Collection: Migration, Mobilities and Movement
As a taster of our publishing in Migration, Mobilities and Movement, we put together a collection of free articles, chapters and Open Access titles. If you are interested in trying out more content from Bristol University Press subject areas or Global Social Challenges collections, ask your librarian to sign up for a free trial
Migration, Mobilities and Movement
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This chapter introduces the key tenets of critical pedagogy and critical consciousness through the work of Paulo Freire, Henry Giroux and bell hooks. It explores notions of public pedagogy, engaged pedagogy and educated hope, emphasizing the activist, radical, decolonizing and anti-oppressive potential of critical pedagogy, as well as its immediate relevance for ways of knowing and relating in the migration-focused classroom. The chapter introduces vocabularies and concepts that shape the book, in particular, ‘doing good harm’, referring to transformation through discomfort and the disruption of established systems and beliefs, and ‘migration literacies’, referring to the need to tune into the centrality of migration governance as a form of grammar and semantic structuring of how migration is understood politically, in public opinion, in media discourse and in the classroom. It sets out three key ideas that shape the book: critical pedagogy as a necessary confrontation with neutrality and power; interrogating migration knowledge as requiring the development of specific literacies; and learning as a multifaceted, multi-sited process. It then sets out three key interventions: recognizing the political now as historically constituted; embracing discomfort as a necessary means to enact positive change and ‘do good harm’; and acknowledging the vital role of migration literacies in disrupting and transforming the learning process.
This chapter sets the scene for and gives context to an in-depth, theoretically informed study of the belonging of unaccompanied young people seeking asylum in the UK. It begins by introducing the story of displacement, migration and belonging of one of the participants. The participant’s accounts of the challenges of migrating to and resettling in the UK provide an anchor into which the analysis of the main findings are woven in the coming chapters.
The recent expansion of regional guestworker migration schemes has altered the political economy of the South Pacific, creating a ‘permanent labour reserve’ (MacWilliam, 2022) for low-wage industries in rural Australia and New Zealand. Historical structures of uneven development, against which the ‘blackbirding’ of indentured Kanaka labourers took place more than a century prior, have again enabled a transnational labour (im)mobility regime in which Pasifika workers are rendered unfree and situated as a ‘fix’ for accumulation: limited to racialised and gendered labour practices, tied to employer-sponsors in remote locations, and without the rights afforded to other migrant workers. Taking the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme as the paradigmatic example of a resurgent guestworker model in the region, this article foregrounds overlooked processes of transnational social reproduction that emerge from the interplay of restrictive migration policies and exploitative Local Labour Control Regimes (LLCRs). Drawing on extensive in-depth interviews with migrant workers, their family members, and government staff from four participating Pacific Island Countries (PICs), it examines how the PALM scheme spatially and temporally reconfigures care practices, skills formation, and communal labour to progressively deplete (Rai et al, 2014) socially reproductive capacity within the South Pacific. The article concludes by suggesting that the strains the PALM scheme places on social reproduction within PICs is itself a fundamental driver of uneven development across the region.
There is extensive research on the governmentality of marriage migration, but more is needed about the role of digital spaces. This article focuses on how online US spousal reunification forums and their users define and police ideological norms regarding the US family and decide which transnational relationships are ‘worthy’ of immigration. We show that through their interactions on the site, users perform borderwork and police family, race and nation. More generally, we argue that online forums constitute institutional settings whose members can reproduce or challenge hegemonic state discourses about ‘proper’ families and national belonging. Further, we suggest that advice given to or withheld from forum participants constitutes an exercise in digital governmentality. Overall, our findings contribute to conversations about the role digital spaces play in institutionalising gatekeeping practices intended to police intimacy, immigration and national belonging.
Housing and care are key sites of social reproduction that shape and are shaped by the labour process. As a Theory into Practice contribution, this article proposes social reproduction as a corrective that can restore the ‘human’ to discussions on temporary labour migration, including the potential for agency. Traditionally, ‘housing’ and ‘care’ are treated as disparate objects of regulation, which are further fragmented by the process of policy making itself. The article proposes ideas, some reflected in the International Labour Organization (ILO’s) recommendations, to turn aspirational values into lived realities to improve the historical disadvantages faced by temporary migrant workers. While it is widely accepted that this is necessary, we should remain hopeful that it is also achievable.
