bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A spatial perspective on political group formation in Turkey after the 1971 coup: The Kurdistan Workers Party of Turkey (PKK)
Authors: Jongerden Joost
Published: December 2018

The five years preceding the 1978 founding congress of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (Partîya Karkêren Kurdistan, PKK) are referred to by its members as the party’s “existential period”. In the PKK’s “existential period” public spaces, such as university dormitories and canteens and student associations played an important role as meeting places, yet political formation occurred mainly in private spaces, especially private apartments and houses. This article considers this early history of the PKK from a spatial perspective. The main question addressed is how the Kurdistan Revolutionaries, as the group was known before its formal establishment, sustained itself spatially at a time when political life had been paralysed as a result of martial law and became subject to securitisation politics. Data for this article has been collected by means of interviews and the study of (auto)biographical texts.ABSTRACT IN KURMANJINêrîneke mekanî li ser avabûna komên siyasî li Tirkiyeyê piştî derbeya 1971ê: Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan a Tirkiyeyê (PKK)5 salên beriya 1978an, berî kongreya avabûna Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan, ji teref endamên wê ve wek qonaxa hebûnî ya partiyê tê nîşankirin. Di ‘qonaxa hebûnî’ ya PKKê de roleke girîng a mekanên giştî yên wek xewgeh û kantîn û komeleyên xwendekaran li zanîngehan hebû lewre ew wek cihên civînê bûn, lê avabûna siyasî esasen li mekanên taybet, bi taybetî jî li mal û xaniyên taybet çêbû. Ev gotar wê dîroka pêşîn a PKKê bi nêrîneke mekanî dinirxîne. Pirsa bingehîn ew e ka Şoreşgerên Kurdistanê, wek ku berî avabûna xwe ya fermî dihatin zanîn, piştî ku jiyana siyasî ji ber qanûnên şer felc bûbû û tûşî siyaseteke rijd a asayîşê dibû, çawa karîn xwe li ser piya bigirin. Daneyên vê gotarê bi rêya hevpeyvînan û xebatên (oto)biyografîk hatine berhevkirin. ABSTRACT IN SORANIRwangeyekî şwênmend sebaret be drûstbûnî grupêkî siyasî le Turkiyay dway kudetay 1971: Partî Kirêkaranî Kurdistan le Turkiya (PKK)Mawey pênc sallî pêş le damezranî kongrey Partî Kirêkaranî Kurdistan le sallî 1978, le layen endamanî em ḧîzbewey wekû “qonaẍî wucûdî” amajey pê dekrê. Lem “qonaẍe wucûdîyey” Partî Kirêkaranî Kurdistan feza giştîyekan, wekû jûre nawxoyîyekanî zankokan, çêştxorîyekan û encûmene xwêndkarîyekan dewrêkî giringyan wek şwênî kobûnewe debînî, le katêkda ta ew qonaẍe riskanî siyasî zortir le feza taybetekan, be taybet apartman û mallî şexsîy hawwillatiyan debînra. Em wutare le rwangeyekî şwênmendewe serincî mêjûy seretayî PKK dedat. Pirsyarî serekîy em twêjînewe bo ewe degerrêtewe ke çon şorrişgêrranî Kurdistan, pêş lewey be resmî  wekû grupêk dabimezrên denasran, û herweha le ruwî şwênî çalakîyewe çon ewan twaniyan xoyan rabigirin le katêkda jiyanî siyasî,  wek babetî siyasetêkî emnîyewe seyr dekra û le derencamî maddeyekî yasayîyewe îflîc kirabû. Datay em wutare le rêgey wutuwêj û lêkollînewey deqekanî (xo)jiyanînamekanewe ko kirawetewe.
Editorial
Authors: Van Bruinessen Martin
Published: December 2018

In our coverage of Kurdish history and society, it has been our journal’s intention to pay adequate attention to the gender dimension (besides those of class, ethnicity, language, religion and political economy). We are therefore pleased to present this special issue titled Theorising women and war in Kurdistan: A feminist and critical perspective with a focus on the role of women as actors as well as victims in war and conflict. The guest editors, Nazand Begikhani, Wendelmoet Hamelink and Nerina Weiss, are long-time members of the Kurdish Studies Network (KSN) and have each previously published relevant and memorable work themselves, and for this issue they have brought together a set of remarkable papers, each of which offers a new and unusual perspective on cases of gendered violence.
Book Reviews
Authors: Studies Kurdish
Published: December 2018

