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Journey of My Family Migration

Categories: Resilience

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Published: Mar 19, 2024

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I. introduction, a. background information on family migration, b. thesis statement: the journey of my family's migration has shaped our identity and experiences in profound ways, ii. historical context of family migration, a. reasons for migration, b. impact of migration on family dynamics, iii. personal narrative of family migration, a. ancestral roots and origins, b. first-generation migration experience, c. challenges faced during migration, d. adaptation and integration into new communities, 1. economic opportunities, 2. political instability, 3. social factors.

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Lesson Plan August 8, 2023

The Journey: My Family and How They Got Here

This unit was created by Mary Aiken, a 5th and 6th grade gifted English Language Arts and Social Studies teacher at Elkin Park School in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania as part of the 2022-2023 Pulitzer Center Teacher Fellowship program. It is designed for facilitation across approximately 6 weeks. For more units created by Pulitzer Center Teacher Fellows in this cohort, click here .

Objectives:

Students will:

Use close reading strategies to analyze texts
Identify key members of their family to interview
Compose open ended questions to ask their interview subjects
Analyze underreported stories to learn interview strategies
Learn basic filming and editing skills

Unit Overview:

How did my family and I get here?

Why did their family member migrate?
How did migration affect the extended family?

This unit will focus on students’ families and how they migrated either domestically or internationally to get to their current location. As a final project students will create a documentary that will chronicle their family’s journey and their lives now.

Students will analyze a range of first person narratives about immigrants and migrants from various sources in order to understand how and why people move from place to place. The class will analyze society’s treatment of refugees, undocumented immigrants, and documented immigrants.

Students will write personal narratives about their family’s lives, using information that already know and capturing things that they like to do as a family. Students should preferably write about a specific activity or tradition that their family observes participates in. As they are writing, students should start to think about a family member who has a compelling migration story to tell. Using that information, students will reach out to the family members who can tell that story.

Finally, students will craft a 5–7 minute documentary capturing one migration story from their family. Incorporating interviews from at least four unique family members, students will leverage the following questions to explore the legacy of migration in their family:

Performance Task:

Performance Task 1: Short Narrative

Students will write a short narrative about their family history. Using prompts such as:

Where is your family originally from?
Why did your family move to this area?

Educator note: Feel free to use more specific prompts if you know more about your students' immigration/migration status.

Performance Task 2: Documentary

Students will make a 5 - 7 minute documentary about their family. The focus will be on migration from one place to their current city/neighborhood. The documentary will feature:

Student voice over
Background music
At least one compelling subject to interview
Good use of transitions and a well organized layout

Educator note: Feel free to choose just one of these performance tasks if your schedule doesn’t allow for both. I also recommend leveraging accessible experts in filmmaking to support teaching documentary filmmaking skills

Six-week unit plan, including a range of multimedia texts and teacher-created worksheets.

Unit Resources:

	by Ashonti Ford for Spectrum Bay News by Mahmoud Hassino for by Zahra Ahmad for MLive
	, Spiral Q , Netflix , the Pulitzer Center , Desktop Documentaries

Common Core Standards

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.6.2

Determine the central idea of a text and how it is conveyed through particular details; provide a summary of the text distinct from personal opinions or judgments.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.7.1

Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences, conclusions, and/or generalizations drawn from the text.

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.7.7

Compare and contrast a text to an audio, video, or multimedia version of the text, analyzing each medium’s portrayal of the subject (e.g. how the delivery of a speech affects the impact of the words).

Students in Ms. Aiken's class made 5–7 minute documentaries about their family's migration story. Review the two examples below:

Andrew Wiederman chronicles his family's migration journey, taking us on a journey to New Jersey, Russia, the Netherlands, and finally, Philadelphia.

Capturing the unique journeys of his parents, Matias Fagnani takes us to Argentina, Delaware and New Jersey to trace his family's migration story.

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Article Contents

1. introduction, 2. crisis and migration, 3. the value of a crisis lens, 4. temporalities of crisis, family, and migration, 5. key themes of the special issue, 6. conclusion, acknowledgements, introduction to special issue: family migration in times of crisis.

Article contents
Figures & tables
Supplementary Data

Helena Wray, Katharine Charsley, Gizem Kolbaşı-Muyan, Lothar Smith, Introduction to Special Issue: Family Migration in Times of Crisis, Migration Studies , Volume 11, Issue 3, September 2023, Pages 363–379, https://doi.org/10.1093/migration/mnad026

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This introduction to the Special Issue on Family Migration in Times of Crisis explains why the concept of crisis is a useful prism to uncover new insights into family migration. It recognizes the multivalent character of crises and their tendency to merge and accumulate into what has been called ‘polycrisis’. It recognises critical perspectives on the concept of ‘crisis’, that it represents interpretations of events rather than events themselves and that crises are socially constructed and narrated. Crises present new risks and challenges for migrants and their families. The intersection of the temporalities of crisis with those of family migration can exacerbate periods of separation as well as stress and anxiety about how the family can reunify. The papers in this Special Issue, although they focus on diverse crises and use different approaches and methodologies, reveal some common themes. Crises ‘cascade’ and their impact are often greatest on more marginalized populations. They tend to expose and exacerbate existing inequalities, throwing them into sharper relief. Governments often respond to crises by reverting to more conventional norms of family life. The fragility of transnational life and its dependence on government approval are highlighted, as even the relatively privileged may find rights of movement are curtailed, although they may also more easily find solutions. Migrants and their families respond to crises by seeking to mitigate or avoid separation, and new associations, political contestations, and acts of solidarity may emerge, although their durability, given that interests can diverge over time and crises subside, is unclear.

The impetus for this Special Issue came from the Covid-19 pandemic and its wider social impact, which led to introspection on the globalized world and made some tensions more visible and acute, including those around migration. For migrants, more precariously situated than citizens, subject to conditional rights of residence, and often reliant on crossing borders to sustain their family ties, the pandemic often represented a personal crisis in multiple domains. That discussion opened up reflections on the broader associations of crisis with migration and its impact on families living across national borders. Most obviously, war or other catastrophic events lead to forced migration, but migration itself has also been framed politically and discursively as a crisis, with a focus on the volume or characteristics of those moving. The consequent repressive border controls and internal restrictions create further crises for migrating individuals and families, as they struggle to meet onerous conditions for entry and residence whilst simultaneously dealing with the impact of these conditions on their personal well-being and the enactment of family life.

This multidisciplinary Special Issue explores an under-developed area of migration studies: the impacts of crises on family migration. Crises are understood as watershed moments occurring in a global, national, local, or personal context. Focusing on the intertwined temporalities of crisis, family and migration, this Special Issue examines how bi-national or migrant families respond to a range of crises, including the pandemic, forced displacement, the imposition of new immigration restrictions, and personal crises such as insecurity or separation, and how these crises affect families. We consider how the challenges presented by periods of crisis to individuals and families are interrelated with processes of family migration, and how this has an impact on personal, societal, regulatory, and political realms. Including perspectives from sociology, law, political sciences, and history, and bringing in qualitative and quantitative approaches, the papers address a variety of migration contexts and concomitant critical developments. Three papers discuss the Covid-19 pandemic. For two, this is the central theme—both Odasso (2023) and Bell et al. (2023) utilize online ethnographic methods to chart the development of communities advocating for the rights of cross-border couples and families in the context of border restrictions during Covid, doing so for France and Norway, respectively. For Charsley and Wray (2023) , the pandemic is one theme among multiple temporal crises all creating and compounding the separation of bi-national couples and families by the UK family immigration regime. A longer historical angle is introduced by Westra et al. (2023) who explore the contested regulation of mobility of Surinamese families by The Netherlands government across two points of crisis in which new immigration regulations were imposed—the Dutch State response to Surinamese independence, and the more recent political backlash against ‘mass’ migration and multiculturalism. Finally, no collection on crisis and migration is complete without consideration of refugee migration. Schiefer et al. (2023) show that family is a key factor in understanding onward migration or settlement aspirations amongst Syrian refugees in Turkey.

In exploring these issues, this collection contributes to advancements in the field of family migration, an area of study steadily moving from the periphery to the centre of migration studies. As Thomas Cooke (2008) observes, nearly all migration is in some sense family migration, as even individual decisions to move are almost always made within the context of family needs, obligations, and dynamics. As the Special Issue’s papers show, families are key in migration decision-making, whilst mobility separates families but also reunites and reconfigures them. By exploring family migration through the lens of Times of Crisis , when social and cultural dynamics underlying family migration and its governance are both exposed and challenged, we provide new insights into understanding family migration in a range of domains.

We live in an era of crisis-talk and a sense that, globally and locally, we are facing multiple intersecting crises, sometimes characterized as ‘polycrisis’, a term first used in the 1990s which has been widely taken up as an apt representation of our current times ( Henig and Knight 2023 ). Political, socio-economic, or climate crises are often presented as potentially generating large-scale migrations, which, in turn, are often represented as crises in the making for countries who consider themselves as actual or desired destinations. This is, for instance, very much the case with the ‘European migration crisis’ of the late 2010s, when hundreds of thousands of people sought safety in Europe from conflict at home ( Buonanno 2017 ). Whilst these numbers do not lead to massive demographic shifts in recipient countries, they do present certain challenges that were seen as exacerbating already prevalent issues, such as sufficient affordable housing and a financially tenable health care system. The recent Covid-19 pandemic brought these political and societal tensions over the societal and economic impact of immigration to a new height through a sudden crisis of immobility for many. Suddenly national borders were closed, local mobility was put under curfew, and all global human mobility was suddenly considered with concern. In the UK, this crisis combined with the political crises of Brexit, leading to labour shortages in industries such as transport and hospitality, as well as less recognized implications for UK–EU families due to new restrictions on immigration. 1

The designation of migration as a crisis in its own right, or as part of a wider ‘polycrisis’, demands critical scrutiny. Crises are understood as inherently social, moments in time where a group or groups perceive the emergence of a threat and try to respond to this, under conditions of uncertainty ( Voss and Lorenz 2016 ). Hence, crises may also be moments of potential change, as habitual patterns disintegrate and social practices and institutions are reformed, sometimes even overturned ( Voss and Lorenz 2016 ). Crisis can thus be ‘a time when consensus is fractured’ ( Walby 2015 : 16); a ‘moment and process of transformation… [of] Dämmerung—dusk and dawn’ ( Hay 1996 ). But crises can also be understood as embedded in society and cultures. Thus, from an anthropological perspective, crisis within ritual performance may produce new social statuses that do not necessarily threaten existing social structures. From this viewpoint, crises are heuristic moments when cultural dynamics are concentrated and therefore made more acutely visible to researchers ( Wolf 1999 ; Beck and Knecht 2016 ). Crises, moreover, incorporate not just empirical reality but also discursive and narrative constructs. That a certain event becomes described as a crisis at all, but also as a certain type of crisis (i.e. structural versus temporal, national versus global, societal versus economic versus political, etc.) has an impact on how it is understood and the consequences that flow from it. As Hay (1996 : 255) puts it, for the state this also has repercussions, for: ‘state projects must respond to this narrative construction of crisis, and not necessarily to the conditions of contradiction and failure that in fact underlie it’. This is a key observation for the more marginal, fragile and less well-represented minorities in any national population.

Migrants are at particular risk during crises, when societal debate may accentuate and put emphasis on a problematization of migrants as ‘others’ ( Imhof 2016 ). In ‘Times of Crisis’, governments often adopt nationalistic perspectives, such as the ‘renationalisation of migration policies’ in response to refugee movements ( Brekke and Staver 2018 ), European exclusionary responses to African mobility ( Freemantle and Landau 2021 ), and a focus on “global nationalism” and “deglobalisation” ( Bieber 2022 ), which was seen in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. These national policy responses to global crisis can deepen crisis at the micro and meso level for migrants and their families. Thereby a crisis ‘cascades’ ( Walby 2015 , 2022 ) from the macro/political, to impact on other domains and levels. Whilst a ‘polycrisis’ arises from the ‘dense interconnectivity’ of systems ( Lawrence, Janzwood, and Homer-Dixon 2022 ), its cascading effects are a consequence of how responsibility and the burden of crises are unevenly distributed ( Walby 2022 ). A crisis in one powerful domain—the political responses to the Covid-19 health crisis for example, or the immigration rule consequences of political upheavals—is passed on in the form of new crises for particular social groups, families, and individuals ( Westra et al., 2023 ; Odasso 2023 ).

The metaphor of ‘cascade’ suggests a natural overflowing and tumbling down (of liquid, here crises) to impact lower levels. Not infrequently, however, the cascading of crises appears less accidental than a deliberate strategy of migration control. The imposing of familial crises, or the threat of such crises, has been a clear element of the UK’s ‘hostile environment’ (later rebranded as ‘compliant environment’) approach to migration management, as demonstrated, for example, in the current ramping up of punitive consequences for irregular migration—the threat of deportation away from family members in Britain ( Griffiths 2021 ), now potentially to Rwanda, and the life disruption of indefinite immigration detention ( Godshaw 2022 ). These tactics can be seen as a performative strategy to publicly demonstrate a government responding to the ‘crisis’ of irregular migration by passing it on to the migrant others held responsible, creating new forms of crisis for individuals and families. In the realm of family migration—another major migration category—a similar but less well-recognized logic can be seen in the routine separation creating multifaceted crises for bi-national couples and families ( Charsley and Wray 2023 ; Children’s Commissioner for England 2015 ; Justice and Home Affairs Committee of the House of Lords 2023 ).

Crises are thus both real and socially constructed ( Walby 2015 : 14). Examining a phenomenon such as migration through the lens of crisis serves to expose not just what happens in the world—viruses spread, people flee, colonies claim their independence—but also helps to discern the priorities, reflexes, and instrumentalities of governments through the tools they reach for to address these potentially destabilizing events. In turn, communities, families, and individuals are forced into making rapid decisions under these new, emerging constraints, without always knowing the long-term impact. To that end, new forms of agency, mutual aid, and solidarity may emerge, although this resilience will not be uniform, inclusive to all, or endure ( Kolbaşı-Muyan and Rittersberger-Tılıç 2023 ).

The distinctiveness of this Special Issue is in its use of crisis as a means of shedding new light on the norms, tensions, dynamics, and dilemmas that surround family migration. These are always present but are brought into sharper focus by a ‘crisis situation’, howsoever it has arisen, because of the apparent urgent need for resolution. Given the mutability of crisis as a concept, it manifests itself in different ways in the papers included in this Special Issue. For instance, Westra et al. (2023) consider the prolonged ‘crisis’ created by the decolonization of Suriname and the subsequent entry of Surinamese family members due to the relatively open regime in place immediately after independence. This was identified and discursively constructed as a failure in ways that anticipate the ‘failure’ of integration and multiculturalism that have featured in political discourse in many European countries in recent years, as well as earlier resistance to post-colonial migration in the UK ( Wray 2011 ; Charsley et al. 2020 ). Such crises are representations, and hence ‘constructions of failure’ ( Hay 1996 ) that often form the justification for political action, in this case, against migrant or ethnic minority groups perceived as problematic. The construction of crisis and the accompanying discourse enable states to take steps that would otherwise conflict with democratic or human rights norms ( Walby 2015 : 17–18). This is exemplified by Charsley and Wray (2023) , who show how the British government used presumed deficits in the financial viability of bi-national or mixed status families to rationalize the imposition of onerous financial conditions for admission that would, without such justification, violate family life rights ( Wray 2018 ).

… each crisis is uneven in its impact, typically bringing deprivations for many, especially those who are politically and economically weak, and often bringing benefits to some who have the resources to deal with the new situation. (…) While political rhetoric evokes a belief in a critical threat to a common “national interest,” the impacts of each crisis inevitably reflect internal conflicts of interests and inequality of sacrifice. ( Edelman 1977 : 45)

Hence, as several contributions to this Special Issue will show, the impact of Covid-19 travel restrictions often fell particularly harshly on migrants and those with transnational families and relationships ( Charsley and Wray 2023 ; Odasso 2023 ; Bell et al., 2023 ). Demonstrating the cascading character of crisis, Charsley and Wray (2023) show how the government’s response to the perception of crisis has led to prolonged crisis for families as they struggle to find ways to meet the conditions for entry whilst maintaining a relationship during enforced separation. Similarly, Odasso (2023) shows how the French government reacted to the Covid-19 pandemic not only by closing borders, a measure taken by almost all governments (see also Bell et al., 2023 ), but by basing exceptions on marital status. This provoked a crisis of intimate citizenship ( Bonjour and De Hart 2021 ) for couples confronted by the need to engage with bureaucratic processes that they had previously chosen to avoid (see also Bell et al., 2023 ). Schiefer et al. (2023) thereby also show how Syrian refugees in Turkey are caught between the cascading effects of two crises: the Syrian conflict which they have fled and the ‘European migration crisis’, which seeks to block their further movement, forcing them to make decisions as to their future against a background of extreme uncertainty.

