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

辛西娅·维尔纳博士和霍莉·巴库斯博士将通过一个哈萨克人从蒙古移民到哈萨克斯坦的案例研究，研究潜在移民做出是否移民决定的过程。移民的决定代表着个人认知、需求和愿望的复杂相互作用，再加上拥有必要的资源和目的地提供的实际或预期的好处。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。这个项目解决了三个相互关联的问题：1)文化因素如何以及在多大程度上影响移民决策过程？2)性别如何影响移民决策和移民影响？3)基于亲属的社会网络在移民过程中扮演什么角色，以及基于亲属的社会网络如何在跨国背景下维持？哈萨克人是讲突厥语的穆斯林民族，是蒙古最大的少数民族。苏联解体后，蒙古哈萨克人开始迁徙到新独立的哈萨克斯坦共和国，这个地方现在被想象成他们的故乡。虽然在蒙古的12万哈萨克人中约有一半移民到哈萨克斯坦，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，以及对24户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，研究设计结合了定量和定性方法的优点。研究参与者将通过使用按地理、移民身份、性别和年龄分层的配额样本通过当地联系人来确定。实地考察将在2008年和2009年夏季进行。此前，研究人员已经记录了移民流动和逆流的动态，以及一个人一生中移民事件的预期时间。但这项研究几乎完全集中在积极的移民决策上，而忽视了不迁移的决定。从美国移民政策的角度来看，不搬迁的决定与搬迁的决定同样重要。沃纳和巴库斯将调查文化因素在决定移民决定结果方面发挥关键作用的可能性。在以往的研究中，文化因素没有得到足够的重视，这些研究往往严重或完全依赖于量化数据。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，特别侧重于固定不动与地点依恋、性别与跨国移徙、社会网络与汇款以及苏联解体后的移徙问题。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

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