Showing papers in "Population Space and Place in 2023"
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TL;DR: The authors explored how religious institutions affect refugee settlement in Kelowna, a mid-size city in British Columbia, and found that religious institutions help refugees cope with barriers and challenges in the city in three main ways: bridging language barriers between newcomers, service providers, and sponsorship providers; helping newcomers establish new lives in the province and move toward integration; and helping newcomers move away from precarity toward prosperity.
Abstract: Canada is a leading refugee-settlement nation with a highly developed private refugee sponsorship programme involving many community and religious institutions. This study explored how religious institutions affect refugee settlement in Kelowna, a mid-size city in British Columbia. Kelowna has had a significant increase in refugee sponsorship since the 2015 Syrian crisis, and most private sponsorship has involved churches and the local mosque, in collaboration with government-funded settlement services and community partners. We collected data through a questionnaire distributed among former refugees and semi-structured interviews with key informants including clergy, refugee-sponsorship groups, and service providers. The results reveal that religious institutions help refugees cope with barriers and challenges in Kelowna in three main ways: bridging language barriers between newcomers, service providers, and sponsorship providers; helping newcomers establish new lives in Kelowna and move toward integration; and helping newcomers move away from precarity toward prosperity as they re-establish themselves and their families.
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TL;DR: The authors explored the complexity in measuring intersectional segregation focusing on the two axes of age and race-ethnicity and proposed a conditional approach to measure age segregation by racial-ethnic groups, and racial ethnic segregation by age groups.
Abstract: A recent study shows that among the three age groups of youth, adult and older adult, youth-older adult has the highest age segregation while youth-adult has the lowest. Similar to many previous age segregation studies, racial-ethnic differences, an important population axis in segregation studies, were not considered. Prior studies are also limited to using two-group measures, failing to compare multiple groups together. We explore the complexity in measuring intersectional segregation focusing on the two axes of age and race-ethnicity and propose a conditional approach to measure age segregation by racial-ethnic groups, and racial-ethnic segregation by age groups. Using this approach, we empirically study the 2010 age-race-ethnic segregation at the county and state levels in the United States, using census tracts as the basic units. Both the two and multigroup dissimilarity indices were used. Results show that the racial-ethnic axis had been a stronger force in segregation than the age axis. Results also show disparities of racial-ethnic segregation across age groups with the highest levels present among older adults and in urban counties. For all three age groups, segregation levels involving Natives and Asians tend to be higher than those without them. In contrast, age segregation was the highest between youths and older adults, and the levels varied across racial-ethnic groups with Natives at the highest levels. Although age segregation was significantly different between urban and rural counties, higher segregation in urban areas were mostly involving Whites as opposed to higher segregation in rural counties involving minority racial groups. Studying age segregation should not be colour blinded, as nonwhite older adults in rural counties were more likely to experience higher levels of age segregation than other groups.
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TL;DR: This paper explored the intergenerational implications of union-formation and within-couple dynamics for children's health and well-being across low and middle-income countries (LMICs), both globally, regionally, and by the stage of fertility transition.
Abstract: Studies on global changes in families have greatly increased over the past decade, adopting both a country-specific and, more recently, a cross-national comparative perspective. While most studies are focused on the drivers of global changes in families, little comparative research has explored the implications of family processes for the health and well-being of children. This study aims to fill this gap and launch a new research agenda exploring the intergenerational implications of union-formation and within-couple dynamics for children's health and well-being across low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), both globally, regionally, and by the stage of fertility transition. We do so by adopting a macrolevel perspective and a multi-axis conceptualization of children's outcomes—health at birth, health in later life, and schooling—and leveraging Demographic and Health Survey and World Bank data across 75 LMICs. Our results show that in societies where partnerships are characterized by more equal status between spouses—that is, where the age range between spouses and differences in years of schooling between partners are narrower—children fare better on several outcomes. These associations are particularly strong in mid- and high-fertility settings. Despite a series of regularities, our results also highlight a set of findings whereby, at a macrolevel, the prevalence of marriage and divorce/separation are not invariably associated with children's outcomes, especially in LMICs where fertility is comparatively lower. We document little cross-regional heterogeneity, primarily highlighting the centrality of demographic factors such as age vis-à-vis, for instance, region-specific characteristics that are more tied to the social fabric of specific societies.
