This paper contests some and reconciles other disagreements between the structuration and morphogenesis theories \u2013 two approaches in present-day sociology which aim at bridging the macro\u2013micro gap in social theorizing, but whose advocates have been either indifferent to or openly at odds with each other, instead of engaging in a close intellectual collaboration. The empirical illustrations of my arguments come from local statistical surveys and ethnographic studies conducted in Polish villages from the onset to the decline of mass transatlantic migration in the period 1870s\u20131930s.
\n \n\n \n \nThis paper investigates the relationship between structural change, labour market imbalances and labour migration from the eight Central and Eastern European (CEE/EU8) economies during the transition and after their accession to the EU. The new accession states experienced markedly different migration patterns after 2004 enlargement which, given their similar wage differentials with the West, cannot be explained by the neoclassical framework. The paper deals with this puzzle by developing conceptual and empirical links between different transitional paths of CEE countries and varied migration rates. It argues that structural change that characterized their transition created different labour market imbalances across the CEE economies, hence creating different structures of employment and unemployment and varied risks and opportunities for workers of different demographic and skill profiles. These imbalances and labour market mismatches have in turn induced some workers to seek migration as an exit option more than others, and led to differences in migration rates and in the composition of migrants. In terms of theory, this paper contributes to literature which call for integrated approaches to researching migration that take into account social transformation, pointing out the limited ability of the neoclassical framework to understand migration patterns in their complexity.
\n \n\n \n \nThis paper analyses the role of welfare systems in shaping migration patterns in Central and Eastern Europe over the transition process and after EU accession. It argues that states have played a crucial role in affecting migration by creating and widening opportunities for potential and actual migrants through welfare system policies. This explains why CEE countries where social spending figures have been lower, unemployment benefit schemes less extensive, and where labour market mismatches remained unaddressed, experienced greater out-migration. Investigating the role of sending states\u2019 institutions in a comparative framework and over time, this paper analyses migration as part of broader social and economic processes and contributes to our understanding of how sending countries\u2019 institutional factors affect out-migration.
\n \n\n \n \nIncreased population mobility has confronted the Western welfare states with various flows of immigrants varying from labour migrants to destitute refugees. A special category of migrants is formed by the immigrants from former colonies settling in their former mother countries. Welfare states have tried to keep control over immigration by implementing an increasingly refined set of laws regulating entry, residence and work of foreigners. The Netherlands have been no exception to this general trend. Moreover, immigration was a sensitive political issue in the Netherlands because the country was generally considered to be densely populated. In this context, the post-colonial migration from Suriname became an important theme in Dutch politics in the 1970s. The number of immigrants from Suriname was in fact small, but had increased from 13,000 in 1966 to 51,000 in 1972. The Surinamese immigration was a special case because the migration laws did not apply to Dutch citizens, and the Surinamese had been Dutch citizens since 1954. In 1973 Joop den Uyl, the leader of the Dutch labour party, became prime minister, and curbing the flow of Surinamese immigrants through independence was one of his top priorities. However, the results of his policy measures were contradictory. They caused a panic in Suriname and led to an unprecedented flow of immigrants. In 1975 the number of Surinamese in the Netherlands had already increased to 110,000. Den Uyl\u2019s policy proved to be based on a total misunderstanding of the nature and dynamics of this migration flow.
\n \n\n \n \nThe notion of a migration system is often invoked but it is rarely clearly defined or conceptualized. De Haas has recently provided a powerful critique of the current literature highlighting some important flaws that recur through it. In particular, migration systems tend to be identified as fully formed entities, and there is no theorization as to how they come into being. Moreover, there is no explanation of how they change in time, in particular how they come to decline. The inner workings \u2013 the mechanics \u2013 which drive such changes are not examined. Such critiques of migration systems relate to wider critiques of the concept of systems in the broader social science literature, where they are often presented as black boxes in which human agency is largely excluded. The challenge is how to theorize the mechanics by which the actions of people at one time contribute to the emergence of systemic linkages at a later time. This paper focuses on the genesis of migration systems and the notion of pioneer migration. It draws attention both to the role of particular individuals, the pioneers, and also the more general activity of pioneering which is undertaken by many migrants. By disentangling different aspects of agency, it is possible to develop hypotheses about how the emergence of migrations systems is related to the nature of the agency exercised by different pioneers or pioneering activities in different contexts.