Khanna Omarkhali, The Yezidi Religious Textual Tradition: From Oral to Written. Categories, Transmission, Scripturalisation and Canonisation of the Yezidi Oral Religious Texts, Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2017, 625 pp. (ISBN 9783447108560).Parvin Mahmoudveysi, Denise Bailey, Ludwig Paul, and Geoffrey Haig, The Gorani Language of Gawraǰū, a Village of West Iran: Texts, Grammar, and Lexicon, 2012, Wiesbaden: Reichert Verlag, 276 pp., (ISBN: 9783895008559).Mahmoudveysi, Parvin, and Denise Bailey. The Gorani Language of Zarda, a Village of West Iran: Texts, Grammar, and Lexicon, 2013, Wiesbaden: Reichert Verlag, 240 pp., (ISBN: 9783895009525).David Gaunt, Naures Atto, and Soner O. Barthoma, Let Them Not Return: Sayfo – The Genocide against the Assyrian, Syriac and Chaldean Christians in the Ottoman Empire, New York, Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2017, 274 pp., (ISBN: 97817853349869).Ahmed Fawaz, Opportunity, Identity, and Resources in Ethnic Mobilization: The Iraqi Kurds and the Abkhaz of Georgia, Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Books, 2017, 229 pp., (ISBN: 9781498534000).Michael M. Gunter (ed.), Kurdish Issues: Essays in Honor of Robert Olson, 2016, Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishing, (ISBN: 9781568593104).
OBITUARY: In memoriam: Faleh Abdul Jabar (1946-2018)
Authors: Leezenberg Michiel
Published: December 2018

This obituary sketches life and work of the prominent Iraqi social scientist Faleh Abdul Jabar with a focus on his relevance for Kurdish studies. The article briefly discusses his major publications and his continuing dialogue with Marxist social theory. ABSTRACT IN KURMANJIJi bo bîreweriya Faleh Abdul Cebar (1946-2018)Ev yadname wêneyê jiyan û xebata zanyarê Iraqî yê navdar Faleh Abdul Cebar dikêşe, bi taybetî berê xwe dide ser girîngiya wî bo lêkolînên kurdî. Gotar bi kurtî behsa berhemên wî yên sereke û diyaloga wî ya berdewam ligel teoriya civakî ya marksîst dike. ABSTRACT IN SORANILe yadawerî da: Felaḧ 'Ebdul Cebar (1946-2018)Em pirsenameye wêney jiyan û berhemî twêjerî komellayetîy diyarî 'Eraqî Felaḧ 'Ebdul Cebar dekêşêt legell terkîzkirdine ser peywendîy ew be dîrasey kurdîyewe. Babeteke be kurtî giftugo le ser billawkirawe serekîyekanî dekat we dayelogî berdewamî ew legell tiyorî komellayetî marksîstî.
Africa - Israel - Africa Return-migration experiences of African labour migrants
Authors: Sabar Galia
Published: December 2018

This paper analyses homecoming experiences of African labour migrants who lived in Israel and returned home. Using qualitative research methodologies, I discerned what factors - material and non-material - determine the relative success of the return process. Focusing on these factors’ effects, I offer a new understanding of labour migrants’ homecoming experiences: those who are “content,” “readjusting,” or “lost. Following Ulrich Beck's (2006) analysis of cosmopolitanism, I suggest that these categories portray significant new life spaces that are neither what they left nor what they came from, and are dynamic, fragile, and constantly changing. In some cases the influence of economic assets on the returned migrants’ homecoming experience was indeed crucial, in many other cases the challenges of reconnecting oneself with home, family, and existing social norms and customs was much more influential on their homecoming experience including on their sense of well-being. Furthermore, some of the non-material goods such as individualization, personal responsibility, and long-term planning proved useful, others such as trust, particularly in relation to family, were detrimental.
Migration and family change in Egypt: a comparative approach to social remittances
Authors: Gruntz Lucile , Pagès-El Karoui Delphine
Published: December 2018

Based on two ethnographical studies, our article explores social remittances from France and from the Gulf States, i.e. the way Egyptian migrants and returnees contribute to social change in their homeland with a focus on gender ideals and practices, as well as on the ways families cope with departure, absence and return. Policies in the home and host countries, public discourse, translocal networks, and individual locations within evolving structures of power, set the frame for an analysis of the consequences of migration in Egypt. This combination of structural factors is necessary to grasp the complex negotiations of family and gender norms, as asserted through idealized models, or enacted in daily practices in immigration and back home.
EDITORIAL: Migration and competitiveness: Japan and the United States
Authors: Martin Philip L.
Published: December 2018

Japan and the United States, the world’s largest economies for most of the past half century, have very different immigration policies. Japan is the G7 economy most closed to immigrants, while the United States is the large economy most open to immigrants. Both Japan and the United States are debating how immigrants are and can con-tribute to the competitiveness of their economies in the 21st centuries. The papers in this special issue review the employment of and impacts of immigrants in some of the key sectors of the Japanese and US economies, including agriculture, health care, science and engineering, and construction and manufacturing. For example, in Japanese agriculture migrant trainees are a fixed cost to farmers during the three years they are in Japan, while US farmers who hire mostly unauthorized migrants hire and lay off workers as needed, making labour a variable cost.
Migration and US agricultural competitiveness
Authors: Martin Philip L.
Published: December 2018

