. This term describes the operating logic of modern forms of government, whose main concern is the welfare of the population, the improvement of its condition, the increase of its wealth, longevity, health, etc. There is an underside to biopower however, since it is often the case that entire populations are mobilized for the purpose of wholesale slaughter in the name of life necessity. Thus the counterpart of the power to secure an individual’s continued existence is the power to expose an entire population to death. Using the Foucauldian notion of biopower, this paper explores how the state, in order to fortify the health of the population, aims to eliminate those influences that are deemed harmful to the biological growth of the nation. It thus shows how the exclusion of the immigrant is codified as an essential and noble pursuit necessary to ensure the survival of the social body.

In this essay I will start describing the history and foundation of a far-right Italian party, Forza Nuova, and analysing some of their propaganda posters, that in many cases reminds to the fascist era. Moreover I will try understand how women bodies are used to represent the nation-building (Yuval-Davis 1993), how attacking our women significates attacking our nation (Hall 1992 – Peterson 1999), and how black men are portrayed to follow the stereotypes, invented in colonial era (Van Deburg 1984, Rogers 1944). Lastly we will go through the exploiting of immigration in political discourse, with a remarkable example from the USA-Mexico border (Massey 2015).

This article considers asylum seekers/refugees’ perceptions of the negative asylum coverage that dominates mainstream press, as counter-posed to primarily positive representations in community newspapers. It explores how these perceptions, in different ways, contribute to asylum seekers/refugees’ fragility of national belonging, national identity and ability to integrate into the UK. The paper argues that while much of the coverage has questioned ethnic minority migrants’ ability to belong and integrate into an ‘imagined’ British national and cultural community, it incidentally strengthens asylum seekers/refugees’ transnational identities. The article suggests that in addition to a ‘policymaking/structuralist’ paradigm in understanding the ‘inclusion-exclusion’ that asylum
seekers/refugees experience in the UK, the agency of news media as a powerful institution ought to be given due prominence. The article will add to calls for a victim centred approach to analysing forced migrants’ narratives that prioritises their views, while not precluding critical viewpoints.

This is an unusual book. Combining social science fiction, utopianism, pragmatism, sober analysis, and innovative social theory, the authors address one of the biggest dilemmas of our age – how to solve the problems arising from mass displacement. As early versions of the solution proposed by Robin Cohen and Nicholas Van Hear filtered out, their vision of a new, networked, transnational archipelago, called Refugia, was immediately denounced or met with scepticism by established refugee scholars. Others were more intrigued, more open-minded, or perhaps just holding their fire until this book was finally published. As it at least has the virtue of originality, why not judge the proposal for yourself? Read it and craft your own critique. The authors have initiated an openly pro-refugee vision that all can help to shape. Written in a clear and direct style, this book will appeal to scholars, students and practitioners, as well as to an informed public ready to engage with this pressing issue.

