Resources on Migration

The International Organisation for Migration estimates
that 150 million people worldwide live outside the country of their birth

...and all indications are that this number will swell in the next decade. This displacement process has implications that can be explored from many disciplinary perspectives, and that pose challenges to governments at every level. Sending and receiving societies are vitally affected by migrant choices, and individuals face enormous problems in adapting to new settings and circumstances. The resources linked below provide entrée into the migration literatures and pointers to information sources and organizations.

I will augment the pages as I find more materials, and as my explorations of specific facets progress. I would be happy to receive comments and suggestions for additions: blackmerh@wlu.edu.

updated: 28 February 2004


Journals | Articles | Reports | Statistics | Organizations
Specific Settings | Web Resources | Maps | Films
January 2004 addenda | February 2004 addenda

Books

Some books on migration issues in W&L libraries and new and forthcoming books from amazon.com (a quasi-informed selection)

European Yearbook of Minority Issues
The Hague: Kluwer Law International, 2003 ISBN 90-411-1956-6
€ 200.00 US$ 192.00 £ 126.00
(see European Centre for Minority Issues for more publications)

Caroline Brettell (Editor) et al.
Migration Theory : Talking Across the Disciplines
JV6035 .M545 2000

Social scientists do not approach the study of immigration from a shared paradigm, but from a variety of competing theoretical viewpoints fragmented across disciplines, regions, and ideologies. As a result, research on the subject tends to be narrow, often inefficient, and characterized by duplication, miscommunication, reinvention, and bickering about fundamentals... (quoting Massey et al 1994:700-701)

Stalker, Peter
Workers without frontiers : the impact of globalization on international migration
Boulder, Colo. : Lynne Rienner Publishers ; Geneva : ILO, c2000.
HD6300 .S734 2000.

Exodus Within Borders: An Introduction to the Crisis of Internal Displacement (1999) David A. Korn

How Much Do National Borders Matter? (1998) John F. Helliwell

Migration Issues in the Asia Pacific compiled by Patrick Brownlee and Colleen Mitchell

Most predictions point to a much higher scale of labor mobility in the twenty-first century, not because of liberalization of immigration controls, but because of growing labor supply pressures, rising income inequalities within and across nations brought about by globalization itself, and the revolution in information and communication technologies. (xi, Forward by Warner Sengenberger)

Journals

International Migration --articles at $19/each... and institutional subscription is $251/year including online access and the backfile.

Diaspora: A Journal of Transnational Studies

dedicated to the multidisciplinary study of the history, culture, social structure, politics and economics of both the traditional diasporas – Armenian, Greek, and Jewish – and those transnational dispersions which in the past three decades have chosen to identify themselves as ‘diasporas.’ These encompass groups ranging from the African-American to the Ukrainian-Canadian, from the Caribbean-British to the new East and South Asian diasporas. (Institutional subscription $65)

African Population Studies

Etude de la Population Africaine/African Population Studies is a bilingual journal (French and English) published two times a year in April and October by the Union for African Population Studies. It publishes dependable and timely information emanating from original research on African population, development and related fields. Online issues are free and date back to 1994.

Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe (content seems to be free)

International Migration Review archive via JSTOR (1966-1997) and current issue TOC (institutional subscription $81/year)

Migration News from UC Davis

World on the Move (newsletter of the American Sociological Association Section on International Migration)

Selected articles

Diasporas James Clifford Cultural Anthropology, Vol. 9, No. 3, Further Inflections: Toward Ethnographies of the Future. (Aug., 1994), pp. 302-338.

A selection from the JSTOR Population Studies collection:

International Migration at the Dawn of the Twenty-First Century: The Role of the State(in Notes and Commentary) Douglas S. Massey Population and Development Review, Vol. 25, No. 2. (Jun., 1999), pp. 303-322.

International Migration 1965-96: An Overview Hania Zlotnik Population and Development Review, Vol. 24, No. 3. (Sep., 1998), pp. 429-468.

China's "Tidal Wave" of Migrant Labor: What Can We Learn from Mexican Undocumented Migration to the United States? Kenneth D. Roberts International Migration Review, Vol. 31, No. 2. (Summer, 1997), pp. 249-293.

Measuring Spatial Focusing in a Migration System (in National and International Migration) David A. Plane; Gordon F. Mulligan Demography, Vol. 34, No. 2. (May, 1997), pp. 251-262.

Internal Migration in China, 1950-1988 (in Migration) Zai Liang; Michael J. White Demography, Vol. 33, No. 3. (Aug., 1996), pp. 375-384.

Beyond the Enlightenment Mentality: A Confucian Perspective on Ethics, Migration, and Global Stewardship (in Part I: Religious Traditions and Migration) Weiming Tu International Migration Review, Vol. 30, No. 1, Special Issue: Ethics, Migration, and Global Stewardship. (Spring, 1996), pp. 58-75.

Realistic and Idealistic Approaches to the Ethics of Migration (in Part III: Migration, Politics, and Ethics) Joseph H. Carens International Migration Review, Vol. 30, No. 1, Special Issue: Ethics, Migration, and Global Stewardship. (Spring, 1996), pp. 156-170.