Agriculture has one of the highest shares of foreign-born and unauthorized workers among US industries; over three-fourths of hired farm workers were born abroad, usually in Mexico, and over half of all farm workers are unauthorized. Farm employers are among the few to openly acknowledge their dependence on migrant and unauthorized workers, and they oppose efforts to reduce unauthorized migration unless the government legalizes currently illegal farm workers or provides easy access to legal guest workers. The effects of migrants on agricultural competitiveness are mixed. On the one hand, wages held down by migrants keep labour-intensive commodities competitive in the short run, but the fact that most labour-intensive commodities are shipped long distances means that long-run US competitiveness may be eroded as US farmers have fewer incentives to develop labour-saving and productivity-improving methods of farming and production in lower-wage countries expands.
The foreign born in the American healthcare workforce: Trends in this century’s first decade
Authors: Lowell B. Lindsay
Published: December 2018

This study describes the native and foreign born in US healthcare in the first decade of this century. Immigrant women are more likely than natives to be employed in long term care where they are most concentrated among professional practitioners and lesser skilled direct care workers. The foreign born are similar to natives in their average age, education and the dominance of women. They differ in being more likely to reside in metropolitan areas and in central cities. The foreign born earn more than natives and this appears to be both significant and inexplicable by way of differences in experience or education.
Migration and competitiveness in science and engineering in Japan
Authors: Oishi Nana
Published: December 2018

This article focuses on highly skilled migrants employed in science and engineering, especially the information and communication technology (ICT) sector. Despite the fact that Japan is the third largest economy in the world, and is known for cutting-edge science and technology, the percentage of foreign scientists and engineers employed in Japan is the lowest among major industrialized countries. Can Japan attract highly skilled professionals as global competition of talent grows more fierce and the population ages? The author concludes that Japanese corporations will have to introduce more global human resource practices such as diversity management policies and performance-based pay/promotion schemes, and that the government will have to further expand the new point system to provide more incentives for skilled foreigners to work in Japan. Improving Japanese universities’ research and education capacity would also be necessary to attract top-level international students who are prospective highly skilled workers.
Immigration and civil society New ways of democratic transformation
Authors: Agustín Óscar García , Jørgensen Martin Bak
Published: December 2018

In this special issue, we consider it essential to understand the potential of “democratic transformation”, fostered by civil society, not as a transition to democracy but as a way of deepening democracy. In our understanding democratic transformation is based on the power of organized civil society actors to challenge the institutional order rather than an achievement measured against the main characteristics of representative democracy. The seven papers which constitute this special issue all deal with different aspects of immigration, civil society and democratic transformations. Together they offer insight into different national cases by describing and analyzing immigrant mobilization in Denmark (Jørgensen), France (Suárez-Krabbe), Italy (Ambrosini), Portugal (Abrantes), Spain (García; Suárez-Krabbe), Sweden (Ålund et al.), the Netherlands (Suárez-Krabbe), and United Kingdom (Suárez-Krabbe).
Framing the mobilization of migrants in Sweden
Authors: Ålund Aleksandra , Mešić Nedžad , Kings Lisa , Dahlstedt Magnus
Published: December 2018

The paper examines agency for social inclusion among Swedish Associations Founded on Ethnic Ground (AFEGs). It focuses on the access of AFEGs to ‘public voice’ (Solomos 2003) and the opportunity structures for cooperation between AFEGs, public institutions, and other organized interests in the area of social integration in Sweden. Focusing on discursive opportunities, availability of supporters, and public legitimization, we can conclude from three case studies discussed in this paper that there are obvious inequalities present in partnerships between AFEGs and migrant-supporting organizations. In particular, two of the case studies (one and three, highlighting the relationships between AFEGs, the Equality Ombudsman, and adult education associations), illustrate serious obstacles for their activities.
Fighting discrimination and exclusion: Civil society and immigration policies in Italy
Authors: Ambrosini Maurizio
Published: December 2018

Migration policies in recent years have turned to growing restrictions and tighter controls in most countries, not only at national level but often also at local level. But several actors from civil society have tried to counteract this trend, protesting, organizing advocacy actions, providing services and promoting networks. Italy is a case in point: from the beginning of the arrival of immigration flows in the ’80, the reception of the newcomers and the defence of their rights has been provided mainly by non-public actors: trade unions, voluntary associations, social movements, catholic institutions. In the last decade, Italian immigration policies have hardened, above all in the period 2008-2011, with the advent of a securitarian discourse. Many civil society organizations struggled against these policies. The article will present two case studies: 1) the Association “Avvocati per niente”, that defends the immigrants against local policies of exclusion; 2) NAGA and OSF, two Associations engaged in health care for irregular immigrants in Milan. The articles explore motivations, discourses, strategies, alliances and outcomes of their action.
Insurance and remittances: New evidence from Latin American immigrants to the US
Authors: BASU BHARATI , BANG JAMES T.
Published: December 2018

This paper examines how the probability of sending remittances and the level of remittances sent are influenced by immigrants’ desire to insure against uncertainty, as opposed to factors that result in remittances with altruistic motives. Using for the first time both 1) data from the Mexican Migration Project and the Latin American Migration Project and 2) the predicted probability of unemployment in the destination country as a measure of immigrants’ economic uncertainty, we find that for Latin American Immigrants insurance motives play a more dominant role than altruistic motives.
Independent commissions and labour migration: The British MAC
Authors: Martin Philip L. , Ruhs Martin
Published: December 2018

