Migration, Transnationalism and the City SOC 585 B. Nadya Jaworsky jaworsky@fss.muni.cz Room 3.59 Thursdays 10-11 am or by appointment • Conditions for Passing the Course: •Regular attendance and active participation in seminar discussions •Systematic work on short (1-2 page) discussion papers •Group projects in class •Peer-to-peer feedback on essay draft •Final Essay COURSEWORK will be evaluated as follows: •Participation in class-discussions, group projects (30 %) –5 points for each class •Home Assignments (25 %) –5 points for each home assignment (discussion papers and peer-to-peer feedback) •Final paper (3,000 – 4,000 words) (45 %) –10% for the draft and 35% for the final version Discussion Papers •They should be a minimum of 300 words in length. •They are due by Sunday 23:59, but don’t hesitate to send your paper even if it is late. •These writings can be quite informal, but thoughtless or cursory thought pieces will not receive credit. They must be in your own words, and must respond to the readings. •They must also include at least one, but preferably several, discussion questions. Discussion Papers •The writings must include: –The main argument of each text, preferably summarized in 2-3 sentences –At least one, but preferably several, discussion questions, which you can present in class to guide our joint exploration of the topic(s) for the session. It must be a question that allows us to enter into a discussion, not just some clarification question. Questions may involve a critique of the text.) –Your choice of the best quote from each text –Links with something you have recently seen in media, your surroundings. Why Migration Matters in the 21st Century •Who is a migrant? •The United Nations defines migrants as persons living outside of their home country for more than one year. http://www.bvallc.com/pensionblog/uploaded_images/Crowd-702052.jpg Migration in the 21st century •High proportion of women •Traditional distinction between countries of origin, transit, and destination for migrants has become increasingly blurred. •Temporary migration has become much more important. Who is a migrant? •Three main (fuzzy) dimensions of distinction: • •“voluntary” vs. “forced” •economic vs. political •“legal” vs. “illegal” •PLUS: •permanent vs. temporary How many migrants? •244 million in 2015 - Estimated number of international migrants worldwide, which has increased 41% from an estimated 150 million in 2000. Growth slowed after 2010. • •3.3% - Percentage of the world's population are migrants. In other words, 1 of out of every 30 persons in the world today is an international migrant (vs. 1 out of 35 in 2000). • •It’s 1 in 7 if you count the 763 million that includes internal migrants. • •http://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/migration/publications/migrationreport/docs/Migra tionReport2015_Highlights.pdf How many migrants? •However, the percentage of migrants varies greatly from country to country. Countries with a high percentage of migrants include United Arab Emirates (88%), Qatar (75%), Kuwait (74%) and Singapore (45%), in Europe, Liechtenstein (63%) and Luxembourg (44%) • •Countries with the lowest percentage of migrants are represented by India and Haiti (0.4%), Eritrea and Peru (0.3%), Philippines and Somalia (0.2%), China, Indonesia, Myanmar and Vietnam (0.1%), from the European Union, Lithuania, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Romania and Poland. • How many migrants? •Facebook (1.71 billion as of June 2016) •China (1.382 billion est. for 2016) •India (1.326 billion est. for 2016) •European Union (508 million in 2015) •United States (324 million est. for 2016) •Indonesia (260 million est. for 2016) •International Migrants (244 million in 2015) •Brazil (209 million est. for 2016) •Pakistan (192 million est. for 2016) •Nigeria (186 million est. for 2016) • 1. • • Where are the migrants? (total land mass) • •http://knowledge.allianz.com/demographics/migration_minorities/?668/real-earth-population-patterns -demographics-worldwide The total land area of the 200 territories depicted on the map is around 13 billion hectares. / Credits: www.worldmapper.org •http://knowledge.allianz.com/demographics/migration_minorities/?668/real-earth-population-patterns -demographics-worldwide Where are the migrants? (emigrants) • This map reflects the origins of the world’s emigrants. / Credits: www.worldmapper.org •http://knowledge.allianz.com/demographics/migration_minorities/?668/real-earth-population-patterns -demographics-worldwide Where are the migrants? (net emigration) • This map shows territories that are losing people due to migration. Mexico is the country with the ... / Credits: www.worldmapper.org •http://knowledge.allianz.com/demographics/migration_minorities/?668/real-earth-population-patterns -demographics-worldwide Where are the migrants? (immigrants) • This map reflects the number of people that live in a country different from the one they were born ... / Credits: www.worldmapper.org •http://knowledge.allianz.com/demographics/migration_minorities/?668/real-earth-population-patterns -demographics-worldwide Where are the migrants? (net immigration) • Regions experiencing the highest net immigration are North America, Western Europe, and the Middle ... / Credits: www.worldmapper.org •http://knowledge.allianz.com/demographics/migration_minorities/?668/real-earth-population-patterns -demographics-worldwide •INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR MIGRATION (IOM) • •KEY MIGRATION TERMS: • •http://www.iom.int/key-migration-terms • •http://www.iom.int/world-migration • •THE AGE OF MIGRATION PAGE WEBLINKS: • •http://www.age-of-migration.com/resources/weblinks.html • • •WHY TRANSNATIONALISM? •http://www.globalincidentmap.com/ •Why Now? •• the globalization of capitalism • with its destabilizing effects on less industrialized countries; • •• the technological revolution • in the means of transportation and communication; • •• global political transformations • such as decolonization and the universalization of human rights; and • •• the expansion of social networks • that facilitate the reproduction of transnational migration, economic organization, and politics. •WHAT’S DIFFERENT at the end of the •20th century? (Guarnizo and Smith) •EMPIRICAL TRANSNATIONALISM •describing, mapping, classifying, and quantifying novel and/or potentially important transnational phenomena and dynamics. •METHODOLOGICAL •TRANSNATIONALISM involves, at a minimum, reclassifying existing data, evidence, historical and ethnographic accounts that are based on bounded or bordered units so that underlying or novel transnational forms and processes are revealed. •THEORETICAL •TRANSNATIONALISM •formulates explanations and crafts interpretations that either parallel, complement, supplement, or are integrated into existing theoretical frameworks and accounts. •PHILOSOPHICAL •TRANSNATIONALISM • starts from the metaphysical assumption that social worlds and lives are inherently transnational. •PUBLIC •TRANSNATIONALISM •creates space to imagine and legitimate options for social change and transformation that are normally obscured, by purposefully abandoning the expectation that most social processes are bounded and bordered •The task of Transnational Studies is to uncover and conceptualize similarities, differences, and interactions among trans-societal and trans-organizational realities, including the ways in which they shape bordered and bounded phenomena and dynamics across time and space. •Towards a Transnational Studies Perspective •Towards a Transnational Studies Perspective •A first type of inquiry arising from a transnational perspective involves analyzing a particular type of transnational for or process across space •#1 •Towards a Transnational Studies Perspective •A second type of research examines a particular type of transnational form or process across time. •#2 •Towards a Transnational Studies Perspective •A third type investigates different kinds of transnational activities. •#3 •Towards a Transnational Studies Perspective •A fourth type examines interactions among transnationalisms. •#4 •Towards a Transnational Studies Perspective •A fifth type compares and contrasts transnational phenomena and dynamics with those that are ostensibly tightly bounded and bordered. •#5 •Towards a Transnational Studies Perspective •A related and sixth type of analysis explores transnational phenomena and dynamics that allegedly compete with or supplant, local, national, state, and global entities, with those that complement, interact with, or transform them. • •#6 •Towards a Transnational Studies Perspective •A seventh set of questions shifts the focus to the ideas, behaviors, symbols, and material culture that circulate though the networks and organizations embedded in transnational social fields. • • •#7 •a set of multiple interlocking networks of social relationships through which ideas, practices, and resources are unequally exchanged, organized, and transformed • •“ways of being” vs. “ways of belonging” •SOCIAL FIELDS •(Levitt and Glick Schiller) •the tendency to accept the nation-state and its boundaries as a given in social analysis •METHODOLOGICAL •NATIONALISM (Wimmer & Glick Schiller) 1)ignoring or disregarding the fundamental importance of nationalism for modern societies; 2)naturalization, or taking for granted that the boundaries of the nation state delimit and define the unit of analysis; and 3)territorial limitation, which confines the study of social processes to the political and geographic boundaries of a particular nation state. •Definition of Transnationalism •(cited in Boccagni 2011) 1) •‘The diverse complex of the social relationships and practices developing at a distance (and of the identifications underpinning them), through which migrants exert a significant, provable and reciprocal influence on non-migrants in the countries of origin’ (Boccagni, 2009: 20). Transnational methodology •Methodological transnationalism / cosmopolitanism; risk of unflective normativity and essentialism, linear trajectories •Focus on: •Ambivalence of multiple identities •Other than ethnic attributes of the migrants, intersectionality •Transnational social networks and other links of the migrants to their homeland •De-naturalizing the national • Units of analysis •Migrants‘ (transnational) families •Migrants‘ religious communities •Migrants‘ social movements •Labour migrants in a particular industry •Migrant online networks • • Scales – layers of relevance •Global •Regional •National •City scale •Postcolonial context •Transnational social field/space Methods and techniques •Multi-sited research •Mobile ethnography •Deteritorialized empirical field – migrants‘ online communities •Longitudinal research •Self-reflexive approach •De-ethnicization Group project •Prepare a research proposal on migration using a transnational lens; try to avoid methodological nationalism •- Narrow down the focus of your research – what will be the layers of relevance? what will be the research unit? •- Formulate a research question – what will be the main subject of your research? What do you want to find out? •- Design a research methodology – what methods will you use to collect your data? •- What are the possible limitations of the research methodology? •