Podcasts about social actors

Angeliki Dimitriadi presents her paper 'What kind of asylum and which destination? Afghan asylum seekers transiting from Greece' in Parallel session IV(D) of the conference Examining Migration Dynamics: Networks and Beyond, 24-26 Sept 2013 The paper discusses Afghan asylum seekers in Greece and how migrant agency factors in the context of transit from Greece to other EU member states. Labeled in public discourse as transit migrants, I argue that their mobility, when successfully pursued, is more than the sum of structural constraints; they are not only escaping from specific factors but simultaneously pursuing specific conditions. Thus, an element of choice and active participation in the migratory journey is incorporated in the discussion on asylum. The paper draws from two sources, the fieldwork conducted in the framework of my PhD thesis (2009 - 2012) across Greece and the fieldwork conducted in 2013 in Athens, in the context of the project “IRMA-Governing Irregular Migration” carried out as part of a funded research project. Drawing from interviews conducted with irregular Afghan migrants in Greece, that were ‘in transit’, asylum is discussed not from the perspective of safety, but as a way of acquiring a particular identity and social position coupled with specific benefits. This raises once more the question of whether we can incorporate migrant agency in the context of forced migration, and the case of Afghans shows that agency does not negate the need for refuge; rather the need for refuge can be complemented by the expectations for certain conditions and preferences to be met. From this perspective, it is possible to view the asylum seeker as an active agent of his/her migration, attempting and often succeeding in determining his/her own migration journey.

Anastasia Bermudez presents her paper 'Does migration from Colombia to the UK constitute a migration system?' in Parallel session III(C) of the conference Examining Migration Dynamics: Networks and Beyond, 24-26 Sept 2013 There is limited information and analysis of contemporary migration flows from Colombia to the United Kingdom, despite the fact that this migrant community has attracted increased research interest in the new ‘super-diverse’ Britain. Colombians are one of the oldest and the second-largest national group within the growing Latin American diaspora in London, and are behind many of the ethnic-based organisations and businesses created by this group. However, little is known about the origins and development of these flows. This paper has two main aims. The first is to track the emergence and development of a potential migration system linking Colombia and the United Kingdom. The second is to explore the role of both agency and structure in this context, in line with current scholarship on migration systems. This paper is based on the limited secondary data available, and the primary data accumulated during more than ten years of research with the Colombian community in London. One of the main contributions of the paper is the adoption of an intersectional approach that takes into account gender, class and type of migration when analysing the role of agency and the so-called pioneer migrants.

Pauline Carnet presents her paper 'The role of both migrants and institutions in an enduring pattern of migration' in Parallel session III(C) of the conference Examining Migration Dynamics: Networks and Beyond, 24-26 Sept 2013 Based on my PhD, my paper will examine how an enduring pattern of migration is sustained and the role of both social actors and structural factors in the face of this process. Nowadays, international migrants glide between constraints and strategies, regularity and irregularity. Their migration, built on several stages, constitutes a real “snakes and ladders”. In it, Almeria is a stage where it is possible to get "papers". Since the 90’s, this Spanish province specialised in agriculture has centralized the African migrants who are in a precarious situation. How is this possible? 1/ Migrants have the capacity to be mobile and develop strategies to reach Europe and to look for housing, employment and papers. 2/ Spanish governmental institutions fluctuate between control and tolerance regarding migration – fluctuation partly linked with the economic function of undocumented migrants. I will develop theoretical constructs explaining undocumented migrants’ use and development of social networks. Their mobility will be qualified as a mastered roving, mastering that is essentially done through social relations and the constitution of social networks. I will explain why some of them are in a zero square, i.e, a special space-time, intermediate between the border crossing and the insertion in the European space and characterized by the repetition of basic survival situations.

Carolin Fischer presents her paper 'The (changing) role of family among Afghan communities in Britain and Germany' in Parallel session I(D) of the conference Examining Migration Dynamics: Networks and Beyond, 24-26 Sept 2013 This paper explores how Afghan families shape migration from Afghanistan and processes of settlement and community formation at European destinations. Social relationships based on family and tribal ties are sources of solidarity and make mutual assistance an imperative. How these attributes of Afghan families are maintained or re-shaped through migration and settlement in western countries has not been explicitly addressed. Focusing on the lives of Afghans in Britain and Germany I examine the reconfiguration of families and agency of family members, taking into account structural conditions enforced in the receiving society. I conducted a series of in-depth interviews with people who left Afghanistan at different stages during the last four decades and now live in Britain or Germany. The interview transcripts contain large segments on personal stories and explicitly address experiences of migration and settlement in the two destination countries. Afghan families play important roles at various stages of migration and settlement processes. They are key factors for peoples’ decision to migrate and inform choices of destination countries and places of residence. Families also influence social interaction and shape processes of community formation in countries of residence. However, newly emerging patterns of solidarity and community organization among Afghans in Britain and Germany suggest that dynamic reconfigurations occur in conjunction with peoples’ lives in receiving societies while core attributes of families are being maintained. Such reconfigurations primarily occur as a result of differences between first and second- generation immigrants. When aiming to unpack how structural environments in Britain and Germany enhance peoples’ ability to exercise agency and choice, the challenge is to disentangle how changing scopes of agency affect family ties as a mode of social integration.

Thomas Geisen presents his paper 'The complexity of migration: life-strategies of migrant family members and families' in Parallel session I(D) of the conference Examining Migration Dynamics: Networks and Beyond, 24-26 Sept 2013 In migration research the concepts of network and transnationalism gained new insights on migrants as social actors. Most important was, that decision-making and balancing processes became bound back to the individual and its network-relations. In this course a new emphasis was given to the relevance of the migrant family as an important social actor in migration processes. For transnationalism the family is the most important social unit, which binds individuals together in an intergenerational social context, often over long geographical distances. It seems, that the family has become the most emplematic social form of transnationalism. However, looking at concrete family practices it can be shown, that the family itself is embedded into wider social relations build within the community or the society. Based on own empirical research on migrant families, the proposed paper wants do develop a conceptional approch for migration research which is centered on migrants as social actors. Here migration is understood in a wider perspective as a change in residence beyond communal borders. Starting with such a perspective not only different forms of migration can be identified in a biographical or life-course perspective. It can be shown as well what relevance the experience of migration and mobility has for individual and collective actors, wat motifs are relevant for migrants in intergenerational and interactional perspective, and what individual and collective motifs and orientations lead migrants and migrant families to migrate . Under such a process-perspective of migration, the still existing cleavage in migration research between international and internal migration shows its limitations for understanding migrants and their families. Based on Norbert Elias concept of figuration and on Ernest Jouhys concept of social relations, the proposed paper seeks to discuss the complexity of migration by introducing the concept of live-strategies to enrich the understanding of migration networks and dynamics by discussing the decisive relevance of the 'subjecitve factor' for understanding the migration of family members and migrant families.

Conferencia impartida por Alain Touraine en la que el reconocido sociólogo francés realiza un recorrido histórico por los diferentes paradigmas de la sociología hasta llegar a los nuevos actores en el nuevo paradigma social.