The independent Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) was created in 2007 after a decade in which the share of foreign-born workers in the British labour force doubled to 13 per cent. The initial core mandate of the MAC was to provide “independent, evidence-based advice to government on specific skilled occupations in the labour market where shortages exist which can sensibly be filled by migration.” The MAC's answers to these 3-S questions, viz, is the occupation for which employers are requesting foreign workers skilled, are there labour shortages, and is admitting foreign workers a sensible response, have improved the quality of the debate over the “need” for foreign workers in the UK by highlighting some of the important trade-offs inherent in migration policy making. The MAC can clarify migration trade-offs in labour immigration policy, but cannot decide the ultimately political questions about whose interests should be prioritised and how competing policy objectives should be balanced.
Independent migration commissions in Europe: The case of Austria
Authors: Biffl Gudrun
Published: December 2018

Austrian migration policy changed from a demand driven guest worker model between the 1960s and 1980s to chain migration, family reunion and refugee migration in the 1990s. Membership to the EU in 1995 was accompanied by economic migra-tion from other EU-member states due to faster-than-average economic growth in Austria. Population ageing and insufficient investment in further education and train-ing led to labour scarcities and migration policy reforms in 2011 and gave employer demand a key role in selecting immigrants under a point-system adapted from the Canadian and Australian models. While many elements of the Austrian system are highly developed, there is insufficient coordination among federal agencies. Austria may look to the coordinator of integration policies as a model for improving the co-ordination of policies to guide skilled labour migration.
Spatial regularities between non-immigrant and immigrant numbers in Canada
Authors: Aydede Yigit
Published: December 2018

The present study intends to reveal spatial regularities between non-immigrant and immigrant numbers in two different ways. First, it questions the existence of those regularities when spatial scales get finer. Second, it uses pooled data over four population censuses covering the period from 1991 to 2006, which enabled us to apply appropriate techniques to remove those unobserved fixed effects so that the estimations would accurately identify the linkage between local immigrant and non-immigrant numbers. The results provide evidence about the existence of negative spatial regularities between non-immigrant and immigrant numbers in Canada at national scale.
A matter of value Exploring what underlies adjudication in the French Court of Asylum
Authors: Kobelinsky Carolina
Published: December 2018

In this paper, I examine the decision-making process in the French Court of Asylum, which reviews appeals about decisions of the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons, granting or refusing refugee status. I consider the relationship between the substantial refusals of the claims and the adjudicators’ con-ception of what asylum is. Drawing on data collected between 2009 and 2011 over 14 months of ethnographic fieldwork at the Court, I argue that refugee status is imagined as an ideal and that it is therefore very difficult to consider real claimants worthy of it.
Viewpoint: The case for a foreign worker advisory commission
Authors: Marshall Ray
Published: December 2018

This paper outlines the case for an independent Foreign Worker Advisory Commis-sion (FWAC) to assemble and develop data and research to assist the administration and Congress make better and more timely decisions on employment-based migration (EBM), a relatively small (14 per cent in 2010) component of total immigration. An independent, professional FWAC should be an important component of comprehen-sive immigration reform. Indeed, the FWAC should be established and operational before any substantive changes are made in current foreign worker programs. The United States should, however, immediately improve the enforcement of the rights of foreign and domestic workers, simplify and modernize administrative procedures, and strengthen data relevance and reliability.
Editorial: The shadows of enlargement: Theorising mobility and inequality in a changing Europe
Authors: Amelina Anna , Vasilache Andreas
Published: December 2018

This introductory article of the special issue is based on the criticism of the sedentarist lens used in migration studies on social inequalities. It is organised around two questions: In what ways have forms of inequality and patterns of migration in the enlarged Europe been changed, and how should the nexus between migration and social inequality be rethought after the ‘mobility turn’ in the social sciences? First, the article proposes that the mobility turn and transnational sociology be combined to approach varieties of geographic mobility in the current Europe and that inequality analysis be conceptualised from a ‘mobile perspective’, meaning that forms of mobility and patterns of inequality be considered as mutually reinforcing. Second, Europe is considered as a fragmented and multi-sited societal context, which is co-produced by current patterns of mobility. The article discusses recent societal shifts such as supranationalisation and the end of socialism in the Eastern part of Europe (among many others) and identifies the concept of assemblage as a useful heuristic tool both for migration studies and European studies. Third, the final part illustrates how the contributions collected in this special issue address the challenges of the sedentarist lens and provide conceptual solutions to the analytical problems in question.
With what implications? An assessment of EU migration governance between Union regulation and national diversity
Authors: Carmel Emma
Published: December 2018

