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Introduction to a virtual issue on the geographies of migration
This study explores the outcomes of internal migration in Indonesia, specifically focusing on the intersecting themes of ethnicity, informality, and entrepreneurial migration. We examine how Javanese migrants perceive the benefits and challenges of their migration and subsequent engagement in the informal sector as self‐employed migrants/small business owners in and around Kupang’s traditional markets. We use a sequential mixed‐methods approach (a household survey with a structured interview [n=344] and in‐depth/semi‐structured interviews [n=28] in 2020). Drawing on Hein de Haas’s framework on the internal dynamics of migration, we explore the multifaceted outcomes of entrepreneurial migration beyond the economic consequences addressed in similar studies. The perceived positive impacts of this migration include sufficient income to cover daily needs and children’s education, as well as new remittances and employment opportunities for communities in Java and Kupang. However, these broadly empowering trends were set against the experience of those migrants who, because of less informal sector labour experience, could not easily negotiate their settlement in a new host environment, leading to varied adverse consequences. Ultimately, then, the article highlights the importance of social networks, knowledge, and reciprocity in supporting the successful establishment of entrepreneurial migrants in emerging destinations.
A growing body of migration scholarship has highlighted the inadequacies of a single‐origin, single‐destination model for thinking about international migration in the 21st century. Multinational migrations—involving the varied movements of international migrants across more than one overseas destination with significant time spent in each overseas country—have been observed among high‐skilled migrants, low‐wage labour migrants, and documented and undocumented migrants. But given the extended temporality, multispatiality, and complexity of multinational migrations, the study of such onward movements can be fraught with difficulty. These methodological challenges must be added to the existing issues surrounding most international migration scholarship: methodological nationalism, essentialism, and skewed positionality. This special section highlights a range of research methods and approaches well suited to addressing these concerns. Collectively, the papers investigate various patterns of multinational migration across a range of migrant categories and spanning multiple world regions, addressing questions about the prevalence and drivers of these complex processes. They also offer a toolkit of methodological approaches—including mental mapping, trajectory analysis, attending to the family/household as the scale of analysis, multisited ethnographies, and longitudinal research—as suggested ways of studying multinational migrations.
This paper argues for the need to integrate migration in future food policy research and practice and, in doing so, examines the role of internal migration as a livelihood strategy in influencing food security among rural households. Migration has become a key component of livelihood strategies for an increasing number of rural households across the developing world. Importantly, there is emerging consensus among academics and policy makers on migration's potentially positive effects in reducing poverty and promoting sustainable human development. Concurrently, the significance of the catch-cry ‘food security for all’ as an important development objective has been growing, particularly since the 2007–08 global food crisis. However, academic and policy discussions on these two issues have tended to proceed largely in silos, with little attention devoted to the relationship they bear with each other. Using primary survey data collected from 392 rural households from a district in western Bihar in India, this paper seeks to fill this gap in relational dynamics. It first reviews plausible reasons for this disconnect between migration and food security in the wider developing countries' context, and then draws on a primary survey of rural Indian households to provide empirical household-level insights on the linkages between people's movements and households' capacity to secure food. In particular, the paper focuses on the often-overlooked role of migrants' remittances for food security of rural households at points of origin. The findings show that, by equipping households with improved purchasing power and enabling investment in agriculture, remittances contribute positively to household food security.
It has become increasingly clear that social activities play an important role for many UK undergraduate students in informing identity and place attachment through interactions with their term-time location. While attention has been given to the ways in which students construct ‘exclusive geographies’ through self-segregation from non-students, thus far there has been very little discussion of how students' identities may be affected by their changing activity spaces and how this may blur the boundaries between student and non-student spaces. Exploring these transformations over the duration of the degree is important as they highlight how identity performances may be influenced by students' transitions through university and their changing mobility patterns. This paper will address such matters by considering the following: (1) how first year activity spaces may constitute a student bubble for new undergraduates; (2) how, in subsequent years, these activity spaces adapt as students hone their social practices and explore environments less associated with student life; and (3) how ‘local’ student's activity spaces can become complex as they contemplate locating their multiple identities during term time.
There is growing consensus among academics, regional development organisations and rural communities that the future growth and development of rural regions is increasingly dependent upon their ability to convey, to both established and prospective residents, the ‘amenity’ of their local physical, social and economic environments. However, little research to date has sought to identify exactly what comprises ‘amenity’ in the rural context, or has examined how this conceptually slippery quality is distributed across rural Australia, or how it influences local demographic, socio-economic and land use change. This paper attempts a broad scale investigation of rural amenity in the south-east Australian ecumene, identifying its core components in this context, mapping its distribution and assessing the nature of its influence over in-migration rates over the past three decades. The paper finds that, at a macro-scale, amenity tends to follow a general gradient from high to low according to distance from the coast, and that its relationship with in-migration rates has increased substantially between 1976–1981 and 1996–2001.
