Breaking the silences,breaking the frames: a gendered diasporic analysis of sexual violence in the DRC

ABSTRACT

The role of diasporas in fuelling conflict has been extensively studied, with much less attention being paid to their role in peace-building. It is increasingly recognised that diasporas from conflict regions are contributing to the reconstruction of their countries of origin, acting as ‘peace-makers’ rather than ‘peace-wreckers’. Women and men migrants have also been found to engage differently towards their country of origin, but attention to women’s activism is still scarce. This article addresses the issue of political activism by Congolese women in the diaspora in both the UK and Belgium. Their activities are assessed analytically through the prism of ‘mechanisms of framing’, which shape the ways in which messages are conveyed during the mobilisation process. The paper discusses diagnostic, motivational and prognostic frames to address sexual and gender-based violence against Congolese women in the protracted conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Framing strategies vary among Congolese diaspora women’s groups depending on the national context in which they are embedded (Belgium and the UK) but a variety of narratives is also discerned which transcends and is shared among Congolese women beyond national borders.     

Attracting the best talent in the context of migration policy changes: the case of the UK

ABSTRACT

Employment projections and skills strategies emphasise the importance of (highly) skilled labour for competitiveness. A strategic focus on ‘attracting the best talent’ globally may conflict with policies to ‘grow local talent’. This issue is considered in the UK context of a shift from a liberal immigration regime to a demand-led system characterised by increasing restriction, through adjustments to a points-based system to manage labour migration from outside the European Economic Area (EEA). The specific focus is on an annual limit on non-EEA labour migrants introduced in 2011 and tightening of eligibility criteria for entry of (highly) skilled migrants, amid business’ concerns that this might stifle economic growth. Drawing on 20 employer case studies and literature on skills and migration policy, the article investigates the costs and implications for business in adhering and seeking to adapt to migration policy changes. Such changes pose administrative burdens on employers and limit business flexibility but associated monetary costs to businesses are difficult to quantify. Adaptation strategies and the impact of migration rule changes vary: some firms experience limited impact, some adjust their recruitment behaviour and some feel their underlying business rationale is threatened. Developing local talent is a partial long-term solution.     

On the threshold: becoming Romanian Roma,everyday racism and residency rights in transition

ABSTRACT

This article examines the reaction of welfare state actors and ‘Romanian Roma’ migrants to the political environment on migration in the UK. Based on the ethnographic fieldwork between January 2013 and March 2014, the article focuses on how processes of everyday racism infused understandings of the legal framework for European migrants’ residency rights. The article first explores how state actors developed ideas about ‘Romanian Roma families’ as opposed to ‘Romanian-not-Roma families’ in a context marked by pervasive uncertainty about legal entitlements, welfare restructuring and decreasing resources. Second, I draw on new migrants’ accounts to identify their perceptions and understandings of discrimination placed within their previous experiences of racism and state violence. The article argues that processes of racialisation are subtly enfolded into everyday life shaping the narratives through which both welfare state actors and new migrants understand their situated experiences and future plans. The article reveals the small and mundane practices that reproduce racialised hierarchies which maintain the notion of ‘Roma’ as a group with particular proclivities and the affects for their socio-legal status as European migrants in the UK.     

In ‘no man’s land’: the im/mobility of Serb NGO workers in Kosovo

ABSTRACT

While the technical dialogue between Pristina and Belgrade proceeds, inter-ethnic tensions in the city of Mitrovica in north Kosovo continue to instil uncertainty and insecurity among its inhabitants. This article delves into the im/mobilities for NGO work that the ethnic and conflict related division of the town poses for local Serb NGO workers. The division of the city into a Serbian north and a Kosovo Albanian south, with separate political systems and influence from the international peacebuilding mission, poses obstacles for inter-ethnic cooperation between north and south NGOs. The article explores the ways in which Serb NGO workers navigate these obstacles in order to create physical, social and economic mobility for themselves. It identifies two interrelated dynamics essential to understanding the impact on NGO workers of the conflict reality: one is between national identity and ethno-political space in the context of the specific community; the other, between the local moral order of being ‘good Serbs’ and internationally formulated aims to engage the locals in peace and reconciliation work. The paper argues that the focus of international peacebuilding missions on inter-ethnic cooperation and policy influencing activities, at least for Serb NGO workers in Mitrovica, impedes the mobility of local NGOs.     

