流动人口社会融合的测量及理论思考

文章简要归纳国内外社会融合理论和测量指标,检讨并重构个体层次的社会融合测量指标体系,讨论当前研究中的几个重要理论问题,认为流动人口的社会融合总是处在从适应到区隔融合、再到融合这三个阶段中的某一点上,在构建测量指标体系时所用的概念与变量应有较高的效度和简约性,且要与理论相对应。社会融合包括经济融合、文化适应、社会适应、结构融合和身份认同这五个维度。关于我国迁移与流动人口社会融合的最终方向问题、扩展以社会融合为中心的因果链等应是未来研究的重要方面,今后的研究应该注意主流社会的定义、社会融合结果导致的社会流动方向的判断标准、分析单位等,并加强长期的跟踪研究,以便及时掌握流动人口的社会融合现状及其发展轨迹。     

Transnationalism and Development: Mexican and Chinese Immigrant Organizations in the United States

The literature on development in economics and sociology has tended to focus on capital flows, investments, and, more recently, institutions as key causal factors. International migration, when discussed, is relegated to the status of a symptom of underdevelopment and even a factor contributing to it. The more recent literature on migrant remittances has partially reversed this view by documenting large hard currency transfers made by expatriates to their home countries. This changed approach to migration and development does not go far enough because it does not take into account the organized efforts of immigrant communities themselves. Nor does it consider important developmental synergies produced by the rising interactions between immigrant organizations and sending‐country governments. Using data from a recently completed comparative study, we document these processes for two major countries of out‐migration—Mexico and China. The study compiled inventories of migrant organizations from both countries in the United States, interviewed leaders of the major ones, and complemented these data with interviews with officials and community leaders in each sending country. Profiles of these transnational ties were constructed, exemplifying their increasing density and developmental impact at the local and national levels. Theoretical and policy implications of the findings are discussed.     

Migration Processes,Familial Characteristics,and Schooling Dropout Among Black Youths

This study uses data from the 2000 U.S. census to examine whether the schooling advantage of black immigrants’ children found in previous studies is robust. According to the results, the advantage associated with having migrant parents is not restricted to the children of immigrants. Black migrant parents, regardless of foreign-born status, have children with favorable schooling outcomes. Such parental-level influences, however, seem stronger among some immigrant groups than among native internal migrants. The study also suggests that the collective advantage of the children of immigrants is driven by positive migrant selectivity. Accordingly, comparisons between the children of native migrants and children in various immigrant groups reveal that the immigrant advantage is not robust. In fact, the results suggest that when immigrant ethnicity is considered, some children of immigrants may be disadvantaged relative to the children of native migrants. Among recent migrants, the children of native internal migrants also have more favorable outcomes than the children of immigrants, although these differences disappear after background factors are controlled. Further, internal-migrant and immigrant households are less likely to have characteristics that adversely affect schooling than nonmigrant households. Unsurprisingly, the children of nonmigrants have the worst outcomes among black youths.     

城市流动人口社会融合的过程、测量及影响因素

本文提出流动人口的社会融合是一个逐步同化和减少排斥的过程,是流动人口对城市的主观期望和城市的客观接纳相统一的过程,是本地人口和外来移民发生相互交往和构建相互关系的过程。本文通过模型分析,验证了流动人口社会融合影响因素的三个假设,即流动人口的个人和家庭状况影响社会融合;流动人口的社区参与和社会资本影响社会融合;城市的制度安排影响流动人口的社会融合。     

New insights into the fertility patterns of recent Polish migrants in the United Kingdom