MA thesis: Ajijic: American dream, just in Mexico

Maģistra darbā “Ahihika: amerikāņu sapnis, tikai Meksikā” aplūkota plaša
pensionētu ārzemnieku kolonija nelielā Meksikas vidienes pilsētā, par darba mērķi izvirzot Ahihikas kopienas divu galveno iedzīvotāju grupu, iebraucēju un meksikāņu, savstarpējo attiecību izpēti, piedāvājot to iespējamo sadzīvošanas modeli un tā sekas.
Pēdējo desmitgadu laikā vērojamais milzīgais ārzemnieku skaita pieaugums un importētais dzīvesstils, ko veicinājusi tā saucamo jauno imigrantu iebraukšana, ir izmainījuši gan Ahihikas vidi, gan attiecības ar vietējiem iedzīvotājiem. Pretēji tradicionālajiem imigrantiem, kas vēlas iedzīvoties Meksikā, patiesi izprast tās kultūru, tradīcijas, apgūst
spāņu valodu un labprāt iesaistās vietējās aktivitātēs, jaunie imigranti izvēlas dzīvot savā ASV kopijā, tikai Meksikā. Arvien vairāk manāms, ka abas iedzīvotāju grupas - ārzemnieki un meksikāņi - dzīvo nosacītā izolācijā viena no otras, saskarsmei notiekot lielākoties došanas-ņemšanas kontekstā, kad katram ir kas nepieciešams.
Darbā aicināts palūkoties uz šīm attiecībām caur reciprocitātes perspektīvu. Kā galvenie apmaiņas veidi apskatīti darbinieku un darbadevēju attiecības, privātuzņēmumu darbība, labdarības aktivitātes un Meksikas netieši sniegtais ārzemnieku kopienai - iemesli izvēlēties Ahihiku kā pensionēšanās galamērķi. Došanas-ņemšanas mehānismi Ahihikas
ikdienā ir gan veidojuši un saliedējuši kopienu, gan arī iespaido kopienā valdošo nevienlīdzību starp abām grupām un no tās izrietošos konfliktus.
Ārzemnieki, kontrolējot meksikāņiem nepieciešamos resursus, piemēram, darbu, vidi, valodu, no “viesiem” ir kļuvuši par “saimniekiem” un arvien skaļāk sāk izvirzīt savas prasības, piemēram, iesaistoties vietējās politikas aktivitātēs, pamatojot to ar savu sniegumu Ahihikai. Tai pat laikā publiskajā diskursā tiek uzsvērta vienlīdzība un tirgus attiecības.

Kidnapping, originally considered a problem for the super wealthy, has quickly spread to epidemic proportions among the relative poor, especially among clandestine international migrants. This article examines how people’s relationship to the US–Mexico border shapes their vulnerability to kidnapping. Moreover, through one long ethnographic vignette and survey data of deportees’ experiences with kidnapping, this article explores how the border helps produce and shape kidnapping. By exploring the
border as topological, based on the relationships created through clandestine migration and deportation, we can see how kidnapping operates to produce certain, highly varied subjectivities. Moreover, this article explores the contours of sexuality and masculinity for a feminist geopolitical take on some of the darkest chapters of the war on drugs in Mexico.

El propósito general de la presente investigación es analizar el trayecto de los migrantes centroamericanos en tránsito irregular por México y cómo estos experimentan, perciben y dan sentido al ser discriminados y estigmatizados a través de la interacción con diferentes actores sociales. De esta forma se pretende comprender los procesos de construcción de alteridad y autocategorización a partir de las interacciones cotidianas de su traslado. Se plantea como hipótesis que debido a las relaciones verticales que se presentan basadas en el estatus del migrante en tránsito por México, éste se percibe discriminado por los diferentes individuos con los que se encuentra. Tal discriminación se verá manifestada de diversas formas y será atribuida a diferentes características de su grupo, como la nacionalidad, etnicidad, estatus social y económico. El análisis de la investigación se realiza desde una perspectiva interaccionista, teniendo como base las narrativas de los migrantes y la observación etnográfica en casas y albergues para migrantes que se han establecido a lo largo de su ruta. Los resultados obtenidos permitieron construir una tipología del rechazo, además de una tipología del apoyo, cuestión central que identificaron los migrantes a lo largo de su trayecto. Por último, se analizan las principales dinámicas de interacción que surgen entre los migrantes y los diferentes actores sociales que encuentran a lo largo de su trayecto a partir de la carga del estigma.

My article is based on the research findings of the empirical project “Istanbul Calling: Transnational Life- and Work Worlds of Highly Skilled Female German Citizens with and without Turkish Migration background”, which I have been working on the last two years. It focuses on the migration motivations, the integration process into the labor market, the socio-cultural networks and the transnationality of highly skilled female German citizens with and without Turkish migration background as well as their differences and similarities. In order to contextualize my work, this article also outlines some general aspects of migration movements to Turkey, the variety of German migrant groups in Turkey, the changing profile of highly skilled women settling in Turkey and discourses on highly skilled migration from Turkey.

