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

这项由该奖项支持的研究将调查来自全球南方的移民流动模式最近的变化。在过去的几十年里，国际移民的流动不仅在数量上有所增加，而且还在比以往任何时候都更广泛的国家之间建立了联系。这些转变似乎有多种原因，包括：新的工业生产中心；不断变化的贸易流动；西欧和北美以外国家收入的提高；更容易进行长途旅行；以及新的通信技术。然而，这些概括掩盖了移民动机和结果的相当大的多样性。如果要制定既能满足移民的需要，又能满足许多可能欢迎或不欢迎他们到来的国家的需要的政策，就需要更多地了解移民为什么选择离家，要去哪里，以及他们会发生什么。这项研究的目标就是满足这一需求。研究人员将专注于来自撒哈拉以南非洲的未被充分研究的移民群体。他将把研究基地设在欧亚城市土耳其伊斯坦布尔，这是一个新兴的制造业地区，吸引了越来越多的非难民移民。研究人员将使用定性方法收集关于移徙行为者的主观态度、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前景的结构性因素的看法、他们的移徙决策历史以及这些决定对个人及其家庭的后果的数据。他将以400名移民为样本，通过参与者观察、密集的长期访谈和人生史的汇编来收集数据。这些数据将被用来评估研究人员的假设，即撒哈拉以南移民是中产阶级现象，这一假设被误解，因为来源国和目的地国之间的国民收入水平差异很大。这项研究的发现将有助于开发动态方法，以了解当代世界移徙的复杂性。这对关心移徙问题的政策制定者很重要，也符合美国的国家利益。

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.