Crossing Borders: Migration and Intercultural Adaptation

Chapter 5

Chapter Objectives

To explore the unique aspects of migration and intercultural

adaptation today as well as the similarities with earlier waves of

world migration

To gain understanding and empathy for the challenges and rewards of migration and intercultural adaptation in the context of globalization.

To understand intercultural border crossing and adaptation within the context of globalization

To introduce and apply a multi-level framework to

analyze intercultural adaptation that accounts

for micro, meso and macro-level factors and influences

Introduction

TONI MORRISON:

“Come to terms with being, fearing and accepting strangers”

MIGRATION & IDENTITY

1 out 35 people living outside country of origin (nearly 200 million people)

912 million crossed borders for tourism, business, etc.

Why are people on the move today?

Who can cross borders? Who is restricted?

Border crossing and migration in the context of globalization are shaped by:

Advances in transportation and communication technologies

The integration of global capital and markets

The neoliberal policies

Escalation in intra-national and international conflict

Increasingly restrictive and punitive immigration policies

Types of Migrants

Voluntary Migrants

Sojourners

Immigrants

Involuntary Migrants

Refugees

Human trafficking

MIGRANTS IN THE CONTEXT

OF GLOBALIZATIO

N

Transmigrants

Migrant

A person who move from their primary cultural context, changing their place or

residence for an extended period of time.

Four Types Of Migrant Groups:

SHORT-TERM LONG-TERM

VOLUNTARY 1. Sojourners 2.Immigrants

INVOLUNTARY

3. Refugees4. Human Trafficking

IMMIGRANTS PRIMARY REASONS PEOPLE

COME TO THE U.S.1. To join other family members2. For employment3. To escape from war, famine, or

poverty

TWO KINDS OF MIGRANT LABOR

4. Cheap manual labor5. Highly skilled intellectual labor

***Increase of women immigrants as domestics***

Voluntary migrants who leave one country and settle permanently in another country.

A. Long TermB. Voluntary

VOLUNTARY MIGRANTSMigrants who choose to

leave their home to travel or re-locate.

REFUGEES

People who flee their countries of origin due to war and famine, or those seeking asylum for political reasons today.

INVOLUNTARY MIGRANTS

Migrants who are forced to leave due to famine,

war, and political or religious

persecution.

HUMAN TRAFFICKING

A form of involuntary migration in which people are transported for sex work and other types of labor against their will.

Historical Overview of World Migration

THE FIRST WAVE OF WORLD MIGRATION

From the 16th century through the 19th century. Thousands of migrants sailed out of ports of Europe for colonies in

Africa, Asia and the Americas. They appropriated the so-called “empty” lands and used

indigenous peoples to extract the material wealth of the land. The forced migration of over 15 million slaves from the west coast

of Africa. The rise in economic and political power of European nations.

Historical Overview of World Migration

CHAIN MIGRATION

Linkages that connect migrants from points of

origin to destinations, led to the segmentation of ethnic

groups in the U.S.

NATIVIST MOVEMENTS

Movements that called for the exclusion of foreign-born people.

THE SECOND WAVE

From the mid 1800s to the early 1900s during the industrial revolution.

XENOPHOBIA

The fear of outsiders. It dramatically curtailed immigration to the U.S. until after WW II.

Historical Overview of World Migration

GUEST WORKERS PROGRAMS

POSTCOLONIAL MIGRANTS:

Migrants who leave former colonies and re-locate in

colonizing countries.

THE THIRD WAVE

After 1945.

Post-industrial wave, more diverse and multidirectional.

Reconstruction of Europe & economic development of the U.S.

Movement of people from the formerly colonized countries to the colonizing countries.

Migration Trends in the Context of Globalization

LATE 20TH CENTURY TO THE PRESENT

Rapid, complex, multidirectional and diverse

“Sending” and “receiving” countries not distinct

South to North migration (3rd to 1st World)

High and Low skilled labor

Migrant networks

Altering “host” countries

Feminization of the workforce

Theories of Migration

MACRO-LEVEL THEORIESNation-state, global

political/economic structure

MICRO-LEVEL THEORIESInterpersonal, communal,

face-to-face

MESO-LEVEL THEORIES In-between macro and micro

levels

Macro-level Theories

PUSH-PULL THEORY

Economic opportunities and life circumstances

push/pull the migrants.

WORLD SYSTEMS THEORY

Global capitalism and inequitable economic structure.

International migration today is a result of the structure of the global capitalism.

Macro-level Theories

Pluralism

An idea or ideology that emphasizes the maintenance of ethnic and cultural values, norms and practices within a multicultural society.

BRAIN DRAIN:

An aspect of high-skilled migration in which high-skilled workers migrate to another country.

MELTING POT

A metaphor of U.S. society that the migrants’ adaptation to a

new culture inevitably requires and allows newcomers to “melt” or “blend” into the mainstream

to form a cohesive whole.

Micro-level Theories

MIGRANT-HOST RELATIONSHIP

S

Assimilation Separation Marginalization Integration

Micro-level Theories

Integrative Theory of Cultural Adaptation

Individual and environment co-define adaptation process:

Attitudes and receptivity of host environment

Ethnic communityPsychological

characteristics of the individual

Intercultural Transformation

Emergence of intercultural identity

As a result of stress-adaptation-growth process

MESO-LEVEL THEORIES

SOCIAL CAPITAL

The sense of commitment and obligation people within a group or network have to look after the well-being and interests of one another.

NATIVIST MOVEMENTS

Movements that call for the exclusion of foreign-born people.

MIGRANT NETWORKS

A set of interpersonal ties that connect migrants, former migrants, and non-migrants in origin and destination areas through ties of kinship, friendship and shared community origin.

XENOPHOBIA

Fear of outsiders, foreigners.