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TL;DR: In this article , the authors analyzed patterns of residential segregation for many nationalities in Barcelona and Madrid during the 2008-2018 period, and compared the results of global indices with the multilevel framework to provide a richer and more detailed profile of segregation patterns.
Abstract: This paper analyzes patterns of residential segregation for many nationalities in Barcelona and Madrid during the 2008–2018 period. In the first year, the financial bubble burst, halting the exponential growth of immigrants and in the second, after the great recession, the arrival of immigrant population resumes. The multilevel analysis for the dissimilarity index is applied for the first time to Spanish cities. Complementing the results of global indices with the multilevel framework provides a richer and more detailed profile of segregation patterns. Based on these results, a typology of segregation patterns by nationalities was carried out. Global indices show higher segregation in Madrid than in Barcelona, and multilevel results evidence increasing and extending areas of high concentration of immigrants and mixing neighbourhoods. The cluster analysis demonstrates that, in this case, segregation patterns are not the same for continents or income levels of countries of origin. The results provide nuanced empirical evidence of place stratification and ethnic enclave models.
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TL;DR: Greece's case study is intriguing as it has transitioned from an almost absolute lack of obstetric care, with the exception of the mostly untrained rural midwives known as mammis before the 1950s, to becoming one of the most highly medicalised countries in Europe by the end of the 20th century, succeeding very low levels of maternal mortality as discussed by the authors .
Abstract: Greece has been absent from the literature on maternal mortality in historical Europe, as very little evidence is yet available regarding maternal mortality patterns before the 1950s. The discontinuity in the collection and publication of demographic data in Greece, as well as the nonavailability of continuous national published statistics are the most important reasons for the lack of studies on maternal mortality. Therefore, this study aims to address this gap by utilising annual published statistics at the aggregate level, focusing primarily on the first half of the 20th century, while also making a significant contribution to the postwar period. The results of the study indicate a high incidence of maternal deaths in Greece, particularly in the northern—mostly rural and later annexed—regions of the country until the late 1930s. An important reason may be the lack of obstetric care in these areas. Although major urban centres were primarily served by qualified midwives by the mid-1920s, rural Greece had access only to untrained midwives due to the insufficient number of trained midwives that could cater the needs of the entire country. Other contributing factors may include the high prevalence of infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis and malaria in certain areas of the country, poor nutritional status throughout the country before the 1950s, low literacy rates, low living standards, and lack of public health infrastructures. Greece's case study is intriguing as it has transitioned from an almost absolute lack of obstetric care, with the exception of the mostly untrained rural midwives known as mammis before the 1950s, to becoming one of the most highly medicalised countries in Europe by the end of the 20th century, succeeding very low levels of maternal mortality.
TL;DR: The authors argued that newcomers from the cities largely superimpose their needs on the village in a way both ephemeral and removed from local people and village life, and argued that mechanisms should be developed to enhance the long-term confidence of newcomers, to encourage them to engage with community governance as a means of shaping the community and contributing more effectively to endogenous village revitalization.
