Domestic migration and mobile phones: a qualitative case study focused on recent migrants to Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

Migration has long been used as a strategy for livelihood diversification in rural, subsistence communities. Yet in order for migration to effectively serve as a livelihood diversification strategy, it should meet certain conditions: migration should ease financial burdens, should confer access to economically valuable resources and information, and should broaden social networks. Using qualitative data gathered in 25 interviews with rural migrants to Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, we examine how mobile phone technology has impacted migration as a livelihood diversification strategy. Our results show that while mobile phones facilitate migration, the advantages conferred may benefit migrants at the expense of the home communities. Mobile phones alleviate financial constraints, enable access to broader networks, and facilitate informational and resource support among migrants. Our results show limited evidence of migrants using mobile phone technology to provide resources or information to the home community. Our results highlight the need to reconsider the ways in which migration can be used as a livelihood diversification strategy in light of changing communication technologies to promote the economic success of both migrants and their home communities

The temporal dynamics of international migration in Europe: Recent trends

Descriptive studies of international migration typically rely on measures of migrant stocks and migration rates to assess migration patterns. In this paper we propose a third alternative. Using harmonized data on age-specific migration flows between all countries in the European Union (EU) and European Free Trade Association (EFTA) each year from 2002 to 2007, we estimate the expected duration of residence of international migration, defined as the average number of years lived by migrants in the receiving country given period migration and mortality schedules. Our results provide a window into the temporal dynamics of international migration in Europe, increasingly relevant given recent expansions of the EU

The temporal dynamics of international migration in Europe: Recent trends

Descriptive studies of international migration typically rely on measures of migrant stocks and migration rates to assess migration patterns. In this paper we propose a third alternative. Using harmonized data on age-specific migration flows between all countries in the European Union (EU) and European Free Trade Association (EFTA) each year from 2002 to 2007, we estimate the expected duration of residence of international migration, defined as the average number of years lived by migrants in the receiving country given period migration and mortality schedules. Our results provide a window into the temporal dynamics of international migration in Europe, increasingly relevant given recent expansions of the EU

Migration systems in Europe: Evidence from harmonized flow data

Empirical tests of migration systems theory require consistent and complete data on international migration flows. Publicly available data, however, represent an inconsistent and incomplete set of measurements obtained from a variety of national data collection systems. We overcome these obstacles by standardizing the available migration reports of sending and receiving countries in the European Union and Norway each year from 2003-2007 and by estimating the remaining missing flows. The resulting harmonized estimates are then used to test migration systems theory. First, locating thresholds in the size of flows over time, we identify three migration systems within the European Union and Norway. Second, examining the key determinants of flows with respect to the predictions of migration systems theory, our results highlight the importance of shared experiences of nation-state formation, geography, and accession status in the European Union. Our findings lend support to migration systems theory and demonstrate that knowledge of migration systems may improve the accuracy of migration forecasts toward managing the impacts of migration as a source of social change in Europe

Migration systems in Europe: Evidence from harmonized flow data

Empirical tests of migration systems theory require consistent and complete data on international migration flows. Publicly available data, however, represent an inconsistent and incomplete set of measurements obtained from a variety of national data collection systems. We overcome these obstacles by standardizing the available migration reports of sending and receiving countries in the European Union and Norway each year from 2003–2007 and by estimating the remaining missing flows. The resulting harmonized estimates are then used to test migration systems theory. First, locating thresholds in the size of flows over time, we identify three migration systems within the European Union and Norway. Second, examining the key determinants of flows with respect to the predictions of migration systems theory, our results highlight the importance of shared experiences of nation-state formation, geography, and accession status in the European Union. Our findings lend support to migration systems theory and demonstrate that knowledge of migration systems may improve the accuracy of migration forecasts toward managing the impacts of migration as a source of social change in Europe

The 'New Great Migration' of Blacks to the U.S. South: Estimating duration of residence in the absence of retrospective information

Background: Prior research on the 'New Great Migration' of Blacks to the U.S. South from other U.S. regions has neglected the issue of how long Black migrants have lived or can be expected to live in the South. This is a critical omission because duration of residence is an important precondition for and an indicator of migrants' integration in receiving areas. Unfortunately, data limitations prevent estimating Black migrants' duration of residence in the South in the usual way, using information from retrospective questions and life histories. Objective: Taking an unconventional but familiar approach, this study develops the first estimates of Black migrants' expected duration of residence in the South to shed light on the temporal characteristics of the New Great Migration. Methods: Microdata from four U.S. censuses and an adaptation to the accounting procedures in multiregional life tables are used to estimate Black migrants' expected duration of residence in the South between 1965 and 2000 for four birth cohorts (those born in 1920, 1930, 1940, and 1950), with uncertainty. We further disaggregate our results by place of birth (South versus non-South). Results: Black migrants could expect to live about half of their remaining life between 1965 and 2000 in the South, with variation across cohorts and by place of birth. Conclusions: This study provides a needed point of reference for research on the New Great Migration of Blacks to the South, and shows how analyses of the age and origin-destination structure of migration flows can reveal their implied temporal dynamics. Contribution: This study provides shows how analyses of the age and origin-destination structure of migration flows can reveal their implied temporal dynamics