Those affected by these ‘cascading’ crises may attempt to contest or re-present a crisis, or to make visible the impacts obscured by the dominant crisis discourse. If crises are essentially ‘multivalent’ ( Hart 1993 ), then multiple narratives can ‘compete in terms of their ability to find resonance with individuals’ and groups’ direct, lived experiences’ ( Hay 1996 ). Indeed, as crises threaten the State’s reputation for provision of security, crises may produce delegitimization and protest, or even provide opportunities for some actors and groups to advance their interests ( Hart 1993 ). For example, in the account of Westra et al. (2023) of Dutch campaigns around family migration rights in the wake of Surinamese independence, it became clear that whilst independence had introduced new immigration restrictions, the particular constructions of decolonization created space for widening notions of family in immigration regulations. However, as the ‘cascade’ metaphor suggests, grassroots bottom-up campaigns often worked against the gravity of power relations. Indeed, several papers in this collection describe the struggles and limitations of campaigns contesting restrictions on migrants and transnational families imposed in response to crises ( Westra et al., 2023 ; Odasso 2023 ; Bell et al., 2023 ).

Like migration processes and family relationships, crises unfold dynamically over time. Including Times in the title of this Special Issue stresses the importance of processual, temporal approaches to all three foundational concepts— Family , Migration , and Crisis. The contributions to this collection each explore the complex interrelationships and connections between them. Temporality is thereby not a specific theme of the Special Issue, but a foundational element integral to each of the three key concepts.

On the basic level of temporal stages, migration starts with imaginative processes of envisioning mobility and destinations ( Schiefer et al., 2023 ), through practical aspects of movement such as access to visas and travel—stalled for many would-be family migrants due to inaccessible regimes and aggravated by the Covid-19 crisis ( Bell et al., 2023 ; Charsley and Wray 2023 ; Odasso 2023 )—and ending in post-migration processes (for some at least) of gaining citizenship. But the ‘temporal turn’ in Migration Studies, often traced to Cwerner’s (2001) influential article, has drawn attention to a much wider range of ways in which temporality can be seen as fundamental to understanding migration. As Melanie Griffiths set out in the Opening Plenary to the 2022 IMISCOE Conference, time is a complex concept in relation to migration. It informs migrants’ subjectivities and social lives; the governance of migration through application processes and delays (cf. Charsley and Wray 2023 ); the maintenance of relationships and identities through shared time, ancestral pasts, and common futures; and the construction of migrant ‘others’ as temporary and/or newcomers, contrasted with an imagined permanent and autochthonous national citizenry ( Griffiths 2022 ).

Crisis itself is also a fundamentally temporal concept. It may involve a sudden shocking change— a ‘crisis’—but its effects are often long-lasting and momentous, as in the case of conflicts forcing families to flee ( Schiefer et al., 2023 ), or in the not-yet-complete processes of Brexit, during which the migrantization ( Anderson 2019 ) of EU family members of British residents’ families creates new potential familial crises ( Charsley and Wray 2023 ). And not all crises are short-lived, at least when seen from the perspective of the individual. Importantly, time is experienced subjectively. Whilst a period of months or even a couple of years may be a relatively small proportion of a total life, it will feel very lengthy whilst it is endured, particularly for the young, for whom it may represent a significant proportion of their life so far. Crises are also periods of uncertainty; what may retrospectively feel like the inevitable outcome—the visa is granted, the pandemic ends—is unknown in advance. A crisis may or may not be lengthy but it is often indeterminate.

Temporality is of course also key to family life. With her conceptualization of ‘personal life’, Carol Smart (2007) moved away from the static concept of ‘the family’, foregrounding temporality and connecting time to motion: in and out of relationships, of phases of life, movement in space, etc. Life course and generation are centrally about movement through time, whilst the biographical turn shows us the motion of lives, as these go through particular moments of significance and recollection. A significant literature explores time-use within families, and the challenges of managing family time and synchronizing schedules amidst other institutional temporal demands ( Rönkä and Korvela 2009 ) may be exacerbated for transnational families separated by distance, and sometimes substantial time-differences, through migration ( Charsley and Wray 2023 ). Family forms change and develop, and the migration context draws our attention to changing spatial distributions of family members over time ( Schiefer et al., 2023 ).

These three temporal processes—family, migration, and crisis—intersect in different ways. Taking the Covid-19 pandemic as an example, the stage of family development for migrant families at the onset of this crisis had major implications for challenges subsequently faced. Thus, couples applying for (re)unification were kept apart by travel restrictions and closure of visa services, missing out on sometimes long-planned visas and travel plans. This resulted in painful separations but also absence at crucial moments in ‘family time’: the birth of a child, anniversaries or birthdays, and shared holidays, as well as ‘biological time’ in terms of the window of opportunity for parenthood ( Charsley and Wray 2023 ). During lockdowns, migrant and transnational families abruptly and unexpectedly separated for lengthy periods often found support organizations closed for business or providing only limited services ( Odasso 2023 ). In response, migrants sought ways to engage in grassroots political mobilization such as the transnational #LoveIsNotTourism social media campaign ( Bell et al., 2023 ). Whilst many such initiatives sprang up quickly, they also lost much of their momentum once borders reopened. This may reflect their perceived impact, the fragility of the new alliances that they represented, or a wish to put the trauma in the past and return to a more stable way of life.

In an ‘era of polycrisis’, 2 we must also consider the temporal inter-relations of multiple crises of different nature and scales, and in different domains. Crises may coincide and compound each other, such as when families negotiating immigration systems in which separation is routine and often experienced as crisis, suddenly also had to deal with additional impacts of Covid-19 border closures and restrictions ( Charsley and Wray 2023 ). In Schiefer et al.’s account of Syrian refugee migration to Turkey, crises appear consecutively (a ‘continuum’ of crises as they put it): the crisis of war, the humanitarian crisis of displacement, a ‘reception crisis’, and then the impact of the Turkish economic crisis, increasing hostility to refugees and the Covid-19 pandemic (and, then, as we now know, the impact of the devastating February 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquake). Each crisis has had individual implications for migration decisions and aspirations; yet, together they created a context of constant uncertainty.

Griffiths (2022) and others (e.g., De Genova 2021 ) have pointed to the disciplinary use of time by administrations on migrants, particularly irregular migrants. This Special Issue shows that, in the European contexts under discussion, migrants and their citizen sponsors must comply with multiple and varying temporal requirements: evidence that is valid only within a limited time period, applications that must be made neither too early nor too late, and ‘probationary periods’ that may last for up to a decade before a permanent status is acquired. In that sense, time is money or at any rate resources as the ability of migrants to negotiate the absence of their family depends much on their access to resources such as citizenship rights and legal mobility ( Bell et al., 2023 ), their ability to overcome bureaucratic obstacles ( Odasso 2023 ) and their financial resources to qualify and pay for visas, and to maintain a family life in the interim, notably through regular visits ( Charsley and Wray 2023 ). Time is embedded in family migration processes, and its role was made all the more evident as time periods between physical encounters were lengthened or suspended indefinitely through State responses to crises.

The previous sections have argued that times of crisis make more apparent the essential features of a system that may be less clearly evident at other times. The contributions to this Special Issue have highlighted several thematic insights that relate to family migration and its regulation:

Changing norms and definitions of family in immigration regimes

Exposing the dynamics underlying the regulation of family migration

The scope and role for agency and solidarity.

5.1 Changing norms and definitions of family in immigration regimes

Crises are inherently times of potential change or turning points. One change featuring in several papers in this collection is in definitions and norms of family and couplehood in national immigration regimes. Migrants are often presented as threats to the nation, with national belonging commonly couched in metaphors of kinship ( Rytter 2010 ) and non-nationals’ family practices, or families crossing the borders of national territory, are frequently viewed with a certain suspicion ( Grillo 2014 ). In regulating family migration, moreover, there is a tendency to reify normative models of marriage and the nuclear family when defining which family members are permitted entry. The resilience of such normative kinship models in immigration law is actually quite remarkable given the mismatch with the plurality of family and relationship forms in contemporary European societies ( Van Walsum 2008 ).

In the unstable, unpredictable midst of the Covid-19 crisis, both Bell et al. (2023) and Odasso (2023) chart changing State responses to the challenge of bi-national couples and families separated by new and ever-evolving border restrictions. In March 2020, Norwegian borders were closed to ‘aliens without permits in accordance with the Immigration Act’ ( Bell et al., 2023 ). There followed waves of liberalization that allowed the admission of an increasingly wide range of family members and romantic partners. This led to the creation of new categories not previously recognized in immigration law, such as romantic partners whose relationship had been in existence for at least 9 months, step grandparents, and step grandchildren. With renewed restrictions in response to concerns over the spread of new Covid-19 variants, however, the permitted categories contracted once more to focus on more limited, normative and nuclear conceptualizations of family—spouses and registered/cohabiting partners, and minor children or stepchildren, and their offspring. Meanwhile in France, Odasso (2023) shows how many unmarried couples, trying to negotiate ways of reuniting in France during the pandemic, ‘were forced to fall back on formalising their relationships, mainly through marriage’. Marriage thus became ‘both a source of hope for living… life as a couple’ but also ‘a trap allowing the state to police such couples more effectively’.

Westra et al. (2023) use a longer timeframe to analyse changes to family forms accepted under Dutch immigration rules for Surinamese migrants. During the first of the two political crisis points analysed in the article—Surinamese independence and negotiations over citizenship and mobility rights (1975–1979)—the Dutch government agreed that Surinamese migrants would have special status, including expanding the range of family members permitted entry to The Netherlands to reflect kinship practices in Surinam, including konkubinaat (unmarried partners) and ‘other family members, who factually belong to the family of the concerned individual and are dependent on him’. By the end of the transitional period in the early 1980s, however, amidst a perceived crisis of ‘mass’ immigration, the Government introduced a visa requirement, and admission criteria were limited to spouse and minor children only (aligning more closely to general Dutch immigration criteria).

In all three of these contexts, then, initial liberalization was followed over time by a retrenchment of family immigration regulation around normative models of couplehood formalized through marriage and nuclear understandings of family.

5.2 Exposing the dynamics underlying the regulation of family migration

Familial crises related to migration are multidimensional in nature. Families separated by immigration regimes report not just acute emotional challenges but also financial hardship, social isolation, and impacts on their mental and physical health ( Charsley and Wray 2023 ). As family life is key among the ‘right of insiders’ citizens expect to enjoy ( de Hart 2009 ), subjection to immigration regimes can lead to crises of national belonging ( Bell et al., 2023 ; Odasso 2023 ). These feelings of rejection and frustration were exacerbated by the additional constraints imposed by crises.

In many migration contexts, the incursion of border regimes on family life is clear. Irregular migrants, for example, may be unable to attend crucial life course events such as funerals of relatives left behind in migration ( Bravo 2017 ). The refugees discussed by Schiefer et al. (2023) may aspire to reunite with family elsewhere, but their ability to realize those aspirations is often limited. Border regimes thus impose a forced transnationalism on many migrant and refugee families ( Golash-Boza 2014 ).

For other transnational families and couples who previously enjoyed easier cross-border mobility, however, the Covid-19 pandemic exposed for the first time the fragility and conditionality of their ability to move. This is most clearly seen in the context of EEA freedom of movement, where, as Bell et al. (2023) shows, frictionless cross-border mobility previously allowed families with EEA nationality to live together with relative ease, sometimes, as with couples who straddle the Norway–Sweden border, barely conscious of the border. Pandemic restrictions on this mobility came as a shock and a challenge to those habituated to this privileged mobility.

Even in normal times, as Charsley and Wray show in their paper on routine separation by the UK’s family immigration regime, citizens used to easy travel and who have formed relationships with partners from overseas find the limitations on their ability to reunite their families in the UK a shock to their sense of intimate citizenship (cf. de Hart and Besselsen 2021 ). In these contexts, couples understood that migration is always ‘permitted movement’ ( Macklin 2022 ), and that transnational family lives are always, potentially at least, fragile.

This fragility is, however, differentially distributed. Contemporary migration management often aims to select ‘desirable’ and reject ‘undesirable’ migrants, whether these are seen in terms of their perceived capacity for integration or their potential economic contribution ( Kofman 2018 ; Charsley et al. 2020 ). In this context, the immigration opportunities available by virtue of simple family relatedness, marriage contract, or romantic involvement with an individual represent a challenge to State control over those granted entry. In response, scholars have noted the ways in which immigration regimes attempt to effectuate a ‘sorting’ of family migrants by categories of desirability ( Wray 2012 ; Block 2015 ) whether by imposing financial requirements, fees, and other charges ( Charsley and Wray 2023 ), or through mechanisms disadvantaging particular nationalities of applicants ( Charsley 2012 ; Jørgensen 2012 ; Kolbaşı-Muyan 2020 ). The models of ‘proper’ families or relationships noted above are also employed in this differentiation ( Bonjour and De Hart 2013 ) to exclude those whose marriages are suspected of being insufficiently underpinned by romantic love ( Odasso 2023 ; Wray 2006 ; Charsley and Benson 2012 ).What do the papers in this collection tell us about what happens to such differentiation in chaotic times of crisis? Crises such as the pandemic amplified pre-existing inequalities ( Odasso 2023 ) but whilst they primarily impact on the vulnerable and those operating in societal margins, they can also challenge relative privilege due to government decisions that ‘level down’ previous hard-won rights or positions of relative privilege ( Bell et al., 2023 ). In the context of the Covid-19 crisis, Odasso (2023) and Bell et al. (2023) both note this ‘levelling down’ effect of Covid-19 border restrictions, which led those in more privileged positions to, for the first time in their lives, experience various restrictions to mobility as part of their transnational family lives, a rather more common experience for many other migrant or would-be migrant populations. Gradually, however, those with resources discovered ways of ‘playing with’ the regulations ( Odasso 2023 ) or found travel routes that permitted them to reunite with partners, so that prior inequalities re-emerged. The loss of ‘special status’ for Surinamese family migration ( Westra et al., 2023 ), however, reminds us that the ‘desirability’ of migrants is socially and politically constructed and subject to reinterpretation. For those in a weaker position, the downgrading of rights is permanent.

5.3 Agency and solidarity

Finally, the contributions draw our attention to both the importance and limitations of agency and solidarity for family migrants. Responses to crisis vary but, once any initial shock has passed, many individuals and family look for ways to overcome or mitigate their situation and to mobilize the resources at their disposal. As Schiefer et al. (2023) show, even those who might, at first glance, have few options, still envisage multiple possible futures contingent on many factors including the location and situation of other family members. Charsley and Wray (2023) show how applicants reorganize their lives to meet the criteria for admission. Meanwhile, Odasso (2023) shows the different ways that applicants confronted the new differentiated criteria for admission for their unmarried partners.

Family solidarity often becomes more significant in times of crisis, where urgency and threat reinforce the benefits of kinship solidarity, and motivate concern for the physical safety of loved ones (whilst equally increasing exposure of vulnerable individuals to threats from within the family, such as added vulnerability to domestic abuse during Covid-19 lockdowns). Schiefer et al. (2023) observe that ‘family is an important determinant of migration aspirations’. ‘[G]iven that family is both a central source and recipient of care and support in human’s lives… its importance for migration aspirations in times of crises can be assumed to be as strong as, or even stronger compared to non-crisis contexts’. The contributions to this Special Issue, however, also highlight that extra-familial solidarities can emerge through the contestation of restrictions to family migration. Westra et al. (2023) chart the efforts of ethnically-based Surinamese associations in struggles over post-colonial family migration rights. Both Odasso (2023) and Bell et al. (2023) document the formation of online communities of solidarity and political claims-making among those separated from loved ones by pandemic border-closures. These networks shared information between individuals on how to negotiate their family lives and mobility amidst crisis (a key element of Granovetter’s (1973) ‘strength of weak ties’ model; see also Kolbaşı-Muyan and Rittersberger-Tılıç 2023 ), and provided emotional support for those experiencing crises of separation. They also mobilized politically, through legal challenges, physical protests or online awareness-raising, such as the hashtag campaigns of #slipposin (Let Us In) in Norway, or the international #LoveIsNotTourism ( Bell et al., 2023 ; Odasso 2023 ).

Protesting such interventions – in court, in collective mobilisation, in letters to the authorities – involves making claims both about who belongs and about what ‘proper’ family is. Thus, citizens and their non-citizen family members ‘perform intimate citizenship’: they express what citizenship is and should be, by mobilising intersecting conceptions of intimacy and of belonging.’ (2021: 1)

At least at first, they found that, when it comes to borders, the state often prevails. Early concessions disappeared and individuals were confronted by the realization that even privileged movement is only ‘permitted’ ( Macklin 2022 ). However, the ability of the relatively privileged to mobilize resources in their favour, combined with the waning of the pandemic, meant that former hierarchies were soon re-established and neither Odasso (2023) nor Bell et al. (2023) anticipated more lasting connections and social movements.

By looking at family migration through the prism of ‘crisis’, this Special Issue has identified some salient features of family migration as a social, political, and regulatory question. The term ‘crisis’ represents the interpretation of an event rather than the event itself and thus remains a contestable concept that should not be naturalized or assumed. However, all crises, however they arise, can bring pre-existing tensions and anxieties to the fore due to the sense of urgency they provoke and throw pre-existing inequalities into sharper relief. Crises permit governments to do things they could not do under other circumstances and, in this way, may be deployed for instrumental purposes. Not all crisis responses fall into that category, however, and governments, under pressure to act quickly, may also rely on conventional heuristics without fully contemplating the consequences. Whichever applies in the particular case, there is likely to be a greater impact on populations who are already marginalized or disadvantaged, exaggerating existing inequalities. As the term ‘cascading crisis’ suggests, the burden is often passed down, so that a natural or political crisis results in personal and family crises. Whilst, as this Introduction has argued, more privileged sections of society may also be affected by crisis measures, it is also more likely that they can mobilize resources to mitigate or avoid the worst consequences.

