Migration mobilities

After a historical overview of migration within Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall (Minnucci), this collection of essays addresses Mediterranean issues: the case of Ceuta and Melilla (Sagnella), the relationship between Tunisia and the European Union (Gerli), the changes in North Africa from the Arab Spring to the Islamic State (Musso), the Lampedusa case (Strano), some European Models of citizenship (Turco), a focus on female genital mutilation/cutting in the context of migration (Faraca) and another one on the representation of immigrants in Italian Media (Elbreki). This collection of essays by young researchers analyzes, through various innovative approaches, the role of the Mediterranean and migration experiences.

Venezuelans escaping from the crisis in their country count currently among the largest displaced populations in the world. Chile seems to offer them an oasis of political and economic stability. This ethnographic study explores the migrant trajectories of Venezuelan women. We disentangle their migration process, including destination imaginaries, the journey, and their life in Chile. We discuss how uncertainty is permanent in their trajectories and how the imagined oasis turns out to be just a mirage. The women end up waiting, perhaps perennially, to be able to return home. Meanwhile, they develop strategies to survive in an oasis without water.

Based on ethnographic research in the Ecuadorian
Highlands, this article puts the mobility, migration, and
smuggling practices of Ecuador’s indigenous people in
historical and contemporary context. The people of
Ecuador’s Southern Highlands have been on the move
for generations, and migration is deeply embedded in
the social and cultural landscape. In the rural communities
of Cañar, indigenous coyotes are more than
facilitators of migration: they are community members
operating amid broader structural constraints, which
have led to the emergence of specific trends in the
facilitation of irregularized migration, yet they are
expected to adhere to communal principles of reciprocity
and trust. We place indigenous migrant narratives of
mobility and identity at the center of our analysis of
human smuggling, articulating a counternarrative to
that of criminalization prevalent in transnational
debates of irregularized migration, national security,
and border control.

Taking the example of Germany as a demographically ageing country, this paper starts with the assumption that international migration and a sound long-term integration of international migrants are crucial for sustainable population development. However, owing to the complexity of migration motives and individual migration decisions on the one hand, and the multidimensionality of external causes for migration and political regulations aiming to steer migration, on the other hand, the demand and supply side of migration can vary considerably. This paper reflects on recent important migratory movements to Germany (notably inner-European mobility after the expansion of the European Union (EU), and student and refugee migration in the wake of the economic and financial crisis) and con-comitant policy changes. Two main arguments are made along these empirical observations: first, the effective regulation of international migration in Germany as in any other European country can only be derived by harmonising migration regulations on a supranational level, and second, the issue of migration and its regulation touch on crucial topics in European and national public discourse such as the stabilisation of individual and group identities in turbulent times. Thus, as per the arguments put forth by this study, in order to solve actual imbalances in the European migration and asylum system, questions on social justice and common European values will need to be addressed throughout the European countries and at the EU level.

Within the social sciences, migration has traditionally been
conceived of as a unidirectional, purposeful and intentional
process from one state of fixity (in the place of origin) to another (in the destination). By mapping the trajectories of Brazilians who currently reside in Belgium or the UK, this article draws attention to a group of people whose mobile practices do not fit this definition. On the contrary, their experiences are marked by an ongoing mobility that consists of a multiplicity of potential routes, which are often unstable and which may be accompanied by changes in status. These Brazilians tend to ‘live in mobility’ in order to improve the quality of life at home. As such, leaving home becomes a strategy of staying home, which challenges what is usually evoked by the concept of ‘migration’, whereby ‘building up a new life elsewhere’ and ‘integration’ are seen as key. Whereas our respondents themselves have a more circular or mobile perspective, the receiving society discursively frames migration as one-way, and thus as a ‘threat’ that calls for social integration, control and the maintenance of national identity.

Scholars from various disciplines have used key concepts to grasp mobilities, but as of yet, a working vocabulary of these has not been fully developed. Given this context and inspired in part by Raymond Williams’ Keywords (1976), this edited volume presents contributions that critically analyze mobility-related keywords: capital, cosmopolitanism, freedom, gender, immobility, infrastructure, motility, and regime. Each chapter provides an historical context, a critical analysis of how the keyword has been used in relation to mobility, and a conclusion that proposes future usage or research.

Although there are many ways in which tourism and migration are interconnected, current research focuses mainly on either migration or tourism. Tourism is commonly linked to leisure and business, while migration is generally linked to work, politics and culture.  In fact the boundaries between tourism and migration are not often clear cut and the consequences of different kinds of mobility are not obvious.
This book demonstrates the importance of blurring the boundaries between different kinds of mobility in social research and broadens understanding migrants and tourists as interconnected social categories placing Poland and Iceland at the center of the inquiry. Based on a collaborative project between researchers from these two countries  it examines leisure and tourist activities of migrants, their perceptions of nature in Iceland and UK, changing images of migrants and tourists in Iceland, and changing images of Iceland as a tourist destination.