Kirkuk conflict in its ethnic/political media: the Turkmen newspaper Alqal'a as a model

This article explores the Kirkuk conflict through the Turkmens’ newspaper Alqal'a. Using agenda-setting and framing/priming for theoretical background and qualitative content analysis as a method, two macro-themes, related to the conflict, are found to be fundamental therein. These two main themes are: (1) exclusion and (2) self-confirmation. The two macro-themes overarch several micro- or sub-themes and are closely related to each other. They are set to inform the readers about what to think and how to think about the conflict. While ‘exclusion’ constitutes the cause, ‘self-confirmation’ is the latter's effect.     

Immigrant integration beyond national policies? Italian cities’ participation in European city networks

ABSTRACT

In the literature on the local dimension of migration policy-making, one can see an emerging interest in transnational cities networks (TCNs). Networks such as Eurocities can represent policy venues that go beyond the limits of vertical relations between national governments and local authorities to directly lobby European Union (EU) institutions. Futhermore, TCNs can offer opportunities for policy exchange and learning, leading to the diffusion of policy innovations and best practices. However, evidence on the concrete functions played by TCNs is still scarce. By focusing on two highly internationalised Italian cities, Milan and Turin, and by taking an actor-centred perspective, this paper highlights how different categories of policy-makers within the municipal administration think about ‘going Europe’. According to our analysis, TCNs, rather than accomplishing their official instrumental goals, play primarily symbolic functions, such as legitimising local integration policy, building a new city identity and positioning the city vis-à-vis other European cities and EU institutions. Yet, this does not mean that TCNs are ‘useless’, since the symbolic resources they convey can be crucial in creating consensus among stakeholders at the local level or lobbying national authorities.     

Multiple belongings: transnational mobility,social class,and gendered identities among Polish migrants in Norway

ABSTRACT

Using ethnographic research in Norway and in Poland, this article focuses on the dynamics of multiple belongings of Polish migrants. It explores their experiences of belonging in relation to social class, gendered identities, and their different strategies of transnational mobility between Poland and Norway. By approaching belonging ‘from below’, we posit that it is a dynamic, processual, and socially and culturally constructed attachment to places, times, and communities, which includes experiential, practical, and affective dimensions. Considering the importance of questions of belonging and home-making in migrants’ lives, always contextually produced and read through performative reiterations, we focus on migrants’ daily routines and migratory practices, and argue that belonging is a multifaceted process, which takes on diverse forms and meanings of ‘who’ belongs to ‘what’, ‘where’ and ‘when’. Following intersectional perspective, the article aims at problematizing dependencies between mobility, gender, class, and migrants’ multiple belongings, and thereby, enhancing the understanding of the notion of belonging and its embeddedness in the inter-related social, cultural, economic, and political realms.     

Multilevel governance from below: how Dutch cities respond to intra-EU mobility

ABSTRACT

‘Intra-EU mobility’ from new member states provides a governance challenge to European countries like the Netherlands. Freedom of movement within the EU enables mobility but also has important social consequences at the urban level in particular. This article discusses to what extent local, national and European governments have interacted in the governance of ‘intra-EU movement’ and how this has affected their policies regarding migrants from Central and Eastern Europe in particular. Focusing on the Dutch case, including the cities of The Hague and Rotterdam, this article shows a development from a decoupled relationship, to localist governance and only recently evidence of emerging ‘multilevel governance’. Speaking to the broader literature on multilevel governance, this article firstly shows that in spite of its broad theoretical application, multilevel governance should be seen as one of the varied types of governance in a multilevel setting. And secondly, it shows how and why local governments can play a key role in the bottom-up development of governance in a multilevel setting.     