The main contention of this paper is that education helps frame a modernity in which individual progress and achievement are increasingly linked to the sheer physical act of movement. Thinking of modernisation as a trajectory of progress and development symbolised by industrialisation and a reordering of ‘traditional societies’ through rational forms of governance, we can begin to recognise the importance of the disembedding of people and communities from local institutions and relations that these modernising processes continue to require. Individual education stories are filled with movement that often reflect a commitment to the mobility imperatives of modernity. Reflecting the different scales of practice evident in this mobile modernity, the empirical focus ranges from rural settings to urban mobilities and then out to transnational mobilities and the educational choices exercised by the global middle classes. The paper explores the profound and the mundane ways in which educational structures affect family and individual mobilities.
Research within the field ‘geography of education’ points to the importance of studying the relationship between social and spatial variations in educational provision and attainment. This research has mainly focused on the spatial segregation of different social groups in urban settings. There has been limited research on how geography influences youth and education in rural settings. Youth research in general is criticised for an unacknowledged ‘metrocentricity’, referring to the invisibility of how place and geography represent changeable and contingent conditions in young people's lives. This paper is based on interviews with young, unemployed men living in small places that can be termed the marginal edge of the northern periphery, in the northern part of Norway. By combining a geographical approach with theories on social learning, the paper discusses how changes in the local world of education and work are experienced by a group of young men, and how the changes influence their choices, and lack thereof, in specific rural communities. The overall aim of this paper is to demonstrate how place and geography matter, and how gender and place intersect, when it comes to young people's experiences of opportunities and options.
The factors underpinning the migration of Australian residents to Bali, Indonesia, and the demographic characteristics of the Australian expatriate population in Bali are examined. It is argued that in undertaking a move to Bali, Australian expatriates are employing a deliberate strategy to utilise their existing financial resources and social networks to gain a lifestyle they perceive would not be available to them if they were to remain in Australia. However, it is also argued that there is considerable diversity in the factors underpinning migration decisions. Through a survey of 236 Australians living in Bali, it was found that a complex of place-based and non-place-based factors influenced migration decisions. It was also found that some factors underpinning migration were broadly associated with phase in the life course. While the survey identified only a minor overrepresentation of Australian retirees living in Bali, given the factors that were identified as underpinning migration to Bali, and with the large baby boomer population nearing retirement, it is probable that as Australia's population ages, there will be further growth in the number and proportional share of older Australian's living in Bali.
International migration has a long history in Asia but in recent years it has acquired an unprecedented scale and diversity and is a significant influence on the economic, social and demographic development of all Asian nations. International migration is now an established structural feature of the region although many nations still dismiss it as a temporary, passing phenomenon. Asian nations are developing international migration policies but much of this has not been informed by high quality research relating to the causes and effects of migration. The present paper examines each of the major types of international migration influencing contemporary Asia, reviews major developments within them and puts forward relevant policy and research challenges associated with each type of movement. Issues examined include south–north migration, migration and development, the role of diaspora, international labour migration, the feminization of migration, student migration and the increasing role of governments in influencing movement.
This paper examines the role of specific and place‐based social capital in the recognition and evaluation of international credentials. Whilst research on labour market segmentation has contributed towards an understanding of the spatial variability of the value of human capital, very little attention has been paid to the ways in which the credentials of more privileged social groups may in certain local contexts become valorised. At the same time, an increasing body of work in sociology has drawn attention to the globalisation of credentials and labour market competition. This paper brings together these perspectives, demonstrating how transnational social connections are put to work in the valourisation of ‘overseas credentials’ within a particular local labour market – Hong Kong’s financial services sector. It reveals the extent to which social capital, which is at once transnational and locally embedded, confers value upon particular international credentials, with consequences for individuals’ employment prospects. The paper stresses the continuing need to examine international academic credentials in localised contexts.
Traditionally, migration away from urban centres by those seeking lifestyle changes has been towards beach environments. More recently though, there have been small movements of people to rural environments seeking similar lifestyle changes. These movements to rural locales have been popularly referred to as treechange. Previous research on exurban migration has primarily focused on quantifying the migration process and attributes of the migrators. In contrast, this paper presents some preliminary findings on the impact of urban-rural migration on a small, semi-rural receiving area north of Melbourne. More specifically, it explores the impact that exurban migration has on local housing markets such as increases in house prices, decreases in affordability and declines in rental stock. The research also illustrates the divisions that appear in local communities between traditional residents and ‘newcomers’ over amenity issues and economic development.
