New from IMR: Responses to Migration Policies, Immigrant Employment Outcomes, and Family Dynamics across Borders

October 24, 2018

The Summer 2018 edition of the International Migration Review (IMR) is now available online and in print through paid or institutional subscription. This edition offers a focus on migration policies and responses to them, including a paper on spiritual citizenship and a paper analyzing the evolution of migration policies around the world. It also features papers on transnational family dynamics related to marriage and education and the factors shaping immigrant employment outcomes. This edition has four new book reviews which are open access and freely available.

Highlights from the Summer 2018 edition include:

Growing Restrictiveness or Changing Selection? The Nature and Evolution of Migration Policies
Hein de Haas, Katharina Natter, and Simona Vezzoli

This article investigates the nature and evolution of migration policies from 1900 to 2014. Using the DEMIG POLICY database of 45 countries spanning all regions of the world, it finds that migration policies have overall become less restrictive since 1945. Challenging common assumptions, this trend is strong across most countries included in the database. While the post-1989 period is characterized by a slowing down of the post-World War II loosening of migration policies, liberal policy changes have continued to outnumber restrictive policy changes until today. However, the study also points to complex trends in policy development: Entry and integration policies have become less restrictive, while border control and exit policies have become more restrictive. In addition, while policies toward unauthorized and family migration have become more restrictive in recent years, policies targeting high- and low-skilled workers, students, and refugees have become less restrictive. Overall, the study finds that the essence of modern migration policies is not growing restriction, but rather their focus on migrant selection.

Spiritual Citizenship: Immigrant Religious Participation and the Management of Deportability
Melissa Guzman Garcia

Participation in religious organizations is central to the adaption of many immigrants in the United States. This article advances the concept of spiritual citizenship to examine how some religiously active migrants employ religion to see themselves as, and to try to become, less deportable. Drawing from ethnographic research of Central American and Mexican immigrants in the United States, the article explains how undocumented migrants use religion to redefine their own sense of self and to position themselves as “good” members of society worthy of citizenship. As this study demonstrates, while religion supports migrants as they endure criminalization, the benefits of religious participation can also depend on migrants’ willingness to become deserving neoliberal citizens. In this way, religious organizations can inadvertently advance a neoliberal understanding of citizenship based on individual responsibility and the ability to earn citizenship through good moral and economic performance.

Issue Information

Table of Contents

Migration Policies and Responses to Them: From Free Movement to Spiritual Citizenship

Growing Restrictiveness or Changing Selection? The Nature and Evolution of Migration Policies
Hein de Haas, Katharina Natter, and Simona Vezzoli

Types of Migration: The Motivations, Composition, and Early Integration Patterns of “New Migrants” in Europe
Renee Luthra, Lucinda Platt, and Justyna Salamonska

Spiritual Citizenship: Immigrant Religious Participation and the Management of Deportability
Melissa Guzman Garcia

Immigrant Employment Outcomes: The Effects of Politics, Institutions, and Context

The Impact of 9/11 on the Self-Employment Outcomes of Arab and Muslim Immigrants
Chunbei Wang

Economic Integration of Skilled Migrants in Japan: The Role of Employment Practices
Hilary Holbrow and Kikuko Nagayoshi

Migration Industries and the State: Guestwork Programs in East Asia
Kristin Surak

Self-Selection and Host Country Context in Economic Assimilation of Political Refugees in the United States, Sweden, and Israel
Debora Pricila Birgier, Crister Lundh, Yitchak Haberfeld, and Erik Elldér

Family Dynamics across Borders: From Marriage to Education