Giving from the Heart or from the Ego? Motives behind Remittances of the Second Generation in Europe

The aim of this article is to investigate the remittance behavior of host country‐born children of migrants – the second generation – in various European cities. We address the following question: Are second‐generation remitters driven more by altruism or by self‐interest? Data from “The Integration of the European Second Generation” (TIES) survey are utilized and encompass individuals with at least one migrant parent from Morocco, Turkey, or former Yugoslavia. Using logistic models, we test different classical theories on microeconomic determinants of remittances and add some additional expectations for the second generation. The results show that those second‐generation Moroccans, Turks, and former Yugoslavs who send money are motivated by two main reasons: Emotional attachment to their parents' home country (altruism motive) or to pay people who look after their investments or other material assets that are likely to be part of their preparation for “returning” (self‐interest – exchange motive). These two motives are not necessarily exclusive: As part of a well‐prepared return, to integrate easily once back “home,” it is not only relevant to ensure that people take care of one's investments and other material assets, but also to strengthen social ties and be well informed about the situation in the country of origin. This interpretation fits closely with the return model, which deserves more attention in the theoretical literature on remittances.     

Transnational lifestyles among Russian Israelis: a follow‐up study

Despite the expanding use of the transnational perspective, grounded qualitative research on everyday expressions of transnationalism has been scant. In this article, I explore the economic and social ties with former homelands among three categories of former Soviet immigrants of the 1990s in Israel, namely ethnically mixed families split by emigration; young professionals and entrepreneurs; and retirees who keep two homes – one in Israel and the other in Russia or Ukraine. To follow temporal changes in transnational lifestyles, I interviewed the same informants twice, in 2000 and 2010. The findings suggest that transnational activities reflect life‐course changes and can evolve in several possible directions. These are (1) an attrition of ties with former homelands with increasing integration in the host country; (2) a steady or ascending pace of transnational activities eventually leading to return migration; and (3) permanent low‐grade ties with former homelands and networking with co‐ethnics in other countries of the post‐Soviet diaspora. I conclude that relatively few migrants can sustain intense transnational lifestyle over many years; there are several critical life‐course points when most transnational migrants have to decide where their home is.     

Turkish Immigrants’ Hopes and Fears around Return Migration

This paper seeks to understand the process by which immigrants decide whether or not to return to their home countries. It aims to analyse the potential for return migration rather than the actual migration process. Empirically, it is based on the narratives of 30 Turkish immigrants living in the United States. The findings indicate that: (1) multiple controllable and uncontrollable, micro‐ and macro‐level factors in both the home and the host countries interact over time to tip the scales towards – or away from – return migration; and (2) most immigrants live in a perpetual state of ambivalence about whether or not to engage in return migration. These findings are discussed, and implications are presented for both practice and policy.     

The boundaries of transnationalism: the case of assisted voluntary return migrants

Few studies on transnationalism have focused on migrants who return to their country of origin with insufficient resources and limited mobility. This study sheds light on the transnational connections of those who went back to Georgia and Armenia from Belgium on a voluntary assisted return and reintegration programme. Using Boccagni's (2012) analytical framework, we reveal the returnees' interpersonal, institutional and symbolic transnational ties. Although these ties were often limited and had little effect on their daily lives, and although the migrants' desire to participate in the transnational field rarely matched their ability to do so, they nonetheless attached great value to them symbolically and emotionally. Our findings question current conceptualizations of transnationalism and the focus on the home country as the sole context in which transnational ties should have an impact. We believe that there is a need to pay greater attention to the subjective and symbolic dimensions of the return–transnationalism field, including the relationship between integration and return migration policies.     

Migrant Mobilization for Homeland Politics: A Social Movement Approach

From the campaign of Chilean exiles all over the world to overthrow the regime of Augusto Pinochet in the 1970s to the contemporary mobilization of the Kurdish diaspora in Western Europe, various cases demonstrate the persistence of homeland ties among migrants, especially those who experienced repression and displacement by the government in their countries of origin. Diverse frameworks and concepts in both the humanities and the social sciences have been deployed to explain the involvement of migrants in politics in their home countries, from “long‐distance nationalism” to “transnational activism.” Each points to different dynamic processes and causal mechanisms. In recent years, scholars have advocated the use of a social movement framework in the analysis of migrant mobilization, despite the marginalization of such studies in theory development. In this article, I examine the concepts put forward by the political process model (PPM) as they apply to the analysis of migrants' involvement in politics in their native land. I propose ways for PPM to be useful in the explanation of the dynamics and processes of homeland‐oriented migrant mobilization.     

