Date:
Location:
"Transnational Ties, Poverty, and Identity: Latin American Immigrant Women in Public Housing"
Speaker:
Silvia Dominguez, Associate Professor of Psychology and Human Services, Northeastern University.
"Navigating the Education Migration Infrastructure"
Speaker:
Mindelyn Buford II, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Northeastern University.
"Daring to Migrate: Legal Status, Networks and Senegalese Migration to Europe"
Speaker:
Mao-Mei Liu, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Population Studies and Training Center, Brown University.
Contact:
John Arroyo
arroyojc@mit.edu
Chairs:
Peggy Levitt, Associate. Chair; Professor of Sociology, Department of Sociology, Wellesley College.
Jocelyn Viterna, Faculty Associate. Associate Professor of Sociology, Department of Sociology, Harvard University.
Abstract for Silvia Dominguez:
This study used ethnographic data to examine the nature and functions of transnational relationships of low-income Latin American women who had immigrated to the United States and were living in areas of extreme poverty. Findings indicated that these Latin American mothers utilized transnational ties to help maintain the cultural identities of themselves and their children, to alleviate social isolation, and to provide a safer summer housing alternative for their children. Transnational ties may have had some negative consequences, including financial and social burdens associated with maintaining long-distance familial relationships. However, despite some negative aspects, we conclude that transnational ties are often an instrumental resource for immigrant mothers living poverty and are vital to immigrant social mobility.
Abstract for Mindelyn Buford II:
Xian and Lindquist (2014) challenged international migration scholars to view immigration through the lens of societal transformation in the sending country rather than the individual behavior of migrants at home and abroad. This paper extends their concept of migration infrastructure from the realm of labor migration to that of higher education migration. I argue that as skilled workers remain in demand in the global north, systems have shifted to mediate eventual labor migrations at the earlier stage of application to and enrollment in Western colleges and universities. I draw on fieldwork in Western, Eastern, and Southern Africa to illuminate the commercial, regulatory, technological, humanitarian and social dimensions of migration infrastructure that have made higher education as a gateway to international migration both more ubiquitous and more cumbersome in the 21st Century. I discuss the social consequences of the interdependent relationship between institutional intermediaries in sending and receiving countries.
Abstract for Mao-Mei Liu:
Migration from Africa to Europe is a major public and policy concern, yet understanding of its determinants is limited. Although migration theories have emphasized the central roles of households, migrant networks and transnational institutions, empirical work largely overlooks how these may differ by legal status. Using quasi-longitudinal data collected in Africa and Europe from the Migration between Africa and Europe (MAFE) project, I examine the legal status of Senegalese migration to Europe from 1990 to 2008. Contrary to public perception, most migration is authorized. I find that, while weakly tied migrant networks boost the likelihood of both authorized and unauthorized migrations, strong network ties may dampen the latter. The Murid Muslim brotherhood, a transnational religious-commercial network, is strongly linked only to unauthorized migration. I conclude that, for Senegalese migration to Europe, authorized migrations strongly reflect household-driven strategies, but that more recently emerging unauthorized migration strategies are alternatively networked and more individual-driven.
