International migration and family dynamics

Family and Community Dynamics in the Process of International Return Migration From the U.S. and Portugal to Brazil

This study investigates comparatively the family and community dynamics of reintegration among families of Brazilian international migrants returned from the United States and Portugal. The specific objectives of this research are:
1. To identify vulnerabilities in family and community life associated with the process of international migration;
2. To identify the costs and benefits to the family and community that migrants perceive as associated to the migration process;
3. To identify obstacles to the reintegration of migrants into the Governador Valadares Micro Region after their return;
4. To make recommendations for the formulation of reintegration policies for international migrants with emphasis on their family and community issues.
The research approach is qualitative and exploratory, since the family and community dynamics of these return migration flows have not been studied, because they are recent.
The expected outcome is a comparative understanding of family and community dynamics that facilitate and hinder the reintegration of Brazilian international migrants returning from different continents, as well as a contribution to the elaboration of public policies for their reintegration.

According to the extant research, labor migration of a parent often has beneficial consequences for children's schooling in the sending context, but there has been less attention to variations in migration experiences across the parent’s own life course and how this timing may alter outcomes for children of migrants. We apply a life course approach to the study of fathers' international migration experiences. The setting for our study is the Chitwan Valley of Nepal, a growing rural area with rapid social change characterized by large in- and out-migration. Using rich life history calendar data of parental migration and children’s schooling, we examine how multiple conceptualizations of parental migration affect children's school leaving before 10 years (an important education credential point in Nepal). We find that pre-marital migration experience appears to have minimal impact on children's schooling, whereas post-marital experience significantly decreases children's school exit, compared to children of fathers who never migrated outside Nepal. Our next step was to consider whether migration and children's schooling decisions are affected by local environmental conditions in origin communities. We find some evidence that measures of environmental perceptions moderate relationships between migration and children's schooling.

Education migration has been increasing significantly during the last six decades. Each year since 2001, Canada has received over 130,000 students from abroad and one of the top source countries is South Korea. In the last decade there has been a significant trend of increasing numbers of younger foreign students in Canada and other English-speaking countries. South Korean transnational families mobilizing abroad for their children’s education have a strong presence in various aspects of Canadian society yet few studies have been conducted to understand this phenomenon from micro to macro levels. Thus, our analysis is three-pronged. Firstly, we explore 1) how the phenomenon of education migration for minor students and accompanying mothers has been produced by home and host countries in their social policies and legislation and 2) how this new transnational family arrangement impacts the family functions and relationships in Canada and 3) how the young education migrants fare in the Canadian school system.

Our understanding of the main drivers of the process of families’ separation and reunification due to international migration remains quite limited. In spite of the numerical importance of annual entries on family grounds to developed countries, as well as the frequent legal reforms affecting the migrants’ right to reunify, adequate data to empirically examine this issue are still scarce. The few quantitative analyses available so far utilize data on migrants collected only in the receiving countries. By omitting migrants who returned home to reunify with their relatives there, the results of these studies are likely to be seriously biased. The main goal of this paper is to analyse the process of couples’ reunification among Congolese and Senegalese migrants in Europe, taking advantage of the international structure of the MAFE dataset. The comparative approach allow us to better understand when and why some migrants decide to reunify with their partners in Europe, while others remain separated until they return to their countries of origin.

India has experienced various phases of emigration in different directions over the globe. One dominant wave was directed towards West Asia from 1970s due to the 1973 and 1979 oil booms. Semi skilled and unskilled Indian workers migrated in these countries on contractual basis and still following the same. Most of the workers migrated to gulf countries for harnessing better financial opportunities to support their families back home. The flow of remittances from these migrants contributes significantly to the foreign currency reserves and in directing the India’s financial and fiscal policies. A large number of labourers also moved from Rajasthan especially from Shekhawati & churu areas.
Here, various dimensions of the process emigration from India to gulf countries are analyzed. The basic aim here is to identify the multifaceted problems faced by these workers and to put deep insight into the framework of solution. Here the impact of such migration on the families back home is also analyzed.
For this study sample survey has been conducted in Sikar, Churu and Jhunjhunu districts of Rajasthan using purposive sampling technique. For six hundred samples, information were collected through the means of questionnaires and in-depth interviews and then suitably represented with the help of graphs, maps and statistical diagrams.