\n \n\n \n \nWhat drives international migration? Theories of migration networks, migration culture, migration systems and cumulative causation suggest that once a critical threshold level of migrants have settled, migration tends to stimulate the creation of social and economic structures that make the process of migration self-perpetuating (cf. Massey et al. 1987; de Haas 2010). One important aspect of the theory is that the more migrants from a particular locality settle in one place, their presence, assistance and established structures in the destination country act as incentives for others to follow in their footsteps, which emphasizes the instrumental role of pioneers\u2019 agency in influencing others to follow suit. A historical perspective on the migration from Ukraine to the United Kingdom and the Netherlands challenges this assumption. While substantial numbers of migrants have settled in those destinations, migration, especially in the last 20 years, has not developed into large, self-sustaining migration systems (in comparison to the dynamic migration linkages between Ukraine and Southern European countries such as Portugal, Italy and Greece). Trying to understand why migration has not taken off, we argue that the role of settled pioneer migrants and their community structures in assisting others to follow in their footsteps should not be taken for granted. We argue that the role of pioneers is much more ambiguous and complex, and the relevant question about \u2018bridgeheads\u2019 and \u2018gatekeepers\u2019 (cf. B\u00f6cker 1994) should not be that of \u2018either/or\u2019 but \u2018how much\u2019, \u2018to what extent\u2019 or \u2018under what conditions\u2019.
\n \n\n \n \nThis paper draws on insights from the African Perspectives on Human Mobility research programme, which included four research teams based at universities in Ghana, Nigeria, Morocco and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The paper first provides some details on the background and findings of the projects conducted by the four teams in various African cities. It then turns to some reflections on the theoretical implications and questions raised by these research findings and presents four broad points. First, by showing African cities as a place of attraction for international migrants, these findings highlight the curious absence of other research into international migration towards other African cities. Second, the city is a zone of departure not just in terms of being a stepping stone to long-distance migration, but also in terms of being what we might call a \u2018forge\u2019 for migratory behaviour \u2013 where migration is shaped through urban life. Third, the paper draws attention to the different practices of integration and exclusion of migrants that are in evidence in these African cities, again observing the limited research in this area. Fourth, in contrast to the global cities literature, which largely bypasses the African continent, we note that the cities included in this study are clearly enmeshed in transnational and global networks, not merely as departure points for migrants, but also, significantly, as attractive spaces for migrants and mobile traders \u2013 for creativity, connections and exchange. The paper concludes by reflecting on how we might better understand the links between internal, regional and inter-continental migration in the context of Africa, suggesting that examining global African migrations in more detail may help us understand better the emergence of new migration systems.
\n \n\n \n \nThis paper uses fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to investigate the relative importance of mobility in the formation and viability of the internet cafes that are responsible for most local internet access in poor countries. It is based on a study of Ghanaian commercial internet cafes, the majority located in the country\u2019s remote northern regions, with a second group of cafes studied in the capital city, Accra. The findings presented here demonstrate that while international mobility is typically a strategy available to the better-off, it nevertheless benefits younger and less advantaged entrepreneurs disproportionately in terms of their return on investment. Furthermore, both migrant and non-migrant cafe owners in Ghana are using transfers from abroad of all kinds, especially physical capital and knowledge, to create and sustain their businesses. The study also shows that for those whose presence in the sector is marginal and precarious, i.e. the owners of the smallest businesses and the younger and poorer entrepreneurs, these transfers represent an essential strategy in maintaining a viable enterprise.
