Networks

Networks

1. migrants create social, economic and cultural structures at the micro- and meso-levels through flows and counter-flows between origin and destination societies; and how this provides feedback mechanisms which tend to perpetuate migration processes – enabling migrants to actively challenge and circumvent structural constraints.

2. Theories

   • Migration leads to more migration
     • De Haas (2010)- Once a critical number of migrants have settled, migration becomes partly self-perpetuating, because it creates the (meso-level) social structures to sustain the process
       • These internal dynamics partly explain why it is notoriously difficult for governments to control migration
       • dynamics may exemplify the power of ‘migrant agency’ BUT complications abound: power, context, interruptions
       • VS. INFRASTRUCTURE: Infrastructure: The interaction of mediation between social dimension, tech, commercial, regulatory and humanitarian. Vs. Network theory: Network theory starts more at an individual level and works up to the network. Infrastructure theory talks more about the system and then breaks down the actors. Shift in focus from the flow itself to the channels and ways in which people are moving.
       • Migrant networks may be analysed on two levels: (a) the migration process (Massey, 1993), and (b) insertion or integration processes (Gurak and Caces 1992)
         • Migration process:
           • Role of states and pioneer migrants in creating new migration pathways
             • The formation of a migrant community at one particular destination increases the likelihood of subsequent migration to that particular place
               • Networks are a form of social capital that people draw upon to gain access to migration, housing and employment abroad
                 • Thus, besides material and human capital (education, skills, knowledge), social capital is a crucial resource determining people’s capabilities to migrate
                   • Link to de Haas (2010)
                     • Feedback Dynamics of Migration
                       • existing theories on the internal dynamics of migration processes are characterised by three fundamental weaknesses. First, their focus on migrant networks coincides with a neglect of indirect feedback dynamics that operate through the impact of migration on the sending and receiving contexts, changing the initial conditions under which migration takes place. Second, existing theories are unable to explain why most initial migration moves do not lead to network migration and migration system formation. Third, their largely circular logic reveals an inability to conceptualise which migration-undermining feedback mechanisms may counteract migration-facilitating feedback dynamics and which may explain the endogenous decline of established migration systems.
                         • There is two types of feedback- endogenous and contextual.
                           • Endogenous includes: Networks to facilitate further migration, migration industry, remittances to facilitate migration, transfer of migration information
                           • Contextual includes; Culture of migration, transnational identities and families, demand for migrant labor in HC, social stratification, relative deprivation, patterns in clustering / assimilation
                             • Migration systems theory and cumulative causation
                               • Cumulative: Massey (1993): Cumulative causation theory- reciprocal impact of migration and social cultural and economic structure in sending and receiving contexts
                                 • Cumulative causation theory draws a crucial link between migration and broader processes of development and change in sending and receiving areas – link to dependency theory
                                   • Through cumulative causation, migration processes can gain their own momentum, irrespective of their initial causes
                                     • Cohen (2004) on cultures of migration: Commitment to migration that becomes embedded in society and evolves into a set of distinctive socio-cultural processes. Such processes are not confined to migrants; non-migrants observe
                               • Systems theory, Mabogunje (1970): focus on the role of counter-flows of information and ideas in the clustering of migration along highly specific geographical pathways
                                 • Migration system: set of places linked by flows and counter- flows of people, goods, ideas and information, which facilitate further exchange, including migration
                                   • Favourable information encourages migration along specific pathways, leading to “almost organized migratory flows from particular villages to particular cities”
                                     • link people, families, and communities over space in what we nowadays would refer to as transnational (or translocal) communities
                             • Migration at T1 transforms the social, cultural and economic conditions in sending and receiving areas, which affect migration at T2
                     • Capabilities and Aspirations
                   • Ceteris paribus, migration tends to become less selective—with regards to wealth and education— over time because of falling costs and risks • Once the number of network connections reaches a critical threshold level, migration may become self- perpetuating, because it creates the social structure to sustain the process
         • Insertion and integration
           • Portes (1993)- migrant networks contribute to concentration or clustering of immigrants or emergence of economic niches
             • Migration industry- bankers, lawyers, interpreters, smugglers, housing agents, etc. all involved.

3. Critique

   • Post-hoc character: why do only some pioneer movements lead to migration system formation? How can we explain the frequent non-occurrence of network and migration system dynamics?
     • Circular character – migration seems to goes on ad infinitum: inability to explain migration systems breakdown
       • Which migration-undermining processes counteract self-perpetuating feedback mechanisms? See e.g. role of ‘negative social capital’ in turning ‘bridgeheads’ into ‘gatekeepers
   • Need to combine explanatory frameworks: causes, continuations, ruptures