Western European cities have experienced increasing cultural diversity due to families of immigrant origins. Individuals’ language patterns have been the centre of much debate, for social integration concerns or on the importance of language diversity within official monolingual contexts. Focusing on descendants of Turkish immigrants in six cities (Paris and Strasbourg in France, Berlin and Frankfurt in Germany, Amsterdam and Rotterdam in the Netherlands), we explore parents’ language transmission during childhood and self-perceived proficiency in early adulthood, the latter used as an indicator of linguistic self-esteem within a sociological perspective (Bourdieu, 1991; Fishman 1991; Brizic, 2006; Norton, 2006). Approaching language outcomes as a consequence of collective processes, we aim to understand the extent to which linguistic self-esteem in each of the three countries is influenced by various factors. We investigate the role of parental linguistic capital and country of residence in shaping language patterns across Turkish descendants aged between 18 to 35, born in the country and with one or two parents born in Turkey. We used data from the Integration of the European Second Generation (TIES) survey, launched in 2003 to study descendants of immigrants in eight Western European countries.

In this paper we use the secondary data analyses of existing statistical data-sources and findings of studies on migration in Georgia, and results of conducted by us expert interviews and interviews with persons experienced migration of family members in order to investigate the social impacts of labour migration on country of origin. Special attention during implemented field activities was paid to the least studied in Georgia outcome of migration, new challenges induced by labour migration for the traditionally vulnerable social categories, as women, and children left behind. We found that migration social outcomes in Georgia are quite similar to the standard results of temporary labour migration for counties of origin presented in the migration literature focused across CIS countries, but some distinguished findings were observed in our study. We expect that labour migrants flows from Georgia are not likely to cease in the nearest future, as a Georgian labour market is characterized by the sharp unbalance between supply and demand of labour and remarkable numbers of returned migrants to Georgia aggravate the problems with deficit of paid employment in this country.

The 2007/2008 international financial crisis hit severely many countries, particularly those with more developed economies that had attracted large contingents of foreign workers. Many Brazilian workers had gone abroad in the last decades and many of them had to return to Brazil caught up by the unemployment caused by the downturn in economic activities triggered by the crisis. This crisis, in the short run, had minor effects in developing economies such as Brazil.
The text analyzes these returning migrants using data from the Brazilian 2010 Census, focusing on the differences between those that returned before and after the crisis. Demographic and socioeconomic variables, such as schooling and class of worker were used.
The data analysis supports the hypothesis that in a migration process, a scout goes first and the family follows after. With the crisis the scout had to return before the family movement could be accomplished. Alternative patterns are concomitant family migration and the independent migration of members of a family. Also, with the recent bettering of the economic situation in the Brazilian scenario, the low schooling workers are the ones that travel abroad seeking for better salaries and in a moment of crises have to return: post crisis return migrants are in general less educated than pre crisis migrants.

This paper uses a mixed methods approach to examine the impact of transnational family and material ties on return migration to Senegal and DR Congo. It compares the case of migrants from these two African countries which have experienced different political, economic and social evolutions and where migratory traditions are not the same. This comparison is based on the quantitative biographic dataset of the MAFE project that includes individuals surveyed both at origin and in Europe. Results show that migrants who live with their family in the destination country tend to return less to their home country, and this is even stronger for Congolese migrants. Findings are interpreted in the light of qualitative analysis data collected among return migrants in the regions of Dakar and Kinshasa.

An important aspect of the dynamics of international migration is the effect on educational attainment of members left behind in the origin country. A priori, one can expect both positive and negative effects of migration on education on other members of the household. Migrations can through remittances increase household income and reduce budget constraints that enable the household members left in the household to devote more time and spending on education. On the other hand, with fewer members in working age in the household the remaining members might be required to devote more time to work within the household or the labor market. Furthermore, the psychological cost of migration of a household member can also affect the motivation and educational achievements of household members left behind, particularly in the case of parental migration.

This paper investigates the effects of migration of children of the household head on school attainment of remaining siblings in the household in Ethiopia. I use a recently conducted migration household survey and apply a household fixed effects model, making use of the variation in sbilings' age at the time of migration, to control for unobserved, time-invariant household characteristics.

Note: Work in progress, no results avaiable