From diversity to conviviality: intra-EU mobility and international migration to Denmark in times of economic recession

ABSTRACT

This article explores differences among EU and non-EU migrants in accommodating to the Danish flexicurity labour and welfare regime during times of economic crisis. We build our findings on a quantitative survey followed by semi-structured qualitative interviews conducted with EU and non-EU migrants who moved to Denmark during the recession period (2008–2013). We argue that the lack of multicultural policies triggers individualised strategies of accommodation rather than ethnic or national group base integration, favouring a more homogenous group of high-skilled and educated group of workers and students of postgraduate/higher education, whom we describe as a ‘flexicurity diversity group’. Through patterns of conviviality, individual socialisation is based here on common interests, needs and lifestyles and not on pre-defined ethnic and/or cultural traits. The transition from diversity to conviviality that is initiated by this group remains however incomplete in light of the unequal opportunities and the differentiated scheme of rights that apply to EU and non-EU immigrants. Danish flexicurity has thus not had the desired inclusive effects but discriminates in terms of facilitating easy access to the labour market for all, and ‘securing’ social benefits and offering rights and protection only to the privileged group of EU migrants.     

Italy: the ‘illegality factory’? Theory and practice of refugees’ reception in Sicily

ABSTRACT

The recent surge of migrants crossing the Mediterranean in search of protection has presented a major challenge for the whole European Union. What has been labelled as a ‘refugee crisis’ is first and foremost a crisis of international politics and the result of inadequate response mechanisms at local level. This paper focuses on the case of Sicily, the second main area of arrival, after Greece, when migration to the Mediterranean reached its peak. With a long history of immigration, since 2015 the Italian island has seen the implementation of a new approach based on ‘hotspots’: designated areas for the separation of those deemed as economic migrants from ‘genuine asylum seekers’. In the view of some, this has made Italy into a model of migration management, as opposed to the chaotic situation of the Greek islands. The hotspot approach, however, has been also criticised for being engrained on practices that many deem unlawful, actively producing discrimination and condemning many migrants to an illegal status on the Italian soil. Informed by findings from an international research project (EVI-MED), this paper examines this complex scenario, exploring the social, legal and human implications of the refugees’ reception system in Italy.     

The politics of evidence-based policy in Europe’s ‘migration crisis’

ABSTRACT

Increased migration across the Mediterranean to Europe during 2015 was associated with growing interest in generating new research evidence to assist policymakers in understanding the complexities of migration and improve policy responses. In the UK, this was reflected in funding by the Economic and Social Research Council for a Mediterranean Migration Research Programme. Drawing on evidence from the programme, this volume explores the nature of Europe’s ‘migration crisis’ and the extent to which the development of new migration management policies was grounded in evidence about the causes, drivers and consequences of migration to Europe. The authors conclude that there is a substantial ‘gap’ between the now significant body of evidence examining migration processes and European Union policy responses. This gap is attributed to three main factors: the long-standing ‘paradigm war’ in social research between positivist, interpretivist and critical approaches which means that what counts as ‘evidence’ is contested; competing knowledge claims associated with research and other forms of evidence used to construct and/or support policy narratives; and, perhaps most importantly, the politics of policymaking, which has resulted in policies based on underlying assumptions and vested interests rather than research evidence, even where this evidence is funded directly by European governments.     

Contested control at the margins of the state

ABSTRACT

While the fact that the implementation of migration policies fails to perfectly manage migration is well known, the actual dynamics of policy implementation have received little attention to date. A serious engagement with this phenomenon requires a move beyond policy texts and political intentions, and towards a ‘migration regime’ perspective that pays attention to the inherent contradictions, conflicts of interest and competing logics within migration control practices. This collection posits a multi-actor perspective that includes state agents, migrants and non-state actors alike and proposes three key factors that require a closer examination: competing institutional logics, discretionary practices and migrants’ agency. Based on original empirical research, the contributions of this collection ‘zoom in’ on specific asymmetrical negotiations over the right to enter or remain in Europe, and focus on the institutional logics and interplay between the different actors involved.     

Historicity and citizenship as conditions for national minority rights in Central Europe: old principles in a new migration context

Having a historical presence in a country and citizenship of that country are two basic conditions under which national minority rights are granted in many countries, but increasing international migration has started to pose a challenge to this conception. Like other countries of Central Europe, the Czech Republic has adopted the two conditions for granting rights to traditional ‘national minorities’ and has developed a separate policy for the ‘integration of foreigners’; however, the emergence of the second generation of Vietnamese has presented a special challenge to this two-tier policy system. Recent renegotiation of the historicity of this immigrant group has resulted in its ‘official recognition’ as a national minority. This paper discusses this case in its wider Central European context, and addresses the question of whether we are observing an erosion of the two-tier policy system or a reconsideration of the distinction between ‘old’ and ‘new’ minorities. Finally, the paper touches upon the question of the role and usability of ‘old’ minority language rights, considering the lack of interest among the traditional minorities vs. the linguistic situation of the migrants’ second generation.     