Abstract: Stimulating counterurbanization has long been understood as a potential approach to revitalising rural areas. While well-established in many countries, in China, it is taking a particular time-limited form and characteristic dominated by issues of domicile and property rights. Rather than being characterised by long-term life choices, counterurbanization in China is predominantly a shorter-term leisure and tourism activity in which urbanites ‘curate’, for a limited period, a gentrified country lifestyle in accessible near-urban villages. These lifestyles are in some ways akin to second-home tourism. However, rather than purchase property as an investment, this new movement rents and renovates property as a consumption good with which to welcome other urbanites to visit, to consume and affirm these newly gentrified spaces and leisure opportunities. Based on a case study of Cenbu Village near Shanghai, this paper argues that current approaches to counterurbanization in China have limited impact on the revitalisation of local communities. Rather, newcomers from the cities largely superimpose their needs on the village in a way both ephemeral and removed from local people and village life. This comes about less as a mark of distain on the part of the incomers, and more as a result of their exclusion from key village institutions such as collective ownership, rights of domicile and ability to contribute to local governance. The paper concludes by arguing that mechanisms should be developed to enhance the long-term confidence of newcomers, to encourage them to engage with community governance as a means of shaping the community and contributing more effectively to endogenous village revitalisation.
TL;DR: In this article , the authors evaluate spatial inequalities and the degree of convergence in the distribution of human capital across areas in England and Wales during the second decade of the 21st century, using a newly constructed data set that allows the analysis of educational attainments at different levels of geography.
Abstract: In modern knowledge-based societies human capital is the single most important determinant of regional inequalities in productivity and standards of living. Using a newly constructed data set that allows the analysis of educational attainments at different levels of geography, this paper evaluates spatial inequalities and the degree of convergence in the distribution of human capital across areas in England and Wales during the second decade of the 21st century. Our results show this was a period characterised by a large increase in educational attainment and skill intensity. However, the growth in skill intensity was far from uniform across space. In particular, we find strong evidence of both absolute σ-divergence and β-convergence in the distribution of skills. Thus, even if low-skill areas grew on average more than other areas with higher skill intensity at the start of the period, the stochastic dominance analyses provide strong evidence of an unambiguous increase in absolute inequalities so that by end of the decade the skill gap between low- and high-skill areas had significantly widened. We present new spatial and aspatial evidence that sheds light on those inequalities and the changes in the spatial configuration of human capital over the last decade. Despite the implementation of policies aimed at reducing regional inequalities, many low skill areas struggled to attract talent so that the gap with most skilled areas widened over that period likely contributing to the persistence of the well-documented large spatial economic inequalities in this country.
TL;DR: Li et al. as discussed by the authors studied the role of social networks in the migration of highly skilled domestic migrants to Shenzhen, and found that the desire to be physically embedded in social networks has driven migrants to move to the city of Shenzhen.
Abstract: In China, the number of highly skilled domestic migrants has been growing significantly. Many highly skilled personnel have migrated to megacities located in eastern China. Through semistructured interviews with 54 highly skilled migrants in the city of Shenzhen, we find that economic incentives, urban amenities, preferential policies and social networks act as drivers for their migration. Because the role of social networks has been overlooked in the existing literature, we focus on this particular driver of migration. The desire to be physically embedded in social networks has driven migrants to move to Shenzhen: they cite proximity to parents, partners and former schoolmates as motivating factors. Such embeddedness provides them with a sense of ‘social affiliation’. While previous research has highlighted the role of migrants' social capital, we suggest that highly skilled migrants do not necessarily rely on this resource. Instead, we focus on what we call ‘migration for social affiliation’, and offer a novel angle on the precise role of migrants' social networks.
TL;DR: The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cities and the ways it has shaped the patterns of internal population movement in and out of cities has been studied in this article .
Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has potentially altered the system of population movement around the world. As COVID-19 hit cities the hardest in the wake of the pandemic, apocalyptic headlines anticipated the ‘death of cities’. Yet, little was known about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cities and the ways it has shaped the patterns of internal population movement in and out of cities. This virtual special issue aims to consolidate our knowledge of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on internal migration, discuss key lessons we have learnt so far, and identify areas for future enquiry. It brings together evidence from six different countries: Australia, Germany, Japan, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom, covering the pandemic in varying temporal lengths. Systematic patterns emerge. A first commonality is an overall reduction of internal migration rates during the early days of the pandemic but to a lesser degree than expected. Second, the impacts of COVID-19 leading to out-migration from cities seem to have been temporary, though evidence from Spain and Britain points to scarring effects with persistent losses in highly dense areas. Third, changes in internal migration generated small impacts on the population structure of cities but large-scale changes in small, rural and low-density areas.