These general observations have been substantiated by the varied approaches taken in this Special Issue. We have addressed a range of crises: the political crisis of decolonization ( Westra et al., 2023 ); the Covid-19 pandemic and the political response ( Bell et al., 2023 ; Odasso 2023 ); family crisis caused by the need to meet state requirements for family migration ( Charsley and Wray 2023 ); forced migration due to conflict ( Schiefer et al., 2023 ). We have used a range of methods: online ethnography ( Bell et al., 2023 ; Odasso 2023 ), interviews ( Odasso 2023 ), survey ( Schiefer et al., 2023 ), text analysis ( Westra et al., 2023 ), and co-creation via creative workshops ( Charsley and Wray 2023 ). Despite this diversity, our work revealed some consistent themes. In many European contexts, family immigration, particularly that involving some ethnic groups, has long been treated as the site of problems including poverty and welfare dependency, and gender inequality. In some cases, these concerns are themselves treated as constituting a crisis. In other instances, broader crisis measures weigh more heavily on these groups. In either case, the consequence is that relationships already policed more extensively by the state are subject to even more intense regulation, and those that do not fit normative models of marriage, family, or ‘conventional’ migration trajectories are liable to exclusion ( Bell et al., 2023 ; Odasso 2023 ).

We also found that crises expose the fragility of transnational family, as it depends on the consent of states that may be withdrawn with relative ease in a crisis situation. Even those with privileged mobility are at least temporarily powerless in the face of suddenly imposed immigration measures. This was true for EEA citizens who had previously relied on free movement rights to maintain a transnational family life but found that borders closed abruptly due to the pandemic ( Bell et al., 2023 ). It was also true for the British citizens in bi-national relationships discussed in Charsley and Wray (2023) who became aware that their own citizenship status brought them few privileges if their partner could not meet onerous state-generated conditions for entry. For migrants with fewer privileges, such as the refugees discussed by Schiefer et al. (2023) the impacts of crisis were even more intractable.

Yet, the papers in this Special Issue also report that many families are not passive in the face of these obstacles; they strategize, they mitigate, and they contest. They continue to imagine futures ( Schiefer et al., 2023 ). Parties were resourceful and imaginative in finding ways to overcome barriers ( Odasso 2023 ). There were also new associations, and acts of solidarity or protest with some limited success ( Bell et al., 2023 ; Odasso 2023 ; Westra et al., 2023 ). Odasso (2023) , however, reported some fissiparousness, and it is unclear whether coalitions based around pandemic measures would endure, as interests diverged after some members found solutions and the pandemic waned. Meanwhile, victories won by those with little political leverage did not endure ( Westra et al., 2023 ).

By shedding new light on the normative character of immigration laws, the hidden vulnerabilities of transnational families, and the benefits and limits of activism and solidarity, this Special Issue builds on existing insights on inequality in the face of discriminatory and stratified immigration regimes. The attention given to the intersection of time, migration, family, and crisis reflects the growing emphasis on time as a disciplinary tool within migration governance. The observation that crisis tends to intensify a pre-existing normativity reinforces work on the close connection between migration, family, and nation-building and the challenge this presents to claims of intimate citizenship. The collection also takes its place among the relatively small literature on migrant political mobilization. Finally, as the pandemic recedes, there is a need to understand what it shows us about mobility in the 21st century, a discussion begun by Martin and Bergmann (2021) and which is likely to continue and to which the papers by Odasso (2023) and Bell et al. (2023) contribute. If we live in an ‘era of polycrisis’, then scholars of migration need to incorporate crisis into their framework not as an exceptional condition, but as something that must be faced on a daily basis. Crises change what people do, how they build their lives, and the decisions they make. They also, as we hope this collection shows in relation to family migration, serve to highlight and expose underpinning tensions, dynamics, power relations, and contestations.

See eurochildren.info and brexitcouples.ac.uk for two research projects on this theme.

The organizers of the 2024 IMISCOE migration conference have chosen this term as their main theme for their Spring 2024 conference: https://www.imiscoe.org/events/imiscoe-events/1839-2024-imiscoe-spring-conference .

This Special Issue arose out of the efforts by Radboud University Network on Migrant Inclusion (RUNOMI), catalysed by the Covid-19 pandemic, to bring together an international set of experts to discuss the role of crises in migrant lives. To that end, RUNOMI organized two online workshops in which various scholars presented and shared progressive iterations of their papers on the topic. Whilst for various reasons not all these papers could be included in this Special Issue, we would like to acknowledge the valuable input provided by everyone at the workshops, whose ideas very much informed and inspired the contents of the papers that have been included as well as the direction of this Introduction. Our thanks go also to Pascal Beckers, who leads the RUNOMI network, and to Linda Sloane, the operations officer of RUNOMI. Finally, we would also like to thank Thomas Lacroix and the other editors at Migration Studies for the opportunity to share the insights of our discussions in this Special Issue.

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Family Migration

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First Online: 04 June 2022

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Eleonore Kofman nAff2 ,
Franz Buhr 2 &
Maria Lucinda Fonseca 2

Part of the book series: IMISCOE Research Series ((IMIS))

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Family migration is the term used to categorise the international movement of people who migrate due to new or established family ties. People moving for family reasons constitute the largest group of migrants entering OECD countries, ahead of labour and humanitarian migration (OECD, 2017). The study of migrant families cuts across the available legal definitions of family and brings to light emerging forms of living together, gender roles, sexualities, kinship ties, and caregiving practices. This chapter selectively synthesises recent scholarship on family migration, providing insights on the institutionalisation of the field, outlining its approaches and methodologies, and highlighting emerging topics for future research. These include transnational families and how they stay in contact; separated families and deportation; the impact of family migration policies; marriage migration and multi-sited and longitudinal studies used in studying the transformation and diversification of family forms.

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Family‐Related Migration and the Crisis-Driven Outflow from Greece

The Multidimensional Nature of Family Migration: Transnational and Mixed Families in Europe

The Implications of Socioeconomic Background for Moroccan Transnational Family Practices

Despite its ever-present relevance, family migration remains a dynamic and deeply political form of migration. Not only have migrants seen their rights to bring in family members fluctuate in the past decades, but the very meaning of ‘family’ has changed considerably, bringing legal implications for both nationals and migrants, and redefining what falls under the ’family migration’ category. The question of who counts as family in family migration law owes a great deal to changing societal norms of family life and the quest for equal rights for all types of families.

Law often lags behind developments in society, and family migration law is no exception (Kofman & Kraler, 2006 ). Up until the past few years in Europe, LGBT migrants did not have the right to family reunification procedures for bringing their partners to their new place of residence. Not all countries included dependent ascendants in their family migration policies, nor are countries equally recognisant of domestic partnerships. Migrant families do add to the diversification of family structures and living arrangements already taking place in host countries’ societies, such as a relative decline in the traditional married couple nuclear family, and an increase in heterosexual and same-sex cohabiting couples, single-parent families, and blended families among other family forms.

The study of migrant families therefore cuts across the available legal definitions of family and brings to light emerging forms of living together, gender roles, sexualities, kinship ties, and caregiving practices. This chapter selectively synthesises recent scholarship on family migration, providing insights on the institutionalisation of the field, outlining its approaches and methodologies, and highlighting emerging topics for future research.

1 Development and Timeline of the Field

Starting in the late 1980s, theoretical and methodological research on family migration emerged as a subject of scholarly work (Boyd, 1989 ; Zlotnik, 1995 ). At the same time, the family and household emerged as a unit of analysis through the New Economics of Labour Migration (Stark & Bloom ( 1985 ) in which the household rather than the individual is conceptualised as the decision-making unit of migration for purposes of investment and diversification of its resources. However, this theory has been criticised for its failure to take into account intra-household inequalities, power and conflicts arising from gender, generation and age (de Haas & Fokkema, 2010 ). The role of family in internal migration (Mincer, 1978 ) and a number of country case studies of family reunification to the US were also published (see International Migration Review, 1977, 1986).

In Asia, too, family migrations, and especially marriages, gave rise to articles in the Asia and Pacific Migration Journal (1995, 1999). European research, however, lagged behind (Kofman, 2004 ); family migration drew less attention than labour migration as family migration was associated with dependency upon a primary migrant, and largely consisted of women and children. Even so, as labour migration grew in numbers, so too did family migration increase as a result of increasing family reunifications, a trend that also characterises southern European countries since the 1990s (Ambrosini et al., 2014 ; Barbiano di Belgiojoso & Terzera, 2018 ; Fonseca & Ormond, 2008 ; Gonzalez-Ferrer, 2011 ). Hence, over the past two decades, we see consistent growth of publications about family migrations in relation to its different forms, the experiences of different family members, familial strategies, and the formation of transnational families.

Interest in family migration and how families operate across space and time was inspired by studies of transnationalism where the significance of family, friends and kin became evident in the maintenance of networks across international borders (Schiller et al., 1995 ). In the early 2000s, Bryceson and Vuorela ( 2002 ) drew attention to transnational families in Europe and countries of origin, leading to the consolidation of family migration as a field, which has burgeoned in the ensuing years. While international migration had traditionally been equated with the movement of men, the growth of female labour migrants was seen to impact family life, especially those persons left behind (Wall & Bolzman, 2013 ). In countries with large numbers of migrant female workers in domestic work, care work, and nursing, women became the sponsor of husbands, children, and parents.

In countries of destination, especially in Northern Europe, migrant families also became central to debates about how to live in multicultural societies and how to integrate future incoming migrants, especially Muslim women (Grillo, 2008 ). The politicisation and stigmatisation of migrant families have posed such families as a threat to Western norms and values and a drain on welfare expenditure.

However, it was not only academic interest in family migration that contributed to the growth of publications and comparative European projects. The Europeanisation of migration policy from Tampere onwards gave rise to the adoption of the Family Reunification Directive 2003/86 EC in 2003 (adopted by all Member States except Denmark, Ireland, and the UK). The Directive outlines the minimum rights third-country nationals should have in reuniting with a family member living in an EU Member State but does not address the situations of third-country nationals who are family members of an EU citizen.

The Directive also provides more favourable rules for refugees. It has been progressively adopted over several years by old EU states as well as the new enlargement states. The Commission has monitored (2008; 2014; 2019) the implementation of the Directive while the European Migration Network (EMN, 2017 ) has produced reports on issues and problems regarding family reunification and related issues. In part, concerns about family migration are due to the fact that, for the past 30 years, family reunification has been one of the primary drivers of immigration to the EU. In 2017, 472,994 migrants were admitted to the EU-25 on grounds of family reunification , or approximately 28% of all first permits issued to third-country nationals in the EU-25. It should be noted that, for the purposes of migration policy, ‘family’ was conceptualised as the traditional nuclear family comprised of a married couple and dependent children under 18 years of age.

Comparative projects on family migration explore the impact of family migration policies on the condition of entry and on integration into the receiving society. Some examples of these works include Civic Stratification, Gender and Family Migration Policies (New Directions in Democracy, Austria, 2006–2009) (Kraler & Kofman, 2010 ); PROSINT—Promoting Sustainable Policies for Integration (Scholten et al., 2012 ); IMPACIM—Impact of Admission Criteria on the Integration of Migrants (Oliver & Jayaweera, 2013 ); Family Reunification: a barrier or facilitator of integration?: a comparative study (Strik et al., 2013 ). The impact of increasingly restrictive family migration policies has also been critically examined in Finland (Pellander, 2021 ) and Norway (Eggbø, 2013 ; Staver, 2015 ) as well as in North-western countries with long-standing patterns of family migration. Women, particularly those from Muslim countries, have been targeted through integration contracts and measures, such as knowledge of language and the receiving society (Kofman & Raghuram, 2015 ).

Studies of family migration dissect what constitutes ‘proper’ families ‘worthy’ of being granted admission and incorporation into national societies (Bonizzoni, 2018a , b ; Bonjour & Kraler, 2015 ; Strasser et al., 2009 ). Stratification, especially by class (Kofman, 2018 ; Staver, 2015 ), determines the possibility of sponsoring family members. Such inequality in the right to sponsor family members is particularly significant given that families underpin the circulation of care and maintain social reproduction (Baldassar & Merla, 2014 ; Bonizzoni, 2018a , b ; Kofman & Raghuram, 2015 ). Additional migration-related topics that have gained attention over the past decade include cross-border and transnational marriages (and not simply marriages between co-ethnics) (Fresnoza-Flot & Ricordeau, 2017 ; Williams, 2010 ); migration and mobility theories (Bélanger & Silvey, 2020 ; Oso & Suarez-Grimalt, 2017 ); and methodological issues (Beauchemin, 2012 ; Beauchemin et al., 2015 ; Mazzucato & Dito, 2018 ). These topics will be explored in greater detail in the following sections.

2 Approaches and Theories

Many disciplines, ranging from anthropology, geography, politics, sociology, history, and law contribute to the study of family migrations. Most empirical studies have tended to be qualitative (Beauchemin, 2012 ), but more recent studies have generated large-scale data, enabling comparative analysis (Mazzucato & Dito, 2018 ). Approaches to family migration studies vary according to subtopics and disciplinary field. Policy and legal analysis examine the impact of policy (Block & Bonjour, 2013 ; Staver, 2015 ; Kofman, 2018 ) and legal changes on individuals and families, including their ability to live together (Wray et al., 2014 ). Comparative analyses of family migration policies have become more common, ranging from two-country to EU-wide and OECD-wide comparisons. The Migration Integration Policy Index (MIPEX), for example, produced a comprehensive comparison of integration policies among 38 countries in the European Economic Area, and including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the US, Japan, South Korea, and Turkey. The overall index assesses the impact of immigration and residence regulations and integration measures for immigrants. MIPEX’s framework of four broad criteria can be applied as a benchmark to evaluate the extent to which immigration and associated policies complicate or facilitate the reunification of families. The four strands include: (1) eligibility of sponsors and those sponsored; (2) conditions of sponsorship; (3) security of status; and (4) the rights of family members, especially spouses.

Other developments in the trajectory of migration studies should be noted. While earlier studies focused on countries of destination and often assumed that migrants wished to bring their family members with them, more recent studies take a more nuanced and critical view of migratory processes and question the desire to complete family reunification. Theoretically, studies have adopted a migration systems approach in which all forms of migration (permanent, temporary, circular, return) occur simultaneously. Increasingly, studies are multi-sited and transnational, in which people, services, and cultural and social practices circulate between places, underscoring the interdependency between the mobile and immobile to ensure successful migration outcomes (Bélanger & Silvey, 2020 ; Bermudez & Oso, 2018 ; Oso & Suarez-Grimalt, 2017 ).

Although family-related needs play a significant role in intra-European migration (depending on the data source) (Strey et al., 2018 ), this perspective has been somewhat neglected among researchers. Some of the difficulties of identifying family-related movements arise from the fact that individuals are often not counted as such because they do not hold a residence permit under this category and because restrictions on movement for family reasons do not apply to the same extent for EU nationals. Yet, large-scale migration from Eastern Europe post-EU enlargement in 2004 drew attention to the family strategies deployed by Polish migrants in their migration to and settlement in western Europe and relationships with their homeland (Ryan et al., 2009 ).

3 Research Topics

3.1 transnational families.

Because states do not collect information on family members living apart, we do not know the prevalence of transnational families (Bryceson & Vuorela, 2002 ) whose members live some or most of the time separate from each other across national borders. However, in more recent scholarship, transnational families are receiving more attention due to the general increase in the number of migrants, many of whom are temporary or do not have a sufficiently regular status or resources to bring other family members with them. Quantitative studies (see above) have questioned the commonly held idea that migrants want to reunify in the country of work and decide to do so based on familial structures and gender ideologies in the country of origin (Lenoel & David, 2019 ). Multi-sited and longitudinal studies have been able to capture the fluctuating and complex changes in the composition of the family in the destination country in response to economic crises (Oso & Suarez-Grimalt, 2017 ), the contextual factors in sending and receiving countries (Mazzucato & Dito, 2018 ), and the changing care demands in countries of origin and destination (Baldassar & Merla, 2014 ).

3.2 Staying in Touch

Family members commonly use multimedia or information communication technology (ICTs) to stay in contact (Madianou & Miller, 2012 ). Although these media may help to overcome absence and create a degree of intimacy, they require considerable effort and time to be effective (Baldassar et al., 2016 ). In spite of these advances, a sense of intimacy with distant or Skype parents can be more difficult to achieve.

Of course, ICTs are not equally available to all. Women in low- and middle-income countries, for instance, are 10% less likely to own a phone than men (Rowntree, 2018 ). In the United States, a study found that migrants with lower education and income levels were not able to access or afford the same types of ICTs as higher-skilled migrants and thus were in less contact with their families back home (Cuban, 2018 ).

Return visits are usually the more preferred and traditional means for maintaining relations and bringing family members to the country of destination for short periods. These visits are much easier for those with a regular status and for EU citizens who do not require visas and can benefit from cheap transport.

3.3 Separated Families and Deportation

Separation of transnational families—either voluntary or forced—is another key issue, particularly in cases where a family member is deported. There are conflicting views among academics and policymakers about the impact of separation on children whose parents have migrated (Lam & Yeoh, 2019 ) and on parents whose children migrate. Generally speaking, different outcomes are shaped by the wide variety of pre-migration structures and childcare traditions and variables that shape the experiences and outcomes for children and parents left behind (Zentgraf & Chinchilla, 2012 ).