The willingness to migrate in search of employment is in itself insufficient to compel anyone to move. The dynamics of labour mobility are heavily influenced by the opportunities perceived and the imaginaries held by both employers and regulating authorities in relation to migrant labour. This volume offers a multidisciplinary approach to the study of the structures and imaginaries underlying various forms of mobility. Based on research conducted in different geographical contexts, including the European Union, Turkey, and South Africa, and tackling the experiences and aspirations of migrants from various parts of the globe, the chapters comprised in this volume analyse labour-related mobilities from two distinct yet intertwined vantage points: the role of structures and regimes of mobility on the one hand, and aspirations as well as migrant imaginaries on the other. Migration at Work thus aims to draw cross-contextual parallels by addressing the role played by opportunities in mobilising people, how structures enable, sustain, and change different forms of mobility, and how imaginaries fuel labour migration and vice versa. In doing so, this volume also aims to tackle the interrelationships between imaginaries driving migration and shaping “regimes of mobility”, as well as how the former play out in different contexts, shaping internal and cross-border migration.
Based on empirical research in various fields, this collection provides valuable scholarship and evidence on current processes of migration and mobility.

Este livro é resultado de uma fecunda parceria entre o Ipea e o Instituto de Políticas de Transporte e Desenvolvimento (ITDP) do Brasil, iniciada em 2013. Publicado em inglês e português, o livro reúne treze capítulos, que abordam o tema da cidade e do desenvolvimento urbano a partir da lógica dos movimentos.
Usualmente, tanto nas ciências quanto nas políticas públicas, a abordagem do tema das cidades e do desenvolvimento urbano tem forte relação com os lugares de permanência, com ênfase no lugar da habitação, além dos demais lugares onde são exercidas atividades cotidianas. A distribuição de equipamentos, infraestruturas e serviços – bem como o uso do solo – organiza fortemente a análise da cidade e do urbano.
Os estudos acerca das mobilidades urbana, física e simbólica vêm, entretanto, crescendo em importância, em função da multiplicação e da intensificação dos deslocamentos diários, bem como das inúmeras técnicas desenvolvidas e adaptadas ao ato de deslocamento. Nesse caso, inclusive se considerando todas as formas possíveis na atualidade de deslocar-se, sem haver, por exemplo, mudança efetiva do lugar de permanência. Da mesma forma, multiplicam-se os métodos de análise e as teorias, criando-se espaço para novas e mais adaptadas estruturas explicativas e propositivas.
Este livro, resultado de esforços coletivos inovadores, busca colocar a mobilidade como categoria principal da leitura e da análise do espaço urbano. A ideia de mobilidade aparece aqui como parte efetivamente integrante dos processos de urbanização, que resultam em novas formas e experiências urbanas. Nosso objetivo, ao unir os autores presentes nesta publicação, foi ir além da discussão da mobilidade em si, ao promover uma leitura da mobilidade, sobretudo a partir de aspectos explicativos das condições dos lugares e das regiões. A mobilidade é vista, portanto, como um processo socioespacial, uma complexidade que se particulariza nos lugares em função de suas características sociais e espaciais – ou seja, um processo que encerra uma totalidade, mas que se define diferentemente em função da formação de cada lugar.

During the 17th and 18th century musicians' mobilities and migrations are essential for the European music history and the cultural exchange of music. Adopting viewpoints that reflect different methodological approaches and diversified research cultures, the book presents studies on central scopes, strategies and artistic outcomes of mobile and migratory musicians as well as on the transfer of music. By looking at elite and non-elite musicians and their everyday mobilities to major and minor centers of music production and practice, new biographical patterns and new stylistic paradigms in the European East, West and South emerge.

Se realiza una evaluación ambiental del tramo Los Laureles-Constitución, el cual forma parte del proyecto Tren Maya. Esta evaluación incluyó 1) el impacto de la construcción y funcionamiento de la vía férrea, 2) los impactos del nuevo centro urbano-turístico y 3) la definición de pronósticos ambientales y la evaluación de alternativas de diseño.

A peer reviewed roundtable review and discussion of The Figure of the Migrant with important scholars in the field: Sandro Mezzadra, Todd May, Ladelle McWhorter, Andrew Dilts, Robin Celikates, Daniella Trimboli, and Adriana Novoa. Interview conducted by Mark Westmoreland. Responses by author, Thomas Nail.