Projections of future population are essential for planning in both the public and private sectors but conventional approaches provide little guidance as to the uncertainties associated with published projections. Moreover, history suggests that forecasters are generally slow in responding to new trends in key demographic processes. These limitations come into sharp relief at times of high public interest, such as occasioned by the unprecedented increase in Australia's net overseas migration over the past decade. How reliable is the recent upwards revision which raises Australia's projected population from 28 million to 35 million by mid-century? If projections are to be of more value to users, progress is required on two fronts: (i) more effective processes for setting assumptions, and (ii) greater clarity as to the uncertainty of the resulting projections. We address these challenges by combining a more systematic, theoretically guided approach to the formulation of projection assumptions using a structured questionnaire to elicit the views of experts on the future of net overseas migration to Australia, and harness the results in a new, probabilistic projection framework which explicitly identifies confidence intervals within which Australia's future population growth is likely to fall. We present probabilistic projections for Australia from 2010 to 2051 and compare the results with the 2006-based Australian Bureau of Statistics projections. We show how forecast uncertainty grows, and how it varies between demographic variables.
This paper addresses the theme of youth out-migration from rural Australia, in the context of recent policy discussions about creativity and its role in regional development. Ethnographic fieldwork in one rural location – the New South Wales Far North Coast – is drawn upon to highlight how creative industries are being cast as a potential way of promoting cultural activities and jobs for young people, and in turn, how they might be imagined as a means to mitigate youth out-migration. Yet, creative industries have contradictory employment and social outcomes. Creative industries are likely to generate higher rates of youth participation in economic activities than public data reveal. However, strategies for future job growth should also consider the limitations and instabilities of creative industry employment. Second, and more broadly, the paper discusses those socio-cultural dimensions of nascent creative industries that may have a more substantial impact when conceived as part of strategies to stem youth exodus from rural areas. Creative activities may contribute to rural development in indirect ways, especially if linked to policy goals of increased tolerance of youth activities, better provision of cultural services, and improved well-being for young people. While formal job-creation may be limited, creative industries could mitigate some of the impacts of youth migration to cities by enriching regional social life and mediating perceptions of the advantages and drawbacks of rural versus urban life. This kind of policy imagination requires a shift in attitudes towards young people and a more genuine commitment to encourage young people to feel that they belong in non-metropolitan areas.
The dominant mode of international migration in Asia and the Pacific is temporary contract migration of low-skilled workers. The potential for such migration to deliver significant development dividends to origin communities is substantial because of its large scale and the fact that most migrant workers return to their home community. However, there are a number of barriers that are intervening to dampen these potential positive effects, such as high transaction costs, high costs of sending remittances, and the fact that some areas of origin lack the infrastructure and potential for productive investment. Moreover, destination countries have been very welcoming of high skill temporary migrants but highly restrictive in their attitudes toward their low skill counterparts.
This paper discusses the lessons of best practice in temporary labour migration programmes in the region, which can help to overcome these obstacles reducing the positive development impacts of migration. It assesses, in turn, best practice separately for each stage of the labour migration process -- recruitment and selection, and pre-departure preparation -- at the destination and on return. In conclusion, a number of the barriers which impinge on Asian Pacific countries’ ability to introduce and sustain best practice are discussed. These include the need for capacity building, lack of cooperation between origin and destination countries, lack of data, poor governance of labour migration a failure among governments to recognise the significance of migration and the need for more “development friendly” migration policies in destinations.
Migration is an important part of the lives of many young adults. In numerous areas around the world, and particularly in regional and remote areas, cultures have emerged where the migration of young adults is normalised and expected. While the impact of the migration of young adults on the areas they have left and have moved to has received considerable attention in both political and academic arenas, there is a need for more research that addresses the cultural meaning of migration and the importance of the migration process for young people themselves. The paper is based on two large research projects undertaken between 2000 and 2005, which focused on the experiences of migration of young adults in Tasmania, and includes data sourced from interviews and focus groups with young migrants as well as an analysis of media and policy documents. We discuss the ‘turbulent lives’ of young people in Tasmania, including the expectations and aspirations of young adults growing up in a culture in which migration is normalised and their experiences of leaving, and returning to, their childhood homes. These issues are considered in the context of recent theoretical debates surrounding the impact of mobility and attachment to place on the identities of migrants.
