Center for Migration Studies Releases International Migration Review Winter 2014 Edition

The Center for Migration Studies (CMS) announces the release of the Winter 2014 edition of the International Migration Review (IMR), the premier interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed journal in the field of international migration, ethnic group relations and refugee movements. The original articles featured in this issue examine various topics utilizing multi-sited research designs:

• What causes Senegalese, Ghanian and Congolese migrants in Europe to return to their home countries;
• Whether the gender of Senegalese, Ghanian and Congolese migrants affects how they utilize migrant networks and spousal reunification;
• How immigration data in high-income destinations can reveal important information about migration flows between high- and low-income countries;
• What data from the Mexican Migration Project and the Latin American Migration project reveals about undocumented migration from Mexico and Central America to the United States and
• How immigration policies construct pathways into irregular legal statuses among migrants from Senegal to Europe.

The book reviews also included in this issue cover: Indian migrant communities in Dubai; African migration to colonial Spanish America; migration of rural Albanians to domestic and foreign cities and debates on US immigration law and immigration policy.

The Winter 2014 edition of IMR is now available in print and online through the Wiley Online Library by subscription or by purchasing instant access for individual articles. Questions or media inquiries can be directed to IMR’s Editorial Office at [email protected].

ORIGINAL ARTICLES

MULTI-SITED APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION

A Manifesto for Quantitative Multi-sited Approaches to International Migration
Cris Beauchemin

In this opening piece to the Winter 2014 edition of the International Migration Review, Cris Beauchemin (Institut National d’Etudes Démographiques (INED)) introduces the original articles published in the issue and in the forthcoming Spring 2015 edition. The articles originate from the Comparative and Multi-sited Approaches to International Migration Conference held at INED in Paris, France in December 2012. Most of the 30 communications presented at the conference can be consulted at: http://mafeproject.site.ined.fr/en/events/final_conference/.

Distance, Transnational Arrangements, and Return Decisions of Senegalese, Ghanaian, and Congolese Migrants
Amparo González-Ferrer, Pau Baizán, Cris Beauchemin, Elisabeth Kraus, Bruno Schoumaker and Richard Black

In this article, the authors examine what determines the return of Senegalese, Ghanaian and Congolese migrants in Europe and to what extent their return decisions were linked to reasons and circumstances of their initial migration to Europe. Using the retrospective life history data collected by the Migration between Africa and Europe (MAFE) project in Senegal, Ghana and DR Congo and six European countries, the authors attempt to understand whether and how changing conditions and policies in both origin and destination countries affect the migration dynamics between Sub-Saharan Africa and Europe. Their results show how the high costs of transcontinental long distance migration, reinforced by restrictive immigration policies, tends to delay and reduce return.

PATTERNS AND FACTORS OF MIGRATION

Gender Differences in the Role of Migrant Networks: Comparing Congolese and Senegalese Migration Flows
Sorana Toma and Sophie Vause

Using the recent longitudinal data collected within the Migration between Africa and Europe (MAFE) project, Sorana Toma (University of Oxford) and Sophie Vause (Université Catholique de Louvain) investigate gender differences in the role of migrant networks in international mobility. The authors also compare Congolese and Senegalese migration streams to examine how the interplay between gender and networks varies across contexts of origin. The analysis considers spousal reunification alongside other forms of migration and separates migrant spouse from other network ties to avoid overestimation of the role of migrant networks in female mobility. Toma and Vause find that Senegalese women are more likely than men to rely on geographically concentrated networks, composed of close kin and established abroad for a long time. Gender differences are much less pronounced in the Congolese case.

A Multi Sited Approach to Analysis of Destination Immigration Data: An Asian Example
Graeme Hugo

In this article, Graeme Hugo (University of Adelaide) argues that immigration data in high-income destinations can reveal important information about emigration from low-income countries. Using migration stock and flow data from Australia to provide information on the scale and nature of movement between Asia and Australia, Hugo establishes that there are important but different flows in both directions. These findings appear to belie traditional conceptualizations of south-north migration, which can have significant implications for the effects of migration on economic development.

IRREGULAR MIGRATION

Explaining Undocumented Migration to the U.S.
Douglas S. Massey, Jorge Durand and Karen A. Pren

Douglas S. Massey (Princeton University), Jorge Durand (University of Guadalajara) and Karen A. Pren (Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas) use data from the Mexican Migration Project and the Latin American Migration project to analyze undocumented migration from Mexico and Central America to the United States. The authors find that: (1) undocumented migration from Mexico is closely associated with US labor demand and access to migrant networks; (2) border enforcement has little effect on undocumented migration from Mexico and instead sharply reduces the odds of return movement; (3) undocumented migration from Central America follows primarily from political violence associated with the US intervention of the 1980s, and return migration has always been unlikely and (4) while mass undocumented migration from Mexico appears to have ended because of demographic changes there, undocumented migration from Central America will grow slowly through processes of family reunification.

Pathways into Irregular Status Among Senegalese Migrants in Europe
Erik Vickstrom

In this study, Erik Vickstrom (Princeton University) examines how immigration policies construct pathways into irregular legal statuses and models three pathways: no-visa entry, overstaying and transitions from regular to irregular status (befallen irregularity). Vickstrom hypothesizes that variation in contexts of reception and migrants’ access to forms of capital and institutional connections will produce different pathways. Utilizing retrospective legal status histories from the MAFE-Senegal survey, Vickstron shows that pathways occurring early in a migrant’s trip, such as no-visa entry and overstaying, are more sensitive to both contextual variables and access to forms of capital. In contrast, befallen irregularity is less related to contextual variation.

BOOK REVIEWS

Impossible Citizens: Dubai’s Indian Diaspora by N. Vora
Sanjukta Mukherjee (DePaul University) reviews Impossible Citizens: Dubai’s Indian Diaspora by Neha Vora, an ethnography of Indians residing in Dubai, classified as temporary guest workers, and unable to become legal citizens of the United Arab Emirates.

Africans to Spanish America: Expanding the Diaspora by Sherwin K. Bryant, Rachel Sarah O’Toole and Ben Vinson III
Thor Ritz (Syracuse University) reviews Africans to Spanish America: Expanding the Diaspora, an edited collection of writings on three themes: identity construction in the Americas; the struggle by enslaved and free people to present themselves as civilized, Christian, and resistant to slavery; and issues of cultural exclusion and inclusion.

The Changing Face of World Cities: Young Adult Children of Immigrants in North America and Europe by Maurice Crul and John Mollenkopf (eds)
Richard Wright (Dartmouth College) reviews The Change Face of World Cities, Young Adult Children of Immigrants in North America and Europe, the first systematic, data-based comparison addressing the lives of the adult children of immigrants in seventeen large cities in Western Europe and the United States.

Albania on the Move: Links between Internal and International Migration by Julie Vullnetari
Elidor Mëhilli (City University of New York) reviews Albania on the Move: Links between Internal and International Migration, an ethnography of rural individuals migrating to domestic urban destinations.

Debates on U.S. Immigration by Judith Gans, Elaine M. Replogle, and Daniel J. Tichenor (eds)
Kristi Andersen (Syracuse University) reviews Debates on U.S. Immigration, a 600-page reference work divided in three parts (“Political Debates”, “Economic, Labor, and Demographic Debates”, and “Social and Cultural Debates”) and with contributors ranging from scholars to think-tank analysts to policy advocates.