Understanding the wellbeing of international migrants

CRFR associate director Philomena de Lima introduces her new book International Migration: the wellbeing of migrants, in which she provides a contemporary understanding of migrants and migration processes and trends with a particular focus on issues related to the wellbeing of migrants and their access to services.

Migration appears to provide a dumping ground for all that is perceived to be going wrong with society at present. It has been a focus for articulating the concerns of sections of the electorate aided by specific political interests across Europe against a background of welfare reform, poor access to services, unemployment and anxieties about national identity. This trend was reflected in the UK Brexit referendum results in June 2016, the growth of ‘far right parties’ and xenophobic discourses about migrants in the European Union (EU) and ‘contracting out’ of EU border control to ‘third countries’ such as Turkey. These external border control practices are matched by internal bordering practices; migrants’ rights to access to public services such as health, housing and education are being restricted or withdrawn and regulations regarding immigration and granting asylum are being tightened. This increases the risk of negative impacts on the physical, social, emotional and psychological, cultural and economic wellbeing of migrants.

The international migration landscape is complex and diverse, with some migrants being more welcome than others. The book provides a contemporary understanding of the complexities of international migration focusing on the potential factors impacting on the well-being of migrants throughout the migration journey.

Why focus on international migrants and their wellbeing? The wellbeing of international migrants has tended to be neglected or marginalised in public discourses and in research. The main tendency has been to promote largely ‘instrumental’ views of international migrants from the perspective of host countries. Attention is given to the economic contributions of migrants to host societies and much policy and scholarly attention is spent on how to facilitate the adaptation of migrants (‘integration’) to host societies. That migrants are human beings with similar hopes and aspirations as those of host society populations is lost amid the noise of dehumanising metaphors and emotions of being overwhelmed, which are generated in public discourses. Migrants are members of households, they are parents, children, workers, colleagues and reducing them to their migrant status not only is reductionist, but also conceals their shared interests, emotions, experiences, and concerns with host populations.

Despite the challenges and amid the hysteria about ‘floods of migrants’ arriving at European borders there are also the efforts of concerned citizens and communities supporting migrants, as well as migrants actively involved in self-organising, protesting and demanding a right to speak for themselves.

Migrant wellbeing in the book is understood as a relational process that is created and recreated throughout the migration journey – from pre-arrival to destination and all that occurs in between – and is embedded in social, economic, political and cultural processes. It requires approaches that transcend disciplinary and national boundaries and transverses policy domains.

The book provides an informative overview of international migration issues and debates for social science students, policy-makers and those wrestling on a practical level with the implications of migration.

 
International Migration: the wellbeing of migrants is published by Dunedin Academic Press and is available to purchase on their website.

Addressing inequalities across the generations

Ahead of her keynote presentation today at our 5th International Conference: Unequal Families and Relationships, Julia Brannen addresses how, in the context of a widening gap in the fortunes of different family generations in Britain today, it is important to examine how parents and their adult children manage inequalities and negotiate relationships.

Sociologists, amongst others, increasingly reflect on the way inequalities remain despite policies and programmes to tackle them. Looking at relationships across the generations in families is a useful way to understand the perpetuation of inequality. In our research we are particularly interested in how changes over time in institutions and cultural practices have influenced different generations’ lives, identities and experiences.

We have pioneered the use of a particular style of biographical narrative approach alongside a research design that involves understanding the perspectives of multiple members of the same families. This approach provides a rigorous framework to understand change and continuity in the transmission of ideas and practices across generations over the long term. It also shows how the different resources held and accessed by families (e.g. time, knowledge, contacts and networks, as well as money) enable and support the construction of different identities. New generations may reject such resources or they may act upon them in new ways within the historical context in which their lives unfold.

Even though relationships between parents and adult children in Western societies can expect to last 20 or even 30 years and longer, they have been subject to little research. By focusing on a family whose life has been marked by migration, our research examines how different generations manage change and inequality. In particular, the research describes the relations between a migrant grandfather and his UK-born adult son.

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Julia Brannen is Professor of the Sociology of the Family at the Thomas Coram Research Unit, Institute of Education, University College London. You can read a brief introduction to her conference presentation Inequality and intergenerational family relationships: methodological and theoretical issues here.

You can follow live tweets from the conference using the hashtag #CRFR2016 on Twitter.

Fathers and Sons: Generations, Families and Migration authored by Julia Brannen is available from Palgrave Macmillan

Exploring children's experiences of migration

Focusing on the experiences of child migrants is relatively new. Our most recent research briefing, written by Dr Samantha Punch, Dr Philomena de Lima and Prof Ann Whitehead explores the impact of children's migration on family relationships.

The briefing highlights the main themes which emerged from the CRFR seminar, 'Exploring Children's Relationships across Majority and Minority Worlds'. It is evident that children do experience migration in very unique ways. How child migrants are labelled, for example, can have a profound impact on the services and legal protections they are entitled to receive, as well as how their migration experiences are reflected in research and policy agendas. Consider the differences in support offered to child refugees and 'looked after' children for instance.

Children do have a role in the decision-making process that affects their migration, but it is a complex process, and their ability to make independent choices may be constrained by a number of factors. Parents and family members will play a part for many, but societal factors such as labour markets, poverty rates, educational opportunities as well as peers and other social networks may influence decisions in various ways.

And similarly, the context of why the migration is taking place and the status of the people involved continues to shape experiences for children after they have arrived in their destination communities. Staying within communities with friends or relatives from origin communities can provide a protective element for children, helping them to settle into unknown environments . Such social networks can be closed to other child migrants, however, so that institutional links play a much more prominent part in their early experiences. Young separated asylum seekers for example, whose status is contingent on fleeing conflict have to demonstrate 'family absence' so that any social relations remain in the imaginary. Arriving in more homogenous communities, such as the Scottish Highlands, can be equally as difficult for children, particularly when their accents, language and appearance can make them more visible.

The seminar highlighted the need for further research to fully explore the impact of migration on the relationships children have with their families. In particular cross-cultural comparative studies and reserach capturing longer time spacs will be key to understanding the emotional impacts of separation and the changing experiences for both children and families.

Read the full  briefing on our website: Exploring children's experiences of migration: movement and family relationships.