Income Inequality in Host Countries and Remittances: A Discussion of the Determinants of Portuguese Emigrants' Remittances

The evolution of income inequality in host countries affects the migrants working there. As a significant number of these migrants do not earn high incomes, this evolution tends to significantly affect migrants' abilities to send money back to their home countries. We test this hypothesis considering the evolution of income inequality in 59 countries with Portuguese emigrants through observations from 1996 to 2014. Using the system generalized method of moments (GMM) estimator, we found that an increase in income inequality leads to fewer remittances per emigrant. We also controlled income inequality with several determinants of remittances, including the real GDP per capita, unemployment rate, education skills, and the self‐employment rates of the host countries.     

Take Me “Home”: Return Migration among Germany's Older Immigrants

This paper examines the determinants of return migration as foreign‐born men approach old age in Germany. Return migration in later life engages a different set of conditions from return migration earlier on, including the framing of return as a possible retirement strategy. Using 23 years of longitudinal data from the German Socioeconomic Panel, this paper investigates how social and economic resources of immigrant men influence decisions to return “home.” Results suggest that immigrants from former guest worker recruitment countries within the European Union are more likely to return than non‐EU immigrants. In addition, return migrants are “negatively selected” so that those with the least education and weakest attachments to the labor force are more likely to emigrate. However, findings vary greatly depending on the immigrant's age and country of origin. Results from this paper highlight the heterogeneity of older immigrants and the factors that motivate their return “home”.     

Mobility types,transnational ties and personal networks in four highly skilled immigrant communities in Seville (Spain)

In this study, we explore how different mobility patterns influence the composition and structure of the transnational social support networks and how personal networks allow us to elicit insightful data of mobile individuals. Ninety-five mobile individuals were selected from four distinct communities based in Seville (Spain), namely: Erasmus students, Flamenco artists, musicians from the symphonic orchestra and partners of European Commission researchers. Data were collected through an electronic survey sent by email with multiple name generators and a structured face-to-face interview utilizing a network visualization tool, VennMaker. Two distinct methods, namely qualitative case studies and cluster analysis were used to characterize mobility types. Findings reveal a heterogeneous foreign population, in which different forms of mobility are reflected in the personal networks of mobile individuals. Respondents who were settled in the city were more likely to have networks in which social support was mainly derived by hosts and people in the host location and with whom they communicated predominantly through face-to-face communication. Those who were in the host location for a study exchange, knowing that return to the county of origin is imminent were more likely to have networks linked to the home location. They relied heavily on strong transnational ties in the home country using social media to sustain their relationship. Respondents with an itinerant mobility profile, also had networks dominated by strong transnational ties, however, such ties had a higher degree of geographical spread due to previous international mobility. Participants who had a high number of hosts in the network but low connection between the ties were more likely to be linked to a specific subculture in the host society. The integration in the host location follows a different pattern to other settled individuals, mainly because their connection in the city tends to be community specific.     

Migrant transnationalism and the choice of transfer channels for remittances: the case of Moldova

Migrant remittances, particularly when transferred through the banking system, may contribute to financial development in migrants' home countries. We analyse the determinants of the choice of transfer channel (formal services versus informal operators or personal transfers) by Moldovan migrants in 2006. We estimate a multinomial logit model from household survey data. Our explanatory variables include socio‐economic characteristics of the migrant and other household members, the pattern of migration (destination country, legal status, duration), and financial information (average amount and frequency of payments). Key reasons not to use a formal transfer channel are a migrant's emphasis on low transfer cost (rather than speed, convenience or security), irregular legal status in the host country, and short migration spells. Our findings demonstrate that migrants' transnational capacities and activities in their entirety bear upon the choice of transfer channel; any policy interventions to promote the use of formal channels should reflect this.     

Embedding or Uprooting? The Effects of International Labour Migration on Rural Households in Armenia

The impact of international labour migration on human wellbeing and socioeconomic development in communities of origin is an important yet understudied issue in contemporary migration research. This study examines whether men's labour migration from rural Armenia to Russia and other international destinations enhances the economic and social connections of the left‐behind households to their communities or, on the contrary, undermines those connections and encourages household members' own migration. Using survey data, it compares families of migrants and non‐migrants with respect to ownership of productive and major non‐productive assets in the community and women's non‐farm labour force participation, their social engagement in the village, and their desires to migrate abroad. The results of statistical tests indicate that men's migration is negatively associated with households' asset ownership and with women's non‐farm employment. The results for women's social engagement in their villages are less consistent. Finally, regardless of economic attachment, social engagement, and a host of other factors, wives of migrants were significantly more likely to wish to move abroad than women married to non‐migrants, and the difference in propensity to emigrate between migrants' and non‐migrants' wives increases with duration of husband's migration. We situate these findings in the context of Central Eurasia's international labour migration system and discuss their implications for future migration trends and for socioeconomic development of Armenia and similar settings.     