The analysis of EU migration policy has been focused primarily on evaluating its relationship to EU law, or its application to individual member states. This article argues that neither focus can address the full implications and effects of EU migration governance. The Union’s migration and free movement policies set out to organise populations both within and beyond its formal borders. They are part of the broader governance of the European Union as an integrated market, and as an international policymaker. As such, the characteristics and effects of migration governance across the EU as a whole need to be assessed. At the EU level, EU policy and law on migration creates the illusion of policy coherence, applied to all member states, incomers and residents. Yet these apparently coherent EU policies always co-exist with three confounding factors: 1) national and local variation in migration, integration and social policies; 2) national and local labour market variation, particularly in the role of informal economy, and 3) profound member state hierarchies in the EU’s political economy, reinforced by the ongoing crisis. However, this does not mean that the EU’s migration policymaking is irrelevant to member states. Rather, migration governance in the EU is co-produced by the cross-cutting and sometimes contradictory policies of other actors. With its illusion of policy coherence, this co-produced governance both disguises and entrenches significant hierarchy among member states. It contributes to an EU polity which manages diversity through inequalities.
Migrating skills, skilled migrants and migration skills: The influence of contexts on the validation of migrants’ skills
Authors: Nowicka Magdalena
Published: December 2018

Notions of skill are geographically and historically specific; migration regimes, professional regulations and national policies influence possibilities of effective validation of migrant knowledge abroad. Migration scholars convincingly demonstrate how migrants actively circumvent national requirements to fit into the dominant culture of the society of residence while preserving their own identities. Yet, without exception, social inequalities research exclusively addresses the integration of migrants into the receiving context, taking skills as a fixed attribute migrants simply ‘bring with them’. I argue that the context of origin of migrants for skill acquisition and validation during the migration process needs to be considered as well. The way skills are defined, acquired and valorised in the country of origin has an influence on how migrants mobilise them in the receiving society and on how they perceive their chances for negotiating strong positions in the labour market of the host country. The article draws on a study of Polish migrants to the UK with secondary and tertiary educational certificates who work in routine or semi-routine occupations.
The next generation: Experiences of higher educated Turkish-Dutch on The Hague labour market
Authors: Nijhoff Karijn G.
Published: December 2018

This paper explores the relationship between education and labour market positioning in The Hague, a Dutch city with a unique labour market. One of the main minority groups, Turkish-Dutch, is the focus in this qualitative study on higher educated minorities and their labour market success. Interviews reveal that the obstacles the respondents face are linked to discrimination and network limitation. The respondents perceive “personal characteristics” as the most important tool to overcoming the obstacles. Education does not only increase their professional skills, but also widens their networks. The Dutch education system facilitates the chances of minorities in higher education through the “layering” of degrees.
Policy perspectives of Turkey towards return migration: From permissive indifference to selective difference
Authors: Bilgili Özge , Siegel Melissa
Published: December 2018

This is the first paper of its kind to look at policy perspectives on return migration in Turkey, based on an analysis of official documents and a series of interviews with Turkish authorities, government officials and academics. We identify several perspectives which range from the absence of a specific legislation to control return migration, to the concrete attempts to regulate the return of a selected group of migrants, namely the highly skilled. Subsequently, we show that these perspectives are built on a series of sometimes paradoxical arguments regarding economic development, past experiences about development initiatives and the country’s international objectives.
Educated in New Zealand and staying on? A parameter simulation analysis
Authors: Soon Jan Jan
Published: December 2018

There is a non-trivial probability of students remaining abroad after completion of studies outside their home countries. Departing from typical literature, this paper incorporates simulations of parameters obtained from a multinomial logit model in revealing why international students studying abroad intend to stay abroad or to return home. Micro-level data are obtained from a sample of 623 full-time international students studying at tertiary level programmes in two New Zealand universities. Parameter simulations enable the plotting of the distributions of outcome probabilities, where the distributions would show how distinguishable the effect of an explanatory variable has on the probability of remaining abroad or returning home. Favourable perceptions on the type of lifestyle in one’s home country are found to have a positive impact on the probability of returning home. Surprisingly, good perceptions on wage competitiveness do not appear to be a predominant reason behind the probability of remaining abroad or returning home.
Determining Turkish migration to Austria: the role of migration policy
Authors: Atac Ilker
Published: December 2018

Migration from Turkey to Austria started as “guest worker” labour migration. Soon, however, there were signs of permanent immigration from Turkey to Austria leading to a permanent migration in which the differences between labour and family migration began to blur. How can we explain Turkish migration and its shifting dynamics to Austria from a historical perspective? Which factors have played a role in shaping this migration? Turkish migration to Austria offers an interesting case for a discussion of migration policy outcomes since Austria has been a good example of a country with restrictive policies in European comparison. Austrian government policies were of major importance for determining the migratory process from Turkey. However, these were continuously challenged by interventions of the Austrian Constitutional Court, European Court of Human Rights and European Court of Justice. Besides, factors at the individual and meso level, such as family and community networks, and issues connected to economic and political developments in Turkey, shaped migration policy outcomes. After discussing in more detail the various factors that have been identified as influencing migration processes in previous studies, I will examine the interaction of these factors in shaping Turkish migration to Austria, and the role of limiting government policies.
“The more things change the more they stay the same”: Decision-making in Zimbabwean transnational families
Authors: Chereni Admire
Published: December 2018