\n \n\n \n \nUncertainty and risk perceptions are important elements in the decision-making process about migration. This study outlines a \u2018migration prospect theory\u2019, i.e. an application and advancement of Kahneman and Tversky\u2019s (1979; Tversky and Kahneman 1991) original prospect theory, which aims to explain short-term fluctuations of migration flows as a consequence of expectation-based adjustment about future economic prospects. I argue that individuals with migration intentions continuously assess general economic prospects, including the labour market situation, at home and abroad in order to form reference points and updates for their migration-related expectations. Consequently, deviations from reference points generate (short-term) expectation-based utility gains or losses for potential migrants, which affect the value of the migration option. This can lead to a cancellation or procrastination of the individual migration project. Based on an analysis of annual and quarterly intra-European migration inflows to Germany between 2001 and 2010, supportive empirical evidence about some key implications of this migration prospect theory is found: first, migration flows respond more strongly to negative than to equal-sized positive economic prospects, indicating loss aversion of potential migrants; second, expectation-based prospects about the future economic situation in the home and in the potential destination country can counterbalance or enforce structural economic incentives based on real economic aggregates; and third, migration flows show a diminishing sensitivity for larger fluctuations in expectation-based adjustments of economic prospects.
\n \n\n \n \nThe relationship between Israel and the diaspora has been marked by mutual accommodation. The diaspora has come to accept the fact that Israel is not exempt from the problems and pathologies of states and societies; and Israel has acknowledged the continuation of the diaspora as a centre of Jewish life. Both sides are subject to illusions. Jews in the diaspora believe that Israel will be better supported by their hostland\u2019s political right rather than its left; that Israel can be saved, despite itself, by a kind of \u2018tough love\u2019 bestowed upon it by the diaspora or its hostland governments; and that Jewish identity and survival, based on an autonomous and largely secular culture, can be assured regardless of whether Israel exists or not. Israel\u2019s illusions are that it can be \u2018like other nations\u2019; that it can replicate in short order the civic nations that France and the United States became after many generations; and that it must \u2018de-ethnicise\u2019 and de-Judaise to become acceptable to its neighbours.
\n \n\n \n \nTwo central concerns for policy makers are the manageability of the rate of migration and the qualities of incoming migrants. This paper addresses these issues by proposing a theory that links risk aversion, the size of expatriate networks, migrant characteristics and the timing of migration. As the size of networks increases over time, finding employment becomes less uncertain, inducing more risk-averse individuals to migrate. Given that recent research suggests a negative relationship between risk aversion, entrepreneurial potential and cognitive ability, the model predicts a decrease in the quality of these \u2018unobservable\u2019 characteristics as networks grow larger. In addition, the dynamic relationship between network size and uncertainty leads to the following hypotheses: when migrants are more reliant on networks for finding work, more individuals will migrate, they will migrate sooner and at a faster rate. I use German Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP) data to provide empirical support for the predictions of the theoretical model.
\n \n\n \n \nThis paper formed the inaugural lecture at the launch of the Oxford Diasporas Programme in June 2011. It explores the contradictions and complexities of three \u2018formative binaries\u2019 \u2013 between dispersion and diaspora, the subjective and objective aspects of the diasporic experience, and the differences between home and homeland.
\n \n\n \n \nThis paper analyses the relationship between migration duration and occupational changes, using the case of Indian expatriates in the Gulf States. De jure, permanent migration to a Gulf state is almost impossible, leaving a (renewable) temporary work visa the only option available for Indian migrants. De facto, however, \u2018temporary\u2019 stay can last for years or even decades, and thus, questions about the factors influencing the timing of return become relevant. This analysis, based on two rounds of the Kerala Migration Survey (KMS 2008 and 2009), aims to deepen our understanding about the relationship between return migration, labour market activity and occupational change among Indian expatriates returning from the Gulf region. In particular, we investigate whether the length of stay in the Gulf depends on migrants\u2019 occupational trajectories before, during, and after the migration experience. We find some significant effects of transitions in labour market activity on the length of stay abroad. In particular, the prospect of acquiring an occupation which entails upward social mobility (mainly in the public sector or self-employment) seems to be associated with a shorter stay in the Gulf states, whereas the prospect of post-return labour market drop-out significantly increases migration duration.