The Economics of Immigration George J. Borjas Journal of Economic Literature 1994 32 (4)1667-1717 (long listing of citations)

You Can't Take It with You? Immigrant Assimilation and the Portability of Human Capital (Rachel M. Friedberg) Journal of Labor Economics, Vol. 18, No. 2, Apr., 2000 pp. 221-251

Abstract: The national origin of an individual's human capital is a crucial determinant of its value. Education and labor market experience acquired abroad are significantly less valued than human capital obtained domestically. This difference can fully explain the earnings disadvantage of immigrants relative to comparable natives in Israel. Variation in the return to foreign schooling across origin countries may reflect differences in its quality and compatibility with the host labor market. The return to foreign experience is generally insignificant. Acquiring additional education following immigration appears to confer a compound benefit by raising the return to education acquired abroad.

econpapers search: employment near assimilation

Immigration Policy, Assimilation of Immigrants and Natives' Sentiments towards Immigrants: Evidence from 12 OECD Countries Center for Comparative Immigration Studies working paper

Immigration, Asylum and Extremist Politics - Europe and Australia James Jupp (paper presented at 2003 conference, Sydney)

Transnational Communities Working Papers series from Oxford

Reports

International Migration: Facing the Challenge (Population Bulletin, March 2002)

OECD International Migration and pdf of Trends in International Migration: continuous reporting system on migration 2002 Annual Report (371 pages... and their 27th...) (cached here)

UN Internal Migration Report 2002 (cached here)

Statistics

International Labour Migration Statistics (ILO)

Remittances data from IMF Balance of Payments Statistics Yearbook

Organizations

International Organization for Migration (IOM)

Electronic Immigration Network a voluntary sector organisation specialising in the provision of information on immigration and refugee law via the Internet, particularly in the United Kingdom and Europe

European Migration Information Network (EMIN), a web-based system designed to provide a gateway to information on international migration.

European Research Centre on Migration and Ethnic Relations (ERCOMER) at Univ Utrecht

Immigrant Institute Borås, Sweden: a non-governmental organisation which aim is to be a research and documentation centre about immigrants and refugees, with an archive, a library and a museum

Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at UCSD

Inter-University Committee on International Migration at MIT

The Border and Transcultural Studies Research Circle at the University of Wisconsin-Madison

Institute for Migration Research and Intercultural Studies Universität Osnabrück

Migrants Rights International

The Global Campaign for Ratification of the Convention on Rights of Migrants

US Association for International Migration

USAIM is the American partner organization of the International Organization for Migration. The mission of USAIM is to broaden public awareness and mobilize private sector resources in support of domestic and international programs that provide assistance to migrants and refugees. USAIM concentrates its efforts on trafficking of humans, health (especially HIV/AIDS), emergency relief, and public information campaigns. USAIM does so primarily by supporting and promoting the work of the IOM, which is committed to the principle that humane and orderly migration benefits migrants and society. IOM, a Geneva-based intergovernmental organization, was established in 1951 and currently has offices in over 100 countries around the world.

Center for Immigration Studies

Who We Are . . . The Center for Immigration Studies is an independent, non-partisan, non-profit research organization founded in 1985. It is the nation's only think tank devoted exclusively to research and policy analysis of the economic, social, demographic, fiscal, and other impacts of immigration on the United States.

Our Mission . . . It is the Center's mission to expand the base of public knowledge and understanding of the need for an immigration policy that gives first concern to the broad national interest. The Center is animated by a pro-immigrant, low-immigration vision which seeks fewer immigrants but a warmer welcome for those admitted.

Publications . . . The Center publishes Backgrounders, papers, and other reports.

Specific Issues and Settings

Immigration and Denmark

demographic summaries of selected Hispanic population groups in the United States based on their nation of origin

MIGRINTER conference on conceptualising social networks and migration: empirical contributions and theoretical challenges Institute CNRS, University of Poitiers (France), 26-27 May 2003

Web Resources

WWW Virtual Library on Migration and Ethnic Relations

Peter Stalker's Guide to International Migration

Immigration & Migration from UT Austin's Latin American Network Information Center (LANIC) --includes links to quite a few essential resources from many nations

some diaspora sites

google 'global diasporas' search (16K+ hits)

google 'transnational communities' search (6300+ hits)

Diasporas from The Postcolonial Web

This new section on diaspora seeks to reorganize the links to documents on the website while also introducing new categories. By listing authors according to various general diasporas such as the African or Indian diasporas, it enables one to appreciate how the sense of homelessness and displacement has come to produce types of culture that are not geographically synchronous.

push and pull factors determining international migration flows from Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI)

Why do people migrate? (Eurostat Statistics in Focus, Feb 2001)

International Migration and Multicultural Policies at UNESCO

Leiden University’s History of International Migration Site

ILO International Labor Migration

International Migration Papers

Asian Migration Atlas and Asian Migration News (Scalabrini Migration Center)

