Citizenship values and asset accumulation: the case of Argentine migrants

Using diverse conceptualisations of citizenship, this article analyses the effect of the accumulation of civic and political assets on the transformation of citizenship values among Argentine migrants to Spain and returnees. Focusing on the transnational spaces, this article analyses important civic and political capabilities accumulated by a group of migrants and explores the impact of the assets accumulated in the transnational context. This research uses data drawn from 19 Argentine immigrants to Barcelona and 30 Argentine returnees from the cities of Madrid, Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca. Findings indicate that the migratory experience generated gains in the civic and political capabilities of this group of migrants and returnees and that living in Spain promoted the development of a more responsible, analytical and, in some cases, active citizenship. As holders of ‘multiple-perspectives’, interviewees were in a privileged position to critically analyse both the sending and receiving societies. Moreover, respondents implemented a number of practices acquired in the host society, in their home society, although this transfer generally remained at an individual level.     

Quantifying citizens: neoliberal restructuring and immigrant selection in Canada and Australia

This article analyzes the ways in which Canadian and Australian immigration policies represent causes and consequences of neoliberal restructuring. Interrogating neoliberalism as a series of political-economic and moral changes derived from the marketization of societal and governmental arrangements, it illustrates how numerically-based ‘points systems’ have been employed as mechanisms for: gauging human capital; establishing indices of risk and undesirability; and promoting the ‘responsibilization’ of incoming migrants. In doing so the points systems' historical trajectory is traced through a variety of administrative reforms characteristic of neoliberal government and flexible accumulation. Ultimately, this article contends that as rational, technical and economically guided systems of enumeration and assessment, both governments' policies mirror, enhance and extend neoliberal arrangements and sensibilities. In providing ostensibly objective techniques of evaluation the points systems have assisted in injecting the ideal neoliberal citizens- who are, above all, flexible, cosmopolitan, entrepreneurial and autonomous- from abroad. Overall this paper contributes to studies of state restructuring by providing new insights into the links between the neglected domain of immigration control and emergent techniques of societal regulation and citizen-making.     

迁徙自由下户籍制度改革的构想

迁徙自由为公民所享有的基本权利之一,而迁徙自由在我国法律制度中的地位则经历了一个曲折过程。基于迁徙自由的户籍制度改革,必须重视对城乡统筹的指导,必须重视迁徙自由时机成熟的确立,必须强调自由与权利的相对性、身份与权利平等、权利与义务对等、所有权益获得是渐进分步式的。     

论申根协定对国际移民的影响

《申根协定》是欧洲若干国家通过政府问的合作而对跨国移民进行统一管理的国际条约,它集中体现了欧盟的移民政策。该协定基本实现了欧盟国家内部的个人自由流动,促进了欧盟一体化的进程,但其实施对国际移民也带来一些负面问题,笔者拟从《申根协定》出台的历史背景及其条款内容出发,深入探究欧盟的移民法律与政策,并就该协定对未来国际移民的影响趋势进行分析和研讨。     

Migrant life stories and the Web: the experience of having your life story made public

The life stories of migrants are increasingly being told, as part of the work of cultural organizations, and websites are well suited to making such life story projects accessible to the public. However, by using the lives of real people as raw material in a public forum, Web projects raise important questions about the terms on which participants are given a voice. This article focuses on a Danish website which depicts the life stories of migrant men through written texts, audio clips, and photographs. It presents a detailed analysis of the life story of one young man from a Muslim background who has openly declared himself an atheist. The article examines his experience of having this somewhat sensitive story made public. The religious aspect inevitably positioned his story in relation to broader political debates about Muslims in Denmark. Since migrants' stories often touch on highly politicized issues, it is crucial that their stories are not co-opted by societal discourses which they do not themselves support.     

Kurdish migrant mothers in London enacting citizenship

The article explores the mothering work of a group of Kurdish women in London as enactments of citizenship. Rather than focusing on their integration, it foregrounds the migrant mothers' ability to disrupt hegemonic citizenship narratives and bring into being new political subjects. They co-construct diasporic citizenship, through their mothering work, producing their children's cultural identifications as both British and Kurdish. These identifications are contingent, involving intra-ethnic contestations of legitimate Kurdish culture. Kurdish migrant mothers' cultural work is not simply about making nation state citizens. By giving meaning to cultural continuity and change, the mothers reference multiple levels of belonging (local, national and diasporic) which challenge state boundaries. The article shows that although mothers play a key role in constructing their children's cultural identities and their articulation in ethnic and national terms, they also contest the meaning of ethnic minority cultural practices and group boundaries, potentially disrupting hegemonic narratives of good citizenship as ethno-national.     

One (Slender) Tree,Many (Social) Roots: Revisiting Immigrant Associations Through a Case Study on Ecuadorians in Italy

Abstract

Immigrant associations are often assumed to be social phenomena already ‘out there’, while their developmental trajectories and social roots are relatively understudied. Much literature has explored their contribution to the socio-political integration of newcomers, lumping together all of their non-political activities as ‘co-ethnic sociability’. However, their micro-social roots deserve more attention, and the identity and symbolic dimensions of their initiatives are worth investigating further. Based on a literature review and an ethnography of a group of Ecuadorians living in Northern Italy, we revisit the factors affecting the development of immigrant associations as well as their primary fields of activity. While these associations are expressive of immigrants’ cultural backgrounds and basically deal with informal sociability, they also have an implicitly political dimension, as they mirror immigrants’ struggle for public visibility and recognition. A better appreciation of the political significance of immigrant associations (despite their shortcomings and political marginality), and of their evolving roots, is necessary to understand why, and how, newcomers such as the Ecuadorians in our case study may (or may not) join them.     

The third wave: mixed migration from Zimbabwe to South Africa

Migration from Zimbabwe has recently been described as an archetypal form of “mixed migration” in which refugees and migrants are indistinguishable from one another. This paper argues that such a state-centred understanding of mixed migration oversimplifies a far more complex reality and fails to adequately account for the changing nature of Zimbabwean out-migration. Based on data from three separate Southern African Migration Programme (SAMP) surveys undertaken in 1997, 2005 and 2010 at key moments of transition, the paper shows how the form and character of mixed migration from the country has changed over time. The country’s emigration experience since 1990 is divided into three periods or “waves”. The third wave (roughly from 2005 onwards) has seen a major shift away from circular, temporary migration of individual working-age adults towards greater permanence and more family and child migration to South Africa. Zimbabwean migrants no longer see South Africa as a place of temporary economic opportunity for survival but rather as a place to stay and build a future for themselves and their families.     

Fulani on the Move: Seasonal Economic Migration in the Sahel as a Social Process

Most research on short-term rural to urban migration and its impacts takes an economic approach and often emphasises negative aspects of migration, linking it synergistically with rural poverty in sending areas. Data from Fulani migrants in Northern Burkina Faso challenge this pessimistic view of short-term labour migration. Rather than a response to destitution, migration seems to be a useful way in which reasonably prosperous households can further enhance livelihood security. Moreover, factors not easily incorporated into a standard economic analysis, identity and village networks, emerge as being essential to the understanding of migration in this population. Finally, migration emerges as a highly dynamic process, which an ahistorical, static framework of analysis fails to capture.