Risky business and geographies of refugee capitalism in the Somali migrant economy of Gauteng,South Africa

Research on migrant livelihoods in South Africa reveals links between social exclusion and migrant ‘cosmopolitan tactics’, including multi-sited socialities, diverse spatial business strategies and orientations precluding integration into a ‘xenophobic’ host society. Drawing on 10 months of ethnographic research, this study explores how Somali migrants’ business practices and tactics of mobility within and beyond Gauteng Province, South Africa (which encompasses Johannesburg and Pretoria) articulate with both broader transnational flows and investments in the local economy. Since the end of apartheid, Somalis and other migrants from the Horn of Africa have carved out an economic niche in peri-urban townships where high risk and frequent movement characterise workers’ lives. The Somali enclave in the neighbourhood of Mayfair, Johannesburg, links local and national circulations of people, goods and money to international circuits of the Somali ethnic economy—an economy that also involves non-Somali groups, mainly from Kenya and Ethiopia. These diverse dynamics of human mobility and financial circulation complicate bounded conceptualisations of transnationalism and also illustrate how tactical cosmopolitanisms may be grounded in spatial and social arrangements. The convergence of migrant mobility and financial flows produces distinctive patterns of livelihood embedded in a multi-scalar geography of movement, remittance, investment, risk and opportunity.     

In the shadow of fortress Europe? Impacts of European migration governance on Slovenia,Croatia and Macedonia

ABSTRACT

This article analyses European integration's effects on migration and border security governance in Slovenia, Croatia and Macedonia in the context of ‘governed interdependence’. We show how transgovernmental networks comprising national and EU actors, plus a range of other participants, blur the distinction between the domestic and international to enable interactions between domestic and international policy elites that transmit EU priorities into national policy. Governments are shown to be ‘willing pupils’ and ‘policy takers’, adapting to EU policy as a pre-condition for membership. This strengthened rather than weakened central state actors, particularly interior ministries. Thus, in a quintessentially ‘national’ policy area, there has been a re-scaling and re-constitution of migration and border security policy. To support this analysis, social network analysis is used to outline the composition of governance networks and analyse interactions and power relations therein.     

Emotions and cosmopolitan sociability: Barriers and opportunities for intercultural encounters amongst new Chinese migrants in New Zealand

Emotions matter, particularly in experiences of migration. This article explores how emotions are involved in everyday intercultural encounters and the role of emotions in generating cosmopolitan sociability in the context of migration. The article is based upon qualitative research with 80 Chinese 1st and 1.5 generation migrants in New Zealand. We focus on ‘contact zones’ as social spaces where migrants have uneven opportunities to encounter cultural others and where ‘emotional dissonance’ can emerge through unsuccessful intercultural exchanges. In order to generate a sense of comfort and familiarity in such conflicted spaces, migrants need to invest in ‘emotional labour’ to engage in more cosmopolitan sociability as an attempt to transform ‘contact zone’ to ‘comfort zone’. Through this article we argue that emotions can both promote and encourage, but also undermine and limit the capacity to perform cosmopolitan sociability and build intercultural relations.     

Perceptions of diversity and attitudes of tolerance in the ‘fragmented’ U.K.

ABSTRACT

Relying on a quantitative survey (n = 1497) and semi-structured interviews (n = 30) conducted in the U.K., we explore British nationals’, Romanian and Turkish migrants’ attitudes of tolerance and the factors influencing them in the current socio-political context in the U.K. The quantitative data reveal the role of younger age, diverse networks, higher education, attachment to city/region and supranational identifications in more open attitudes towards diversity. The qualitative findings illustrate how diverse these three groups’ attitudes of tolerance can be and how they are affected by their position and status in the U.K. The British’ attitudes show their tolerance can reflect diverse forms of acceptance of ethnic and cultural differences but can also draw lines in terms of civic values opposing ‘those who contribute to society’ versus those who ‘live as parasites’. The Turks are in favour of diversity with the expectation of receiving more civic rights and facing less prejudice. The Romanians tend to have a more ambiguous relation to diversity given their position of stigmatised migrants in the U.K. Our analysis reveal how inclusive or exclusive people’s (sub- and supra-)national identities can be and how these frame their attitudes of tolerance.     