Migrant family visits and the life course: interrelationships between age,capacity and desire

Migrant visits to the country of origin play a crucial role in transnational family cohesion and migrant well‐being; the research on them so far has focused primarily on the relationship between migrant integration and transnational engagement. In this article, I extend the discussion by adding a life course perspective to Carling and Hoelscher's (2013) framework for studying transnational activities, which incorporates capacity and desire. I explore whether age has an independent effect on migrants' family visits and how it relates to socio‐economic resources, migration status and transnational ties. Using data from a survey of Peruvian migrants around the globe (n=7,741), I show that migrants' stage in the life course has a partial effect on their propensity to travel through the interrelationship between age, capacity and desire. The findings show that the capacity and desire of migrants to visit their country of origin are particularly strong after reaching retirement age, suggesting a favourable combination of resources at later stages in life. However, whether this expresses a positive approach to ageing, or is a strategy to balance transnational family obligations and to postpone return decisions, remains open for future research.     

Unveiling the mantra. The salience of network-based community belonging in understanding the structural and agentic conditions of the migration-development nexus

There is more and more evidence that migration and development cannot be considered as two dimensions, whose nexus emerges naturally as a mantra with reciprocal advantages both in developing and in developed countries. This article investigates the theoretical framework of a migration-development nexus as a double time-dependent process of social change, at the same time embedded both in the long durée of the reproduction/innovation of social practices and in the short durée of an agent's personal reflectivity. I argue that the wide scenario of this interplay is the place for the cultural, symbolic, and moral dimensions of a migrant's membership of a network-based community, which acts as a cultural compass in determining migrants' attitudes towards the development of their home country. Strong community membership can be associated with real engagement in the development issues of members left behind (as part of the collective self), only if we assume that membership and belonging are not necessarily shaped by kinship or ethnic considerations, but vary according to the structural features of migrants' social networks – for example the way in which migrants define networks as their own communities, the results of past community memories, and how they imagine their future community on the basis of current experience and perception. The paper discusses these issues in the light of the structure-agent debate in social sciences and migration studies.     

The Dynamics of Repeat Migration: A Markov Chain Analysis1

This article studies repeat or circular migration between the host and home countries using panel data for Germany, distinguishing between factors generating single moves, circular migration, and absorption. Migrants are more likely to leave early after their first arrival in Germany, and when they have social and familial bonds in the home country, but less likely when they have a job in Germany and speak the language well. Once out‐migrated, the return probability is mainly affected by remittances and family considerations. Circular migration is fostered by vocational training in the host country and older age. Whereas male migrants are 9 percent more likely to return to their home country than female migrants, gender is not significant for predicting the return to move back to Germany.     

Christian Zionists in the Holy Land: Evangelical Churches,Labor Migrants,and the Jewish State

In this article we trace the creation of Evangelical churches created by and for Latin American undocumented migrants in Israel. First, we relate to the social significance of religious practices and beliefs for migrants' individual and collective identity in the host society and the ways through which non-Jewish labor migrants in Israel are creating alternative spaces that operate simultaneously as a new community of belonging. We consider the possibilities latent in the churches as “free spaces” for foreigners in the Jewish State, along with the limitations that participation in such a church entails for the migrant community. The second theme involves the universe of meanings through which believing migrants interpret their existence and place in the Jewish State. Here we probe how religion becomes a way of legitimizing the migrants' presence in a Jewish state and a means of channeling their claims for inclusion in the host country. We delve into the modes whereby the theological position of Christian Zionism is translated into a sociological position of Christian migrants in a Jewish state.     

Changes in the Chinese overseas population, 1955 to 2007

Two approaches have been adopted to study Chinese overseas. The first one stresses homeland ties and sojourning mentality; the second one focuses on host society conditions and the social construction of Chinese. This paper analyzes the population of Chinese overseas after the Second World War, which has increased steadily over time but unevenly by region from 11 million in 1955 to 39 million in 2007. Certain historical factors and contemporary forces explain the uneven growth. The paper argues that undue emphasis on homeland influence is unwarranted in view of the importance of how receiving society and its policy of accommodation have shaped the growth and development of Chinese overseas communities after the Second World War.     

