The post-reform era in China has seen a steady increase in foreign migrants to the country. Swedish intra-corporate families are ambivalent about the move to China, as this causes the family dynamic to shift from a dual-career model to that of a single-career model. Although structural conditions are important in the decision to migrate, the more subjective part of the motivation to engage in mobility is the main focus of this article. Many assert that wanting to 'have an adventure' was a decisive aspect of the decision to migrate. By disentangling this ultimately relational concept, the article analyses the construction of difference in the way China is both imagined and experienced. The article contributes by providing insight into the family dynamics and decision-making involved in taking on an international assignment.
AbstractAlthough there are exceptions, refugees from protracted refugee situations generally experience an overall slower integration process into the new country than other refugees and immigrants. Often the circumstances in the refugee camps, including lacking education and social networks, are used to explain this. This article looks at the post-resettlement integration process of Burmese Karen refugees in Sweden through a capital approach. Consequently, the analysis is concerned with the accumulation of resources—such as social networks—both in the pre- and post-resettlement contexts. Mobility is acknowledged as a decisive factor in this process and, as such, mobility practices from both before and after resettlement are highlighted to better understand the refugees' social, cultural and economic embeddedness. As this article argues, social and cultural capital acquired before resettlement is of crucial importance to create social networks after resettlement and hence to the overall integration process in Sweden.
Contrary to the general trend in European countries since the 2000s, Sweden has neither restricted its migration policy nor limited the rights of migrants. This changed with the 'refugee crisis' of 2015 when the government introduced policy changes to curb the number of arrivals and impede the granting of residence permits. Civil society organizations are significantly involved in the reception of migrants, in the integration process, and in minority politics. The question is whether, and in what ways, civil society organizations have adapted their norms and values to the government's new approach. Looking at the claims the organizations make through the Swedish legislative consultation system, this chapter finds that the organizations tend to maintain a common base of values in the policy fields of migration and integration. They uphold a critical stance towards the government's policy shift by making claims based on humanitarianism, hospitality, inclusion, and solidarity towards the migrants coming to Sweden.
AbstractSince the early 2000s, Chinese metropolises have been emerging as hubs for the national and global economy. They attract increasing numbers of foreigners with diverse socio‐economic and educational backgrounds who tend to immigrate independently of the Chinese initiatives focused on "foreign talents". Our analysis contributes to the understanding of these migrants' integration into the labour market. Through a Bourdieusian capital lens, this article unpacks the access to the labour market and occupational positions of Swiss and Swedish migrant professionals in mainland China. Differentiated by how they can capitalize upon their educational, occupational, social and cultural resources in this specific context, the article distinguishes between three categories: corporarate expatriates, local hires and entrepreneurs and concludes with policy recommendations to stabilize their residence conditions.
This paper presents developments in the field of refugee resettlement from a European perspective. The paper starts out with a historical overview on refugee resettlement in the European continent since World War I and shows that Europe has historically been more of a source of refugee resettlement than a host. The paper then pays attention to the evolution of resettlement at an EU level and sheds light on factors that have contributed to its (re)prioritization in the past 15 years. Indeed, there is an increased manifestation of resettlement on the EU policy agenda, culminating in the adoption of a Joint EU Resettlement Program in 2012. However, as a policy field it has not been part of the binding harmonization process, and while the number of EU resettlement countries doubled in the past decade, the EU lags still far behind other traditional resettlement countries in terms of actual resettlement places. Finally, after shedding light on debates in the European Parliament on the matter of resettlement, the paper presents a number of essential concerns and challenges regarding the future of resettlement programs in the EU. It concludes by pointing at the difficulties of reaching any significant increase in the number of refugees resettled in the EU.