Labour and life in the global Asian city: the discrepant mobilities of migrant workers and English teachers in Seoul

ABSTRACT

Transnational mobilities are often conceived as interconnected with cities as ‘magnets’ for migrants, ‘nodes’ in mobility trajectories or ‘destinations’ for settlement. This paper frames the urban as critical to conceptualising the manner that mobility is actively and contingently assembled across the border and in the constitution of migrant lives. This argument builds on understanding the relationship between urban life and migration regimes in South Korea where the state and infrastructures of migration play a strong role in moulding the forms and outcomes of transnational mobilities in the everyday spaces of cities. The paper examines the urban lives of two differently positioned mobile populations in the Seoul Metropolitan Region: migrant workers in the manufacturing industries and English teachers working in schools, private academies and universities. Drawing on Said’s ‘contrapuntal’ analysis, the paper explores the ways in which these migrant lives overlap and diverge: in recent political-economic transformations and the regulation of migration, the urban geographies of labour and life, and the timing of migration. In doing so, the paper offers a window into Seoul’s emerging reliance on and differential incorporation of migrants and demonstrates the critical interlinkages between the governmental technologies of border crossing, everyday life and possibilities for the future.     

Care-full failure: how auxiliary assistance to poor Roma migrant women in Spain compounds marginalization

ABSTRACT

In Spain, the national and local authorities boast in recent years about their progressive programs for the integration of Roma migrants from Romania. Many state efforts to work with Roma on their integration are specifically directed at women. Economic integration into the waged labor market is considered a major goal as it, supposedly, leads to the empowerment of Roma migrant women while also securing decent standards of living for entire families. This article argues that integration programs adversely result in the further discrimination and exclusion of those they pretend to relief. This adverse result is produced through a two-tier intervention in the lives of Roma families. The caring state works with a general category of ‘vulnerability’ for targeting populations, in which Roma migrant women are specifically incorporated through designated social programs. The performance of Roma as the subject–object of these programs is carefully evaluated. According to these evaluations, Roma women often fail to meet the normative standards of ‘good mothers’, ‘decent wives’, and ‘diligent workers’. Subsequently, to deal with ‘failing subjects’, the disciplining state, a-la Foucault, inflicts an array of penalties on Roma women and their families: cut-offs of social benefits, evictions from poor dwellings, withdrawal of children’s custody, and forced removals to Romania. We thus argue that initiatives by the caring state (and civil society) often prescribe or go hand-in-hand with repression from the correcting state. In welfare states, social programs can thus conclusively ‘evidence’ existing stereotypes about marginalized Roma families and about women in particular.     

Beyond breadwinning: Ghanaian transnational fathering in the Netherlands

ABSTRACT

This article probes how gender norms and male migrants’ legal and socio-economic position shape transnational fathering amongst Ghanaian-born fathers, residing in the Netherlands, who have one or more children living in Ghana. Drawing on ethnographic research with Ghanaian transnational fathers, this article compares fathers’ attitudes and actual practices. In conformity with cultural expectations of fatherhood in Ghana, the men in this study primarily addressed their paternal role in terms of financial support for their families as ‘breadwinners’. Alongside breadwinning responsibilities, however, over three-quarters of the Ghanaian fathers espoused more ‘engaged’ parenting ideals, challenging stereotypes of the uncaring and distant migrant father who neglects his ‘stay-behind’ children’s emotional needs. Our analysis shows that fathers’ legal and socio-economic status largely determines men’s possibilities to perform their material and ‘emotionally engaged’ paternal ideals across borders. The emotional distance was particularly pronounced for undocumented and low-income migrants who were legally or financially incapable of bridging the emotional gulf arising from physical distance.