CfP: Panel “The interactions between integration and migrants’ transnational development activities”, IMISCOE 2016. Deadline 18/01/2016.

The session is promoted by the IMITE standing committee (Interaction of Migrant Integration and Transnationalism). Session organizers: Jørgen Carling (PRIO), Marta Bivand Erdal (PRIO) and Ceri Oeppen (University of Sussex). 

In a new IMISCOE publication, King and Collyer (2016:182) write, “further research is sorely needed on the relationship between integration […] and engagement in home country development”.  Whilst further research is always welcome, existing research that has used a transnational lens to look at integration, and existing research on the migration-and-development nexus often already includes data on this relationship – what is also needed is further discussion with an eye to the interactions between integration and development.  This double session encourages migration researchers to look at the linkages and interactions between processes of integration and migrants’ engagements in transnational development-related activities. 

For the first half, we seek papers that explore the ways in which integration processes in Europe and migrants’ development engagements in the global south may intersect and mutually affect each other.  For example, a migrant-led development project in their country of origin may increase their status and recognition in their European place of settlement, as their philanthropic activities are admired and replicated.  Conversely, such development engagements may be viewed with suspicion, as evidence of ongoing loyalty to the country of origin, in place of loyalty to the country of settlement. 

For the second half, we seek to acknowledge and address the ‘diaspora bias’ in many studies of the migration and development nexus, by including perspectives, analyses and voices from the Global South.  Whilst acknowledging potential asymmetries within transnational social fields, we hope to draw on revised understandings of ‘social remittances’, which see them as multi-directional exchanges of ideas, norms and practices, which consequently have an effect on social processes in both country of origin and country of settlement. 

We encourage papers drawing on quantitative and qualitative methods, from across a variety of geographic contexts in Europe and globally, engaging with the perspectives of individuals, families and local communities, as well as organized development interventions, and governments at local or national levels. Contributions may be more theoretically or more empirically driven, or could adopt a comparative perspective. 

Please submit abstracts of 150-200 words, via the online form, by Monday 18 January.  Notification of acceptance in the proposed session will be sent by 25 January 

https://www.prio.org/News/Item/?x=2030 

50 free eprint versions of article on Educational performance of children of migrant parents in Ghana, Nigeria and Angola by V. Cebotari and V. Mazzucato 

January 8, 2016 · by macimide · in New publications, Research resources 

Cebotari, V. and V. Mazzucato (2015). Educational performance of children of migrant parents in Ghana, Nigeria and Angola. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Online first. 

Abstract: There is no empirical research on the school performance of children who live separated from their parents in sub-Saharan Africa—a major migrant sending region in the world. This study uses survey data from junior and secondary school children and youths in Ghana (N = 2760), Angola (N = 2243) and Nigeria (N = 2168) to examine how different transnational family formations such as internal or international parental absence accompanied by migration or divorce, who is the migrant parent and who is the caregiver, the stability of the caregiving arrangement and remittances relate with the school performance of children who stay behind. School performance is measured through an index of grades in language, mathematics and science. The results show that international parental migration (Ghana), the internal parental migration accompanied by divorce/separation (Nigeria) and migration of both parents (Ghana and Nigeria) are likely predictors for decreased school performance. No effects are observed when parents are abroad and divorced/separated, when only one parent migrates, when children are in a stable care arrangement or when children receive remittances or not. The analyses show that the overall relationship between parental absence and education varies by the transnational dimension being analysed and by context. 

Free eprint versions (max 50).