TL;DR: The authors investigated whether six municipal-level factors important in understanding spatial variation in divorce are also associated with spatial variation of cohabiting unions (financial uncertainty, gender roles, religiosity, social ties, alternative opportunities and educational attainment).
Abstract: Research has shown considerable municipal-level variation in divorce rates within countries. Given the large increase in cohabitation over the past decades, this study examines whether similar differences can also be observed in the union dissolution risks of cohabitants. By investigating whether six municipal-level factors important in understanding spatial variation in divorce are also associated with spatial variation in the dissolution of cohabiting unions (financial uncertainty, gender roles, religiosity, social ties, alternative opportunities and educational attainment), this article aims to improve our understanding of municipal differences in the dissolution of cohabiting unions. This study is conducted on register data from Statistics Netherlands (2017–2018). For this study, unique union dissolution information per union type (marriage and cohabitation) is constructed for 355 Dutch municipalities. Nearly all explanatory factors are defined using publicly available municipal-level information. We use spatial lag regression models to analyse differences in municipal union dissolution risks for different union types. We find that municipal-level union dissolution risks of cohabiting and married couples are only moderately correlated, suggesting that the risk of union dissolution for cohabiting couples is not necessary high in municipalities with high divorce rates. Municipal-level indicators of social ties, religiosity and alternative opportunities are linked to municipal-level variation in union dissolution risks of married and cohabiting couples, whereas municipal-level variation in financial uncertainty and educational attainment are only linked to municipal-level variation in union dissolution risks of married couples.
TL;DR: The authors found that ethnic minority groups face disadvantage in the labour market, especially Pakistani and Bangladeshi women, and that these penalties are lessened in more deprived neighbourhoods or in more ethnically dense neighbourhoods, and suggested policies aimed at improving labour market outcomes for disadvantaged ethnic minorities should target them wherever they live.
Abstract: Existing research has extensively documented that those living in the most deprived neighbourhoods and individuals from some ethnic minority groups have low rates of labour market participation in the United Kingdom. This paper brings together these two established areas of research to ask whether ethnic minority groups have better employment participation when living in more deprived neighbourhoods. We hypothesise that this could be due to different socialisation processes enabling ethnic minorities to secure employment more easily in deprived neighbourhoods as well as in neighbourhoods where there is greater ethnic density. Data from the United Kingdom Household Longitudinal Study in England are linked to the Index of Multiple Deprivation 2014 and the 2011 Census to model unemployment and economic inactivity between 2009 and 2019 separately for women and men. The results show that some ethnic minority groups face disadvantage in the labour market, especially Pakistani and Bangladeshi women. There is little support to suggest that these penalties are lessened in more deprived neighbourhoods or in more ethnically dense neighbourhoods. There is some suggestion that groups who do not face ethnic penalties compared with the White British group have lower rates of unemployment and economic inactivity in more deprived neighbourhoods. We suggest policies aimed at improving labour market outcomes for disadvantaged ethnic minorities should target them wherever they live.
TL;DR: In this article , the authors investigate how human capital migration, occurring at different times of individual's life and across different regions, could mitigate the potential education mismatch, which is measured here from a multidimensional perspective by looking at overeducation, overskilling and satisfaction.