Much of what has been written on the topic of Australian rural youth migration trends and processes has often proceeded from data-free, or data-poor grounds. In this context, this paper analyses recent trends in youth (15 to 24 years of age) migration for a temporally-consistent set of Statistical Divisions (SDs) in inland rural Australia, and for local government areas within the Northern Tablelands and Slopes and Ranges of northern New South Wales and the Western Australian Central Wheatbelt. The paper finds that rates of youth loss from rural regions have increased over the past twenty years. Yet the patterns, processes, causes and impacts of rural youth migration are distributed in a spatially-uneven fashion. Some remote areas are receiving net migration gains while booming ‘sea change’ coastal regions have experienced heavy losses. While the ‘flight to the bright city lights’ syndrome is evident, relatively high proportions of young people in the Northern SD of NSW move within their immediate region. Nevertheless, some common understandings concerning youth mobility were also confirmed. Gender differentials in migration propensity between women and men are evident even at quite local scales. Young people are also more likely to search out capital cities than the rest of the population. Most inland areas still continue to experience heavy losses of local youth. A more precise understanding of rural youth migration trends is an important stepping stone in the establishment of a reinvigorated research effort into young rural people's perspectives of their changing life chances in their home communities.
This article discusses youth out-migration on the non-metropolitan New South Wales Eastern Seaboard. High levels of in-migration and counter-urbanisation, typical of many coastal non-metropolitan towns in NSW, mask the out-migration of youth. There are relatively few 15–24 year olds in the coastal communities of non-metropolitan New South Wales, because many youths out-migrate to larger centres, for a range of reasons. Out-migration also demarcates a life transition away from school life, adolescence and the parental home. This paper draws from research with senior high school students in one coastal town – Coffs Harbour – where such trends have been particularly apparent. It examines the propensity for youth out-migration and discusses how young people articulate their migration intentions. Young people's perceptions of their current and future prospects feature prominently in their discourses about intended migration, although this research also demonstrates that the life courses of regional youth are unorthodox and diverse in nature.
There has been a parametric increase in the scale and complexity of global international migration in the last fifteen years. Asia has been prominent in this change with countries in the region being important sources and destinations of migrants. This paper summarises the main developments which are occurring in south-north migration, student migration, forced migration, north-north migration and international labour migration. In the transformation of international population movement in the region a most striking feature is the strong pattern of circularity in movement and the networks which are established between origin and destination. It is argued that several global changes have been instrumental in these changes. These include the three ‘Ds’: demography, development and democracy. It is shown that increasing gradients of difference between nations in the pattern of growth (or lack of it), in the workforce, in income and poverty levels and in patterns of governance, have been important drivers of the migration. Moreover they are likely to increase in their impact over the next two decades. In addition, the impact of global environmental change on migration is considered, as are the effects of proliferating social networks and the global migration industry.
Over the last two decades there has been a steady decline in youth migration to Australian rural communities. Generally, inland agricultural communities are the most seriously impacted by this trend. Coupled with high rates of youth out-migration, many rural communities face difficulties in attracting young people to fill skilled job vacancies and apprentice positions. Declining youth in-migration also has social consequences, effectively reducing the capacity of rural communities to replenish their skill base and social networks. This research identifies how urban-based youth perceive rural lifestyles and employment opportunities and how this is linked to their willingness to move to rural areas. The study reveals that young people attach undesirable aesthetic values to the physical environment of inland rural communities and perceive them as socially isolating and as having minimal opportunities for career advancement. However, the perceptions of those who live, or had lived, in rural areas are far more positive than those who have had little experience in rural communities. Accordingly, those who had previously lived in inland regions were far more likely to move to rural areas than those who had limited lived experience of rural communities. Overall, the research found that perceptions of lifestyle and employment opportunities were important influences on young people's willingness to move to rural communities.
The experience and competence of rural young people has been increasingly recognized in a range of social sciences over the past decade. Research in a variety of different settings is demonstrating the diversity of young people's lives, but recently calls have been made to retain this acknowledgement of heterogeneous youth while working towards more generic or integrated understandings of youth geographies and so forth. This special issue draws together a range of contemporary work focusing on the lives of young people in different rural environments and cultures. This Editorial article discusses the papers and reports in relation to a set of strategies that may guide further development of rural youth studies. It is noted that a good deal of youth research has undertaken the important initial step of documenting the varied conditions of young people's lives. However, more integrated and conceptual understandings of rural youth can look to identify generic dimensions and processes that shape their lives in rural cultures, economies, societies and spaces. A framework is proposed to assist in more explicitly theorizing the notion of young people; the contexts in which young people live; and the negotiations and multiple relations young people engage in while constructing dynamic (often creative and sometimes contested) understandings and experiences of their worlds.
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Sustainability and Change in Rural Australia
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The new international migration in Asia: Challenges for population research
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