New from IMR: A Review of Citizenship, Migration Patterns, and Migration and Family Dynamics in Europe

February 15, 2018

The Winter 2017* edition of the International Migration Review (IMR) is now available online and in print through paid or institutional subscription. This edition includes a featured article on citizenship and a series of papers on the policies, processes, and politics that shape migration patterns. Other articles explore migration and family dynamics in Europe. This edition includes eight new book reviews, which are freely available for three years from the date of publication.

* Please note that links to the below articles will also soon be available at IMR’s new publisher, SAGE.

Some highlights from the Winter 2017 edition include:

Understanding Membership in a World of Global Migration: (How) Does Citizenship Matter?
Irene Bloemraad and Alicia Sheares

This article synthesizes the literature on citizenship and immigration to evaluate the field of citizenship studies and theorizes why citizenship itself matters. It examines why citizenship laws vary cross-nationally and why some immigrants acquire citizenship, while others do not. The article also considers how citizenship influences rights, identities, and participation, and the mechanisms by which citizenship influences lives. The authors argue for a new approach to citizenship that moves beyond a sole focus on the relationship between the individual and the state and that speaks to legitimate claims to membership and belonging.

The Effect of Visas on Migration Processes
Mathias Czaika and Hein de Haas

This article assesses the short- and long-term effects of travel visa policy regimes on bilateral immigration and emigration dynamics. It finds that travel visa policies significantly decrease migrant inflows, but that this effect is undermined by decreasing outflows of the same migrant groups. As the article shows, migration restrictions decrease the overall circulation of migrants and tend to encourage long-term settlement, thereby sharply reducing migration’s responsiveness to economic fluctuations in destination and origin societies. The article also identifies uneven policy effects, with migration flows declining only gradually after a visa introduction policy, but increasing almost immediately after a policy that removes travel visas.

Family Structure and the Well-being of Immigrant Children in Four European Countries
Matthijs Kalmijn

Data on secondary school children in England, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden show large variations in family structure within the minority population. In some groups, father absence is more common than among natives, while in others, it is less common. As this article shows, these patterns reflect differences in family structure in the origin countries, but migration also plays a role. The authors found that father absence has negative effects on immigrant children’s well-being but that these effects appear weaker in minority groups where father absence is more common, pointing to different degrees of institutionalization of father absence in different minority groups.

The full table of contents for the Winter 2017 issue of IMR is available below:

Issue Information

Table of Contents

FEATURED REVIEW ARTICLE

Understanding Membership in a World of Global Migration: (How) Does Citizenship Matter?
Irene Bloemraad and Alicia Sheares

POLICIES, PROCESSES, AND POLITICS: WHAT SHAPES MIGRATION PATTERNS?

The Role of Migration Policy Changes in Europe for Return Migration to Senegal
Marie-Laurence Flahaux

The Effect of Visas on Migration Processes
Mathias Czaika and Hein de Haas

MIGRATION AND FAMILY DYNAMICS IN EUROPE
Family Structure and the Well-being of Immigrant Children in Four European Countries
Matthijs Kalmijn

From Work to Welfare – Institutional Arrangements Shaping Turkish Marriage Migrants’ Gendered Trajectories into a New Society
Vibeke Jakobsen and Anika Liversage

Social Reproduction of Religiosity in the Immigrant Context: The Role of Family Transmission and Family Formation. Evidence from France
Thomas Soehl

BOOK REVIEWS