An Ethnographic Investigation of Recent Shifts in Migration from the Global South

对最近南半球移民变化的民族志调查

• 批准号: 1733640
• 负责人: Mahir Saul
• 金额: $ 13.61万
• 依托单位: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-08-15 至 2019-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1733640&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Ethnographic; Investigation; Recent; Shifts; Migration

The research supported by this award will investigate recent changes in the mobility patterns of migrants from the global South. Over the past few decades, flows of international migration have not only increased in volume, they also have created ties between a wider range of countries than ever before. The shifts appear to have multiple causes, including: new industrial production centers; changing trade flows; improved incomes in countries outside Western Europe and North America; greater access to long-distance travel; and new technologies of communication. However, these generalizations mask considerable diversity of migrant motivations and outcomes. If policy is to be developed that will serve the needs both of the migrants and of the many countries that may or may not welcome their arrival, much more needs to be known about why migrants choose to leave home and where to go, and what becomes of them. The goal of this research is to fill that need.The researcher will focus on the understudied population of migrants from Sub-Saharan Africa. He will base the research in the Eurasian city of Istanbul, Turkey, an emerging manufacturing zone that has attracted increasing numbers of non-refugee migrants. The researcher will employ qualitative methods to collect data on the subjective attitudes of migration actors, their socioeconomic characteristics, their perceptions of structural factors affecting their prospects in Turkey and other potential destinations, their migration decision histories, and the consequences of these decisions for individuals and their families. Targeting a sample of 400 migrants, he will collect data through participant observation, intensive extended interviews, and the compilation of life histories. These data will be used to evaluate the researcher's hypothesis that sub-Saharan migration is a middle-class phenomenon, which is misrecognized because of the large national income level differences between origin and destination nations. Findings from this research will contribute to developing dynamic approaches to understanding the complexities of migration in the contemporary worlds. This will be of importance for policy makers concerned with migration and is in the United States national interest.

该奖项支持的研究将调查全球南方移民流动模式的最新变化。过去几十年来，国际移民流动不仅数量增加，而且在更广泛的国家之间建立了比以往任何时候都更广泛的联系。这种转变似乎有多种原因，包括：新的工业生产中心；改变贸易流向；西欧和北美以外国家的收入提高；更方便地进行长途旅行；和新技术的通信。然而，这些概括掩盖了移民动机和结果的巨大差异。如果要制定既能满足移民的需求，又能满足许多​​可能欢迎或不欢迎他们到来的国家的需求的政策，就需要更多地了解移民为何选择离开家乡、去往何处以及他们会遭遇什么。这项研究的目标就是满足这一需求。研究人员将重点研究来自撒哈拉以南非洲的移民群体。他将在欧亚城市土耳其伊斯坦布尔进行研究，这是一个新兴的制造业区，吸引了越来越多的非难民移民。研究人员将采用定性方法收集有关移民行为者的主观态度、他们的社会经济特征、他们对影响他们在土耳其和其他潜在目的地的前景的结构性因素的看法、他们的移民决策历史以及这些决定对个人及其家庭的影响的数据。他将以400名流动人口为样本，通过参与观察、深入访谈、生活史整理等方式收集数据。这些数据将用于评估研究人员的假设，即撒哈拉以南地区移民是一种中产阶级现象，但由于原籍国和目的地国之间国民收入水平差异巨大，该假设被错误认识。这项研究的结果将有助于开发动态方法来理解当代世界移民的复杂性。这对于关心移民问题的政策制定者来说非常重要，并且符合美国的国家利益。