Separation and forced transnationalism of immigrant families can also occur when a family member is in immigration detention or has been deported. These immigration enforcement actions are important cornerstones of restrictive immigration policies as they can function as deterrent for prospective immigrants. The United States provide an important and current example in this aspect. The number of deportations from the US rose drastically over the last three decades, with more than 340,000 people having been deported in 2017 alone. Interestingly, these immigrants have been living in the US on average for more than a decade (APA, 2018 ). The number of children who have undocumented parents potentially facing deportation numbers are in the millions (APA, 2018 ). Many of these children are US citizens, often even from birth (e.g., when parents had been given lawful but temporary protection that was not renewed later). The detention of a parent or close family member has serious economic, physical, psychological, and developmental consequences on children, other family members, and entire communities (APA, 2018 ). Brabeck et al. ( 2011 ) found that the consequences of the forced separation linger even after the family unit has been restored.

3.4 Impact of Family Migration Policies

While earlier research focused on family reunification of migrants and co-ethnic marriages, more recent research has turned to how family migration policies define the acceptable family and permissible intimate relationships (Bonizzoni, 2018a , b ), which includes a range of family members and familial and kin relationships, but also other affective relationships (e.g., love and marriage, parenting of children, and parental care) (Groes & Fernandez, 2018 ; Mai & King, 2009 ). Migrants benefitting from family migration regulations are expected to demonstrate they have the capacity to be productive, comply with acceptable cultural practices, and not be a burden on the welfare state (for a review of family migration and integration see Eggbø & Brekke, 2019 ). Integration policies have tended to represent family migrants as relatively homogeneous and often ‘transferring’ traditional cultural and social practices, yet, in reality, they come from many different countries and reflect an increasing global mobility that has extended intimate relationships (Wagner, 2015 ). An intersectional approach analysing the dynamic interaction between nationality, gender, age, class, and race needs to be applied to acquire a better understanding of family migration and the impact of policies (Korteweg, 2017 ). For example, class and socio-economic resources, which vary within nationalities (Horst et al., 2016 ), make a difference in how migrants navigate regulations (Chauvin et al., 2021 ). Furthermore, the complexity of how family members contribute to the social reproduction of the family tends to be given little attention in the migration literature. Rather, attention is paid to the nuclear family in immigration legislation while the roles of parents and other kin are marginalised.

The MIPEX (see above) rates the degree of difficulty for family reunification in 38 countries, most of which are in Europe, but also include a few wealthier Asian nations. The right to family reunification and formation—income, other resources, such as housing, integration conditions—has generated inequalities. Family reunification policies are most restrictive in northern countries, as they align the conditions for sponsorship increasingly with economic conditions for labour migration, especially the high-income requirements in a number of countries, which has rendered class more significant in the stratification of access to family life (Kofman, 2018 ; Staver, 2015 ). The focus of academic studies had tended to be on spousal sponsorship, but in recent years the growing restrictions on parents (Bragg & Wong, 2016 ) has led to more studies of the difficulties parents face in re-joining their children (Bélanger & Candiz, 2019 ). Arising from the large inflow of refugees since 2015, a number of countries imposed a temporary halt on family reunification (as from March 2016) for those with subsidiary protection—a lower level of protection than refugee status—who had to wait for 2 years before benefitting from it in Germany. In August 2018, this was abolished altogether and replaced with a cap of 1000 persons per month allocated according to humanitarian reasons (AIDA/ECRE). Denmark put a stop for refugees in general (Rytter, 2019 ).

3.5 Marriage Migration

Binational marriages in Asia grew from the 1990s (Chung et al., 2016 ; Palriwala & Uberoi, 2008 ) and were conceptualised by Constable ( 2005 ) as global hypergamy where labour and marriages from poorer to richer countries paralleled each other. In Europe, however, research tended to be focused, initially, on marriages between co-ethnics such as Turks, Moroccans, or Pakistanis marrying with someone from their homeland and seen as a problem for integration of the migrant in the receiving society. Cross-border marriages between a wider range of nationalities than co-ethnic as a means of migrating legally and acquiring citizenship have begun to receive more attention. Such migrations raise questions about the regulation of who belongs and who deserves citizenship (Bonizzoni, 2018a , b ; Fresnoza-Flot & Ricordeau, 2017 ; Moret et al., 2021 ; Williams, 2010 ).

Intra-European binational couples have been surprisingly under-studied (Gaspar, 2012 ; De Valk & Medrano, 2014 ) due in part to the assumption that intra-European mobility is primarily driven by work reasons. However, Migali and Natale ( 2017 ) found that familial reasons are nearly as significant as work motivations. Other studies of intra-European mobility, as in the Pioneur research conducted between 2002 and 2006, showed that love migration came first by a slight margin over work reasons (Recchi, 2015 ). For many individuals, the movement for familial and intimate reasons represented a second mobility, following an initial move for education or work (Gaspar, 2012 ). Having the privilege of EU citizenship, couples do not have to marry, but may cohabit. However, same-sex marriages are only recognised in northern, western, and southern European states, which, from 2018, were able to benefit from free movement rights.

4 Conclusion

Family migration is a broad migration form, which encompasses various kinds of movements, living arrangements, geographies and rights. Its statistical importance attracts political attention, but its manifold empirical forms and practices extend its relevance beyond policy-oriented studies. The study of family migration owes its dynamism to the constant change of what is (or should be) understood by the word ‘family’. The transformation of familial forms and the diversification of migration patterns encompassing both intra-European and third country nationals happen at a faster pace than scholarly enquiry, thus generating research gaps. Some of these gaps are emerging topics within the field and include: (1) understanding the effects of restrictions on family migration across Europe and identifying strategies developed by family members who are excluded by (new) family reunification provisions; (2) examining how the ’shrinking’ of the family as a result of migration and impediments to family reunification may be distressing and producing emotional dependency, while, at the same time, may also be experienced as liberating by some migrants in terms of autonomy, self-expression, gender roles, and sexuality (Kofman et al., 2011 ); (3) including more diverse familial and intimate arrangements such as LGBT families in cross-border marriages (Chauvin et al., 2021 ) and intersectional approaches taking into account class, race, nationality and age in family migration and the impact of policies; and (4) further investigating how Europe’s recent refugee intake will unfold as refugee families reunify.

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Kofman, E., Buhr, F., Fonseca, M.L. (2022). Family Migration. In: Scholten, P. (eds) Introduction to Migration Studies. IMISCOE Research Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-92377-8_8

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A young girl leans into the street to search for something.

Opinion Guest Essay

A Suitcase, 10 Countries, One School: A Migrant Family’s Search for Home

Keymar Rodríguez waiting for a bus with her father, Roberto, and her brother Kenny. Credit... Mateo Arciniegas Huertas for The New York Times

Supported by

By Bliss Broyard

Photographs by Mateo Arciniegas Huertas

Ms. Broyard is the author of “ One Drop ” and is working on a book about gentrification and integration in Brooklyn.

June 28, 2024

Mary Lauri and Roberto Rodríguez, asylum seekers from Venezuela, heard about Public School 46, in Fort Greene in Brooklyn, from a mother at Hall Street, the emergency shelter where their family had been placed. It was five blocks away and had a Spanish dual-language program.

When Ms. Rodríguez went to register her two younger children the second week in January, the school’s parent coordinator, Amanda Ocasio, a 30-year-old Puerto Rican woman with platinum hair, big brown eyes and funky red glasses, was standing inside the entrance with the security guards to welcome them. There was breakfast, and there were piles of warm clothes, school supplies and toiletries in the teachers’ lounge for parents and children to choose from.

Allison Blechman, the English-as-a-new-language teacher, took the family on a tour of the school: a beautiful library with books in English and Spanish and comfortable chairs, a science lab with 3-D printers, an auditorium with a stage and curtains like a real theater, whiteboards in every classroom.

Andrés, Ms. Rodríguez’s 7-year-old son, gaped at the bounty, revealing teeth growing in every which way. Kenny, her 12-year-old, sporting a bowl cut and serious expression, solemnly told Ms. Ocasio, “This is the best school I’ve ever seen in my life.” He was too old to attend. “There’s a middle school upstairs for you,” she said.

The next day, Ms. Rodríguez watched as Ms. Ocasio escorted Andrés and his 9-year-old sister, Keymar, down the hall through a set of doors toward their classrooms. Once she’d gotten outside, Ms. Rodríguez burst into tears. “We had crossed 10 countries and to go through so much and receive a warm welcome,” she told me through a Spanish interpreter.

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Migration, separation and family survival

Alejandra is from a small town in Mexico, where jobs are few, poverty is prevalent, and migration to the U.S. is common. In 2006, Alejandra's husband lost his job and left her with three children. She has not heard from him since. After his departure, she moved to her parents' house and tried unsuccessfully to find work. A year later Alejandra made what was the most difficult decision of her life. She would go to the United States.

Without papers, Alejandra borrowed $5,000 from an informal lending service that gives high interest loans to fund migrants' journeys north, and hired a coyote, a smuggler, to help her cross the U.S./ Mexico border. After many tears, Alejandra said goodbye to her children and set out for the U.S. on November 1, 2007. She now lives in Montana, where several migrants from her home community have settled. She pieces together money by cleaning homes, but the work is unstable and she is not earning what she had expected. She talks to her children every few days, but she does not know when she will see them again.

Alejandra's story is not atypical. She is like millions of poor women around the world who have migrated in an attempt to secure their families' survival. Whereas poor women used to migrate primarily to reunite with family, they are increasingly migrating in search of wages to support their children. This trend is rooted in an increased supply of poor women in the South who cannot secure living wages. But more importantly it is fueled by the feminization of the low-wage care industry in the U.S., Europe, and the Middle East, where there is a high demand for poor women to clean our homes, hospitals, and hotels and to care for our children. Women who cannot afford to be with their own children are migrating en masse to care for the children of others.

As capital and employment opportunities concentrate in the North, and as global inequality grows, poor families in the Global South increasingly have to decide between sinking further into poverty together and sending one or more members north to find work. The result is a growing trend in families who have little choice but to divide their labor across borders. More and more it is mothers who head north.

The reality in which this choice is rooted is difficult to understand from a middle class perspective. How could a mother leave her children? Yet White middle and upper class privilege, and the access it has provided to the nuclear family, has long been out of reach to poor families, especially families of color. Now, as global economic processes penetrate deeper into family life, not only is the nuclear family out of reach, but so too is the nationally-based family. Despite the economic roots of most migration decisions and the problems that migration leaves in its wake, migrant mothers are often blamed for family breakdown and for the struggles of the children who stay behind. When we look at the phenomenon of migrating mothers through the lens of individual choice and responsibility, it is difficult to understand how a mother could leave, and it's easy to cast blame. However, when we place their reality in the context of global inequality and the structural constraints it presents, a much different story emerges.

This is a story of struggle and survival. It is a story of the limited choice that migrant mothers face between dire poverty and the chance of giving their children a better life. Every one of the hundreds of Latina mothers I have met in the course of almost ten years of field work has told me that they migrated out of love. Not migrating would be to fail their children. Despite the distance, they put tremendous energy into mothering from afar.

Staying in touch and long-distance intimacy

Most mothers migrating to the U.S. arrive unsure about when they will see their children again. Family by phone is how most manage their long-distance relationships. During phone calls, which happen weekly if not more often, mothers and children share happenings in their lives and lend each other support. Although separated by thousands of miles, this communication has a major impact. Children of migrants I interviewed in Honduras and El Salvador told me that even though their mothers have been away for a long time, mothers continue to shape them as individuals, passing on important values and life lessons. They told me that their mothers tell them to "work hard" and "never give up." Mothers stress the importance of school and tell them how important it is that they believe in themselves. Children embrace these messages and use them to structure their lives, goals and expectations. Most mothers are committed to maintaining a strong and influential presence in their children's lives regardless of the distance. And so they work hard to nurture intimacy from afar.

"Other Mothers": transnational care networks

While migrant mothers work to maintain connections with their children, they must put their faith in networks of family and kin to care for their children in their absence. Biological parents cannot migrate if they do not have someone with whom to leave their children. Sociologist Patricia Hill Collins terms the women who care for children when blood-mothers are absent "other-mothers." In addition to ensuring the health and physical well-being of children, other-mothers play a key role in maintaining family unity and in easing the anxiety or emotional burdens borne by children who are separated from their parents. This role is of vital importance in transnational families.

Alejandra was able to go to the U.S. in search of work because her own mother took in her three children. She told me that knowing her children are safe and well cared for by someone who shares her values lends serenity. Her mom sends a consistent message to Alejandra's children that she left because she loves them and wants to give them a better future. This in turn gives the children some peace in their mother's absence.

Doña Rosa is representative of many grandmothers I have met who serve as other-mothers. She is 75 years old, and lives on the outskirts of San Pedro Sula, Honduras' industrial capital. Three of her children have migrated to the U.S., and she has since raised five of her grandchildren. Doña Rosa also plays the role of community other-mother hosting neighborhood meals weekly for those who have been abandoned by family members in the U.S. She feels that it is her obligation to share the money she receives from her daughters to help those who are less fortunate.

Other-mothers are the oft-invisible pillars of families who are divided by migration. They are also important support structures of global capitalism, protecting poor families from breakdown when economic inequality mandates their separation. Doña Rosa is one of millions unpaid and overlooked stewards of globalization.

Economic strategies

Love, intimacy and care networks cannot flourish without economic support. In many families in the Global South, the remittances that migrants send provide their sole source of income. Western Union offices commonly mark the center of Mexican and Central American towns, symbolizing the centrality of these economic flows to the survival of poor families. Families use remittances to buy food and medicine, to pay school fees, make house repairs, and even to support informal businesses. In the U.S. and other host societies, migrants endure great sacrifices in order to accumulate a surplus to send to their families, working in low-wage jobs with poor working conditions. They also live in cramped, rundown apartments and trailers, and skimp on food and clothing in order to send money back home.

Economic remittances are rooted in women's commitment to mothering. Migrant mothers tell me that it is their primary responsibility to give what they can to their families. They do not expect that their giving will ever be reciprocated, but they believe that sending what they can to their children and sacrificing in order to keep them well is the "right thing to do" and the only way to give their children a better future. Dañiela, a former folklorico dancer from Honduras who now lives in Boston, told me that she has suffered abuse so she could maintain her commitment to her daughter's future.

"I needed money for my daughter..... So I started working in the house of an American woman. It was horrible. She paid me $100/week....And she didn't give me food. It was hell. But my daughter is so important. For her I would have done anything..."

Emotional struggles

Indeed, for mothers who must live far away from their children, every day can be a struggle. Mothers express the greatest distress about trying to maintain connections with children who were very young when they left. Young children have difficulty understanding why their mothers had to leave, and they often do not remember them well. Mothers are also challenged when their children inquire about when they are coming home. Many tell me that they answer these questions untruthfully, with a version of "soon; we will be together soon." Others tell the truth, that it is too expensive or dangerous a journey. The truth-tellers bear the burden of their children's disappointment and sadness.

The homesickness and loneliness that burden migrant mothers are often coupled with anxiety over their children's health and safety. When I first met Paula, a Honduran living in Boston, I immediately sensed her depression. Her husband had lost his job and she feared she would lose hers as well. But what is most difficult, she told me, is to know that her child at home may be suffering. Paula is so worried about her daughter's safety that she told her sister, who is caring for her there, "not to let her go outside, not even to the neighbors."

Dreams of reunification

Shared dreams of reunification help keep mothers and their children strong and connected. Where the reunion would take place is less important than the reunion itself. Yet reunification of any sort is difficult to achieve. There are political and economic barriers. On the economic and political sides, one has to be documented and have enough money and assets to qualify as a sponsor for family reunification. "Illegal" reunification is a risky option which is only available if a family is able to access sufficient funds to smuggle children across the border. Few have this privilege.

The increased militarization of the U.S.-Mexican border has made migration a more permanent endeavor than ever before. Migrants who come to the U.S. without papers literally risk life and limb to cross the border. The risk involved in the crossing means they are more likely to settle for long periods of time, if not permanently, and will seldom risk a visit "home." It also means that mothers are unlikely to try to arrange the crossing of their children unless they can secure a legal visa, a proposition that is next to impossible for the migrant poor. This means that dreams of reunification are often just that-dreams. Still, they are the fuel and the hope that keeps mothers and children moving forward.

As globalization penetrates deeper into the daily lives of the poor in the Global South, family separation is becoming a norm. Underlying divided families is a troubling global hierarchy of motherhood. At the top of this hierarchy are mothers who can afford to be with their children. They tend to be White and middle or upper class. On the bottom are poor mothers of color in the Global South. These are mothers who have little choice but to leave their children in order to protect their survival and offer them hope for a better future. They are casualties of globalization whose stories need to be told.

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Please note you do not have access to teaching notes, the effects of migration on family relationships: case studies.

International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care

ISSN : 1747-9894

Article publication date: 12 June 2017

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the impacts of internal migration on families, specifically on emotional bonds and mental health, and relate the process of change and life trajectory of migration mobility within a population.

Design/methodology/approach

This was a qualitative study on two case studies taken from family psychotherapy.

