Contemporary Migration Processes - Portfolio

7. 12. 2009 – 30. 1. 2010

Jana Slavíková

Contemporary Migration Processes - Portfolio Castles, Stephen and Mark J. Miller: “Migration to Highly-developed Countries since 1945“, “The Next Waves: The Globalization of International Migration” • Three main types of migration in 1945-1970s, leading to the formation of ethnic minorities.

Commonalities and differences - migration of workers from the European periphery to Western Europe (i.e. the Mediterranean, Ireland and Finland) – ‘guest worker system’ o belief in temporary sojourn, restriction of labour market and civil rights, recruitment of single workers, inability to prevent family reunion completely, gradual move towards longer stay, pressures for settlement and community formation - migration of ‘colonial workers’ to the former colonial powers (Britain, France, the Netherlands) o more favourable conditions for entry and citizenship, but institutional and informal discrimination, residential segregation, educational and social disadvantage – obstacle to vertical mobility, bottom of the labour market, racial violence - permanent migration to North America and Australia, at first from Europe, later from Asia and Latin America o 1965 – amendments to the Immigration and Nationality Act (USA) → removal of discriminatory national-origins quota system → worldwide immigra:on, mostly based on kinship; temporary migrant workers (occasional recruitment), large number of tolerated illegal workers o Canada – family entry encouraged, immigrants seen as settlers and future citizens o Australia – mass immigration after 1945 – permanent, family immigration – British → from the Baltic and Slavic countries (‘raciallly acceptable’) → Northern and Southern Europeans (White Australia Policy), also labour migrants → common features: o o o o o

predominance of economic motivations growing diversity of areas of origin, increasing cultural difference between migrants and receiving populations concentrated in low-skilled manual work substandard housing, poor social conditions and educational disadvantage marginalization, separation, ethnic minority position

→ differences: colonial workers – came spontaneously, citizens of the former colonial power or with some preferential entitlement → civil and poli:cal rights, mostly permanent stay o guestworkers – recruited, non-citizens, restricted rights, seen as temporary workers 1970s → decline in recruitments, increase of family reunion and international mobility of highly-qualified personnel, mass movements of refugees and asylum seekers, o

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7. 12. 2009 – 30. 1. 2010

Jana Slavíková

Contemporary Migration Processes - Portfolio

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proliferation of illegal migration and legalization policies, many Southern and Central European countries and newly industrialized countries became immigration countries, recruitment by oil-rich countries, shift in the areas of origin and the forms of migration in North America and Oceania interesting (p. 84) – in Portugal, immigrants from its former African and Asian colonies were entitled to Portuguese citizenship and usually spoke Portuguese – many of them are well integrated and form a privileged group, compared to later non-EU European immigrants (e.g. Ukrainians, Romanians) – an inversion of more customary racial hierarchies in Europe!

political economy, globalization, development, remittances (p. 127) – brief explanation, link to the study of migration - Arab migration to oil-rich Arab states – great disregard for the rights of migrants, interconnection between international migration and foreign policy issues - Sub-Saharan Africa o members of an ethnic group often citizens of two or more neighbouring or nearby states, while many states include members of several ethnic groups o poorly demarcated and controlled international boundaries – traditional movements across them o high numbers of refugees and IDPs = symptoms of the nation building and state formation process (similar to Europe in 16-20th centuries)

Pessar, Patricia: “Transnational Migration: Bringing Gender In” • Describe “gendered geography of power” concept and what it implies for migration studies, compare this approach to Sinke’s (History Module).

- Sex = male of female - Gender = more complex, involves the ways in which cultures imbue this biological difference with meaning such as demarcating between male and female domains in activities, tasks, spaces, time, dress and so on → a set of social rela:ons that organize immigration patterns - “[M]ajor areas of life – including sexuality, family, education, economy and the state – are organized according to gender principles and shot through with conflicting interests and hierarchies of power and privilege.” (Glenn, 1999: 5 in Pessar, p. 813) - gendered geographies of power = a framework for examining gender across transnational spaces = a framework for analyzing people’s gendered social agency – corporal and cognitive – given their own initiative as well as their positioning within multiple hierarchies of power operative within and across many terrains → 3 fundamental elements: o geographic scales → gender operates simultaneously on mul:ple spa:al and social scales (e.g. the body, the family, the state) across transnational terrains o social locations (fluid) → person’s posi:ons within interconnected power hierarchies created through historical, political, economic, geographic, kin-ship based and other socially stratifying factors (hierarchies of class, race, sexuality, ethnicity, nationality, gender, …) o power geometries → the types and degrees of agency people exert given their social locations → people exert power over transna:onal processes and forces as

7. 12. 2009 – 30. 1. 2010

Jana Slavíková

Contemporary Migration Processes - Portfolio

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well as being affected by them – agency as initiators, refiners, transformers of locations → 1) agency affected not only by extra-personal factors but also by quintessentially individual characteristics such as initiative, 2) social agency must include the role of cognitive processes, such as imagination, as well as substantive agency improvements to the framework: o the state → assumes a key role both in the gendered lives of immigrant and refugee men and women and in the production of cultural genres that emulate or challenge their everyday lives Guatemalan refugees and returnees – women refugees began to reflect critically on the strict boundaries drawn between male/public and female/private spheres in their homeland and in refugee lives, and they began to question the state’s “official truth” Mexican migrants – women favour staying in the USA while men prefer returning to Mexico where their status is usually higher than it can be in the USA o ad social locations – negotiating gender across vast distances and international borders → 4 recurring themes: communicating across borders particularly between spouses organizing work tasks when labourers are distant negotiating whether to stay abroad or return home what happens when migrants do return home o the gendered social imaginary →esp. maOers of fidelity, sexuality and alternative masculinities and femininities gender relations negotiated between generations transformations in the ways men and women think about each other as potential and suitable mates

Use the data from the internet to describe the size and structure of contemporary global migration – to what extent are the three texts for week 2 connected to such data?