Whereas studies have documented socio-cultural changes connected to migration dynamics, there is a dearth of knowledge about decision-making in transnational families. This article seeks to understand transformations in decision-making in six Zimbabwean transnational families. This is done by examining qualitative data generated through semi-structured interviews with members of the migrant families. While accentuating the need for more research on interpersonal processes in transnational families, the article illustrates that shifts in gender roles may occur alongside gender-normative behaviours that maintain women in subordinate decision-making roles.
Migration and Subjective Poverty in sending countries: An analysis of the Egyptian case
Authors: Kahn Yehudith , Dumas Audrey , Eshet Yovav , Billfeld Nir
Published: December 2018

Migration has traditionally been used as a survival strategy in times of financial crisis; however, a debate exists as to whether migration influences poverty on the individual level. The current study analyses the influence of past subjective poverty on migration choice and to determine the impact of migration on current subjective poverty perception. Using a simultaneous bivariate ordered probit model, we found that poorer individuals in Egypt tend to migrate more than others. Migration was found to be a significant determinant of current poverty in Egypt. Finally, migration improved migrant’s financial situation.
Book Review
Authors: Levatino Antonina
Published: December 2018

Martin Geiger & Antoine Pécoud (eds.), Disciplining the Transnational Mobility of People, Palgrave Macmillan, 2013, 271 pp., (ISBN 978-1-137-26306-3).In the last decades a very diverse range of initiatives have been undertaken in order to intensify and diversify the ways human mobility is managed and restricted. This trend towards a ‘diversification’ of the migration control strategies stems from the increased awareness by the nation-states of the profoundly controversial nature of the migration management enterprise because of its political, economic, social and moral implications.
The time pattern of remittances and the decay hypothesis: Evidence from migrants in South Africa
Authors: Makina Daniel , Masenge Andries
Published: December 2018

Using a dataset of migrants who migrated to South Africa over the period 1979-2007, we investigate the time pattern of remittances and the determinants of remittances. We find that the level of remittances first increases with the time spent in the host country and later on declines after an estimated 8 years of migration experience and thus exhibiting an inverted-U pattern over time. This finding lends support to the remittance decay hypothesis. We also find the level of remittances to be significantly positively related to the number of dependents in the home country, legal status, access to banking, income and savings levels, and negatively related to the education level, return intentions, frequency of home visits and economic and political reasons for migrating. Furthermore, the level of remittances is observed to exhibit an inverted U-profile with the age of the migrant, that is, it first rises in early age and falls in old age. The remittance decay phenomenon is seen to stem from a mixture of the theories of altruism and the informal loan repayment alluded to in the literature.
Solidarity and fairness in the Common European Asylum System – failure or progress?
Authors: Parusel Bernd
Published: December 2018

On the basis of harmonised statistical data on asylum applications and decisions, this paper attempts to re-examine the state of play of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS), and in particular, the two key objectives of achieving a more balanced distribution of asylum seekers across Member States (“solidarity”) and the approximation of national decision-making in asylum cases (“fairness”). It concludes that while there is evidence of unresolved challenges, such as lately with regard to the uneven reception and treatment of asylum seekers from Syria, some fragile trends of progress can be detected in terms of more uniform asylum outcomes.
Know Your Enemy: How Unauthorized Repatriated Migrants Learn About and Perceive Anti-Immigrant Mobilization in the United States
Authors: Ward Matthew , Martinez Daniel E
Published: December 2018

Recently scholars have turned their attention towards a growing anti-immigrant movement in the United States.  In particular, residents called ‘minutemen’ have garnered attention for their vigilante patrols of the U.S.-Mexico border. Yet, there remains an absence of rigorously collected data from the unauthorized migrants they target.  Filling this void, we draw on original survey data from wave 1 of the Migrant Border Crossing Study (MBCS) and address three questions: Among unauthorized repatriated migrants who have heard of minutemen, from where do they get their information? What qualities or characteristics do unauthorized repatriated migrants ascribe to minutemen? And, finally, how accurate are these perceptions?  In so doing, we detail the composition of unauthorized repatriated migrants’ knowledge networks and the role these played in diffusing knowledge about minutemen. Additionally, we illuminate disparities in the quality of the minuteman-related information these networks diffuse. We find that respondents relied heavily on media outlets in the United States and Mexico to obtain information about minutemen. Social networks and the crossing experience itself mattered to a much lesser extent. Interestingly, unauthorized repatriated migrants were mixed in their perceptions of exactly who minutemen were, and migrants varied greatly in their ability to accurately identify minutemen. We conclude with implications and directions for future research.
Reform and the HuKou System in China
Authors: Cui Rong , Cohen Jeffrey H.
Published: December 2018

