Cultures of Migration: The Global Nature of Contemporary Mobility

180 Pages·2011·1.592 MB·English

by  Cohen, J.H.;Sirkeci, I.

Cultures of Migration

Cultures of Migration
t h e g lo ba l nat u r e o f
C o n t e M p o r a ry M o b i l i t y
Jeffrey H. Cohen and Ibrahim Sirkeci
university of texas press
Austin
Copyright © 2011 by the University of Texas Press
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First edition, 2011
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library of Congress Cataloging- in- publiCation Data
Cohen, Jeffrey H. (Jeffrey Harris)
Cultures of migration : the global nature of contemporary
mobility / Jeffrey H. Cohen and Ibrahim Sirkeci.
  p.  cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978-0-292-72684-0 (cloth : alk. paper)
isbn 978-0-292-72685-7 (pbk. : alk. paper)
isbn 978-0-292-73536-7 (E-book)
 1. Emigration and immigration—Social aspects. 2. Emigration
and immigration—Economic aspects. I. Sirkeci, Ibrahim. 
II. Title.
Jv6225.C64 2011
304.8—dc22
2011001178
For movers and their families

Contents
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xiii
introDuCtion The Cultures of Migration 1
one The Household in a Global Perspective 20
two The Growth of Migration: Mobility, Security, Insecurity 37
three Contemporary Migration: Commuters and Internal Movers 50
four Contemporary Movers: International Migration 68
five Nonmovers and Those Who Stay Behind 87
six The Economics of Migration and the Possibilities of
Development 97
Conclusions 114
Notes 121
References 129
Index 159

prefaCe
T
his book began as a discussion between Cohen and Sir-
keci regarding the meaning of migration. We started by email, talking
about our work. Cohen had spent several years looking at the patterns of
migration in rural southern Mexico, while Sirkeci had done the same in
the Kurdish parts of Turkey. Later, we shared papers and began to compare
the outcomes we had noted in these populations. Sirkeci also began Migra-
tion Letters, a journal focused on migration research from around the globe,
and he invited Cohen to join him as co- editor. Our work with the many
authors contributing to Migration Letters, as well as our ongoing investiga-
tions in two similar fields—anthropology and geography—suggested to us
that there were strong parallel currents between the migration experiences
of very different populations.
The parallels in the patterns and processes we discovered among Mexi-
can and Kurdish migrations have fueled an ongoing conversation about
the meaning, scope, and outcomes of human mobility. Our work here is
a part of that conversation, an attempt to frame migration in a way that
builds upon earlier work but that also lays out what we see as a new foun-
dation for continued analysis and debate. Specifically, we develop a cultural
framework, or a culture of migration, that acknowledges the various ways
in which migration decisions are made and that demonstrates how indi-
vidual decisions are rooted in the social practices and cultural beliefs of a
population.
Put another way, we argue that the choice to migrate is not driven
by economic need alone, nor is a desire to leave a natal home a sufficient
catalyst for border crossing. Culture—in other words, the social practice,
meaning, and symbolic logic of mobility—must be understood along with
economics if we are to understand patterns of migration. We are certainly
not alone in our belief that economics on its own is not an adequate ex-
planation. This is widely accepted in migration literature. Thomas Faist