Imagination, Hope and the Migrant Journey : Iraqi Asylum Seekers Looking for a Future in Europe

Europe received an unprecedented number of asylum seekers in 2015. This article examines Iraqi asylum seekers who journeyed through Europe in search of an idealized version of Finland, which they had imagined based on word-of-mouth and social media information. Through cognitive migration, the act of pre-experiencing futures in different locations, Finland was seen to offer both subjective hope of personal growth and advancement and objective hope of safety and physical security. This hope motivated them to embark on a journey of 6,000 kilometers to the European North. Based on interview data and relevant studies, the article concludes that hope of a better, imagined future abroad acts as a powerful magnet for persons with poor prospects in their countries of origin. Hope is a kind of critical emotion strongly shaped by beliefs and real-time opportunities; and as such, beliefs are notoriously difficult to change. Imagination, therefore, should not be overlooked when planning and implementing migration policies.Europe received an unprecedented number of asylum seekers in 2015. This article examines Iraqi asylum seekers who journeyed through Europe in search of an idealized version of Finland, which they had imagined based on word-of-mouth and social media information. Through cognitive migration, the act of pre-experiencing futures in different locations, Finland was seen to offer both subjective hope of personal growth and advancement and objective hope of safety and physical security. This hope motivated them to embark on a journey of 6,000 kilometers to the European North. Based on interview data and relevant studies, the article concludes that hope of a better, imagined future abroad acts as a powerful magnet for persons with poor prospects in their countries of origin. Hope is a kind of critical emotion strongly shaped by beliefs and real-time opportunities; and as such, beliefs are notoriously difficult to change. Imagination, therefore, should not be overlooked when planning and implementing migration policies.Peer reviewe

On multiple spacetimes in the everyday lives of irregular migrants in Finland

This article explores how multiple layers of spacetimes overlap and merge in individuals’ lives and relationships, transforming, enhancing, and/or hampering their abilities to interact with the environment. Drawing upon content‐analysed ethnographic notes, the article investigates the case of irregular migrants in Finland. It shows how their past activities, practices, and relationships, as well as their hopes and fears for the future, materially shape their now‐times. The latter change and evolve through a relentless combination of different past and future elements, in multiple, disparate, and often contradictory ways. This article considers how these migrants survive by inventing new activities and practices and building social relationships (with local residents and their own communities) on a daily basis, negotiating disparate elements, such as laws, digital and physical spaces, and work‐ and health‐related issues. In so doing, migrants acquire, in roundabout (non‐linear) ways, the knowledge and capacity to deal with their current, stressful conditions. The article shows how a spatio‐temporal approach can transform the emotional geographies of irregular migrants by shedding light on how they navigate the disparate and often conflicting elements of their lives, activities, and relationships.</p

Direct and indirect effects of procedural justice on cooperation and compliance: evidence from South Korea

Procedural justice now plays an important role in the study of policing. While most empirical research on the effects of procedural justice has been carried out in Western countries, there has been little empirical research on its effects in East Asia, where authority dynamics are thought to differ from those in the West. Using a sample of 301 South Korean citizens, this study examines the direct and indirect effects of procedural justice and other factors on cooperation and compliance with police and the law. The results show that procedural justice has a significant, positive direct effect on obligation to obey, but not on cooperation or compliance. Procedural justice has a significant, positive indirect effect on cooperation via obligation to obey, but it does not have a significant indirect effect on compliance. We discuss the implications of these results for procedural justice theory and its applications in different settings, including East Asia