The analyses indicate the splitting and forming of emotional bonds, the psychological illness caused by intrasubjective, intersubjective and transubjective conflicts, and the transgenerational dynamics which all repeat themselves within the families of today. The authors conclude that, in many cases, migration turns into one of the contingencies of life that can cause psychological disorganization.

Research limitations/implications

The complexity and diversity of migration reveals a myriad of reasons, densities, directions, spatialities and temporalities of that are part of a contemporary study.

Practical implications

Contribution to therapeutic processes for aid to migrants and their families.

Social implications

Contribution to the reduction of stress for migrants.

Originality/value

The focus of this study is on therapeutic processes and their repercussions.

Mental health

Bucher-Maluschke, J. , Gondim, M.d.F. and Pedroso, J.d.S. (2017), "The effects of migration on family relationships: case studies", International Journal of Migration, Health and Social Care , Vol. 13 No. 2, pp. 198-206. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJMHSC-05-2015-0016

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Article contents

Global migration: causes and consequences.

Benjamin Helms Benjamin Helms Department of Politics, University of Virginia
and David Leblang David Leblang Department of Politics, Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, University of Virginia
https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.013.631
Published online: 25 February 2019

International migration is a multifaceted process with distinct stages and decision points. An initial decision to leave one’s country of birth may be made by the individual or the family unit, and this decision may reflect a desire to reconnect with friends and family who have already moved abroad, a need to diversify the family’s access to financial capital, a demand to increase wages, or a belief that conditions abroad will provide social and/or political benefits not available in the homeland. Once the individual has decided to move abroad, the next decision is the choice of destination. Standard explanations of destination choice have focused on the physical costs associated with moving—moving shorter distances is often less expensive than moving to a destination farther away; these explanations have recently been modified to include other social, political, familial, and cultural dimensions as part of the transaction cost associated with migrating. Arrival in a host country does not mean that an émigré’s relationship with their homeland is over. Migrant networks are an engine of global economic integration—expatriates help expand trade and investment flows, they transmit skills and knowledge back to their homelands, and they remit financial and human capital. Aware of the value of their external populations, home countries have developed a range of policies that enable them to “harness” their diasporas.

immigration
international political economy
factor flows
gravity models

Introduction

The steady growth of international labor migration is an important, yet underappreciated, aspect of globalization. 1 In 1970 , just 78 million people, or about 2.1% of the global population, lived outside their country of birth. By 1990 , that number had nearly doubled to more than 150 million people, or about 2.8% of the global population (United Nations Population Division, 2012 ). Despite the growth of populist political parties and restrictionist movements in key destination countries, the growth in global migration shows no signs of slowing down, with nearly 250 million people living outside their country of birth as of 2015 . While 34% of all global migrants live in industrialized countries (with the United States and Germany leading the way), 38% of all global migration occurs between developing countries (World Bank, 2016 ).

Identifying the causes and consequences of international labor migration is essential to our broader understanding of globalization. Scholars across diverse academic fields, including economics, political science, sociology, law, and demography, have attempted to explain why individuals voluntarily leave their homelands. The dominant thread in the labor migration literature is influenced by microeconomics, which posits that individuals contemplating migration are rational, utility-maximizing actors who carefully weigh the potential costs and benefits of leaving their country of origin (e.g., Borjas, 1989 ; Portes & Böröcz, 1989 ; Grogger & Hanson, 2011 ). The act of migration, from this perspective, is typically conceptualized as an investment from which a migrant expects to receive some benefit, whether it be in the form of increased income, political freedom, or enhanced social ties (Schultz, 1961 ; Sjaastad, 1962 ; Collier & Hoeffler, 2014 ).

In this article we go beyond the treatment of migration as a single decision and conceive of it as a multifaceted process with distinct stages and decision points. We identify factors that are relevant at different stages in the migration process and highlight how and when certain factors interact with others during the migration process. Economic factors such as the wage differential between origin and destination countries, for example, may be the driving factor behind someone’s initial decision to migrate (Borjas, 1989 ). But when choosing a specific destination, economic factors may be conditioned by political or social conditions in that destination (Fitzgerald, Leblang, & Teets, 2014 ). Each stage or decision point has distinguishing features that are important in determining how (potential) migrants respond to the driving forces identified by scholars.

This is certainly not a theoretical innovation; migration has long been conceived of as a multi-step process, and scholars often identify the stage or decision point to which their argument best applies. However, most interdisciplinary syntheses of the literature on international labor migration do not provide a systematic treatment of this defining feature, instead organizing theoretical and empirical contributions by field of study, unit or level of analysis, or theoretical tradition (e.g., Portes & Böröcz, 1989 ; Massey et al., 1993 ; European Asylum Support Office, 2016 ). Such approaches are undoubtedly valuable in their own right. Our decision to organize this discussion by stage allows us to understand this as a process, rather than as a set of discrete events. As a result, we conceptualize international labor migration as three stages or decision points: (a) the decision to migrate or to remain at home, (b) the choice of destination, and (c) the manner by which expatriates re-engage—or choose not to re-engage—with their country of origin once abroad. We also use these decision points to highlight a number of potential new directions for future research in this still-evolving field.

Figure 1. Global migration intentions by educational attainment, 2008–2017.

Should I Stay or Should I Go, Now?

The massive growth in international labor migration in the age of globalization is remarkable, but the fact remains that over 95% of the world’s population never leave their country of origin (United Nations Population Division, 2012 ). Figure 1 shows the percentage of people who expressed an intention to move abroad between 2008 and 2017 by educational attainment, according to data from the Gallup World Poll. Over this time period, it appears that those who were highly educated expressed intent to migrate in greater numbers than those who had less than a college education, although these two groups have converged in recent years. What is most striking, however, is that a vast majority of people, regardless of educational attainment, expressed no desire to move abroad. Even though absolute flows of migrants have grown at a near-exponential rate, relative to their non-migrating counterparts, they remain a small minority. What factors are important in determining who decides to migrate and who decides to remain at home? 2

From Neoclassical Economics to the Mobility Transition

Neoclassical economic models posit that the primary driving factor behind migration is the expected difference in wages (discounted future income streams) between origin and destination countries (Sjaastad, 1962 ; Borjas, 1989 ; Clark, Hatton, & Williamson, 2007 ). All else equal, when the wage gap, minus the costs associated with moving between origin and destination, is high, these models predict large flows of labor migrants. In equilibrium, as more individuals move from origin to destination countries, the wage differential narrows, which in turn leads to zero net migration (Lewis, 1954 ; Harris & Todaro, 1970 ). Traditional models predict a negative monotonic relationship between the wage gap and the number of migrants (e.g., Sjaastad, 1962 ). However, the predictions of neoclassical models are not well supported by the empirical record. Empirical evidence shows that, at least in a cross-section, the relationship between economic development and migration is more akin to an inverted U. For countries with low levels of per capita income, we observe little migration due to a liquidity constraint: at this end of the income distribution, individuals do not have sufficient resources to cover even minor costs associated with moving abroad. Increasing income helps to decrease this constraint, and consequently we observe increased levels of emigration as incomes rise (de Haas, 2007 ). This effect, however, is not monotonic: as countries reach middle-income status, declining wage differentials lead to flattening rates of emigration, and then decreasing rates as countries enter later stages of economic development. 3

Some research explains this curvilinear relationship by focusing on the interaction between emigration incentives and constraints : for example, increased income initially makes migration more affordable (reduces constraints), but also simultaneously reduces the relative economic benefits of migrating as the wage differential narrows (as potential migrants now have the financial capacity to enhance local amenities) (Dao, Docquier, Parsons, & Peri, 2016 ). The theoretical underpinnings of this interaction, however, are not without controversy. Clemens identifies several classes of theory that attempt to explain this curvilinear relationship—a relationship that has been referred to in the literature as the mobility transition (Clemens, 2014 ). These theories include: demographic changes resulting from development that also favor emigration up to a point (Easterlin, 1961 ; Tomaske, 1971 ), the loosening of credit restraints on would-be migrants (Vanderkamp, 1971 ; Hatton & Williamson, 1994 ), a breakdown of information barriers via the building of transnational social networks (Epstein, 2008 ), structural economic changes in the development process that result in worker dislocation (Zelinsky, 1971 ; Massey, 1988 ), the dynamics of economic inequality and relative deprivation (Stark, 1984 ; Stark & Yitzhaki, 1988 ; Stark & Taylor, 1991 ), and changing immigration policies in destination countries toward increasingly wealthy countries (Clemens, 2014 ). While each of these play some role in the mobility transition curve, Dao et al. ( 2016 ) run an empirical horse race between numerous explanations and find that changing skill composition resulting from economic development is the most substantively important driver. Economic development is correlated with an increase in a country’s level of education; an increase in the level of education, in turn, is correlated with increased emigration. However, traditional explanations involving microeconomic drivers such as income, credit constraints, and economic inequality remain important factors (Dao et al., 2016 ). The diversity of explanations offered for the mobility transition curve indicates that while most research agrees the inverted-U relationship is an accurate empirical portrayal of the relationship between development and migration, little theoretical agreement exists on what drives this relationship. Complicating this disagreement is the difficulty of empirically disentangling highly correlated factors such as income, skill composition, and demographic trends in order to identify robust causal relationships.

Political Conditions at the Origin

While there is a scholarly consensus around the mobility transition and the role of economic conditions, emerging research suggests that the political environment in the origin country may also be salient. We do not refer here to forced migration, such as in the case of those who leave because they are fleeing political persecution or violent conflict. Rather, we focus on political conditions in the homeland that influence a potential migrant’s decision to emigrate voluntarily. Interpretations of how, and the extent to which, political conditions in origin countries (independent of economic conditions) influence the decision to migrate have been heavily influenced by Hirschman’s “Exit, Voice, and Loyalty” framework (Hirschman, 1970 , 1978 ). Hirschman argues that the opportunity to exit—to exit a firm, an organization, or a country—places pressure on the local authorities; voting with one’s feet forces organizations to reassess their operations.

When applied to the politics of emigration, Hirschman’s framework generates two different hypotheses. On the one hand, politicians may allow, encourage, or force the emigration of groups that oppose the regime as a political safety valve of sorts. This provides the government with a mechanism with which to manage potential political challengers by encouraging their exit. On the other hand, politicians—especially those in autocracies—may actively work to prevent exit because they fear the emigration of economic elites, the highly skilled, and others who have resources vital to the survival of the regime. 4

A small number of studies investigate how local-level, rather than national, political circumstances affect a potential migrant’s calculus. The limited empirical evidence currently available suggests that local conditions are substantively important determinants of the emigration decision. When individuals are highly satisfied with local amenities such as their own standard of living, quality of public services, and overall sense of physical security, they express far less intention to migrate compared with highly dissatisfied individuals (Dustmann & Okatenko, 2014 ). Furthermore, availability of public transport and access to better education facilities decreases the propensity to express an intention to emigrate (Cazzuffi & Modrego, 2018 ). This relationship holds across all levels of wealth and economic development, and there is some evidence that satisfaction with local amenities matters as much as, or even more than, income or wealth (Dustmann & Okatenko, 2014 ).

Political corruption, on both national and local levels, also has substantively important effects on potential migrants, especially those who are highly skilled. Broadly defined as the use of public office for political gain, political corruption operates as both a direct and an indirect factor promoting emigration. 5 Firstly, corruption may have a direct effect on the desire to emigrate in that it can decrease the political and economic power of an individual, leading to a lower standard of living and poorer quality of life in origin countries. If the reduction in life satisfaction resulting from corruption is sufficiently high—either by itself or in combination with other “push” factors—then the exit option becomes more attractive (Cooray & Schneider, 2016 ). Secondly, corruption also operates through indirect channels that influence other push factors. Given the large literature on how political corruption influences a number of development outcomes, it is conceivable that corruption affects the decision-making process of a potential migrant through its negative effect on social spending, education, and public health (Mo, 2001 ; Mauro, 1998 ; Gupta, Davoodi, & Thigonson, 2001 ).

The combination of its direct and indirect impacts means that corruption could be a significant part of a migrant’s decision-making process. At present there is limited work exploring this question, and the research does not yield a consensus. Some scholars argue that political corruption has no substantive effect on total bilateral migration, but that it does encourage migration among the highly skilled (Dimant, Krieger, & Meierrieks, 2013 ). This is the case, the argument goes, because corruption causes the greatest relative harm to the utility of those who have invested in human capital, who migrate to escape the negative effect on their fixed investment. In contrast, others find that a high level of corruption does increase emigration at the aggregate level (Poprawe, 2015 ). More nuanced arguments take into account the intensity of corruption: low to moderate levels of corruption lead to increased emigration of all groups, and especially of the highly skilled. But at high levels of corruption, emigration begins to decrease, indicating that intense corruption can act as a mobility constraint (Cooray & Schneider, 2016 ). All of these existing accounts, however, employ state-level measures of corruption by non-governmental organizations, such as those produced by Transparency International. Scholars have yet to harness micro-level survey data to explore the influence of personal corruption perception on the individual’s decision-making process.

The Land of Hopes and Dreams

Given that an individual has decided to emigrate, the next decision point is to choose a destination country. Advanced industrial democracies, such as those in the OECD, are major migrant-receiving countries, but so are Russia and several Gulf countries including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates (World Bank, 2016 ). A country’s constellation of political, economic, and social attributes is crucial to understanding an emigrant’s choice of destination. Potential migrants weigh all of these factors simultaneously when choosing a destination: will the destination allow political rights for the migrant and their children, is access to the labor market possible, and does the destination provide an opportunity for reunification with friends and family? In this section we focus on the non-economic factors that draw migrants to certain countries over others. In addition, we emphasize how skill level adds layers of complexity to a migrant’s calculus.

Political Environment, Both Formal and Informal

As noted earlier, traditional neoclassical models and their extensions place wage differentials and associated economic variables at the heart of a migrant’s choice. Gravity models posit that migrants choose a destination country based on their expected income—which itself is a function of the wage rate and the probability of finding employment in the destination—less the costs associated with moving (Ravenstein, 1885 ; Todaro, 1969 ; Borjas, 1989 ). A rigid focus on economic factors, however, blinds us to the empirical reality that a destination country’s political environment influences what destination a migrant chooses (Borjas, 1989 ). A country’s legal and political rights structure for migrants, as well as its level of tolerance for newcomers, is critical to migrants discriminating between an array of potential destinations. Fitzgerald, Leblang, and Teets ( 2014 ) argue, for example, that states with restrictive citizenship policies and strong radical right anti-immigrant parties will receive fewer migrants, while states with relatively liberal citizenship requirements and weak radical right political movements will receive more migrants. In the rational actor framework, migrants seek countries with hospitable political environments to maximize both their political representation in government and their access to labor market opportunities as a result of citizenship rights and social acceptance (Fitzgerald et al., 2014 ).

Using a broad sample of origin countries and 18 destination countries, they find that relative restrictiveness of citizenship policies and level of domestic support for the radical right are substantively important determinants of global migratory flows. Further, they find that these political variables condition a migrant’s choice of destination: the relative importance of economic factors such as the unemployment rate or the wage differential diminishes as a destination country’s political environment becomes more open for migrants. In other words, when migrants are choosing a destination country, political considerations may trump economic ones—a finding that is an important amendment to the primarily economics-focused calculus of the initial stage of the immigration decision.

However, prior to choosing and entering a destination country, a migrant must also navigate a country’s immigration policy—the regulation of both migrant entry and the rights and status of current migrants. While it is often assumed that a relatively more restrictive immigration policy deters entry, and vice versa, a lack of quantitative data has limited the ability of scholars to confirm this intuition cross-nationally. Money ( 1999 ) emphasizes that the policy output of immigration politics does not necessarily correlate with the outcome of international migrant flows. There are a number of unanswered questions in this field, including: is immigration policy a meaningful determinant of global flows of migration? Do certain kinds of immigration policies matter more than others? How does immigration policy interact with other political and economic factors, such as unemployment and social networks?

Only a handful of studies analyze whether or not immigration policy is a significant determinant of the size and character of migratory flows. Perhaps the most prominent answer to this question is the “gap hypothesis,” which posits that immigration rates continue to increase despite increasingly restrictive immigration policies in advanced countries (Cornelius & Tsuda, 2004 ). Some subsequent work seems to grant support to the gap hypothesis, indicating that immigration policy may not be a relevant factor and that national sovereignty as it relates to dictating migrant inflows has eroded significantly (Sassen, 1996 ; Castles, 2004 ). The gap hypothesis is not without its critics, with other scholars arguing that the existing empirical evidence actually lends it little or no support (Messina, 2007 ).

A more recent body of literature does indicate that immigration policy matters. Brücker and Schröder ( 2011 ), for example, find that immigration policies built to attract highly skilled migrants lead to higher admittance rates. They also show that diffusion processes cause neighboring countries to implement similar policy measures. Ortega and Peri ( 2013 ), in contrast to the gap hypothesis literature, find that restrictive immigration policy indeed reduces migrant inflows. But immigration policy can also have unintended effects on international migration: when entry requirements increase, migrant inflows decrease, but migrant outflows also decrease (Czaika & de Haas, 2016 ). This indicates that restrictive immigration policy may also lead to reduced circular migrant flows and encourage long-term settlement in destination countries.

