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A very comprehensive summary of the lessons learned from interdisciplinary perspectives migration and integration
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SAMENVATTING INTERDISCIPLINARY PERSPECTIVES MIGRATION AND INTEGRATIONAims of the course
- Build an understanding of the main theories related to migration, mobility, diversity and
integration
- Provide a wide range of disciplinary perspectives on these topics
- Reflect on the meaning of common-sense assumptions related migration, diversity, mobility,
integration
- Develop critical knowledge of the academic and public debate
LECTURE 1: INTRODUCTION
IS MIGRATION A PROBLEM?
➔ Migration and mobilty: some definitions and reflections
WHAT IS MIGRATION?
• What are borders that matter?
- Fysical borders, political and social borders
- Migration in Belgium: moving from Gent to Antwerp
- What kind of borders are we talking about
• How long is long enough?
- They keep moving, is it migration? Is it a change of habitual residence?
- What if moving is part of their culture
- People moving their habitual residence across administrative borders for a certain period of time
(above 6 months)
- Emigration vs immigration (from abroad)
o Emigration: when you move out of a countru
o Migration: when you move in to a country
- Internal vs international migration
o Internal: in the country itself
o International: international borders
- Voluntary vs forced migration
o Voluntary migration: its your own choice
o Forced migration: you don’t have a choice
➔ More complicated then that, very blured
➔ Laboury and political migrants
- First and second-generation migrants
o First generation: its your own choice
o Second generation: children of 1st generation migrants
WHAT IS MOBILTY WAS THE NORM?
A few reflections drawn from the new mobilities paradigm
Sedentarist bias vs nomadic experience
o Sedentarist: The belief that living in one place is superior or normal, often leading to the
marginalization of mobile lifestyles like those of nomads or migrants.
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, o Nomadic: A way of life centered on mobility, often for cultural, economic, or survival
reasons, emphasizing adaptability and sustainability.
Mobility as the norm nor the exception in human history and in many societies
‘Mobilities rather than societies should be at the heart of a reconstituted sociology’ (Urry 2000: 210)
Rather than beginning social analysis from the sedentary perspective of nation-states and societies, or
even individuals and groups, we can begin by trying to detect the relations, resonances, connections,
continuities, and disruptions that organize the world into ongoing yet temporary mobile formations
(Sheller 2018)
“Through the mobilities turn scholars argued that theoretical frameworks based solely on analyses of
spatially delimited relations obscure a vast array of social interactions and behaviours that are not
constituted by their geographical location, but instead by their movement”
“MIGRANTS FOR EXAMPLE..”
are regularly defined by their positions of origin and arrival, gaining a unique identity based on the
combination of the relationships that they do, or do not, maintain to these two places. This limits the
questions that can be asked about movement to where someone departed and where they arrived. What
mobilities scholars argue, is that this is far too narrow a way to understand movement, which
encompasses a rich array of experiences, representations, understandings and infrastructures
related to the journey itself”. (Everuss, 2020)
DIFFERENT KINDS OF MOBILITY (URRY, 2000)
1. The physical movement of people
2. Mobilities of objects across supply chains between producers and consumers and through
differing social contexts.
3. The movement of ideas, images through global media and global cultural circulation
4. Virtual travel, by which people traverse online worlds and share presence with others in social
media platforms, message boards and other virtual spaces.
5. Communicative travel ‘through person-to-person contact via embodied conduct, messages,
texts, letters, telegraph, telephone, fax and mobile’ (Büscher & Urry, 2009, p. 102).
Social life itself is produced by the ‘complex interdependencies’ that exist between these types of
movement.
CRITICISM TO THE “NEW MOBILITIES PARADIGM”
• Too much focus on the novelty brought by technological change
• Focus on subjects that can easily move – how to make sense of those who cannot move
• Limited capability to move beyond methodological nationalism, defined as a prevalent bias that
defines nation-states as containers of social relations and the main source of identity and
meaning in people’s lives.
• States cannot be ignored: borders are still very relevant in people’s lives
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,WHY IS THIS “MOBILTIES PARADIGM” IMPORTANT FOR US?
• Shift our point of view
• Make us more reflective about the “politicisation” of migration – why is migration a problem at
all?
• Provide a complex understanding of human mobility that goes beyond physical movement
• Interpret human mobility within a wider context of imaginative, technological, material mobility
• Go beyond methodological nationalism in our way of thinking, doing research etc.
LECTURE 2: THEORIES OF MIGRATION
Migration Theories: Exploring the reasons why people migrate.
Integration Theories: Reconstructing the historical development of theories about how immigrants
integrate into new societies.
GENERAL REMARKS
• There is no grand theory of migration
➔ No Unified Theory: There is no single overarching theory that explains all migration phenomena.
• Different theories (different assumptions, levels of analysis and thematic focus, emerging from
different disciplines)
➔ Diverse Approaches: Migration theories come from various disciplines and differ in assumptions,
analytical levels, and thematic focuses.
• Different theories for different kinds of migration (internal vs international, highly vs low skilled
etc)
➔ Context-Specific Theories: Some theories are better suited for specific types of migration (e.g.,
internal vs. international, skilled vs. unskilled).
• Some theories explain why migration starts; others explain why migration continues
• Receiving country bias – most theories have been developed from global nort perspectives
➔ Bias: Most migration theories originate from the Global North, often reflecting a receiving-country
perspective.
FOUR ANALYTICAL DIMENSIONS
1) Levels of analysis
Across different levels of analysis: macro-, meso- and micro-level explanations of migration may
require different conceptual tools.
E.g.: forms of exploitative labour migration that seem to fit within the neo-Marxist paradigm can
still be rational for individual migrants and their families.
• Macro-level: Structural factors such as economic and demographic trends.
• Meso-level: Family and community networks.
• Micro-level: Individual motivations and aspirations.
2) Geographic and regional context
Across different (geographical, regional national) contexts.
E.g., neoclassical theories may work better to explain migration in wealthy countries where most
people face relatively few mobility constraints, while NELM or historical-structural approaches
may be more useful to explain migration in poor countries and areas.
➔ different theories work better in different locations (e.g. wealthy vs poor countries)
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, 3) Temporal dynamics
At different points of time. The drivers and internal dynamics of migration processes often change
over time and therefore also the social, cultural and economic mechanisms explaining such
migration.
➔ Drivers of migration evolve over time due to economic, social and cultural change
4) Social groups
Across different social groups: Different theories are likely to have different degrees of
applicability to different occupational, skill, income or ethnic groups
➔ Applicability varies by occupation, skill level, income, or ethnicity
DIFFERENT LEVELS OF ANALYSIS
- Macro factors: economic conditions , demographic changes, socio-cultural, political factors
- Meso factors: family arrangements, networks, communities, organisational networks,
community ties
- Micro factors: individuals’ dispositions, attitudes, representation, desires, personal
characteristics, perceptions and desires
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