Collaborative Research: Networks, Gender, Culture and the Migration Decision-Making Process: A Case Study of the Kazakh Diaspora in Western Mongolia

合作研究：网络、性别、文化和移民决策过程：蒙古西部哈萨克族移民案例研究

• 批准号: 0752411
• 负责人: Holly Barcus
• 金额: $ 7.45万
• 依托单位: Macalester College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2008
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2008-06-01 至 2011-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0752411&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Networks; Gender; Culture

Dr. Cynthia Werner and Dr. Holly Barcus will collaborate to study the process by which potential migrants make the decision to move or not, through a case study of Kazakh migration from Mongolia to Kazakhstan. The decision to migrate represents a complex interplay of individual perceptions, needs, and desires, coupled with having the necessary resources and the real or perceived benefits offered at the destination. The process by which potential migrants decide to move or not to move thus is dependent upon economic, cultural, social, familial, and cognitive factors as well as broader national and global contexts in which these decisions are made. This project addresses three inter-related questions: 1) How and to what degree do cultural factors influence the migration decision-making process? 2) How does gender shape migration decisions and migration impacts? 3) What role do kin-based social networks play in the migration process, and how are kin-based social networks maintained in a transnational context? The Kazakhs, a Turkic-speaking Muslim people, are the largest minority group in Mongolia. After the fall of the Soviet Union, the Mongolian Kazakhs started to migrate to the newly independent Republic of Kazakhstan, a location now imagined as their homeland. While approximately one-half of the 120,000 Kazakhs in Mongolia migrated to Kazakhstan, as many as one-third later returned to Mongolia. To investigate migration decision making, Werner and Barcus will gather data by conducting structured interviews with 120 Kazakh individuals in Mongolia, and in-depth life history and family history interviews with 24 households. Using a mixed method approach, the research design combines the strengths of quantitative and qualitative methods. Research participants will be identified through local contacts using a quota sample stratified by geography, migrant status, gender, and age. The field research will take place during the summers of 2008 and 2009. Previously, researchers have documented the dynamics of migration flows and counter-flows and the expected timing of migration events over an individual's lifetime. But this research has been focused almost exclusively on positive migration decisions, neglecting the decision not to migrate. From the standpoint of United States migration policy, the decision not to move is as important as the decision to move. Werner and Barcus will investigate the possibility that cultural factors play a pivotal role in determining the outcome of migration decisions. Cultural factors have not received adequate attention in previous studies, which have tended to rely heavily or exclusively on quantitative data. This research will contribute to filling this gap and to the interdisciplinary scientific analysis of migration decision-making, with special focus on immobility and place attachment, gender and transnational migration, social networks and remittances, and migration in post-Soviet settings. By engaging undergraduate and graduate students in their research, the researchers also will contribute to science education in the United States and in Mongolia

Cynthia Werner博士和冬青巴克斯博士将通过对哈萨克斯坦人从蒙古移民到哈萨克斯坦的案例研究，合作研究潜在移民决定是否移民的过程。 移徙的决定是个人的看法、需要和愿望与拥有必要的资源和目的地提供的真实的或感觉到的利益之间复杂的相互作用。 因此，潜在移民决定迁移或不迁移的过程取决于经济、文化、社会、家庭和认知因素，以及作出这些决定的更广泛的国家和全球背景。 本研究探讨三个相互关联的问题：1）文化因素如何以及在何种程度上影响移民决策过程？2)性别如何影响移徙决定和移徙影响？3)基于亲属的社交网络在移徙过程中发挥什么作用，基于亲属的社交网络在跨国背景下如何维持？ 哈萨克族是蒙古国最大的少数民族，属突厥语系穆斯林民族。苏联解体后，蒙古族哈萨克人开始迁移到新独立的哈萨克斯坦共和国，这个地方现在被想象为他们的家园。虽然蒙古的120 000名哈萨克人中约有一半迁移到哈萨克斯坦，但多达三分之一后来返回蒙古。 为了调查移民决策，Werner和Barcus将通过对蒙古的120名哈萨克人进行结构化访谈，并对24个家庭进行深入的生活史和家族史访谈来收集数据。 使用混合方法的方法，研究设计结合了定量和定性方法的优势。研究参与者将通过当地联系人使用按地理、移民身份、性别和年龄分层的配额样本进行识别。实地研究将在2008年和2009年夏季进行。 此前，研究人员记录了移徙流动和逆流的动态以及个人一生中移徙事件的预期时间。但这项研究几乎完全集中在积极的移民决定上，忽视了不移民的决定。 从美国移民政策的角度来看，不迁移的决定与迁移的决定同样重要。Werner和Barcus将研究文化因素在决定移民决策结果方面发挥关键作用的可能性。文化因素在以往的研究中没有得到足够的重视，这些研究往往严重依赖或完全依赖于定量数据。 这项研究将有助于填补这一空白，并有助于对移徙决策进行跨学科的科学分析，特别侧重于不流动和地方依恋、性别和跨国移徙、社交网络和汇款以及后苏联环境下的移徙。通过让本科生和研究生参与他们的研究，研究人员还将为美国和蒙古的科学教育做出贡献