Come Back or Stay? Spend Here or There? Return and Remittances: The Case of Moldova

This paper examines the determinants and consequences of temporary and permanent migration from the perspective of migrant source countries. Based on a large and detailed household dataset on migration in the Republic of Moldova, the most important factors that influence a respective migrant’s decision whether to return to the home country or to stay abroad for good are presented first. Second, the remittance behaviour of temporary and permanent migrants is analysed to investigate how developing countries benefit from either type of migration. The results indicate that the most important determinants of permanent migration relate to the economic conditions at home and abroad, as well as to the legal status of a migrant in the host country. Furthermore, economic and political frustration plays an important role in the decision of permanent migrants not to come back. On the contrary, family ties as measured by the number of close family members at home act as a pull factor for migrant return. Interestingly, permanent migrants use source country networks that differ from those of temporary migrants, indicating that the return decision of individuals is influenced by the decision of their migrant peers. Concerning remittances, the results reveal that, in absolute terms, temporary migrants remit around 30 per cent more than their permanent counterparts. This outcome is surprising, because temporary migrants often reside in countries where wages are much lower. Overall, the findings indicate that when compared to permanent migration, temporary migration is favourable for developing countries, as it fosters not only repatriation of skills, but also higher remittances, and home savings.     

Territorial bounds to virtual space: transnational online and offline networks of Iranian and Turkish–Kurdish immigrants in the Netherlands

Abstract In this article we question a central trope of transnationalism and new media – deterritorialization – and its application to border crossing Internet usage by Iranian and Turkish‐Kurdish migrants in the Netherlands. Their Internet usage indicates the extent to which territoriality channels these groups' online practice. We found Dutch‐Iranian sites reflected correspondingly sparse offline community networks and state boundaries moulded their transnational ties, while regionally specific transnational dynamics were evident in Turkish‐Kurdish website surfing. These cases indicate that transnationalism and new media need not broaden or dissolve geographical identity or connectivity, but may reinforce it. Finally, we address the relations of territoriality with generation (first and second) and network medium (web forums versus conventional sites). Whereas first‐generation migrants' life online often reveals extensions of offline networks, the online practice of the second generation frequently reflects these networks in subtler ways, forming partially sovereign online communities that pivot on hyphenated identities. However, the relations of generation and network medium differ for Turkish Kurds and Iranians in the Netherlands.     

Tamil diaspora and the political spaces of second‐generation activism in Switzerland

In this article, we study the emergence of the political spaces of activism of second‐generation Swiss Tamils resulting from a critical event – the suffering of Tamils during and after the final battle in early 2009 of a civil war in northern Sri Lanka that had lasted for decades. We contend that we can explain the geographies of newly emerging second‐generation activism committed to achieving Tamil Eelam through two factors. These are first, this generation's multiple senses of belonging both to Switzerland and to the Tamil ‘nation’ and, second, the way a specific politics of affect remoulded second‐generation identities because the pain of witnessing the brutality of war and suffering of Tamils occurred concurrently with a perceived lack of interest from their ‘new home’ (Switzerland). The combination of these factors made them want to acknowledge their Tamil ‘roots’ and encouraged them to become politically active. Consequently, these second‐generation activists primarily sought to engage with their host society – to awaken it from its indifference to the suffering of Tamils and from its passivity in taking action on an international level. We thereby witness the emerging of a new type of Tamil activism in Switzerland, which is firmly located in and bound to the host country.     

Should I stay or should I go now? Exploring Polish women's returns “home”

At a time when there are more people on the move than ever before, it is pivotal to explore people's motivations and experiences of return migration. Whilst motivations for migration are comparatively well explored, return migrants' experiences are less well‐known and migrants' gender is rarely considered. This article addresses these gaps. It is based on qualitative research and in‐depth interviews with 32 Polish women: 16 migrants and 16 return migrants. Considered through the lens of agency and structure, this research uncovers how fluid the process of migration has become; migration motivations and patterns are blurred and interlinked with one another while classic migration theories seem outdated. The study uses an “intersection of motivations” to show how inseparable migration‐related motivations have become. This article contributes to the growing literature on East–West return migration and highlights women as migrants and the gendered nature of their mobility.     

Sponsorship of Relatives for Migration and Immigrant Settlement Intention

The paper examines how important family reunification is in immigrants' decision to settle permanently in their country of destination. Using longitudinal data for a cohort of recent immigrants to Australia, it examines whether migrants' permanent settlement intention reported soon after arrival is related to their family sponsorship patterns and intention to sponsor, and whether family sponsorship patterns and intention in turn have an effect on immigrants' permanent settlement/return migration decision. The results show that a significant relation exists between sponsorship of close family members for migration and immigrants' permanent settlement intention and that the relation is particularly strong among skilled migrants. The study demonstrates the importance of kinship ties in permanent settlement and return migration decisions and suggests that liberal policies on family reunion migration may minimize settle loss, especially among skilled immigrants.