There have been important changes in the United Kingdom’s fertility and immigration in the past decade, with a large share contributed by migrants from Poland. A detailed understanding of Polish migrant fertility is lacking, however, because the relevant data are not routinely collected. This paper provides new insights into the fertility patterns of Polish migrants in the UK, and compares these patterns with those of other large immigrant groups, the UK-born population and in Poland. We use the UK Labour Force Survey with the Own Children Method, illustrating the potential of survey data for estimating immigrant fertility in settings where other data are unavailable. We first compare the fertility patterns of recent Polish migrants with those of other key recent immigrant groups and the UK-born population; estimating Age-Specific Fertility Rates (ASFRs), and Total Fertility Rates (TFRs), by country of birth for the 2004–2012 period; the proportions in each immigrant group that arrive without children; and of those childless at arrival the proportions of women who go on to have births within a short period after arrival. Next, we compare the ASFRs and TFR for Polish migrant women with those observed in Poland. Our results show that the fertility of Polish migrants is among the lowest for all population subgroups in the UK, and that Polish migrants are less likely to have children soon after arrival than other immigrant groups. The findings are consistent with migration not being so closely linked to family formation for Polish migrants as it is for immigrants in the comparison groups. We also find that the fertility patterns of Polish migrants are different from those observed in Poland with a later childbearing profile and a slightly higher TFR.     

International migration and development in mexican communities

The theoretical and empirical literature generally regards international migration as producing a cycle of dependency and stunted development in sending communities. Most migrants’ earnings are spent on consumption; few funds are channeled into productive investment. We argue that this view is misleading because it ignores the conditions under which productive investment is likely to be possible and profitable. We analyze the determinants of migrants’ savings and remittance decisions, using variables defined at the individual, household, community, and macroeconomic levels. We identify the conditions under which U.S. earnings are repatriated to Mexico as remittances and savings, and indicate the factors leading to their productive investment.     

When People Stay and Things Make Their Way: Airports,Mobilities and Materialities of a Transnational Landscape

Abstract

This article explores different meanings of mobility and place by examining the interweaving of people, things and airports in Guinea-Bissau and Portugal. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in two airports – of departure and arrival of this migratory route – I look at the practices of sending and receiving objects by migrants in Lisbon and their kin in Bissau. The transnational yet grounded setting helps to provide a better understanding of the complexity associated with different forms of mobility – including corporeal, imagined and desired – and their key role in socially and relationally constructing a lived airport space, as well as wider social landscapes. Bringing in evidence from a less-explored setting – a small airport in a West African country – will particularly challenge some of the assumptions that tend to associate mobility with ‘modernity’ and fixity with ‘tradition’. It will show how people in Guinea-Bissau are, as much as migrants abroad, dynamically involved in global practices of movement – materialised in trading and reciprocating objects between two continents – through local performances of mobility that do not necessarily involve corporeal travel across borders.     

Workers remittances and the real exchange rate

Workers' remittances represent a sizeable component of international trade flows in goods and services. The paper tries to assess to what extent workers remittances are responsive to key macroeconomic variables. We first develop a simple model of altruistic transfers and show that the real exchange rate may play a crucial role in affecting the remittance behaviour of migrants. Econometric estimation of a remittance equation for a sample of five Mediterranean countries indicates that the real exchange rate is indeed a significant determinant of remittances. Further support in this respect comes from an analysis of remittance behaviour by foreign workers in Germany. We also find strong evidence to support the claim that remittances are altruistically motivated, as indicated by the systematically negative coefficient associated with recipients' income.I am grateful to Luigi Guiso, Oded Stark for helpful discussions, to Werner Smolny and two anonymous referees for stimulating comments and to Fabrizio Perri and Fabiano Schivardi for superb research assistance. The responsibility for any remaining errors is mine.     

Receptivity Attitudes and the Occupational Attainment of Male and Female Immigrant Workers

This paper seeks to extend assimilation scholarship by focusing on the impact ofimmigrant receptivity attitudes. We test the hypotheses that receptivity attitudestoward immigrants held by citizens of metropolitan and regional labor marketswill have a direct impact, and/or interact with the educational human capital ofimmigrants, in explaining the occupational attainment of male and female immigrantworkers. Multi-level modeling is used to test the impact of aggregated immigrantreceptivity attitude measures, derived from the General Social Survey, which arespatially merged with immigrant worker human capital, individual-level assimilation,and area labor market indicators to predict managerial/professional and service/laboroccupation attainment of immigrant workers from a merged 1995–97 CurrentPopulation Survey data file. The results provide support for the receptivity attitudesthesis with statistically significant effects on service and labor attainment, but showminimal effects on managerial and professional occupational attainment. The keyreceptivity dimensions affecting occupational attainment are native-born citizens'attitudes concerning the impact of immigrants on American society, and attitudeson English-only language policies. The results show no systematic support for thereverse causation hypothesis that the occupational patterns of immigrants determinethe immigrant receptivity attitudes of citizens.     