Disaggregating immigration policy into its different components provides a clearer picture of how immigration policy may matter, and whether certain components matter more than others. Immigration policy is composed of both external and internal regulations. External regulations refer to policies that control migrant entry, such as eligibility requirements for migrants and additional conditions of entry. Internal regulations refer to policies that apply to migrants who have already gained status in the country, such as the security of a migrant’s legal status and the rights they are afforded. Helbling and Leblang ( 2017 ), using a comprehensive data set of bilateral migrant flows and the Immigration Policies in Comparison (IMPIC) data set, find that, in general, external regulations prove slightly more important in understanding migrant inflows (Helbling, Bjerre, Römer, & Zobel, 2017 ). This indicates that potential migrants focus more on how to cross borders, and less on the security of their status and rights once they settle. They do find, however, that both external and internal components of immigration are substantively important to international migrant flows.

The effects of policy, however, cannot be understood in isolation from other drivers of migration. Firstly, poor economic conditions and restrictive immigration policy are mutually reinforcing: when the unemployment rate is elevated, restrictive policies are more effective in deterring migrant flows. An increase in policy effectiveness in poor economic conditions suggests that states care more about deterring immigration when the economy is performing poorly. Secondly, a destination country’s restrictive immigration policy is more effective when migrants come from origin countries that have a common colonial heritage. This suggests that cultural similarities and migrant networks help to spread information about the immigration policy environment in the destination country. Social networks prove to be crucial in determining how much migrants know about the immigration policies of destination countries, regardless of other cultural factors such as colonial heritage or common language (Helbling & Leblang, 2017 ). In summary, more recent work supports the idea that immigration policy of destination countries exerts a significant influence on both the size and character of international migration flows. Much work remains to be done in terms of understanding the nuances of specific immigration policy components, the effect of policy change over time, and through what mechanisms immigration policy operates.

Transnational Social Networks

None of this should be taken to suggest that only political and economic considerations matter when a potential migrant contemplates a potential destination; perhaps one of the biggest contributions to the study of bilateral migration is the role played by transnational social networks. Migrating is a risky undertaking, and to minimize that risk, migrants are more likely to move to destinations where they can “readily tap into networks of co-ethnics” (Fitzgerald et al., 2014 , p. 410). Dense networks of co-ethnics not only help provide information about economic opportunities, but also serve as a social safety net which, in turn, helps decrease the risks associated with migration, including, but not limited to, finding housing and integrating into a new community (Massey, 1988 ; Portes & Böröcz, 1989 ; Portes, 1995 ; Massey et al., 1993 ; Faist, 2000 ; Sassen, 1995 ; Light, Bernard, & Kim, 1999 ). Having a transnational network of family members is quite important to destination choice; if a destination country has an immigration policy that emphasizes family reunification, migrants can use their familial connections to gain economically valuable permanent resident or citizenship status more easily than in other countries (Massey et al., 1993 , p. 450; Helbing & Leblang, 2017 ). When the migrant is comparing potential destinations, countries in which that migrant has a strong social network will be heavily favored in a cost–benefit analysis.

Note, however, that even outside of a strict rational actor framework with perfect information, transnational social networks still may be quite salient to destination choice. An interesting alternative hypothesis for the patterns we observe draws on theories from financial market behavior which focus on herding. Migrants choosing a destination observe the decisions of their co-ethnics who previously migrated and assume that those decisions were based on a relevant set of information, such as job opportunities or social tolerance of migrants. New migrants then choose the same destination as their co-ethnics not based on actual exchanges of valuable information, but based solely on the assumption that previous migration decisions were based on rational calculation (Epstein & Gang, 2006 ; Epstein, 2008 ). This is a classic example of herding, and the existing empirical evidence on the importance of transnational social networks cannot invalidate this alternative hypothesis. One could also explain social network effects through the lens of cumulative causation or feedback loops: the initial existence of connections in destination countries makes the act of migration less risky and attracts additional co-ethnics. This further expands migrant networks in a destination, further decreasing risk for future waves of migrants, and so on (Massey, 1990 ; Fussel & Massey, 2004 ; Fussel, 2010 ).

No matter the pathway by which social networks operate, the empirical evidence indicates that they are one of the most important determinants of destination choice. Potential migrants from Mexico, for example, who are able to tap into existing networks in the United States face lower direct, opportunity, and psychological costs of international migration (Massey & Garcia España, 1987 ). This same relationship holds in the European context; a study of Bulgarian and Italian migrants indicates that those with “social capital” in a destination community are more likely to migrate and to choose that particular destination (Haug, 2008 ). Studies that are more broadly cross-national in nature also confirm the social network hypothesis across a range of contexts and time periods (e.g., Clark et al., 2007 ; Hatton & Williamson, 2011 ; Fitzgerald et al., 2014 ).

Despite the importance of social networks, it is, again, important to qualify their role in framing the choice of destinations. It seems that the existence of co-ethnics in destination countries most strongly influences emigration when they are relatively few in number. Clark et al. ( 2007 ), in their study of migration to the United States, find that the “friends and relatives effect” falls to zero once the migrant stock in the United States reaches 8.3% of the source-country population. In addition, social networks alone cannot explain destination choice because their explanatory power is context-dependent. For instance, restrictive immigration policies limiting legal migration channels and family reunification may dampen the effectiveness of networks (Böcker, 1994 ; Collyer, 2006 ). Social networks are not an independent force, but also interact with economic and political realities to produce the global migration patterns we observe.

The Lens of Skill

For ease of presentation, we have up to now treated migrants as a relatively homogeneous group that faces similar push and pull factors throughout the decision-making process. Of course, not all migrants experience the same economic, political, and social incentives in the same way at each stage of the decision-making process. Perhaps the most salient differentiating feature of migrants is skill or education level. Generally, one can discuss a spectrum of skill and education level for current migrants, from relatively less educated (having attained a high school degree or less) to relatively more educated (having attained a college or post-graduate degree). The factors presented here that influence destination choice interact with a migrant’s skill level to produce differing destination choice patterns.

A migrant’s level of education, or human capital, often serves as a filter for the political treatment he or she anticipates in a particular destination country. For instance, the American public has a favorable view of highly educated migrants who hold higher-status jobs, while simultaneously having an opposite view of migrants who have less job training and do not hold a college degree (Hainmueller & Hiscox, 2010 ; Hainmueller & Hopkins, 2015 ). Indeed, the political discourse surrounding migration often emphasizes skill level and education as markers of migrants who “should be” admitted, across both countries and the ideological spectrum. 6 While political tolerance may be a condition of entry for migrants in the aggregate, the relatively privileged status of highly educated and skilled migrants in most destination countries may mean that this condition is not as salient.

While it is still an open question to what extent immigration policy influences international migration, it is clear that not all migrants face evenly applied migration restrictions. Most attractive destination countries have policies that explicitly favor highly skilled migrants, since these individuals often fill labor shortages in advanced industries such as high technology and applied science. Countries such as Australia, Canada, and New Zealand all employ so-called “points-based” immigration systems in which those with advanced degrees and needed skills are institutionally favored for legal entry (Papademetriou & Sumption, 2011 ). Meanwhile, the United States maintains the H-1B visa program, which is restricted by educational attainment and can only be used to fill jobs in which no native talent is available (USCIS). Even if destination countries decide to adopt more restrictive immigration policies, the move toward restriction has typically been focused on low-skilled migrants (Peters, 2017 ). In other words, even if immigration policy worldwide becomes more restrictive, this will almost certainly not occur at the expense of highly skilled migrants and will not prevent them choosing their most preferred destination.

Bring It on Home to Me

This article began by asserting that international labor migration is an important piece of globalization, as significant as cross-border flows of capital, goods, and services. This section argues that migrant flows enhance flows of capital and commodities. Uniquely modern conditions such as advanced telecommunications, affordable and efficient international travel, and the liberalization of financial flows mean that diasporas—populations of migrants living outside their countries of origin—and home countries often re-engage with each other (Vertovec, 2004 ; Waldinger, 2008 ). This section reviews some of the newest and most thought-provoking research on international labor migration, research that explores diaspora re-engagement and how that re-engagement alters international flows of income, portfolio and foreign direct investment (FDI), trade, and migratory flows themselves.

Remittances

As previously argued, migration is often driven by the prospect of higher wages. Rational, utility-maximizing migrants incur the cost of migration in order to earn increased income that they could not earn at home. But when migrants obtain higher wages, this additional increment to income is not always designated for individual consumption. Often, migrants use their new income to send remittances, direct transfers of money from one individual to another across national borders. Once a marginal financial flow, in 2015 remittances totaled $431 billion, far outpacing foreign aid ($135 billion) and nearly passing private debt and portfolio equity ($443 billion). More than 70% of total global remittances flow into developing countries (World Bank, 2016 ). In comparison with other financial flows such as portfolio investment and FDI, remittances are more impervious to economic crises, suggesting that they may be a countercyclical force to global downturns (Leblang, 2017 ).

Remittances represent one of the most common ways in which migrants re-engage with their homeland and alter both global income flows and distribution. Why do migrants surrender large portions of their new income, supposedly the very reason they migrated in the first place, to their families back home? New economics of labor migration (NELM) theory argues that immigration itself is motivated by a family’s need or demand for remittances—that remittances are an integral part of a family’s strategy for diversifying household financial risk (Stark & Bloom, 1985 ). Remittances “are a manifestation of informal contractual agreements between migrants and the households from which they move,” indicating that remitting is not an individual-level or purely altruistic action but rather occurs in a larger social context, that of one’s immediate or extended family (European Asylum Support Office, 2016 , p. 15).

The impact of migrant remittances on countries of origin is multifaceted yet somewhat ambiguous. Most scholarly work focuses on whether remittances positively or negatively influence existing economic conditions. A number of studies find that remittances modestly reduce poverty levels in developing countries (Adams & Page, 2005 ; Yang & Martinez, 2006 ; Acosta, Calderon, Fajnzybler, & Lopez, 2008 ; Lokshin, Bontch-Osmolovski, & Glinskaya, 2010 ). On other measures of economic well-being, such as growth, inequality, and health, the literature is quite mixed and no definitive conclusions can be drawn. For instance, some studies find that remittances encourage investment in human capital (Yang, 2008 ; Adams & Cuecuecha, 2010 ), while others find no such effect and suggest that families typically spend remittances on non-productive consumption goods (Chami, Fullenkamp, & Jahjah, 2003 ). Here we can only scratch the surface of the empirical work on remittances and economic outcomes. 7

Some of the most recent research in the field argues that remittances have a distinct political dimension, affecting regime support in developing countries and altering the conditions in which elections are held. Ahmed ( 2012 ), grouping remittances with foreign aid, argues that increased remittances allow autocratic governments to extend their tenure in office. These governments can strategically channel unearned government and household income to finance political patronage networks, which leads to a reduced likelihood of autocratic turnover, regime collapse, and mass protests against the regime. More recent research posits nearly the exact opposite: remittances are linked to a greater likelihood of democratization under autocratic regimes. Escriba-Folch, Meseguer, and Wright ( 2015 ) argue that since remittances directly increase household incomes, they reduce voter reliance on political patronage networks, undermining a key tool of autocratic stability.

Remittances may also play an important role in countries with democratic institutions, yet more research is needed to fully understand the conditions under which they matter and their substantive impact. Particularly, remittances may alter the dynamics of an election as an additional and external financial flow. There is evidence of political remittance cycles : the value of remittances spikes in the run-up to elections in developing countries. The total value of remittances to the average developing country increases by 6.6% during election years, and by 12% in elections in which no incumbent or named successor is running (O’Mahony, 2012 ). The effect is even larger in the poorest of developing countries. Finer-grained tests of this hypothesis provide additional support: using monthly and quarterly data confirms the existence of political remittance cycles, as well as using subnational rather than cross-national data (Nyblade & O’Mahony, 2014 ). However, these studies do not reveal why remittances spike, or what the effects of that spike are on electoral outcomes such as vote share, campaign financing, and political strategy.

Remittances represent a massive international financial flow that warrants more scholarly attention. While there are numerous studies on the relationship between remittances and key economic indicators, there remains much room for further work on their relationship to political outcomes in developing countries. Do remittances hasten the downfall of autocratic regimes, or do they contribute to autocratic stability? In democratic contexts, do remittances substantively influence electoral outcomes, and if so, which outcomes and how? Finally, do remittances prevent even more migration because they allow one “breadwinner from abroad” to provide for the household that remains in the homeland? While data limitations are formidable, these questions are important to the study of both international and comparative political economy.

Bilateral Trade

The argument that migrant or co-ethnic networks play an important role in international economic exchange is not novel. Greif ( 1989 , 1993 ) illustrates the role that the Maghrebi traders of the 11th century played in providing informal institutional guarantees that facilitated trade. This is but a single example. Cowen’s historical survey identifies not only the Phoenicians but also the “Spanish Jews [who] were indispensable for international commerce in the Middle Ages. The Armenians controlled the overland route between the Orient and Europe as late as the nineteenth century . Lebanese Christians developed trade between the various parts of the Ottoman empire” (Cowen, 1997 , p. 170). Rauch and Trindade ( 2002 ) provide robust empirical evidence linking the Chinese diaspora to patterns of imports and exports with their home country.

A variety of case studies document the importance of migrant networks in helping overcome problems of information asymmetries. In his study of Indian expatriates residing in the United States, Kapur ( 2014 ) documents how that community provides U.S. investors with a signal of the work ethic, labor quality, and business culture that exists in India. Likewise, Weidenbaum and Hughes ( 1996 ) chronicle the Bamboo Network—the linkages between ethnic Chinese living outside mainland China and their homeland—and how these linkages provide superior access to information and opportunities for investment.

Connections between migrant communities across countries affect cross-national investment even when these connections do not provide information about investment opportunities. In his work on the Maghrebi traders of the 11th century , Greif argues that this trading network was effective because it was able to credibly threaten collective punishment by all merchants if even one of them defected (Greif, 1989 , 1993 ). Grief shows that this co-ethnic network was able to share information regarding the past actions of actors (they could communicate a reputation)—something that was essential for the efficient functioning of markets in the absence of formal legal rules. Weidenbaum and Hughes reach a similar conclusion about the effectiveness of the Bamboo Network, remarking that “if a business owner violates an agreement, he is blacklisted. This is far worse than being sued, because the entire Chinese networks will refrain from doing business with the guilty party” (Hughes, 1996 , p. 51).

Migrants not only alter the flow of income by remitting to their countries of origin, but also influence patterns of international portfolio investment and FDI. Most existing literature on international capital allocation emphasizes monadic factors such as the importance of credible commitments and state institutional quality, failing to address explicitly dyadic phenomena that may also drive investment. Diaspora networks, in particular, facilitate cross-border investment in a number of ways. They foster a higher degree of familiarity between home and host countries, leading to a greater preference for investment in specific countries. Diaspora networks can also decrease information asymmetries in highly uncertain international capital markets in two ways. Firstly, they can provide investors with salient information about their homeland, such as consumer tastes, that can influence investment decision-making. Secondly, they can share knowledge about investment opportunities, regulation and procedures, and customs that decrease transaction costs associated with cross-border investment (Leblang, 2010 ). This place of importance for migrants suggests to the broader international political economy literature the importance of non-institutional mechanisms for channeling economic activity.

Although the hypothesized link between migrants and international investment has only recently been identified, the quantitative evidence available supports that hypothesis. Leblang ( 2010 ), using dyadic cross-sectional data, finds that diaspora networks “have both a substantively significant effect and a statistically significant effect on cross-border investment,” including international portfolio investment and FDI (p. 584). The effect of bilateral migratory flows correlates positively with the degree of information asymmetry: when informational imperfections are more pervasive in a dyad, migrants (especially the highly skilled) play a disproportionately large role in international capital allocation (Kugler, Levinthal, & Rapoport, 2017 ). Other quantitative studies find substantively similar results for FDI alone (e.g., Javorcik, Özden, Spatareanu, & Neagu, 2011 ; Aubry, Rapoport, & Reshef, 2016 ).

Many questions still remain unanswered. Firstly, does the effect of migrants on investment follow the waves of the global economy, or is it countercyclical as remittances have been shown to be? Secondly, how does this additional investment, facilitated by migrants, affect socioeconomic outcomes such as inequality, poverty, and economic development (Leblang, 2010 )? Does the participation of migrants lead to more successful FDI projects in developing countries because of their ability to break down information barriers? Within portfolio investment, do migrants lead to a preference for certain asset classes over others, and if so, what are the effects on bilateral and international capital markets? These are just a few directions in an area ripe for additional research.

Return Migration and Dual Citizenship

Besides financial flows, migrants themselves directly contribute to global flows of capital by returning to their countries of origin in large numbers. This phenomenon of return migration—or circular migration—can come in a few temporal forms, including long-term migration followed by a permanent return to a country of origin, or repeat migration in which a migrant regularly moves between destination and origin countries (Dumont & Spielvogel, 2008 ). While comparable data on return migration is scarce, some reports suggest that 20% to 50% of all immigrants leave their destination country within five years after their arrival (e.g., Borjas & Bratsberg, 1996 ; Aydemir & Robinson, 2008 ; Bratsberg, Raaum, & Sørlie, 2007 ; Dustmann & Weiss, 2007 ). An independent theoretical and empirical account of return migration does not yet exist in the literature and is beyond the scope of this paper. But in the rational actor framework, motivations to return home include a failure to realize the expected benefits of migration, changing preferences toward a migrant’s home country, achievement of a savings or other economic goal, or the opening of additional employment opportunities back home due to newly acquired experience or greater levels of economic development (Dumont & Spielvogel, 2008 ).