Abstract: Doctoral graduates represent the pinnacle of education. While the importance of increasing their number has been recognised by the Italian government and there has been a huge increase in the number of publicly funded PhD scholarships, doctoral graduates still struggle in the labour market to find employment commensurate with their skills and competencies. It is against this backdrop that the role of migration becomes crucial. Exploiting Italian microdata at the census level, this study aims to investigate how human capital migration, occurring at different ‘times’ of individual's life and across different regions, could mitigate the potential education–job mismatch, which is measured here from a multidimensional perspective by looking at overeducation, overskilling and satisfaction. Our findings reveal some positive effects of migration on reducing this mismatch. Moreover, the study highlights two relevant gaps, the first between domestic and foreign workers and the second between genders.
TL;DR: The authors examined the association between racial residential segregation and child mortality in the South at the turn of the 20th century and found that proportion Black and SIS were strongly and positively associated with the mortality of Black children.
Abstract: A growing body of research considers racial residential segregation to be a form of systemic racism and a fundamental cause of persistent racial disparities in health and mortality. Historical research examining the impact of segregation on health and mortality, however, is limited to a few studies with poor data and inconsistent results. In this study, we examine the association between racial residential segregation and child mortality in the South at the turn of the 20th century. We rely on the new IPUMS 1900 and 1910 complete-count databases to estimate child mortality in the 5 years before each census and construct segregation measures at the census enumeration district (ED), the lowest level of geography consistently available in the census. We calculate the proportion of households headed by Black individuals in each ED, and the Sequence Index of Segregation (SIS), which is based on the racial sequencing of household heads within each district. We construct models of child mortality for rural and urban areas, controlling for a wide variety of demographic and socioeconomic variables. The results indicate that proportion Black and SIS were strongly and positively associated with the mortality of Black children in most models and in both rural and urban areas. Proportion Black was also positively but more moderately correlated with the mortality of White children, while SIS was not correlated or negatively correlated. These results suggest that racial segregation was a long-standing fundamental cause of race disparities in health and mortality in the United States.
TL;DR: This article found that Ethiopian immigrants who are most similar to the native-born earn nearly identical wages to the most marginalized groups in both countries, and that country context plays only a small role in wage disparities.
Abstract: American immigration policy debates focus on immigrants' (lack of) labour market success. While research shows that Black African immigrants experience the largest wage disadvantage, studies rarely discuss whether country-context—formed by immigration policy and migration history—matters for their wages and whether race matters differently across place. We use Israeli and US data to determine whether Ethiopian immigrants are most disadvantaged across country contexts. Our results indicate that Ethiopian immigrants' credentials are higher in the United States, but that does not lead to higher relative wages than in Israel. Because we find that Ethiopian immigrants who are most similar to the native-born earn nearly identical wages to the most marginalized groups in both countries, it is clear that country context plays only a small role in wage disparities. Instead, discrimination and unobserved differences between groups are most important.
TL;DR: For example, this article found that older people were the least mobile group and that people living with children and in extended households were less likely to move to take care of others, unlike before the pandemic.
Abstract: Scholars have highlighted drastic reductions in daily mobility during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. But what happened when restrictions were relaxed though risk remained ubiquitous? How did patterns of mobility change and how were they structured by socioeconomic resources and social roles? We address these questions using a cross-sectional representative sample (n = 2942) of the population of Andalusia, Spain, after a month and a half of severe lockdown in 2020. We find that older people were the least mobile group and that people living with children and in extended households were less likely to move to take care of others, unlike before the pandemic. Men were more likely to carry out daily mobilities for which women had been traditionally responsible, such as care mobilities. Women were also more likely to be immobile and less likely to commute. Finally, manual and nonqualified workers were more likely to commute, but they were just as likely as any other group to carry out other types of mobility. These results highlight the social character of mobility in a unique context. We emphasize the need to disaggregate daily mobility based on different purposes as well analysing how these are practised by different sociodemographic groups if we want to provide rigorous descriptions of a core component of individuals' daily life.
TL;DR: Wang et al. as mentioned in this paper investigated how residential mobility affects place attachment based on a large-scale survey in Shanghai in 2021 and found that the processual residential mobility relays profound influences on place attachment at different geographical scales.