Parental characteristics and the schooling progress of the children of immigrant and U.S.-born blacks

In this study, I examine disparities in schooling progress among children born to immigrant and U.S.-born blacks. I find that in one- and two-parent families, children born to black immigrants are less likely to fall behind in school than those born to U.S.-born blacks. In two-parent immigrant families, children born to two immigrant parents have a significant schooling advantage over children born to one immigrant parent. While children born to two immigrant parents in the wealthiest black immigrant families do better in the second generation than in the first, the reverse is observed among children in less wealthy families. These findings contribute in two ways to our understanding of the assimilation processes of children born to black immigrant parents. First, they show that there is a positive association between the number of immigrant parents in a family and children’s schooling performance. Second, they suggest that disparities in the assimilation patterns of the children of black immigrants are a likely product of the interaction between their parental characteristics and the socioeconomic circumstances of their families.     

The effect of remittances on emigration intentions in Egypt, Morocco, and Turkey

Are remittances determined by altruism or enlightened self-interest, and do they trigger additional migration? In this paper these two questions are examined empirically in relation to data from Egypt, Turkey, and Morocco for households with family members living abroad. It is shown, firstly, that one cannot argue exclusively either for altruism or self-interest as motives, since for each country the data tell a different story and both motives can be identified as driving forces behind remittance behaviour. The general conclusion of this study is that the family ties and the net earnings potential of migrants have stronger effects on the flow of remittances than the net earnings potential of the households in the country of origin. Secondly, because the receipt of remittances has a positive effect on the emigration intentions of household members still living in the country of origin, the receipt of remittances may contribute to new flows of migration, particularly in the case of Morocco.     

Acculturation inclinations and subjective health status of internal migrants in James Town,an urban slum settlement in Accra

The impact of acculturation on health status has been a subject of debate for over three decades. In this exploratory study, we use cross-sectional data to examine the relative effects of acculturation inclinations on self-rated health statuses among migrants in a poor, urban neighborhood in Accra. Much emphasis is placed on the role of the urban environment in disease outbreaks within the city, the patterns of communicable and non-communicable diseases, spatial health inequalities, and the distribution of sexual and reproductive illness risks in Accra. However, the ways by which acculturation inclinations and dimensions may exert positive or negative influence on health outcomes in such contexts have not been examined. We developed proxies for four main acculturation elements: assimilation, separation, integration, and marginalization. We used results from a semi-structured survey questionnaire with 296 migrants. After controlling for socio-demographic characteristics and social capital, findings from Ordinal Logistic Regression models indicate that the acculturation predictors of subjective health status are assimilation and marginalization. This study is the first step in understanding the possible trajectories by which acculturation affects health in the internal migration context in Ghana.     

What are the chances of young Turks and Italians for equal education and employment in Germany? The role of objective and subjective indicators

As the recent OECD PISA studies have shown, social background plays a greater role for achieving a solid education in Germany than in most other developed countries; this is especially so for migrant youths. This paper deals with the question, which level education and qualification migrants in Germany achieve, and how their chances for achieving qualifications and positions are compared to Germans. First, an overview over results of studies on educational participation, degrees, and social inequality among migrants is given. Then I show, using data from the 2000 BiB-Integration Survey, that young Turks and Italians have achieved notably lower levels of education than Germans. Finally, I discuss possible reasons and agencies that might cause these findings, which then are scrutinised by empirical analyses. It can be found that the marked under-representation with regard to higher educational and professional degrees of young Italians and Turks is clearly related to the low educational level of their parents, as well as factors of integration and attitudes. It does become obvious, however, that Turks have lower chances that cannot be explained by their parents’ qualification or other factors. This is also the case for the second immigrant generation.     

