Transnational activities and aspirations of irregular migrants in Belgium and the Netherlands

Meeteren, Masja van

doi:10.1111/j.1471-0374.2012.00354.x

Cited by 36 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Since motives and aspirations are found to be connected with the actions migrants take and how they express their agency, most likely these pre-departure processes and travel journeys, including the motives for migration and the aspirations developed, will influence how Afghan UM set out their further trajectories in Belgium or elsewhere, and deal with their current living circumstances (Van Meeteren, 2012). An in-depth understanding of the lives and actions of UM is therefore of crucial importance to both migration policies and practitioners, as, on a policy level, it could lead to a better adaptation of current support structures to the needs and wants of UM, and practitioners could adjust their support more to the individual trajectory of each UM.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The aspirations of Afghan unaccompanied refugee minors before departure and on arrival in the host country

et al. 2014

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This article explores the perspectives of Afghan unaccompanied refugee minors on their own motives and aspirations and on the motives and aspirations of their family and community context at the moment they left their home country and at arrival in the host country. Interviews and questionnaires were used to measure the aspirations of 52 Afghan unaccompanied refugee minors, soon after their arrival in Belgium. Aspirations at departure and evolutions in aspirations over time were examined retrospectively. Finding security and studying particularly influenced their decision to migrate. These aspirations changed over time under the impact of a diversity of factors, such as their own experiences and the opinions of others (e.g. peers, smugglers). Since motives and aspirations might influence the migration trajectories of unaccompanied refugee minors, migration policies and practitioners should take them actively into account so as to improve support for unaccompanied refugee minors.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The aspirations of Afghan unaccompanied refugee minors before departure and on arrival in the host country

et al. 2014

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“…While scholars of mobility have recognized the potential for communications technologies to compress space and time in novel ways, there is still some doubt about the ability of virtual communication to replace physical face-to-face interactions (Boccagni, 2012a). Mobility research has found, for example, that interactions involving physical copresence are necessary for developing extended relations of trust (Urry, 2002). Indeed, even communications at a distance, while allowing some maintenance of social ties, may actually increase the need to reinvigorate these relationships via occasional physical co-presence (Boccagni, 2012a;Urry, 2002).…”

Section: Social Ties To Home and Non-mobile Transnational Activitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Mobility research has found, for example, that interactions involving physical copresence are necessary for developing extended relations of trust (Urry, 2002). Indeed, even communications at a distance, while allowing some maintenance of social ties, may actually increase the need to reinvigorate these relationships via occasional physical co-presence (Boccagni, 2012a;Urry, 2002). Physical visits to the homeland may thus allow migrants to build and renew the trust and emotional identification that underlie long-distance social ties.…”

Section: Social Ties To Home and Non-mobile Transnational Activitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Irregular status, territorial confinement, and blocked transnationalism: legal constraints on circulation and remittances of Senegalese migrants in France, Italy, and Spain

Vickstrom

Beauchemin

2016

CMS

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This paper explores the link between legal status and transnational engagement through the lenses of territorial confinement and blocked transnationalism. We hypothesize that irregular legal status results both in direct territorial confinement-an inability to visit the homeland-and in indirect caging of remitting, an important non-mobile transnational activity. This caging is hypothesized to result from an attenuation of social ties associated with reduced physical co-presence with kin and other important individuals in the homeland. Using longitudinal data on Senegalese migrants in France, Italy, and Spain from the MAFE Project, we find that Senegalese migrants who lack of secure legal status are effectively confined to the destination territory, preventing them from making short visits to the homeland. The direct and indirect relationships between irregular status and remittances, though, vary by destination country: the hypothesized relationships are not evident for migrants in Spain, indicating the role played by other facets of the context of reception, such as policy tolerance and the characteristics of the co-ethnic community.

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“…Migrants' encounters with formal social protection providers in the Global North have received increasing attention from scholars from different disciplines (Björngren-Cuadra and Staaf 2014;Holzmann and Koettl 2011;van Ginneken 2013;Sabates-Wheeler 2009). An important stream in this literature has considered the implications of migrants' lack of access to welfare in receiving countries, emphasising the role of informal social networks in providing support.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Providing social protection to mobile populations: symbiotic relationships between migrants and welfare institutions

Mingot

Mazzucato

2018

Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies

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Studies on migration and social protection have shown that a lack of access to formal welfare in receiving countries leads migrants to rely on their informal social networks for support. This paper argues that such clear-cut dichotomies between formal and informal social protection systems ignore the manners in which both welfarestate institutions and migrants work together at the interstices of the formal and informal to cater to national and transnational social protection needs. Based on empirical data collected during 14 months of multi-sited and partially matched-sample ethnography with Sudanese families across the Netherlands and Sudan, this paper investigates how migrants sometimes enter into symbiotic relationships with different welfare-state institutions, such as municipal offices, non-governmental organisations and other immigration institutions, which in turn rely on the support of these migrants to provide social protection to people who would otherwise escape their purview. While these interplays allow migrants, who are sometimes undocumented, to informally participate in the formal social protection system, such practices are embedded within power relationships that are at times risky, especially for migrants. ARTICLE HISTORY

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Transnational activities and aspirations of irregular migrants in Belgium and the Netherlands

Cited by 36 publications

References 39 publications

The aspirations of Afghan unaccompanied refugee minors before departure and on arrival in the host country

The aspirations of Afghan unaccompanied refugee minors before departure and on arrival in the host country

Irregular status, territorial confinement, and blocked transnationalism: legal constraints on circulation and remittances of Senegalese migrants in France, Italy, and Spain

Providing social protection to mobile populations: symbiotic relationships between migrants and welfare institutions

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