Immigrant female and also male workers are increasingly involved in the supply of care services in the countries of the Global North, and they are especially so in elderly care. In the countries of southern Europe, but to an increasing extent also in countries like Germany and Austria, the care work of immigrants is embedded in a specific care regime. It is undertaken mainly in the recipients' households, often around the clock, and on a live-in basis, so that it supports a system in which the family remains the central locus of care delivery to frail people. Secondly, it employs a large number of workers irregular in regard to the employment relationship, and often also to their legal status. The paper will present the results of various research studies on the topic carried out in Italy within the time-span of a decade (2002–2012). It will discuss how irregular migration is in fact tolerated, when inserted in care work at the service of the growing needs of native families; how the system that I call “invisible welfare” works; and how immigrant care workers find possibilities of agency, despite the constraints of the legal order and the exploitation they often experience at work.
Key words
irregular immigration
immigration policies
care regime
care work
elderly
Italy

When a group of undocumented migrants blocked a road in San Bernardino, California, in the
summer of 2011, it was at first sight one out of many events organized by the protest movement
of undocumented youth. While they marched down the road and started their action of civil
disobedience, they were chanting “education not deportation” and wore academic caps and tshirts
with the campaign slogan “The DREAM is coming” as a reference to higher education
and the federal DREAM Act . On the one hand, they were thus continuing the activism of the
undocumented youth movement, which became nationally known because of its struggle for the
rights of students without legal status in the US since its inception in the early 2000s (cf. Nicholls
2013; Corrunker 2012; Anguiano 2011; Unzueta/Seif 2014; Seif 2014; Costanza-Chock 2014;
Eisema/Fiorito/Montero-Sieburth 2014; Negron-Gonzales 2014, 2015). On the other hand, this
direct action was symbolic of a shift in the movement that heavily impacted the political practice
of groups, coalitions and alliances of undocumented youth in California over the last years.

In questo libro il legame fra salute, medicina e società viene dapprima analiz-zato in prospettiva microsociologica, osservando, cioè, come salute e malattia si radichino nei corpi degli individui e nelle loro relazioni sociali. Si passa poi al livello delle organizzazioni sociali intermedie: dalla famiglia alle professioni sa-nitarie, all'ospedale, ai servizi territoriali e domiciliari e alle comunità locali. Da ultimo, vengono esaminati i processi sociali di più vasta portata, focalizzando l'attenzione sulle politiche sanitarie, sui sistemi sanitari e sulle disuguaglianze sociali di salute, e affrontando le problematiche venute più di recente ad emersione.

Data Matrix for the article

Abstract: This article analyzes patterns of global migration during the last five years, often associated with the “European refugee crisis” since summer 2015, documented by the World Bank Bilateral Migration Matrix data (BMM). Based on cross-national data, gathered and documented for this analysis, the article also provides first quantitative analyses of the predictable effects of the rising migration from the OIC (Organisation of Islamic Cooperation) countries on the societies of the host countries. With around a third of the total immigrant population originating from OIC countries, the growing future Muslim presence in European politics and economics is not a fantasy but a reality. The European Union has become the world’s leading magnet of global migration, with around a fifth of global migration now flowing into the EU countries. Europe seems to have found – as yet – no coherent answer to this. It takes little imagination to realize that the expected monumental shifts in the underlying demographics of Western countries, caused by Muslim mass migration, may have very serious and even dramatic effects on the future support for the state of Israel and on its backing among the populations of the leading Western military and economic powers. The article shows that in the wake of the so-called Arab Spring, rich Arab immigration-hosting countries, hitherto the main recipients of OIC migration, became more restrictive in their immigration policies, while a considerable proportion of OIC migration now turned to Europe, accelerated by the instabilities wrought by the civil war in Syria. Contrary to the assumptions of the dominant “welcome culture” in the media and the academia of most West European countries, the negative social and political consequences of this mass migration, especially for gender relations and the overall inequality dimensions, cannot be overlooked and are spelled out in this article, relying on multivariate analysis of the relevant international cross-national data.