This book digs into an area of international migration studies that has gained prominence in the past couple of decades: migrant smuggling. The regional focus is southern Europe, which receives immigrants from many African and Asian countries. Migrant smuggling is discussed in relation to EU and national policies, aimed at combating irregular migration, including increased surveillance and border controls.The authors are no newcomers to the field. Anna Triandafyllidou is a leading scholar in migration studies, having published extensively on various topics dealing with migration in Europe, and with a special interest in Greece and southern Europe. Thanos Maroukis, on the other hand, is an early career academic whose publications have focused specifically on migration in Greece. It is, therefore, not surprising that the authors approached this topic of migrant smuggling from Africa and Asia to Europe by focusing mainly on the situation in Greece and the Turkish-Greek route. The book is based on fieldwork, participant observation and interviews conducted in Athens. The empirical material is extensive, covering a broad range of actors. ; peer-reviewed
While integration policies as such are not new, and in some countries date back to the 1980s and beyond, there have been important shifts in the debates on integration and in related re-configurations of integration policymaking in the past decade or so. One of the main recent trends is the linkage of integration policy with admission policy and the related focus on recent immigrants. A second trend is the increasing use of obligatory integration measures and integration conditions in admission policy, and third, integration policymaking is increasingly influenced by European developments, both through vertical (more or less binding regulations, directives etc.) and through horizontal processes (policy learning between states) of policy convergence. An increasing number of EU Member States have, in fact, adopted integration related measures as part of their admission policy, while the impact of such measures on integration processes of immigrants is far less clear. In addition, Member States' policies follow different, partly contradictory logics, in integration policy shifts by conceptualising (1) integration as rights based inclusion, (2) as a prerequisite for admission residence rights, with rights interpreted as conditional, and (3) integration as commitment to values and certain cultural traits of the host society. The objective of PROSINT is to evaluate the impact of admission related integration policies on the integration of newcomers, to analyse the different logics underlying integration policymaking and to investigate the main target groups of compulsory and voluntary integration measures. The project investigated different aspects of these questions along five distinct workpackages,. These analysed (1) the European policy framework on migrant integration (WP1), (2) the different national policy frameworks for the integration of newcomers in the 9 countries covered by the research (WP2), the admissionintegration nexus at the local level in studied in 13 localities across the 9 countries covered by the research (WP3), the perception and impacts of mandatory prearrival measures in four of the nine countries covered (WP4) and a methodologically oriented study of the impact of admission related integration measures (WP5). The countries covered by the project were Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Apart from individual cases project reports generally cover the period until end of 2010. ; Promoting Sustainable Policies for Integration (PROSINT)
Chapter 1. Welfare and Mobility: Migrants' Experiences of Social Welfare Protection in Transnational and Translocal Spaces -- Chapter 2. The Mobility of the Elderly and Family-Based Care: A Case Study of Chinese Migrant Grand(Parents) -- Chapter 3. Keeping It in the Family: Rotating Chains in Women's Transnational Care Work between Italy and Ukraine -- Chapter 4 -- From Familial Pressure to Seeking One's Fortune: Chinese International Students' Search for Geographical and Social Mobility as a Response to Societal and Familial Pressures -- Chapter 5. 'He Has a Better Chance Here, So We Stay'. Children's Education and Parental Migration Decisions -- Chapter 6. Settling for Welfare? Shifting the Welfare Access, Migration and Settlement Aspirations of Filipina Single Mothers in Japan -- Chapter 7. Labour Mobility from Eastern European Welfare States: Zooming in on Romania and Slovakia -- Chapter 8. Welfare Considerations Underpinning Healthcare Workers' Decision about Migration: The Case of Slovenia -- Chapter 9. When the Expatriate Wife Returns Home: Swedish Women Navigating National Welfare Politics and Ideals of Gender Equality in Expatriate Family Migration -- Chapter 10. (Im)mobility Patterns among Polish Unemployed Migrants in Iceland Navigating Different Welfare Regimes -- Chapter 11. Puzzling Social Protection across Several Countries: Opportunistic Strategy or Risky Compensation? -- Chapter 12. Beloved Land, Beloved Family: The Role of Welfare in Timorese Migration to England -- Chapter 13. Securing Old-Age Pensions across Borders: Sudanese Transnational Families across the Netherlands, the UK and Sudan.