China created the dual hukou system in an effort to modernize and manage rural to urban migration. The system restricted the mobility of most Chinese and limited rural peasant migration. In 1978 the demand for labour increased rapidly and rules controlling migration, including the hukou system were loosen to encourage relocation. The establishment of a semi-capitalist market system in 1991 further encouraged the flow of labour and forced the liberalization of some aspect of the registration policy and by 2014 and in response to continued growth the Chinese government implemented a unified hukou system to build equality among rural and urban citizens. In this brief, we review the reforms and argue that the hukou system can play an important role in Chinese development.
REVIEW: Measuring impact and the most influential works in Migration Studies
Authors: Sirkeci Ibrahim , Cohen Jeffrey H.
Published: December 2018

The aim of this paper is to offer an independent measure of the impact of published research in migration studies field. Using the Google Scholar citation database and Ann Harzing ranking software, we have created a long list of most cited works in migration studies and drew a list of 100 top articles and books and 100 most cited authors who appeared in periodicals and books. Like any lists, this one also has some drawbacks but yet it reflects somewhat the influence of the work our colleagues in this fast growing field produce.
Naturalisation policies beyond a Western focus
Authors: Schwarz Tobias
Published: December 2018

Naturalisations do not happen automatically – unlike the acquisition of nationality at birth – but must be brought about deliberately. The varying ways naturalisations are organized in any society therefore offer an opportunity to gain clues as to which criteria are assumed to be relevant for the respective definition of national belonging. This introduction argues that most research on naturalisation still focusses on Western states, and that theories of naturalisation are largely derived from Western cases. It describes the ethnocentric bias of much of the universalizing comparative research on naturalisations, and outlines the main reasons for the lack of research beyond the West. It then presents the articles on naturalisation policies in the Global South brought together in this special issue. The contributions analyse ethnically exclusive nationality laws in Liberia and Israel; selective two-tier regimes of immigrant incorporation in Hong Kong and Singapore; investor citizenship schemes which are much more common in the Global South than in the North, exemplified by the case of Mauritius; and Mexico, whose norms assign naturalised Mexicans the status of “second-class citizens”.
Quasi-ethnic capital vs. quasi-citizenship capital: Access to Israeli citizenship
Authors: Kranz Dani
Published: December 2018

Israel defines itself as a Jewish state by way of ideology, policy, and constitutionality. Jewish immigration is encouraged, and rewarded with direct access to Israeli citizenship for olim (Jewish immigrants) and their immediate family. The legal situation for foreign, non-Jewish partners, and spouses of Israeli Jewish citizens is different: these non-Jewish immigrants can potentially access Israeli citizenship through the Nationality Law. These different inroads into Israeli citizenship for both groups must be seen in connection to diasporic Jewish history, Israeli history, the country’s geopolitical situation, as well as attitudes toward intermarriage. In practice this means that the incorporation of non-Jewish spouses of olim is a compromise to bolster Jewish immigration, while the problems of incorporating the partners/spouses of Israeli Jewish citizens stem from (historic and current) negative attitudes toward intermarriage, the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, and labour migration, all of which ramify into the issue of family reunion for all Israeli citizens.
A Black Republic: Citizenship and naturalisation requirements in Liberia
Authors: Ludwig Bernadette
Published: December 2018

In 1822 Liberia was founded as a place where free(d) enslaved African Americans could find freedom and liberty. While many of them did, the indigenous African population was, for a long time, excluded from citizenry despite fulfilling one of the essential criteria to be eligible for Liberians citizenship: Being Black. This prerequisite remains part of Liberian law today, rendering non-Blacks ineligible for Liberian citizenship. Today, this mostly affects the Lebanese community who originally came as traders and entrepreneurs to Liberia. This article analyses why Liberians defend race-based exclusionary citizenship practices.
Overcoming Challenges of International Migration Research: A Case Study Approach in Southern Mexico
Authors: Boyles Julie
Published: December 2018

An ethnographic case study approach to understanding women’s actions and reactions to husbands’ emigration—or potential emigration—offers a distinct set of challenges to a U.S.-based researcher.  International migration research in a foreign context likely offers challenges in language, culture, lifestyle, as well as potential gender norm impediments. A mixed methods approach contributed to successfully overcoming barriers through an array of research methods, strategies, and tactics, as well as practicing flexibility in data gathering methods. Even this researcher’s influence on the research was minimized and alleviated, to a degree, through ascertaining common ground with many of the women. Research with the women of San Juan Guelavía, Oaxaca, Mexico offered numerous and constant challenges, each overcome with ensuing rewards.
Editorial: Special issue on protecting and including ‘new’ and ‘old’ minorities
Authors: Medda-Windischer Roberta , Ricucci Roberta , Cisilino William
Published: December 2018

Questions concerning the rights of minorities and the preservation of social cohesion in ethnically diverse societies are among the most salient on the political agenda of many States. The growing diversity of national communities has generated pressures for States to create and adopt new models to accommodate diversity. Migration is becoming an increasingly important reality for many sub-national autonomous territories where traditional-historical groups (the so-called ‘old minorities’) live, such as Catalonia, South Tyrol, Scotland, Flanders, the Basque Country, and Quebec. Some of these territories have attracted migrants for decades, while others have only recently experienced significant migration inflows. The presence of old minorities makes the management of migration issues more complex.
‘Old’ vs. ‘new’ minorities – an identity-based approach to the distinction between autochthonous and immigrant minorities
Authors: Crepaz Katharina
Published: December 2018

