Table Of ContentUnderstanding
International
Migration
Social, Cultural
and Historical
Contexts
Ross Bond
Understanding International Migration
Ross Bond
Understanding
International Migration
Social, Cultural and Historical Contexts
Ross Bond
Sociology
University of Edinburgh
Edinburgh, UK
ISBN 978-3-031-16462-0 ISBN 978-3-031-16463-7 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-16463-7
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P
reface
It is a considerable irony that a significant proportion of this book was initially
drafted at the height of the ‘first wave’ of a global pandemic in which around
half of the world’s people were for long periods discouraged (or banned) by
their governments even from stepping across the threshold of their own homes,
never mind crossing international borders (www.euronews.com/2020/04/02/
coronavirus- in- europe- spain- s- death- toll- hits- 10- 000- after- record- 950- new-
deaths- in- 24- hou). But rather than render the issue of international migration
largely redundant, if anything the Covid-19 pandemic only further highlighted
how integral and significant the mobility of people is to life in the twenty-first
century.
In my own sector of employment, leading universities in countries such as
the UK, which had become increasingly reliant on income from the fees of
international (i.e. migrating) students, quickly realised the implications in
terms of potential lost revenue and responded through appeals for government
support and measures to reduce expenditure. Airlines—both long-established
and ‘budget’—were soon obliged to ground the majority of their aircraft and
to furlough and lay off staff. As a result, the skies became quieter and the air
cleaner—the latter not least because road traffic also declined precipitously.
The many businesses and private concerns—hotels, restaurants, bars, Airbnb
lets, and the like—which rely exclusively or considerably on travel were also
obliged to cease trading. In the UK, a means had to be found to circum-
vent the various mobility obstacles created by the crisis so that plane loads
of seasonal workers could be brought from overseas to pick fruit and vegeta-
bles which would otherwise be lost as there was insufficient available domes-
tic workforce to harvest the produce, even at a time when huge sections of
the population—through no fault of their own—found themselves under- or
unemployed, thus giving the lie to the notion that replacing migrant labour
with ‘homegrown’ employees is a relatively straightforward matter (www.the-
guardian.com/world/2020/apr/15/romanian- fruit- pickers- flown- uk- crisis-
farming- sector- coronavirus). On the other side of the world, large numbers
v
vi PREFACE
of migrants working in India’s cities, denied their usual sources of livelihood
due to the closure of workplaces and the more general lockdown of the popu-
lation, retraced their migratory routes back to their villages of origin in what
amounted to a huge exodus, sometimes undertaken on foot because other
forms of transport were unavailable or unaffordable (www.theguardian.com/
world/2020/mar/30/india- wracked- by- greatest- exodus- since- partition- due-
to- coronavirus?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other).
Meanwhile, back in the UK, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, leader of a political
party with an established history of anti-immigration rhetoric and who had also
been a leading figure in the campaign for the UK to leave the European Union
(based substantially on the goal of ‘taking back control’ of borders through
stricter immigration policy), himself became gravely ill with Covid-19 and dur-
ing his subsequent recovery singled out for praise the two migrant nurses (from
Portugal and New Zealand) who had been by his bedside during the most crit-
ical period of his illness (www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk- politics- 52262012). The
ambiguities and ironies of this nexus between immigration and Covid-19 were
summed up visually and lyrically by a video poem, ‘You Clap for Me Now’,
recited mostly by immigrants and their descendants living in the UK who were
among the ‘key workers’ applauded (literally) by the public each week for their
role in protecting and feeding the wider population during the pandemic, but
who in more ‘normal’ times were instead often the objects of fear and hostility
(www.theguardian.com/global/video/2020/apr/15/you- clap- for- me- now-
the- coronavirus- poem- on- racism- and- immigration- in- britain- video).
This book does not address all the kinds of human mobility alluded to
above—it specifically concerns international migration and thus not, for exam-
ple, mobility within state borders or tourism—but, regardless of how our world
evolves in the aftermath of the pandemic, it is a certainty that international
migration will remain important. One reason for this is because even in a hypo-
thetical (and highly improbable) future where international migration slowed
to a near halt, it would still be a highly significant dimension of contemporary
life for many because the consequences of previous migration would continue
to be felt for many decades to come. I hope this book might help readers to
understand further why that is so.
acknowledgements
This book originates from a course I have taught for a number of years for
undergraduates in their final two years of study at the University of Edinburgh.
This experience has (appropriately) involved interacting with many people who
had themselves crossed national borders to pursue their studies and/or whose
parents or ancestors were international migrants. This has also included many
students visiting Edinburgh to study for a year or one semester. In the process,
I have learned much both from the written work of the students and from
PREFACE vii
discussions in class. The book is therefore to some degree both informed and
inspired by all the students who have taken my course over the years. I am also
grateful to my colleagues in Sociology at Edinburgh, not least for their wider
support as I wrote much of this book while also leading the department. More
specifically, I thank those colleagues who I am also fortunate to count as good
friends and who sometimes listened patiently to my stories about the book and
the publishing process.
Edinburgh, UK Ross Bond
c
ontents
1 Introduction 1
Defining, Categorising and Describing International Migration 2
Why Is International Migration an Important Topic for Sociological
Study? 5
International Migration in Historical Context 9
Which Features of Contemporary International Migration Are More
Novel? 14
Outline of This Book 19
References 21
2 Understanding the Origins of International Migration 23
The Macro Level 25
The Micro Level 31
The Meso Level 40
Conclusion: Understanding Migration via the Interaction of
Structure and Agency 44
References 46
3 Understanding Migrant Incorporation: Assimilation and
Multiculturalism 49
Assimilation: Origins, Development and Critique 50
Rethinking Assimilation 54
Multiculturalism 60
Conclusion 72
References 73
4 Migrants’ Associations with Their ‘Homelands’:
Transnationalism, Diaspora and Development 75
Transnationalism 75
Diaspora 83
ix
x CONTENTS
Development 90
Conclusion 97
References 97
5 Gender and Migration 101
How Does Gender Ideology Affect Women’s Migration Relative to
Men’s? 103
How Are Gender Relations Affected by Migration? 110
In What Ways and Why Is the Impact of Migration on Gender
Relations Limited? 113
References 118
6 Migration and the Family 121
How Might the Family Both Influence and Be Influenced by
Migration? 122
Children and Migration 124
Transnational Families 131
Conclusion 137
References 138
7 Religion and Migration 141
Religion and Migrant Incorporation 142
Religion as a ‘Bridge’ to Migrant Incorporation?: The USA 146
Religion as a ‘Barrier’ to Migrant Incorporation?: Europe 148
Religion as a ‘Bridge’ and ‘Barrier’ to Migrant Incorporation? 153
Transnational Religious Practices and Structures 158
References 161
8 Forced Migration, Refugees and Displacement 165
What Is ‘Forced’ Migration? Sub-categories and Statistical Context 165
Troubling the Distinction Between ‘Forced’ and ‘Economic’
Migration 171
Critically Analysing the Refugee ‘Label’ 175
Relating ‘Forced’ Migration to Other Themes in the Book 180
References 184
9 Emerging Themes in International Migration 187
Lifestyle Migration 187
Emotions and Migration 195
New Communication Technology and Media 201
Conclusion 208
References 209
CONTENTS xi
10 Conclusions 213
Inequalities 213
Multiplicity 217
A Critical Perspective 223
References 225
Index 227