Abstract: With suburbanisation and gentrification becoming global phenomena, residential mobility has been incentivised and is extensively taken as a critical lens through which to understand the formation and variation of place attachment in different urban settings. Extant literature has suggested that the strength of place attachment is curvilinear across different geographical scales. However, limited research has investigated how processes and changes of residential mobility, embedded in different socioeconomic and structural settings, shape people's place attachment at the neighbourhood and city scales. To address this shortfall in the literature, this study employs a process-based perspective by reconciling past housing experiences with that of the present to investigate how residential mobility affects place attachment based on a large-scale survey in Shanghai in 2021. The findings show that the processual residential mobility relays profound influences on place attachment at different geographical scales. Specifically, homeownership secures residents' a privileged multi-scale attachment. Meanwhile, access to state welfare housing in the past and at present, as well as residential moves driven by individual needs are more likely to engender a single-scale attachment. Experiences with housing relocation and market rental exert negative influences on place attachment at both the city and neighbourhood scales. Both housing policy-related structural factors and socioeconomic status have led to marginalised residential mobility, consequently entailing a sense of ‘placelessness’ in urban China.
TL;DR: Zhang et al. as mentioned in this paper investigated the relationship between the frequency and intensity of people-environment interactions and the levels of environmental perception, as shown by the decreasing perception levels among stayers, returnees and outmigrants.
Abstract: Moving beyond the prior studies on destinations, this study identifies people's perceptions of and attachments to their places of origin to theoretically address how social groups defined by environmental experiences perceive the environment and how these perceptions affect their attachment. Villages in inland China are empirically examined as shared places of origin for stayers, outmigrants and returnees. This study confirms a positive relationship between the frequency and intensity of people-environment interactions and the levels of environmental perception, as shown by the decreasing perception levels among stayers, returnees and outmigrants. Environmental perception occurs when individuals selectively perceive environmental features that have special meaning to them in meeting their functional needs. Such selectivity leads to differences in the environmental perception variables that significantly affect group attachment. The village attachment of both outmigrants and stayers is significantly affected by their perception of socioeconomic environmental features, while the perception of physical environmental features is only significant for returnees. The strong impact of social environmental features on outmigrants’ level of attachment confirms the rootedness of such attachment to one's place of origin and challenges the belief that mobility and attachment to place are negatively related.
TL;DR: For instance, this paper found that a high parental socioeconomic status postpones women's age at leaving home in most Southern and Eastern European countries, where state support to young people is low and family ties are strong, whereas the association between parental SES and the age of leaving home is less clear in Western and Nordic countries.
Abstract: Leaving the parental home is a milestone in young people's transition to adulthood. The timing of leaving home varies greatly across European countries; however, evidence on the association between parental socioeconomic status (SES) and the age at leaving home in a comparative perspective is mixed, and subnational variation has received little attention. The module on the timing of life events included in Round 3 (2006) and 9 (2018) of the European Social Survey offers the opportunity to study how parental SES is associated with the age at leaving home, and how this association varies at the national and regional level for a sample of respondents born between the 1950s and the 1980s in 175 regions across 29 European countries. Results from three ‐ level linear regression models indicate that a high parental SES postpones women's age at leaving home in most Southern and Eastern European countries, where state support to young people is low and family ties are strong, whereas the association between parental SES and the age at leaving home is less clear ‐ cut in Western and Nordic countries. Between ‐ country variation in the association between parental SES and the age at home ‐ leaving prevails over within ‐ country variation, suggesting that the role of the parental background is country ‐ specific and that other unobserved factors may explain within ‐ country heterogeneity.
TL;DR: In this article , a transition estimation and projection (STEP) model is proposed to predict school enrolment in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) using cohort information on the sources of enrolment change (i.e., Preschool entries, within district transfers, in-migration, outmigration and year 12 graduates).
