New from IMR New from IMR: Integration, Enforcement, and Family

March 23, 2021

The Spring 2021 edition of the International Migration Review (IMR) is now available online and in print through paid or institutional subscription. This edition is thematically sorted into three sections. The first has articles about immigrant integration, civic engagement, and institutions. The second discusses immigration enforcement, securitization, and social dynamics. The third examines migration across time, focusing on settlement, mobility, and family.

“Yes, But Somebody Has to Help Them, Somehow:” Looking at the Italian Detention Field through the Eyes of Professional Nonstate Actors
Francesca Esposito, Jose Ornelas, Manuela Tomai, Immacolata Di Napoli, and Caterina Arcidiacono

Although migration-related detention has increased around the world, little is known about life inside detention centers for undocumented migrants. Building on 34 months of fieldwork, this article examines Rome’s detention center, including the lived experiences of center staff and the external civil-society actors working in and with the center. It discusses the emotional, ethical, and political challenges these professional actors face in their everyday work and relationships with detainees and sheds light on life in detention and the intersections between humanitarian and security logics in this setting. In doing so, the authors problematize the idea that “humanizing detention” can be a solution for change.

The Many Forms of Multiple Migrations: Evidence from a Sequence Analysis in Switzerland, 1998 to 2008
Jonathan Zufferey, Ilka Steiner, and Didier Ruedin

This article provides estimates of different kinds of contemporary migration trajectories, highlighting multiple or repeated migrations. Using sequence analysis on linked longitudinal register data, the authors identify different migration trajectories for three groups (1998, 2003, and 2008) of 315,000 immigrants in Switzerland. Their analysis reveals the demographic characteristics associated with specific migration trajectories and demonstrates high heterogeneity in migration practices. As this article shows, direct and definitive settlement in the destination country remains a common trajectory, and highly mobile immigrants are less common. As such, the authors conclude that accounts of a fundamental “mobility turn” are overstated.

IMMIGRANT INTEGRATION, CIVIC ENGAGEMENT, AND INSTITUTIONS

Copying Europe? Integration as a Citizenship Requirement in Australia
Heli Askola

When Politics Trumps Economics: Contrasting High-Skilled Immigration Policymaking in Germany and Austria
Melanie Kolbe

Ethnic Enclaves, Self-employment, and the Economic Performance of Refugees: Evidence from a Swedish Dispersal Policy
Henrik Andersson

Ascriptive Organizational Stigma and the Constraining of Pakistani Immigrant Organizations
Ali R. Chaudhary

IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT, SECURITIZATION, AND SOCIAL DYNAMICS

The Gendered Effects of Local Immigration Enforcement: Latinas’ Social Isolation in Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, and Phoenix
William Paul Simmons, Cecilia Menjívar, and Elizabeth Salerno Valdez

Refugee Admissions and Public Safety: Are Refugee Settlement Areas More Prone to Crime?
Catalina Amuedo-Dorantes, Cynthia Bansak, and Susan Pozo

Legal Exclusion, Civic Exclusion: How Legal Status Stratifies Latino Immigrants’ Civic Engagement
Tianjian Lai

MIGRATION ACROSS TIME: SETTLEMENT, MOBILITY, AND FAMILY

Unsettling Events: Understanding Migrants’ Responses to Geopolitical Transformative Episodes through a Life-Course Lens
Majella Kilkey and Louise Ryan

The Many Forms of Multiple Migrations: Evidence from a Sequence Analysis in Switzerland, 1998 to 2008
Jonathan Zufferey, Ilka Steiner, and Didier Ruedin

Migration, Family Formation and Fertility in the Americas
David P. Lindstrom, Anairis Hernandez-Jabalera, and Silvia Giorguli Saucedo