The performance of immigrants in the Norwegian labor market

This paper tests the assimilation hypothesis with Norwegian data. Using both cross-section and cohort analyses, the results show that the 1970–1979 immigrant cohort experienced an earnings growth of about 11% between 1980 and 1990, when their earnings profile was compared to that of natives. This is lower than the 19% assimilation rate predicted by the cross-section method. On the contrary, the results reveal a rapid earnings divergence across cohorts, and between the 1960–1969 cohort and natives. It is also shown that the „quality” of successive immigrant waves has declined over time, thus biasing the cross-section estimates of assimilation. Received: 8 August 1995 / Accepted: 7 January 1997     

Altruistic and contractual remittances between male and female migrants and households in rural Thailand

Past research has questioned the extent to which remittances are altruistic behaviors versus payments in a contractual relationship between households and migrants. This article explores altruistic and contractual patterns of remittances using a gendered approach. On the basis of results with various levels of significance in regression models, male and female migrants from Nang Rong, Thailand, behave both altruistically and contractually. However, women and migrants from poorer households behave more altruistically, while men and migrants from richer households behave more contractually. These results point to the need for further research and theory development to explain heterogeneities in migrants' behavior.     

Wealth Inequality Among Immigrants: Consistent Racial/Ethnic Inequality in the United States

Wealth is a strong indicator of immigrant integration in U.S. society. Drawing on new assimilation theory, we highlight the importance of racial/ethnic group boundaries and propose different paths of wealth integration among U.S. immigrants. Using data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation and quantile regression, we show that race/ethnicity shapes immigrant wealth inequality across the entire distribution of net worth, along with immigrants’ U.S. experience, such as immigrant status, U.S. education, English language proficiency, and time spent in the United States. Our results document consistent racial/ethnic inequality among immigrants, also evidenced among the U.S. born, revealing that even when accounting for key aspects of U.S. experience, wealth inequality with whites for Latino and black immigrants is strong.     

How High is Hispanic/Mexican Fertility in the United States? Immigration and Tempo Considerations

In this article, I demonstrate that the apparently much higher fertility of Hispanic/Mexican women in the United States is almost exclusively the product of period estimates obtained for immigrant women and that period measures of immigrant fertility suffer from three serious sources of bias that together significantly overstate fertility levels: difficulties in estimating the size of immigrant groups; the tendency for migration to occur at a particular stage in life; and, most importantly, the tendency for women to have a birth soon after migration. When these sources of bias are taken into consideration, the fertility of native Hispanic/Mexican women is very close to replacement level. In addition, the completed fertility of immigrant women in the United States is dramatically lower than the level obtained from period calculations. Findings are consistent with classical theories of immigrant assimilation but are a striking departure from the patterns found in previous studies and published statistics. The main implication is that without a significant change in immigration levels, current projections based on the premise of high Hispanic fertility are likely to considerably exaggerate Hispanic population growth, its impact on the ethno-racial profile of the country, and its potential to counteract population aging.     

The Finnish and Swedish Migration Dynamics and Transnational Social Spaces

Abstract

This article contributes to debates about the long-term development of migration dynamics. The argument is based on a study of the transnational dynamics of the migration flows between Finland and Sweden. The two countries provide a good case for studying the long-term development of migration patterns, since there has been a full freedom of movement and the migration patterns are well documented. The article argues that the postwar labor migration from Finland to Sweden created a transnational social space that still today facilitates migration between the two countries. Although Finnish citizens dominate the migration flows in both directions, the number of Swedish migrants has steadily increased. This new pattern can be explained by the development of the transnational social space involving an increasing number of mixed families.     

The politics of leisure and labor mobilities: discourses of tourism and transnational migration in Central Java,Indonesia

This article presents narratives and tropes of transnational tourism from a less considered perspective: rural migrant-origin villagers of Central Java. Drawing from ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Cilacap and Yogyakarta, I analyze how and why some former temporary labor migrants depict their typically harsh experiences in terms of tourism and leisure. Addressing the tendency in current research to approach labor migration and tourism as mutually exclusive or unrelated class categories and experiences, I consider the ways in which former migrants and non-migrant villagers evaluate or identify labor migration in terms of gender, class, religious, and ethno-national subjectivities associated with ‘tourist’ and/or ‘migrant’ categories. Popular and commercial imaginations of leisure travel and tourism importantly shape the subjectivities and positionalities of precarious labor migrants. Foregrounding the relations between tourism and labor migration reveals the multi-scalar ways in which associated discourses and infrastructures of both mutually shape and constitute global socio-economic inequalities.