The present paper argues that the distinction between "old" and "new" minorities cannot only be rights-based, but also has a strong identity and "national narrative" component: Even though autochthonous minorities are still subject to discrimination, in most countries with effective protection schemes they have become part of the larger concept of an "in-group" with the rest of the citizens, and been accepted into the daily identity of the country, while immigrants are regarded as an "out-group". This picture of "them" is strengthened further by a primarily security-based outlook on migration, as will be illustrated through the case of the Roma.
“Old” Natives and “New” Immigrants: Beyond Territory and History in Kymlicka's Account of Group-Rights
Authors: Heim Darian
Published: December 2018

According to Will Kymlicka, only historically and territorially bound “national” groups can engage in a “nation-building” process. Recently arrived immigrant groups cannot as they have neither been able nor willing to do so. The paper argues, first, that such empirical facts are insufficient for the normative conclusions Kymlicka defends; and second, that if his ultimate goal is to achieve better “terms of integration” for immigrants, he cannot deny them the right to attempt their own “nation-building”. As an illustration, the paper describes Kymlicka's own thought-experiment of Chinese immigrants in Canada pursuing a nation-building-process analogous to the Québécois. It explores how criteria for advocating group rights other than history and territory – desert, participation, or need –avoid treating old and new minorities in an arbitrarily asymmetric manner.
Old and New Minorities: The Case of the Arbëreshë Communities and the Albanian Immigrants in Southern Italy
Authors: Liuzzi Antonella
Published: December 2018

The Arbërëshe are an Albanian minority residing in southern Italy. Comparing the previous anthropological literature, this study analyses the Arbëreshë minority while considering three focal points that have contributed to highlighting the differences between the Arbëreshë and Italian communities throughout the centuries: the Arbërisht language, the Greek - Byzantine rite and the ethnic endogamy. Thanks to ethnographic fieldwork, the three focal points have been studied in a community of the Italian Arbëria, San Costantino Albanese. The aim of the research is to understand the change in Arbëreshë identity as a result of recent social changes due to the modernization process and to interaction with the new Albanian immigrants.
Impact of distance on migration in Turkey
Authors: Koramaz Turgay Kerem , Dökmeci Vedia
Published: December 2018

In Turkey, a large gap in economic development has encouraged migration from less developed to more developed provinces. The aim of this study is to study in detail the relationship between migrants and the concentric zones surrounding them from 2007 until 2012. According to the results of the study, the highest amount of migration is shown to be between the origin province and a 400km concentric zone, beyond which they gradually decrease. This pattern is often repeated, but in less populated provinces, which are further from large metropolitan areas, it becomes more homogenous, with unique peaks in the more distant concentric zones.
The Impact of Migratory Flows on the Swiss Labour Market. A Comparison Between In- and Outflow
Authors: Wanner Philippe , Zufferey Jonathan , Fioretta Juliette
Published: December 2018

International labour migration in post-industrial countries raises numerous questions. A wide range of studies have been published on the impact of immigration on the labour market but only few studies take into account both arrivals (immigrations) and departures (emigrations), rather than only the role of newcomers on the labour market. This paper is based on a Swiss Longitudinal Demographic Database which links data from Population and Household Registers, administrative registers, and surveys. In particular, the Swiss Population Register provides the date of arrival or departure of immigrants/emigrants while the Structural Survey provides information on their characteristics and position on the labour market. Based on these data, this paper compares the socioeconomic characteristics of both immigrants and emigrants arrived in Switzerland during the period 2011-2013 or having left the country during the same period, a time span  characterized by a yearly net migration of + 80,000 and a rapid economic growth. In terms of level of education, every category is characterized by a positive migration balance, which is not surprising: the economic growth observed in Switzerland during the period led to a demand on the labour market for both skilled and unskilled migrants. More precisely, migratory flows counterbalanced the erosion of the low and averagely skilled working-age non-migrating population and contributed to approximately one third of the increase in the number of highly skilled workers in the labour market. Concerning the occupations, the impact of the migration balance is highest among managers and sales workers. The paper also demonstrates that the migratory flows contribute to balance the decrease in the low and averagely skilled positions and to partially fulfil the economy’s demand for highly skilled workers.
Book Reviews
Authors: Sirkeci Ibrahim , Tyler Robert Llewellyn
Published: December 2018

Reviews of the following books received:Crossing the Gulf: Love and Family in Migrant Lives. Mahdavi, Pardis, Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, (2016, ISBN: 978-0-8047-9883-9).Sea of Opportunity: The Japanese Pioneers of the Fishing Industry in Hawaii. Ogawa, Manako. Honolulu, USA: University of Hawai'i Press, (2015, ISBN: 978-0-8248-3961-1).Mexican Migration to the United States. Edited by Harriett D. Romo and Olivia Mogollon-Lopez, Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press (2016, ISBN: 978-1-4773-0902-58).