This article explores the use of online social networks for seeking and sharing information about marriage migration. In Europe, since the 1990s, this migration has faced heightened scrutiny. Laws and administrative practices have added complexity to immigration procedures. Manifold screening methods gauge the authenticity of relationships aligning with the host nation’s concept of a suitable family for integration. In this context, informal self-help groups emerged to offer support to those facing burdensome formalities and local administrative intricacies. Based on extensive qualitative fieldwork, this article examines the significance of these support groups, drawing on the concept of intimacy as a shared competency. Here, intimacy is conceived as an active relational skill that counterbalances the limitations of migration policies. The analysis transcends the division between online and offline modes of living, shedding new light on intimacy and extimité – the sharing of one’s intimate self with others for validation – in doing family.
Mobility (and control over it) is partially mediated by migrant capital and how it is evaluated across time and space. This study draws on the concept of multiple migration – wherein migration is viewed as potentially multidirectional and open-ended over the life course – to examine the plight of male, Mexican hospitality staff globally on the move. These participants are unique in that they had experience working as hospitality staff in different countries under different legal classifications. In the US they were undocumented, in Mexico they were deported nationals, and in Canada they were received as temporary migrant workers. Their accounts bring different mobilities – illegal, forced, contract, and returned – under one analytical frame to illuminate how mobilities are spatially and geographically regulated. As the article details, their mobility depended on the resources they accrued during migration and whether these resources could be converted into relevant capital, with class, gender and race significant mediating factors. When contextualised, their accounts offer unique insights into immigration controls, transnational labour regimes, political economy and how access to capital shapes gendered identities and hierarchies. Their evaluations vis-à-vis other (global) workers also mediated their legal incorporation, governed by normative ideals that shape prospects and life outcomes in the current economy.
This book offers an in-depth exploration of the lives of EU migrant workers in the UK following Brexit and COVID-19.
Drawing on a longitudinal study, the book delves into the legal problems migrant workers face and sheds much-needed light on the hidden interactions between the law and communities around issues such as employment, housing, welfare and health. Through personal narratives and insights gathered from interviews, it reveals how (clustered) legal problems arise, are resolved and often bypass formal legal resolution pathways.
This is an invaluable resource that provides a rich picture of everyday life for migrant workers in the UK and highlights the vital role of NGOs working to support them.
The book offers a theory of trafficking and modern slavery with implications for policy through an analysis of evidence, data, and law. Despite economic development, modern slavery persists all around the world. The book challenges the current fragmentation of theory and develops a synthesis of the root causes of trafficking chains. Trafficking concerns not only situations of vulnerability but their exploitation driven by profit-taking. The policy solution is not merely to treat the issue as one of crime but also concerns the regulation of the economy, better welfare, and social protections. Although data is incomplete, methods are improving to indicate its scale and distribution. Traditional assumptions of nation-state sovereignty are challenged by the significance of international law historically. Going beyond the polarization of the debates on sexual exploitation in the sex trade, the book offers an original empirical analysis that shows the importance of a focus on profit-taking. Although individual experience matters, the root causes of trafficking/modern slavery lie in intersecting regimes of inequality of gender regimes, capitalism, and the legacies of colonialism. The book shows the importance of coercion and theorizing society as a complex system.
Migration studies often focus on macro-level analyses, emphasising political and economic factors while overlooking personal (micro-level) aspects, whereas social work offers valuable insights into the individual experiences and needs of migrants. Little information exists regarding the perspectives of highly educated migrant women, including about the economic, social and emotional aspects of their migration experiences. This article focuses on how the professional identities of highly educated women in novel sociocultural settings are formed and examines how their professional identities influence their integration. Using snowball sampling, qualitative interviews were conducted with 36 participants from the Netherlands, Slovenia and Germany, supplemented by field notes and a demographic questionnaire. Looking through the micro-level contributes to a better understanding of the everyday lives of highly educated migrant women and the importance of maintaining their professional identities in a new environment in the context of social work and migration. By intersecting gender and education, this article addresses the complexities and the significance of professional identity among highly educated migrant women and its influence on their integration process, highlighting their challenges while also emphasising potential integration strategies and social policies for better social inclusion.