Brah, Avtar: “Re-Framing Europe: En-Gendered Racisms, Ethnicities and Nationalisms in Contemporary Western Europe” • the concept of racism and ethnicism, link to gender

Zlotnik, Hania: “The South-to-North Migration of Women” •

What are specific dimensions of African migration?

- ‘economic’ migrants and refugees generated by the combination of wars, civil unrest and the way both superpowers pursued their global interests in Africa o political fragility and instability of governments + stressful socio-economic situation →exodus - the definition of refugees broadened to include internally displaced persons (IDP)

7. 12. 2009 – 30. 1. 2010

Jana Slavíková

Contemporary Migration Processes - Portfolio -

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inherited frontiers – agreement on their inviolability, even though they cut across homogeneous ethnic, linguistic and cultural groups → people regard movements within these groups as part of their normal life routine, without travel documents (few nationals have easy access to national passports) → illegal ‘interna:onal migrants’ (Southern Africa → some of the world’s highest per capita levels of refugees and internal displacement) doctrine of non-interference in the internal affairs of member states of OAU (Organization of Africa Unity) regulations and rules hardly enforced or enforceable because of large porous, virtually uncontrolled and in fact unpoliceable borders expulsions and deportation are common policy measures directed at illegal migrants in Africa – aliens usually scapegoats during economic and political problems mines, torture, mutilation, systematic rate, … → refugee camps aOacked – those often connected with liberation movements → many countries refused to assist refuges who did not accept membership of recognized liberation movements

What does ‘post-colonial’ mean?

Adepoju, Aderani: “The Politics of International Migration in Post-Colonial Africa” Castles, Stephen: “Towards a Sociology of Forced Migration and Social Transformation” Freedman, Jane: “Gender and Asylum in International Law – The Geneva Convention Revisited” - articles in the module “Language and Integration” → about the procedures during application for asylum, about the language / communication / mechanisms (how the applicants are disadvantaged) •

The texts by Brah, Zlotnik, Kofman et al., Pessar and Freedman address gender – summarize briefly the key arguments / findings and give your view about quality / importance. Are there any major empirical or theoretical divides, contradictions, disagreements?

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The texts by Brah, Zlotnik, Kofman et al., Pessar and Freedman have the term gender in their title: in what ways do they address men and migration or masculinities and migration? Present findings and give evaluation.

Wilson, K.B.: “Refugees, Displaced People and Returnees in Southern Africa” Zegeye, Abebe: “Hunger, War and Flight: The Horn of Africa” Faist, Thomas: “’Extension du domaine de la lutte’: International Migration and Security before and after September 11, 2001” • Summarize Faist’s reasoning and comment on this text published in 2002 from a 2010 perspective.

Geddes, Andrew: “Migration and the Welfare State in Europe” • Compare Geddes’ text with Kofman et al. – commonalities and differences in their approaches and findings.

7. 12. 2009 – 30. 1. 2010

Jana Slavíková

Contemporary Migration Processes - Portfolio Macnevin, Anne: “Political Belonging in a Neoliberal Era: The Struggle of the Sans Papiers” Kymlicka, Will: “The New Debate on Minority Rights (and Postscript)” Holliday, Adrian, Martin Hyde and John Kullman: “Introduction: Defining Concepts (Identity, Otherization, Representation)” • Explain briefly the key concepts identity, otherization and representation as used by Holliday et al. Why are they considered the key concepts for understanding intercultural relations?

- identity → how iden:ty is constructed, how individuals define their own identities o seek a deeper understanding of individual people’s identity by: avoiding preconceptions appreciating complexity not overgeneralizing from individual instances - otherization →imagining someone as alien and different to ‘us’ in such a way that they are excluded from ‘our’ ‘normal’, ‘superior’ and ‘civilized’ group → how to avoid the trap of over-generalization and reduction when describing and interacting with others o seek a deeper understanding of the prejudices, preoccupations and discourses which lead you to otherize - representation → deconstruc:on of the imposed images of people from the media and popular discourse o seek a deeper understanding of the representations of the foreign Other which are perpetuated by society - essentialism = presumption that there is a universal essence, homogeneity and unity in a particular culture (similar issue = reducing cultural behaviour down to a simple casual factor) - non-essentialism – focuses on the complexity of culture as a fluid, creative social force which binds different groupings and aspects of behaviour in different ways → more complex ideas about culture →→→ linguis:cs! (ad the module Integra:on and Language) “Martin Jacques interviews Professor Stuart Hall” “Images of the Other” “Representation in the mass media: the case of ‘asylum seekers’” •

From your point of view: did the texts in the sections 1-5 in this module address intercultural relations? Start with a definition how you use the term and then refer to texts of your choice (make specific references).