While most migration literature treats the country of origin as a passive actor that only provides the conditions for migration, new literature on return migration gives home country policies pride of place. Origin countries can craft policies that encourage diaspora re-engagement, incentivizing individuals to return home. Dual citizenship, for example, is an extension of extraterritorial rights, allowing migrants to retain full legal status in their home country. Dual citizenship “decreases the transaction costs associated with entering a host country’s labor market and makes it easier for migrants to return home” (Leblang, 2017 , p. 77). This leads migrants to invest their financial resources in the form of remittances back home as well as their valuable human capital. When states provide such extraterritorial rights, expatriates are 10% more likely to remit and 3% more likely to return home. Dual citizenship is also associated with a doubling of the dollar amount of remittances received by a home country (Leblang, 2017 ). These striking results suggest that in addition to the power of migrants to affect cross-border flows of money and people, countries of origin can also play a significant role.

Conclusion and Future Directions

This brief article has attempted to synthesize a broad range of literature from political science, economics, sociology, migration studies, and more to construct an account of international labor migration. To do so, the migratory process was broken down into distinct stages and decision points, focusing particularly on the decision to migrate, destination choice, and the re-engagement of migrants with their homeland. In doing so, the article also discussed the interlinkages of international migration with other fields of study in international political economy, including cross-border financial flows, trade, and investment. Through a multiplicity of approaches, we have gained a greater understanding of why people decide to move, why they decide to move to one country over another, and how and why they engage with the global economy and their homeland. Despite this intellectual progress, there remain many paths for future research at each stage of the migratory process; we highlight just a few of them here.

We know that income differentials, social ties, and local political conditions are important variables influencing the migration process. Yet the question remains: why do a small but growing number of people choose to leave while the overwhelming majority of people remain in their country of birth? Here, individual- or family-level subjective characteristics may be significant. There are a handful of observational studies that explore the relationship between subjective well-being or life satisfaction and the intention to migrate, with the nascent consensus being that life dissatisfaction increases the intention to migrate (Cai, Esipova, Oppenheimer, & Feng, 2014 ; Otrachshenko & Popova, 2014 ; Nikolova & Graham, 2015 ). But more research on intrinsic or subjective measures is needed to understand (a) their independent importance more fully and (b) how they interact with objective economic, political, and social factors. For instance, do those who are more optimistic migrate in larger numbers? Do minority individuals who feel they live in an environment in which diversity is not accepted feel a greater urge to leave home? Synthesizing these types of subjective variables and perceptions with the more prominent gravity-style models could result in a more complete picture of the international migration process.

For the “typical” migrant, one who is relatively less educated than the population in the chosen destination and does not have specialized skills, social networks are key to minimizing the risk of migrating and quickly tapping into economic opportunities in destination countries. Does this remain true for those who are highly educated? Although little empirical research exists on the topic, greater human capital and often-accompanying financial resources may operate as a substitute for the advantages offered by social networks, such as housing, overcoming linguistic barriers, and finding gainful employment. This would indicate that the “friends and family effect” is not as influential for this subset of migrants. Economic considerations, such as which destination offers the largest relative wage differential, or political considerations, such as the ease of quickly acquiring full citizenship rights, may matter more for the highly skilled. Neoclassical economic models of migration may best capture the behavior of migrants who hold human capital and who have the financial resources to independently migrate in a way that maximizes income or utility more broadly.

Since we have focused on international migration as a series of discrete decision points in this article, we have perhaps underemphasized the complexity of the physical migration process. In reality, migrants often do not pick a country and travel directly there, but travel through (perhaps several) countries of transit such as Mexico, Morocco, or Turkey along the way (Angel Castillo, 2006 ; Natter, 2013 ; Icduygu, 2005 ). There is little existing theoretical work to understand the role of transit countries in the migratory process, with much of it focusing on the potential for cooperation between destination and transit countries in managing primarily illegal immigration (Kahana & Lecker, 2005 ; Djajic & Michael, 2014 ; Djajic & Michael, 2016 ). Another related strand of the literature focuses on how wealthy destination countries are “externalizing” their immigration policy, encompassing a broader part of the migratory process than simply crossing a physically demarcated border (Duvell, 2012 ; Menjivar, 2014 ). But many questions remain, such as the following: how do we understand those who desire to enter, say, the United States, but instead relocate permanently to Mexico along the way? How do countries of transit handle the pressure of transit migrants, and how does this affect economic and political outcomes in these countries?

Finally, the focus of nearly all literature on international migration (and this article as a byproduct) implicitly views advanced economies as the only prominent destinations. However, this belies the fact that 38% of all migration stays within the “Global South” (World Bank, 2016 ). While there is certainly some literature on this phenomenon (see Ratha & Shaw, 2007 ; Gindling, 2009 ; Hujo & Piper, 2007 ), international political economy scholars have yet to sufficiently tackle this topic. The overarching research question here is: do the same push and pull factors that influence the decision to migrate and destination choice apply to those who migrate within the Global South? Do we need to construct new theories of international migration with less emphasis on factors such as wage differentials and political tolerance, or are these sufficient to understand this facet of the phenomenon? If we fail to answer these questions, we may miss explaining a significant proportion of international migration with its own consequences and policy implications.

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1. Our use of the term international labor migration follows academic and legal conventions; we use the term migration to refer to the voluntary movement of people across national borders, either in a temporary or permanent fashion. This excludes any discussion of refugees, asylum seekers, or any other groups that are forced to migrate.

2. We do not have space in this article to delve into the theoretical and empirical work unpacking the effect of demographic characteristics—age, gender, marital status, household size, and so forth on the migration decision and on subsequent flows of migrants. For comprehensive reviews, see Lichter ( 1983 ), Morrison and Lichter ( 1988 ); United Nations Population Division ( 2013 ); and Zaiceva and Zimmerman ( 2014 ).

3. Zelinsky ( 1971 ) originally identified this relationship and termed it mobility transition curve . A wealth of empirical work supports Zelinsky’s descriptive theory in a number of contexts (see Akerman, 1976 ; Gould, 1979 ; Hatton & Williamson, 1994 ; and Dao et al., 2016 ).

4. For a review of the arguments as well as some empirical tests, see Miller and Peters ( 2018 ) and Docquier, Lodigiani, Rapoport, and Schiff ( 2018 ).

5. Transparency International. “What is corruption?”

6. For example, former United Kingdom Independence Party leader Nigel Farage has called for the United Kingdom to adopt an immigration system that only allows in highly skilled migrants (“UKIP launches immigration policy”). In 2014, US President Barack Obama emphasized that he wanted to attract international students to American universities and that they “create jobs, businesses, and industries right here in America” (USA Today: “Full text: Obama’s immigration speech”). A key issue in Germany’s 2018 government formation was the creation of skill-based migration laws (Severin & Martin, 2018 ).

7. For a more comprehensive review, see Rapoport and Docquier ( 2006 ); and Adams ( 2011 ).

Space, Mobility, and Legitimacy
Immigration and Foreign Policy

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Our Mission

Honoring Our Families’ Immigrant Narratives

Two teachers’ research and ELA unit explored students’ own family immigrant stories while creating a storytelling experience as a vehicle for empathy, community, and great writing.

A high school classroom is decorated with white strands of lights, and a green sheet backdrop partially covering the front of the classroom. The classroom is filled with students sitting in blue chairs. One teacher is standing at a podium, addressing the

As we navigate a political landscape that is too often hostile toward immigrants, it's a good time to remember that the vast majority of us are here as American immigrants.

The Power of Storytelling

Recent anti-immigrant rhetoric in the news is disheartening and infuriating, and it urgently pushed us to address these issues in our high-school classrooms. As educators, we felt it was our responsibility to provide students with an outlet and counter-narrative to the dehumanization of immigrants and, recently, refugees. With this context, we wanted to create an experience in which the power of storytelling could be used as a vehicle for empathy, community, and great writing.

We are ninth-grade English and history teachers at a small California charter school that serves many first-generation students. As teachers of color and immigrants, we felt that we had a responsibility to bring these issues into our classrooms and engage in personal reflection and analysis. We jumped at an opportunity to collaborate with Elliot Margolies, founder and director of Made Into America , a non-profit organization with a mission of archiving immigrant stories. In our two-week humanities project, students investigated and wrote the immigration story of one of their family members to be published on the Made Into America online archive. The inherently authentic nature of the task lent itself to strong student investment and writing products.

More notably, the task privileged students whose families are recent immigrants or who had personally emigrated here themselves. Additionally, it gave students an opportunity to utilize their native languages in their writing and view that as an asset rather than a deficit. (How often do we get to do these things?)

Creating the Narrative

Our version of this project spanned eight instructional hours, but it's very adaptable to however you might use it in your own curriculum. We used these traditional steps of the writing process:

1. Kick-Off: Interview Workshop and Skype Call With a Syrian Refugee

Students engaged in an interview workshop where they teased out elements of a good story and developed interviewing techniques. In this workshop, they learned how to ask poignant follow-up questions to gain rich, provocative, detailed responses. For example, students learned that when the interviewee's intonation changes, or when they start to give quirky, memorable details from their journey, the interviewer should say, "Tell me more." Then, students applied and practiced these techniques by writing questions and conducting a Skype interview with a Syrian refugee who recently emigrated to Lebanon. (This step could also be done by inviting an immigrant parent or a guest as an interviewee.)

Asking Questions Skill Rubric

2. Action Research: Interviewing Your Family Member

Using techniques learned from the interview workshop, students wrote questions to use for conducting interviews with their family member. Before writing their own questions, they examined an example story that one of us had written in order to understand the end goal of their interview. We encouraged students to conduct and transcribe their interview in their home language. (Note: Students with special circumstances interviewed and wrote stories of their neighbors or friends.)

Interviewing Template

3. Organize Details: Outlining the Story

In order to guide students in their interviews, we asked them to divide the immigration story into five main parts:

Life in original country
Why they decided to leave
How they left
Arriving in America
Where they are now and hopes for the future

We encouraged students to cover each part in their story, but emphasized that each story is unique, and that some parts would be longer than others. To organize their interview responses, students copy-pasted their interview into each part of the outline.

PowerPoint Slides
Storyboard Warm Up
Outline Template

4. Drafting and Workshopping the Story

After looking at one more example story from us, as well as exploring the Made Into America website, students started drafting their stories. As they wrote, we held writing workshops around writing in different points of view (POV), embedding quotations, and writing engaging hooks. We also projected and examined student work in real time throughout the writing process. Here are writing skills that we workshopped:

Students examined POV and "tried on" different POVs (first- or third-person perspective) before settling on the one that most powerfully conveyed their story.
Students creatively embedded non-English quotations from their interviews.
Students experimented with different hooks as an opening for their story.
Draft Guide
Immigration Story Rubric
Writing Workshop Materials (hooks, POV)

5. Peer Review and Final Draft

Students peer reviewed and finalized their drafts.

Final Draft Template
Peer Review Form

6. Honoring Our Immigrants: Sharing and Celebration

A few days prior to the celebration, we sent the students out with invitations and cards to give to their interviewees. The goal for this celebration was to honor the immigrants, the interviewees, and their families. During the sharing activity, students sat in a circle and shared one part of their story. With a 30-person classroom, each student got one minute to share part of his or her story. At the end, they shared overall reflections and learning experiences with one another. It was a powerful and collective way to end this project.

Presentation Script Scaffold

Here are some examples of the stories written by students:

"Angel: Courage and Fortitude" by Oliver
"Sela Malu: New Life as a High School Student" by Tutaleva
"Daniel Guevara: Odyssey From Guatemala" by Jaquelin
"Harry & Malka: Fleeing Pogroms by Ethan

Has your school honored students' heritage and their families' immigrant narratives? Please tell us about it in the comments section below.

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Family of U.S. Citizens

This page describes how you (a U.S. citizen) may petition for certain family members to receive either a Green Card, a fiancé(e) visa or a K-3/K-4 visa based on your relationship. (If your relative wishes to naturalize or obtain proof of citizenship, see the Citizenship section of our website.)

Type of Relative for Whom You May Petition	Immigration Benefit	Guidance	Related Forms
(unmarried and under 21) (married and/or 21 or over) , if you are 21 or over , if you are 21 or over	Green Card (permanent residence)

To petition for a family member to receive a Green Card (permanent residence), begin by filing Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative . This form establishes the family relationship that exists between you and your relative. Sometimes the I-130 can be filed together with an application for permanent residence, officially known as Form I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status . This is discussed below.

Immediate Relatives	Other Family Members
Visas are always available for immediate relatives of U.S. citizens. This means your family member does not need to wait in line for a visa. Immediate relatives who are in the United States can file at the same time as Form I-130. For more information on how your relative can apply to adjust status (get a Green Card) while they are in the United States.	Preference categories apply to family members who are not immediate relatives. The visas allotted for these categories are subject to annual numerical limits. A visa becomes available to a preference category based on the priority date (the date the Form I-130 was filed). Preference categories are grouped as follows: : Unmarried, adult sons and daughters of U.S. citizens (adult means 21 or older.) : Spouses of Green Card holders, unmarried children (under 21) of permanent residents : Unmarried adult sons and daughters of permanent residents : Married sons and daughters (any age) of U.S. citizens : Brothers and sisters of adult U.S. citizens For current wait times, see the page on this website and the page on the U.S. Department of State website. For more information on priority dates, see the page.

Immediate Relatives

Other Family Members

Visas are always available for immediate relatives of U.S. citizens. This means your family member does not need to wait in line for a visa. Immediate relatives who are in the United States can file at the same time as Form I-130. For more information on how your relative can apply to adjust status (get a Green Card) while they are in the United States.

Preference categories apply to family members who are not immediate relatives. The visas allotted for these categories are subject to annual numerical limits. A visa becomes available to a preference category based on the priority date (the date the Form I-130 was filed). Preference categories are grouped as follows:

: Unmarried, adult sons and daughters of U.S. citizens (adult means 21 or older.) : Spouses of Green Card holders, unmarried children (under 21) of permanent residents : Unmarried adult sons and daughters of permanent residents : Married sons and daughters (any age) of U.S. citizens : Brothers and sisters of adult U.S. citizens

For current wait times, see the page on this website and the page on the U.S. Department of State website. For more information on priority dates, see the page.

If your relative is already in the United States, they may apply to adjust status to become a Green Card holder (lawful permanent resident) after a visa number becomes available using Form I-485.
If your relative is outside the United States, your petition will be sent to the National Visa Center (NVC). The NVC will forward your petition to the appropriate U.S. consulate when a visa becomes available and your relative will be notified about how to proceed. This process is referred to as “consular processing.”
Your family member’s preference category will determine how long they will have to wait for an immigrant visa number. Once you have filed a petition, you can check its progress the My Case Status page. For visa availability information, see the Visa Bulletin page on the U.S. Department of State website.

For more information on becoming a Green Card holder, see the Adjustment of Status for processing within the United States and Consular Processing page for processing overseas. For more information on Green Cards, see the Green Card section.

NOTE : A visa petition (Form I-130 or Form I-129F) is only used to demonstrate a qualifying relationship. An approved petition DOES NOT grant any benefit, it simply creates a place in line for visa processing.

If you or a member of your family is in the U.S. military, special conditions may apply. See the Military section of the website.

More Information

Citizenship
Form I-130, Petition for Alien Relative
I-485, Application to Register Permanent Residence or Adjust Status
I-864, Affidavit of Support
I-129F, Petition for Alien Fiance(e)
Family Based Forms

Factors That Lead to Migration Essay

To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
As a template for you assignment

Introduction

Job /economic opportunities, war/conflicts, family links, reference list.

Human migration refers to the movement of individuals from one place to another. Humans have migrated throughout the history of mankind for different reasons, some of these reasons include the intention to settle permanently or temporarily in a particular place which is regarded as offering more advantages for a better life. There are two main types of human migration; the first one is voluntary while the other type is forced migration.

Human migration also takes place at different levels which are the intercontinental level, the intracontinental level, and between the countries. This essay explores three important factors that contribute to emigrants taking permanent residence in countries that are not their original home. These factors are seeking jobs or opportunities, the effects of conflict or wars, and the need to maintain family links.

A statement by Apple yard, 2001, p.6 explains that since the end of the Second World War, numerous transformations have occurred in human society. These e transformations pertain to the economic, social, and political situations of different countries and have been greatly responsible for the changing nature and composition of international migration. The industrial revolution led many individuals in Europe to move and settle in new areas that crossed the political boundaries of their home countries.

Appleyard further explains in the recent past, the pressures of globalization have led to an increased demand for skilled labor and professionals due to the integration of the world’s major economies. It is reasonable to imagine that these professionals and skilled workers move from their home countries to search for a job and better career opportunities that are not available in their home countries.

Lucas, 2008, p.2, adds that labor emigrants are known to move from their home countries to other countries where they can earn more money than in their home countries. Therefore it can be said of this category of emigrants that they move and settle in other countries because of the differences in the wages paid in foreign countries which are better when they are compared with those paid in their home country. For some, the main reason why they travel and settle in other countries is that they could be living in areas they consider to have limited opportunities to enable them to advance economically.Moving and settling in a foreign country enables them to live a more decent life

Lucas,2008,p.3 explains that the number of people who became residents of the united states had been increasing from 1981 until the year 2001. Lucas furthers notes that the greatest increase in emigrants seeking employment opportunities in the US was recorded among the temporary workers. Other individuals, especially those skilled in various fields of business, move and settle in another country so that they can be able to either start new enterprises or expand their already existing businesses. Many persons travel to Malaysia from across Asia seeking jobs and other economic opportunities as well.

