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

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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.