Lecture Summaries - Migration and Citizenship - Sociology
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Universiteit Van Amsterdam (UvA)
Here is a lecture summary of the 2nd year UvA Sociology Course, Migration and Citizenship. Contains key concepts, and lecture summaries with connections to literature.
1) We live in times of unprecedented mass migration
- Neither exodus, nor invasion
2) Immigration restrictions reduce migration
- Evidence shows immigration restrcitions can lead to more migration
- Policies fail or become counterproductive when they are not based on an
understanding of how migration really works
3) Development in poor countries will reduce migration
- Evidence shows that migration rises as poor countries get richer
4) Climate change will lead to mass migration
- There is no evidence that environmental degradation leads to massive
long-distance migration
Push factors Pull factors
- Few services - Access to services
- Lack of job opportunities - Better job opportunities
- Unhappy life - More entertainment facilities
- Poor transport links - Better transport links
- Natural disasters - Improved living conditions
- Wars - Hope for a better way of life
- Shortage of food - Family links
Macro-structural - the increasing structural complexity of labor markets and increasing levels
of educational and occupational sepcialisation generate higher overall levels of migration
and mobility
Micro-agentic/behavioural - development tends to increase people’s (1) capabilities and (2)
aspirations to migrate
- Migration as a resource and investment into a better future rather than a last resort or
a ‘desparate flight from misery’
- Poverty and oppression tend to deprive people of mobility options
- The most vulnerable populations are likely to get trapped into ‘involuntary immobility’
The most effective way to reduce migration
The fundamental discrepancy between
1) Growing labour demand in destination countries
2) The political call for less migration
,A sociological view
- Migration as a ‘normal’ social process
- Need to reconceptualise migration as an intrinsic part of broader processes of social
transformation
- Instead of a problem to be solved or a solution to problems
Week 2 - Why do people migrate?
Lecture 2
Different forms of migratory and non-migratory human mobility
Non-migratory mobility Migratory mobility
Does not involve change of habitual Involves change of residence across
residence administrative border
- Commuting - Internal/international
- Family visits - Temporary/permanent
- Tourism - Labour/family/student
- Business travel refugees/asylum seekers
- Moving home within administrative - Voluntary/involuntary
units - Documented/undocumented
- Nomadism (multiple residence) - Legal/illegal
- Internal and international migration
- Temporary and permanent
- Origin and destination
- Motives
- Forced/voluntary
- Illegal, undocumented versus ‘regular’
Categories of entry
- Labour migrants
- Investment
- Students
- Refugees and asylum seekers
- Family members
- Ethnic/religious ties
, - Undocumented immigrants
- Tourist
Administrative categories
Western:
- Person with a migration background from one of the countries in Europe (Excluding
Turkey), North America and Oceania, and Indonesia and Japan
Non Western:
- Person with migration background from one of the countries in Africa, Latin America,
and Asia (excluding Indonesia and Japan) or Turkey
Discursive categories
- Categories in the media
Theories of migration
Functionalist theories
- Neoclassical approach (micro)
- New economics of labour migration
- Push-pull model
- Human capital
Structural theories
- Historical structural models
- World systems theory
Neoclassical migration theory
Definition - the decision to migrate is a function of the discrepancy of the economic
opportunities availianle at the destination, and the lack of it at the place of residence
- Thus, wage differentials, unemployment levels etc determine migration decisions
- Individuals migrate due to economic opportunities at the destination and/or lack
thereof at the origin in order to maximise expected utility
- Migration is redistribution of workforce from low to high productivity
- Labour demand is a prime determinant for migration
Critiques
- Agency is missing in model
- Assumes individuals are main decision making unit
- Doesn’t explain why people do not migrate
New economics of labour migration
- Household is main decision making unit
- Migration as an investment
, - Agency of the household
Human capital theory
- Migration as an investment that increases one’s human capital
- People decide to invest in migration similar to how they invest in education
- Helps to explain ‘selectivity’ of migration
Concept from economics: Selectivity
Roy-Borjas model of immigrants’ selection
- Immigrants as self selected group, more able and more highly motivated than their
fellow citizens
- The self selection of immigrants is determined by the distribution of incomes in the
country of origin relative to the country of destination
Critique
- The terms “favourable” and “unfavourable” and positive/negative self-selection are
normative
- The assumption that costs of migration are constant proportion of wages for all types
of immigrants is too restrictive
- Neglects social networks: family and friends
- Institutions in the destination country are largely neglected
Structural theories
- Migration as a constituent part of broader historical development and international
relations
- Migration as one of the manifestations of capitalism, imperialism and the unequal
terms of trade between developed and underdeveloped countries
- States, multinational corporations and employment agencies as drivers of migration
processes in their own right
- Migration as a way of mobilising cheap labour for capital, which primarily serves to
keep wages down and boost profits of businesses and economic growth in
destination countries
Critique
- Migration is seen as too deterministic: individuals do have some choice
- (Again) agency of individuals is overlooked
Dependency theory/world systems theory
- Not nation states, or individuals as unit of analysis but the world as an interrelated
system
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