Changing spatial interconnectivity during the "Great American Migration Slowdown": A decomposition of intercounty migration rates, 1990-2010

Prior research on the “Great American Migration Slowdown,” or the declining rate of U.S. internal migration in recent decades, is dominated by two research foci. The first is concerned with the determinants of the migration slowdown. The second is concerned with spatial heterogeneity in the migration slowdown in and across places. With respect to the aim of this paper, many studies of spatial heterogeneity in the migration slowdown have implicitly raised questions about whether and to what extent places are connected to one another by migration flows, or the spatial interconnectivity of migration. The spatial interconnectivity of migration is a concrete manifestation of underlying spatial interdependence among places and, as such, deserves to be explicitly unpacked to further our understanding of the migration slowdown. Using county‐to‐county migration flow data from the Internal Revenue Service and a novel application of Das Gupta's demographic standardisation and decomposition procedures, we document changes in the spatial interconnectivity of migration during the migration slowdown between 1990 and 2010. We show that counties became more connected to one another by migration over time and that the increasing spatial interconnectivity of migration helped to keep the migration slowdown from slowing further. We also document changes in the spatial interconnectivity of migration for four types of migration flows: metro‐to‐metro, nonmetro‐to‐metro, metro‐to‐nonmetro, and nonmetro‐to‐nonmetro. Our work further elucidates the characteristics of the migration slowdown by describing changes in the spatial interconnectivity of migration. It also raises new questions for future research about the determinants and consequences of these changesThis work was supported by Centre Grant #P2C HD041023 awarded to the Minnesota Population Center at the University of Minnesota, Centre Grant #P2C HD041020 awarded to the Population Studies and Training Center at Brown University, and Centre Grant #P2C HD047873 and Training Grant #T32 HD07014 awarded to the Center for Demography and Ecology at the University of Wisconsin‐Madison by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. This work was also supported by a Proposal Development Partnership Grant awarded to DeWaard by the Minnesota Population Center at the University of Minnesota and by resources to Curtis from the Wisconsin Agricultural Experimental Station

Episode 27: The Immigration Court Observation Project

Runtime 28:03The Human Rights Defender Project is a collaborative initiative from The Advocates for Human Rights, the University of Minnesota Law School James H. Binger Center for New Americans, and Robins Kaplan LLP. As part of the project, members of the public can volunteer to sit in on detained immigrant court hearings—which are always open to the public—and record what they observe and feel about the process, giving them a chance to see what these hearings consist of beyond their depictions in the media. In this podcast, you'll hear from three Minnesota academics affiliated with the project: Linus Chan, associate professor of clinical law and director of the Detainee Rights Clinic at the James Binger Center; Jack DeWaard, UMN associate professor of sociology, graduate faculty at the Minnesota Population Center, and adjunct faculty member at the Humphrey School; and Chris Levesque, a PhD student in sociology at UMN and graduate research assistant at the MPC. They discuss why the project differs from other court observation projects due to its focus on perceived fairness, how they're working with the qualitative and quantitative data being collected, and some takeaways from the data itself—including examples of what observers view as fair or unfair

Migration from new-accession countries and duration expectancy in the EU-15: 2002-2008.

European Union (EU) enlargements in 2004 and 2007 were accompanied by increased migration from new-accession to established-member (EU-15) countries. The impacts of these flows depend, in part, on the amount of time that persons from the former countries live in the latter over the life course. In this paper, we develop period estimates of duration expectancy in EU-15 countries among persons from new-accession countries. Using a newly developed set of harmonized Bayesian estimates of migration flows each year from 2002 to 2008 from the Integrated Modelling of European Migration Project, we exploit period age patterns of country-to-country migration and mortality to summarize the average number of years that persons from new-accession countries could be expected to live in EU-15 countries over the life course. In general, the results show that the amount of time that persons from new-accession countries could be expected to live in the EU-15 nearly doubled after 2004. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10680-016-9383-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Migration from New-Accession Countries and Duration Expectancy in the EU-15: 2002–2008

European Union (EU) enlargements in 2004 and 2007 were accompanied by increased migration from new-accession to established-member (EU-15) countries. The impacts of these flows depend, in part, on the amount of time that persons from the former countries live in the latter over the life course. In this paper, we develop period estimates of duration expectancy in EU-15 countries among persons from new-accession countries. Using a newly developed set of harmonized Bayesian estimates of migration flows each year from 2002 to 2008 from the Integrated Modelling of European Migration Project, we exploit period age patterns of country-to-country migration and mortality to summarize the average number of years that persons from new-accession countries could be expected to live in EU-15 countries over the life course. In general, the results show that the amount of time that persons from new-accession countries could be expected to live in the EU-15 nearly doubled after 2004.This research is supported by center Grant #R24 HD041023 awarded to the Minnesota Population Center at the University of Minnesota by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and by research funds awarded to DeWaard by the Life Course Center at the University of Minnesota. The age-specific migration data used in this paper were estimated as part of the Integrated Modelling of European Migration (IMEM) Project, www.imem. cpc.ac.uk, funded by the New Opportunities for Research Funding Agency Co-operation in Europe (NORFACE), 2009–2012