\n \n\n \n \nThis paper aims to disentangle the relationship between aspirations and migration by analysing why Indonesian internal migrants generally have higher aspirations when compared with non-migrants. We ask whether migrants have higher aspirations for improving their economic well-being, and whether this \u2018capacity to aspire\u2019 already existed before migration or is rather the result of the migration experience itself. Based on longitudinal information from three waves of the Indonesian Family and Life Survey (IFLS) between 1997 and 2007, we find robust evidence for migrants having higher individual aspirations than non-migrants already before they choose to migrate. About 70 per cent of the aspiration differential between future migrants and non-migrants can be explained by factors such as young age, education, or socio-economic background, which also affect the \u2018capacity to realise\u2019 migration; the residual, however, is due to a personal trait, i.e. a certain disposition to have higher aspirations. Beyond these systematic pre-migration differences in aspirations, we find that despite the fact that migration is economically beneficial for most migrants, migration further spurs aspiration gaps.
\n \n\n \n \nWhat is semi-legality, and why does it offer a viable alternative to the legality-illegality binary divide? The paper discusses theoretical limits to illegality with reference to migrants \u2013 especially those deemed to stand outside the state\u2019s legal system \u2013 demonstrating that the division between legal/ illegal is never black or white but woven with different shades of grey: the \u2018in-between\u2019 statuses of semi-legality. I argue that semi-legality could be viewed as a multi-dimensional space where migrants\u2019 formal relationship with the state interacts with their various forms of agency towards the law. \r\nThis paper utilizes data stemming from 360 qualitative interviews with international migrants in four European countries. Delineating the conditions of semi-legality I discuss its various empirical contexts: (1) \u2018incomplete\u2019 responses to regularisation programmes - de facto fulfilling the legalisation conditions, yet facing barriers to formally (de iure) corroborate this; (2) balancing between the temporality of residence in various EU countries: understaying in some and overstaying in others; and (3) the nexus with employment \u2013 where migrants\u2019 residence in a country is lawful, but their work exceeds the restrictions permitted by their visas. I juxtapose those against the subjective experiences of semi-legality and migrants\u2019 own interpretations of their position vis-\u00e0-vis state legal frameworks.
\n \n\n \n \nHow do return migrants reintegrate back into the society? This question has been explored by much academic scholarship interested in the migration and development nexus. This paper contributes to these debates, but focuses on the experiences of re-adaptation of return migrants in the legal sphere. It systematically addresses three interrelated questions. First, how do return migrants re-establish their relationship with the legal system upon arrival? Second, how do their experiences of return and re-adaptation, upon being exposed to different ways of understanding and relating to the law, contribute to their interpretations of legality, and influence their values and attitudes to law? Finally, how do return migrants\u2019 responses to the law in the commonplace contribute to the production of legal knowledge? (cf. Yngvesson and Coutin 2006: 178; Riles 2006). The analysis is based on 99 in-depth interviews conducted in Ukraine with return migrants, family members of migrants and representatives of organizations that help return migrants reintegrate back into the society. The data has been gathered under the auspices of THEMIS project. Discussing migrants\u2019 legal adaptations I pay particular attention to the logic of difference (Moore 1986) between how law and legality are being perceived \u2018at home\u2019 and abroad, and what this can tell us about 1) the safety and personal security of return migrants; 2) their relationships with the police, bureaucracy and local officials; and 3) their choice of career paths and business ventures in Ukraine. I employ the comparative lens on the role of law to grapple with the fabrications of some of socially constructed \u2018myths\u2019 about legality in Ukraine.
\n \n\n \n \nThe concept of the migration system, first popularised in the 1970s, has remained a staple component of any review of migration theory. Since then, it has been cast somewhat adrift from its conceptual moorings; today in the literature migration systems are generally either conflated with migrant networks or elevated to the heights of macro-level abstraction which divorces them from any empirical basis. At the same time, by taking on board more sophisticated notions of agency, emergence, and social mechanisms, the broader concept of the social system has moved on from the rather discredited structural-functionalist marina where it was first launched. In recent years, having been rejected by many social theorists, the social system has been subject to major reconstruction prior to its re-launch as a respectable and valuable area of social enquiry. This paper argues that, for the most part, these developments in systems theory have been ignored by those applying the concept of systems to the analysis of migration. It addresses the question of how the concept of the migration system can be reformulated in the light of these theoretical advances and what implications this may have for our research and analysis.