The majority of the emigrants to Malaysia in the year 1997 came from Indonesia (27%), Bangladesh (23%), Nepal (22%), Vietnam (13%), and Myanmar (11%).In this year alone the estimated number of emigrants in Malaysia were 751,500 (Fair labor Association,2008, Para.8)

The negative effects of armed conflict and war in different parts of the world have also strongly influenced human emigration. Communities that have been caught up in a conflict situation often move to other countries in search of peace and other opportunities that will enable them to undertake their normal daily tasks without disruption of any kind. Sirkeci, 2005, p.197, cites the situation of war in Iraq as a good example of how war and conflict can contribute to international permanent migration.

This war has caused a break in the economic and social life of the Iraqi community. The persisting hostilities between various ethnic groupings like the Kurds, Turkmen, Shiites, and Sunnis and the American forces have persisted for a long time without the war being resolved. Iraqis in turn have established strong migration networks with most of them moving and settling in the west.

Wars are known to result in deaths either intended or by accident. Either way, the loss of human life hurts the life of a community in one way or another. The death of combatants in a war could result in family members of the dead soldiers leaving and settle in another country (winter, 2006 p.162). A large number of civilian causalities in various wars is a strong compelling factor that results in people opting to settle permanently in different countries. At times when a war ends, a community may have lost the land on which they lived; this is the exact situation that has forced a great number of women and children to move from Darfur and settled in Chad (Senker, 2007, p.6).

There is an inherent need among humans to keep close contact with their kin since man is a social being. Some individuals travel to foreign countries to join their family members who have settled there to be in their company. At times, they extend their stay and may opt to settle there altogether. Akuei, 2005, p.4, explains that the UNHCR which works with refugees may relocate individuals to another country if there is enough evidence to support that their lives are in danger if they continue to live in their home country, these individuals strive very much to be reunited with their other family members and help them to get foreign citizenship in the country they have relocated to.

Chen, n.d, p.1, explains that the increasing number of cross-cultural marriages has also contributed greatly to more individuals relocating and settling in foreign countries. This comes about when one of the partners in marriage moves from their mother county to that of their partners never to return to the mother country at all, in case they do go back to their mother countries, it would be for the sole reason of checking on their friends or relatives. Chen cites the increased number of cross-cultural marriages between Taiwan and Viet Nam. About 90,000 spouses in Taiwan come from the following countries: Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, and Cambodia.

Human migration is due to a complex of factors that compel individuals or communities to move from one pace to another. The major motivation that compels communities and individuals to migrate from one place to the other is the search for comfort and avoiding situations that bring suffering. The existence of Job opportunities, economic advancement, and close family ties create comfort for the individuals while conflict or war brings losses and suffering hence the need for people to settle in peaceful countries.

Akuei, S.K.2005. Remittances as unforeseen burdens: the livelihoods and social obligations of Sudanese refugees. Web.

Appleyard, R. 2001. International Migration Policies: 1950-2000. International Migration , [e-journal], Volume 39, Issue 6, p.7-20. Abstract only. Web.

Chen, P.Y.n.d. Cross-Cultural Marriages between Taiwan and Vietnam Issues, Controversies and Implications. Web.

Fair labor association. 2008. Migrant workers. Web.

Lucas, R.E.B. 2008. International labor migration in a globalizing economy . Web.

Senker, C. 2007. The Debate about Immigration. New York: The Rosen Publishing Group.

Sirkeci,I, I. 2005. War in Iraq: Environment of Insecurity and International Migration, [e-journal], International Migration , Volume 43, Issue 4 , pp. 197-214. Web.

Winter, J.M. 2006. Remembering war: the Great War between memory and history in the twentieth century. Connecticut:Yale University Press.

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Watch CBS News

What is Project 2025? What to know about the conservative blueprint for a second Trump administration

By Melissa Quinn , Jacob Rosen

Updated on: July 11, 2024 / 9:40 AM EDT / CBS News

Washington — Voters in recent weeks have begun to hear the name "Project 2025" invoked more and more by President Biden and Democrats, as they seek to sound the alarm about what could be in store if former President Donald Trump wins a second term in the White House.

Overseen by the conservative Heritage Foundation, the multi-pronged initiative includes a detailed blueprint for the next Republican president to usher in a sweeping overhaul of the executive branch.

Trump and his campaign have worked to distance themselves from Project 2025, with the former president going so far as to call some of the proposals "abysmal." But Democrats have continued to tie the transition project to Trump, especially as they find themselves mired in their own controversy over whether Mr. Biden should withdraw from the 2024 presidential contest following his startling debate performance last month.

Here is what to know about Project 2025:

What is Project 2025?

Project 2025 is a proposed presidential transition project that is composed of four pillars: a policy guide for the next presidential administration; a LinkedIn-style database of personnel who could serve in the next administration; training for that pool of candidates dubbed the "Presidential Administration Academy;" and a playbook of actions to be taken within the first 180 days in office.

It is led by two former Trump administration officials: Paul Dans, who was chief of staff at the Office of Personnel Management and serves as director of the project, and Spencer Chretien, former special assistant to Trump and now the project's associate director.

Project 2025 is spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation, but includes an advisory board consisting of more than 100 conservative groups.

Much of the focus on — and criticism of — Project 2025 involves its first pillar, the nearly 900-page policy book that lays out an overhaul of the federal government. Called "Mandate for Leadership 2025: The Conservative Promise," the book builds on a "Mandate for Leadership" first published in January 1981, which sought to serve as a roadmap for Ronald Reagan's incoming administration.

The recommendations outlined in the sprawling plan reach every corner of the executive branch, from the Executive Office of the President to the Department of Homeland Security to the little-known Export-Import Bank.

President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with advisers in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D,C., on June 25, 2019.

The Heritage Foundation also created a "Mandate for Leadership" in 2015 ahead of Trump's first term. Two years into his presidency, it touted that Trump had instituted 64% of its policy recommendations, ranging from leaving the Paris Climate Accords, increasing military spending, and increasing off-shore drilling and developing federal lands. In July 2020, the Heritage Foundation gave its updated version of the book to then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.

The authors of many chapters are familiar names from the Trump administration, such as Russ Vought, who led the Office of Management and Budget; former acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller; and Roger Severino, who was director of the Office of Civil Rights at the Department of Health and Human Services.

Vought is the policy director for the 2024 Republican National Committee's platform committee, which released its proposed platform on Monday.

John McEntee, former director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office under Trump, is a senior advisor to the Heritage Foundation, and said that the group will "integrate a lot of our work" with the Trump campaign when the official transition efforts are announced in the next few months.

Candidates interested in applying for the Heritage Foundation's "Presidential Personnel Database" are vetted on a number of political stances, such as whether they agree or disagree with statements like "life has a right to legal protection from conception to natural death," and "the President should be able to advance his/her agenda through the bureaucracy without hindrance from unelected federal officials."

The contributions from ex-Trump administration officials have led its critics to tie Project 2025 to his reelection campaign, though the former president has attempted to distance himself from the initiative.

What are the Project 2025 plans?

Some of the policies in the Project 2025 agenda have been discussed by Republicans for years or pushed by Trump himself: less federal intervention in education and more support for school choice; work requirements for able-bodied, childless adults on food stamps; and a secure border with increased enforcement of immigration laws, mass deportations and construction of a border wall.

But others have come under scrutiny in part because of the current political landscape.

Abortion and social issues

In recommendations for the Department of Health and Human Services, the agenda calls for the Food and Drug Administration to reverse its 24-year-old approval of the widely used abortion pill mifepristone. Other proposed actions targeting medication abortion include reinstating more stringent rules for mifepristone's use, which would permit it to be taken up to seven weeks into a pregnancy, instead of the current 10 weeks, and requiring it to be dispensed in-person instead of through the mail.

The Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative legal group that is on the Project 2025 advisory board, was involved in a legal challenge to mifepristone's 2000 approval and more recent actions from the FDA that made it easier to obtain. But the Supreme Court rejected the case brought by a group of anti-abortion rights doctors and medical associations on procedural grounds.

The policy book also recommends the Justice Department enforce the Comstock Act against providers and distributors of abortion pills. That 1873 law prohibits drugs, medicines or instruments used in abortions from being sent through the mail.

Now that the Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade , the volume states that the Justice Department "in the next conservative administration should therefore announce its intent to enforce federal law against providers and distributors of such pills."

The guide recommends the next secretary of Health and Human Services get rid of the Reproductive Healthcare Access Task Force established by the Biden administration before Roe's reversal and create a "pro-life task force to ensure that all of the department's divisions seek to use their authority to promote the life and health of women and their unborn children."

In a section titled "The Family Agenda," the proposal recommends the Health and Human Services chief "proudly state that men and women are biological realities," and that "married men and women are the ideal, natural family structure because all children have a right to be raised by the men and women who conceived them."

Further, a program within the Health and Human Services Department should "maintain a biblically based, social science-reinforced definition of marriage and family."

During his first four years in office, Trump banned transgender people from serving in the military. Mr. Biden reversed that policy , but the Project 2025 policy book calls for the ban to be reinstated.

Targeting federal agencies, employees and policies

The agenda takes aim at longstanding federal agencies, like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA. The agency is a component of the Commerce Department and the policy guide calls for it to be downsized.

NOAA's six offices, including the National Weather Service and National Marine Fisheries Service, "form a colossal operation that has become one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry and, as such, is harmful to future U.S. prosperity," the guide states.

The Department of Homeland Security, established in 2002, should be dismantled and its agencies either combined with others, or moved under the purview of other departments altogether, the policy book states. For example, immigration-related entities from the Departments of Homeland Security, Justice and Health and Human Services should form a standalone, Cabinet-level border and immigration agency staffed by more than 100,000 employees, according to the agenda.

If the policy recommendations are implemented, another federal agency that could come under the knife by the next administration, with action from Congress, is the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The agenda seeks to bring a push by conservatives to target diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, initiatives in higher education to the executive branch by wiping away a slew of DEI-related positions, policies and programs and calling for the elimination of funding for partners that promote DEI practices.

It states that U.S. Agency for International Development staff and grantees that "engage in ideological agitation on behalf of the DEI agenda" should be terminated. At the Treasury Department, the guide says the next administration should "treat the participation in any critical race theory or DEI initiative without objecting on constitutional or moral grounds, as per se grounds for termination of employment."

The Project 2025 policy book also takes aim at more innocuous functions of government. It calls for the next presidential administration to eliminate or reform the dietary guidelines that have been published by the Department of Agriculture for more than 40 years, which the authors claim have been "infiltrated" by issues like climate change and sustainability.

Immigration

Trump made immigration a cornerstone of his last two presidential runs and has continued to hammer the issue during his 2024 campaign. Project 2025's agenda not only recommends finishing the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, but urges the next administration to "take a creative and aggressive approach" to responding to drug cartels at the border. This approach includes using active-duty military personnel and the National Guard to help with arrest operations along the southern border.

A memo from Immigration and Customs Enforcement that prohibits enforcement actions from taking place at "sensitive" places like schools, playgrounds and churches should be rolled back, the policy guide states.

When the Homeland Security secretary determines there is an "actual or anticipated mass migration of aliens" that presents "urgent circumstances" warranting a federal response, the agenda says the secretary can make rules and regulations, including through their expulsion, for as long as necessary. These rules, the guide states, aren't subject to the Administration Procedure Act, which governs the agency rule-making process.

What do Trump and his advisers say about Project 2025?

In a post to his social media platform on July 5, Trump wrote , "I know nothing about Project 2025. I have no idea who is behind it. I disagree with some of the things they're saying and some of the things they're saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal. Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them."

Trump's pushback to the initiative came after Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts said in a podcast interview that the nation is "in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be."

The former president continued to disavow the initiative this week, writing in another social media post that he knows nothing about Project 2025.

"I have not seen it, have no idea who is in charge of it, and, unlike our very well received Republican Platform, had nothing to do with it," Trump wrote. "The Radical Left Democrats are having a field day, however, trying to hook me into whatever policies are stated or said. It is pure disinformation on their part. By now, after all of these years, everyone knows where I stand on EVERYTHING!"

While the former president said he doesn't know who is in charge of the initiative, the project's director, Dans, and associate director, Chretien, were high-ranking officials in his administration. Additionally, Ben Carson, former secretary of Housing and Urban Development under Trump; John Ratcliffe, former director of National Intelligence in the Trump administration; and Peter Navarro, who served as a top trade adviser to Trump in the White House, are listed as either authors or contributors to the policy agenda.

Still, even before Roberts' comments during "The War Room" podcast — typically hosted by conservative commentator Steve Bannon, who reported to federal prison to begin serving a four-month sentence last week — Trump's top campaign advisers have stressed that Project 2025 has no official ties to his reelection bid.

Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita, senior advisers to the Trump campaign, said in a November statement that 2024 policy announcements will be made by Trump or his campaign team.

"Any personnel lists, policy agendas, or government plans published anywhere are merely suggestions," they said.

While the efforts by outside organizations are "appreciated," Wiles and LaCivita said, "none of these groups or individuals speak for President Trump or his campaign."

In response to Trump's post last week, Project 2025 reiterated that it was separate from the Trump campaign.

"As we've been saying for more than two years now, Project 2025 does not speak for any candidate or campaign. We are a coalition of more than 110 conservative groups advocating policy & personnel recommendations for the next conservative president. But it is ultimately up to that president, who we believe will be President Trump, to decide which recommendations to implement," a statement on the project's X account said.

The initiative has also pushed back on Democrats' claims about its policy proposals and accused them of lying about what the agenda contains.

What do Democrats say?

Despite their attempts to keep some distance from Project 2025, Democrats continue to connect Trump with the transition effort. The Biden-Harris campaign frequently posts about the project on X, tying it to a second Trump term.

Mr. Biden himself accused his Republican opponent of lying about his connections to the Project 2025 agenda, saying in a statement that the agenda was written for Trump and "should scare every single American." He claimed on his campaign social media account Wednesday that Project 2025 "will destroy America."

Congressional Democrats have also begun pivoting to Project 2025 when asked in interviews about Mr. Biden's fitness for a second term following his lackluster showing at the June 27 debate, the first in which he went head-to-head with Trump.

"Trump is all about Project 2025," Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman told CNN on Monday. "I mean, that's what we really should be voting on right now. It's like, do we want the kind of president that is all about Project '25?"

Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina, one of Mr. Biden's closest allies on Capitol Hill, told reporters Monday that the agenda for the next Republican president was the sole topic he would talk about.

"Project 2025, that's my only concern," he said. "I don't want you or my granddaughter to live under that government."

In a statement reiterating her support for Mr. Biden, Rep. Frederica Wilson of Florida called Project 2025 "MAGA Republicans' draconian 920-page plan to end U.S. democracy, give handouts to the wealthy and strip Americans of their freedoms."

What are Republicans saying about Project 2025?

Two GOP senators under consideration to serve as Trump's running mate sought to put space between the White House hopeful and Project 2025, casting it as merely the product of a think tank that puts forth ideas.

"It's the work of a think tank, of a center-right think tank, and that's what think tanks do," Florida Sen. Marco Rubio told CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday.

He said Trump's message to voters focuses on "restoring common sense, working-class values, and making our decisions on the basis of that."

Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance raised a similar sentiment in an interview with NBC's "Meet the Press," saying organizations will have good ideas and bad ideas.

"It's a 900-page document," he said Sunday. "I guarantee there are things that Trump likes and dislikes about that 900-page document. But he is the person who will determine the agenda of the next administration."

Jaala Brown contributed to this report.

Melissa Quinn is a politics reporter for CBSNews.com. She has written for outlets including the Washington Examiner, Daily Signal and Alexandria Times. Melissa covers U.S. politics, with a focus on the Supreme Court and federal courts.

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5.1 Changing norms and definitions of family in immigration regimes

5.2 Exposing the dynamics underlying the regulation of family migration

5.3 Agency and solidarity

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Family‐Related Migration and the Crisis-Driven Outflow from Greece

The Multidimensional Nature of Family Migration: Transnational and Mixed Families in Europe

The Implications of Socioeconomic Background for Moroccan Transnational Family Practices

1 Development and Timeline of the Field

2 Approaches and Theories

3 Research Topics

3.2 Staying in Touch

3.3 Separated Families and Deportation

3.4 Impact of Family Migration Policies

3.5 Marriage Migration

4 Conclusion

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A Suitcase, 10 Countries, One School: A Migrant Family’s Search for Home

Migration, separation and family survival

Staying in touch and long-distance intimacy

"Other Mothers": transnational care networks

Economic strategies

Emotional struggles

Dreams of reunification

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Article contents

Introduction

Should I Stay or Should I Go, Now?

From Neoclassical Economics to the Mobility Transition

Political Conditions at the Origin

The Land of Hopes and Dreams

Political Environment, Both Formal and Informal

Transnational Social Networks

The Lens of Skill

Bring It on Home to Me

Remittances

Bilateral Trade

Return Migration and Dual Citizenship

Conclusion and Future Directions