Overview of International Migrations (Daniel Martínez, ILO)

Migrant Activities in Asia (ILO)

Current dynamics of international labour migration: Globalisation and regional integration (ILO)

links from University of New Brunswick Demography and Population Resources Country of Origin Information from UNHCR

Maps and Mapping
Waldo Tobler migration presentation --see also MIGRATION: RAVENSTEIN, THORNTWAITE, AND BEYOND and Experiments In Migration Mapping

Examples of technology:

Project GeoSim from VaTech: "This module provides students with the means to develop and test models relating to migration patterns. Simulated migration based on a model developed by a student can be compared to the actual migration during a decade in the United States." (basics and downloadable here) (C:\Program Files\GeoSim\MigModel) (tutorial here)

Domestic (State of Hawaii) In-Migration and Out-Migration Maps (2000 Census)

animated Scots-Irish migration map (from SMSU)

(see 5. Sex-Specific Net Migration Gains and Losses in South-East England, 1901-11)

Fire Ant maps (see historical infestation animation)

Films

The Movies, Race, and Ethnicity: Immigrants Within Europe from UC Berkeley

The documentary mentioned by Mohamed: Sorius Samura's Exodus ...which I've ordered for the library

304 documentaries listed in Immigration at MediaRights.org

15th annual Latin American Film Festival to focus on immigration, cultural challenges (from UNC) --see list of films

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fragments to keep for eventual integration:

Working Papers on internal migration from Geography Dept, Leeds:

Internal migration and regional population dynamics in Europe: Denmark case study (pdf paper) (html abstract)
Marek Kupiszewski, Sven Illeris, Helen Durham, Phil Rees (2001)

Internal migration and regional population dynamics in Europe: Sweden case study (pdf paper) (html abstract)
Marek Kupiszewski, Lars-Erik Borgegard, Urban Fransson, Johan Hakansson, Helen Durham, Phil Rees (2001)

Internal migration and regional population dynamics in Europe: Spain case study (pdf paper) (html abstract)
Arlinda Garcia Coll and John Stillwell (2000)

Internal migration and regional population dynamics in Europe: Finland case study (pdf paper) (html abstract)
Marek Kupiszewski, Elli Heikkila, Mauri Nieminen, Helen Durham, Phil Rees, and Dorota Kupiszewska (2000)


31 October
Thai numbers

4 November
One pregnant question, which arises in looking at the contents of Cambridge Survey: what are the limitations of a 9-year-old source? Are the 'Emerging Trends' worth exploring, to ask what the outcomes were, or should we be searching out today's Emerging Trends?

Of Diaspora:

The familiar meaning of the term implies exile (and so covers territory of deportation, expulsion, forced repatriation, etc.), but other senses are appearing in literatures, and emphasize the connectedness of spatially dispersed communities (thus, a Philipino diaspora, or a Hakka diaspora, is more cencerned with migration and return than with permanent exile, and with cultural continuities rather than enclaves of isolated ethnic identity).
Migrants who decide to form incipient diasporas experience multifaceted pressures that are generated and exerted by various groupings among the migrants themselves, by host governments and social forces in host countries (especially by competing ethnic groups and by rightist and nationalist elements in the dominant group) and by various social, political and religious forces in their homelands... Members of such entities consciously maintain their ethnonational identity and they create communal organizations. They maintain explicit and implicit contacts with their homelands and, even if only in a rudimentary form, they develop trans-state networks connecting them and their organizations with their respective homelands and co-ethnics in other host countries and face grave dilemmas concerning ambiguous, dual and divided loyalties to their homelands and host countries. (Gabriel Sheffer in Disporas and Ethnic Migrants, pg. 25, 26)

Diasporas exist in three overlapping but distinct forms. First, they are actual social formations made up of individuals, extended families, small groups and the relations conducted between them, within a partially closed communal field that can be idetified (e.g., 'a Greek diaspora community'). This diaspora functions within the host society and state around it (e.g., 'the Greek diaspora community in Germany'), but also within the larger framework of the transnational field in which this particular diaspora sustains connections with other Greek diaspora communities, the totality of 'the Greek diaspora', and the homeland. Finally, the transnational frame is itself imbedded in and shaped by the largest field of all, that of supranationalism and globalization.

Second, diasporas exist as multiple 'imagined communities' (Anderson 1991). That is to say, they are constantly articulated by their own individual and institutional members, who construct and disseminate numerous representations of what they are, what their diasporic experience feels like and what it means or should mean... [they] aspire to develop their own discourse, shape themselves by their own cultural production and consumption and claim the right to ascribe meaning to their experience. They do so in contestation with the hegemonic representational media and the state mechanisms of the societies that host them.

The third form of diasporic existence is wholly discursive: disaporas exist as objects of knowledge, as concepts, models and problematics for a number of scholarly disciplines, ranging from anthropology and ethnomusicology to postcolonial literary studies and sociology... (Kachig Tölölyan in Disporas and Ethnic Migrants, pg. 56)

13 December
Forced Migration Network Links from UNESCO