\n \n\n \n \nThere is a massive amount of empirical material on (and burgeoning theoretical and conceptual approaches to) migration, but there remains a lack of a theoretical framework that can easily be applied empirically to understanding it as an ongoing process. However, various authors are beginning to suggest a structuration theory of practice might provide a fruitful way forward, especially when the theory is used critically with attempts to address the body of criticism directed towards it. This paper draws from several threads in practice theory to establish a set of useful concepts that can be applied empirically when employing practice theory as a framework for migration. I talk of \u2018practice theory\u2019 in recognition of Bourdieu\u2019s work and acknowledgement of the difficulties in the way \u2018structuration\u2019 has been understood. A key difficulty with Giddens\u2019 structuration theory is its over-emphasis on agency and its inability to define concepts through which to empirically identify and describe structures as external, causal, and real. This paper proposes the concept of emergence as a way out of this impasse, enabling the identification of structures and actions and their interaction over time, in the context of an empirical case. The second half of the paper illustrates how practice theory can be employed to understand the structuration processes involved in a given migration trend: British migration to Spain\u2019s coasts since the 1970s.
\n \n\n \n \nThis paper will take its cue from recent work in international migration, particularly the writings of Ewa Morawska and Karen O\u2019Reilly, that has explicitly placed structuration theory at its heart in analysing issues of causality. While firmly endorsing this work, I argue that it is possible to further strengthen the use of structuration in international migration studies by paying more attention to certain tenets of strong structuration theory (SST), synthesised with aspects of critical realism. This entails closer engagement with issues of epistemology and methodology, and also a more fine-grained approach to ontological concepts, the relationships between them, and their use in empirical analysis. The device of a \u2018theorised contextual frame\u2019 is introduced as a reference point that can be used to systematically evaluate the status and adequacy of individual migration studies. The device combines attention to the structural context or field relevant to a particular migration issue with the systematic focus demanded by a specific research question or objective. In sketching out the structural context, I draw out the relationship between critical realism\u2019s emphasis on plural causal mechanisms or \u2018planes of analysis\u2019, and strong structuration theory\u2019s emphasis on clusters of position-practice relations. The device is also designed to highlight the phenomenological and interpretative dimensions within particular causal processes, while insisting that such dimensions need to be grounded within the relevant structural aspects of the contextual frame. Two ideal types of \u2018hermeneutic-structural\u2019 text \u2013 contextualising and floating \u2013 are presented to help sharpen a sense of how to employ the theoretical model to heighten critical awareness of the status and quality of particular research accounts of international migration. Finally, I conduct a close analysis of Ewa Morawska\u2019s recent structuration-inspired account of large-scale migration across the Atlantic from Polish villages in the longue dur\u00e9e from the 1870s to the 1930s. This is undertaken in order to illustrate, clarify and exemplify the strengths of the approach.
\n \n\n \n \nThis paper explores the changing relationship between the people of North-Western Zambia and the nearby border with Angola, focusing on the period as Angola has moved from war to peace. Drawing on research conducted between 1996 and 2010, the paper examines how people\u2019s interactions with the border have changed, focusing on their cross-border livelihoods, identities and mobility. With the end of the war and the rehabilitation of the formal border crossing, legal restrictions and practical obstacles to movement have relaxed; at the same time, the conventions \u2013 based on informal, \u2018illicit\u2019 understandings between local officials and inhabitants on both sides of the border \u2013 that operated for many years have been undermined. Hence, there has simultaneously been both an \u2018opening\u2019 and \u2018closing\u2019 of the border. Moreover, the breaking of these conventions since the end of the war has reduced the size of the zone of informal exchange and hybridity, or borderlands.
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