Abstract: Accurate school-level enrolment predictions are critical for local government and planners to allocate education-related resources and ensure necessary school infrastructure is provided. Although individual-level school census data are increasingly available for education departments, there is little evidence that these data are being used to improve school enrolment projections. This paper fills this methodological void by developing a School Transition Estimation and Projection (STEP) modelling framework. The STEP model simultaneously projects all schools in a city or region by all academic levels (e.g., Preschool to Year 12) and across three school sectors (Public, Catholic and Independent) using cohort information on the sources of enrolment change (i.e., Preschool entries, within district transfers, in-migration, out-migration, Year 12 graduates) and their trends over time. In this paper, we present the model and its application to schools in the Australian Capital Territory. We also show how the model greatly increases the capacity to understand and predict enrolment change, while increasing efficiency and reducing bias.
TL;DR: In this article , a life-course measure of the legal pattern that accounts for the overall legal pattern over the lifetime of migration is proposed, and two main pathways to labour market outcomes are explored: selecting into legal patterns associated with different levels of labor market outcomes and realising different labour market outcome within each pattern.
Abstract: This article proposes a life-course measure of the legal pattern that accounts for the overall legal pattern over the lifetime of migration and explores the two main pathways to labour market outcomes: selecting into legal patterns associated with different levels of labour market outcomes and realising different labour market outcomes within each pattern. Results suggest that labour market outcomes depend on which legal patterns migrants end up with instead of what they realise within each pattern. Particularly, migrants with more human capital and better social capital select into legal patterns associated with better labour market outcomes, but they do not realise better labour market outcomes given the legal patterns they experienced. From the dynamic perspective, the economic integration of migrants depends on legal patterns. Migrants in legal patterns that initiate with temporary resident status experience economic integration over time. The growth rate is larger for the patterns that involve a transition in legal status. This paper makes important contributions to the literature. First, it identifies holistic legal patterns that account for the legal status over migrants' entire migration history. Second, it sheds light on the selection into different legal patterns and highlights selection as the major process in explaining migrants' labour market outcomes. Third, it shows how legal patterns, jointly shaped by initial legal status and legal transition, determine migrants' economic integration. Finally, the inclusion of temporary resident status, beyond the illegal–legal dichotomy, enriches our understanding of how liminal legality over the lifetime of migration shapes labour market outcomes.
TL;DR: In this paper , the authors analyzed the residential segregation of the African immigrants from a triple perspective of age, period, and cohort for the six main Spanish cities and revealed a significant differentiation in segregation levels by sex and age, with lower rates in more recent cohorts.
Abstract: The composition of the immigrant population by gender and age, and characteristics at the moment of arrival plays an influential role in the levels of residential segregation reached, and in their evolution over time. In Spain, the African immigrant population is notable for a marked gender imbalance, where men outnumber women, and for continuous growth in the number of immigrants over the past two decades. It is also one of the groups presenting the highest levels of segregation. Using data from the Continuous Population Register, this study analyses the residential segregation of this group from the triple perspective of age, period, and cohort for the six main Spanish cities. The results reveal a significant differentiation in segregation levels by sex and age, with lower rates in the more recent cohorts. This perspective offers a dynamic view of segregation indicators and enables better understanding of its future evolution.
TL;DR: Wang et al. as discussed by the authors found that migrating into Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen has been positively associated with earnings attainment, and the economic benefit from relocation is greater than that experienced by migrants elsewhere in the system.
Abstract: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, as the major metropolitan areas in China, offer good opportunities for economic and social mobility for in-migrants. As such, these four locations have become the primary employment destinations for recent college graduates. Meanwhile, these cities have the most stringent hukou policies nationwide, which play a key role in the urban labour market segmentation between local residents and in-migrants. Using three waves of data from a nationally representative survey, the China College Student Survey (2010, 2013, and 2015), this paper, for the first time, examined whether Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen have emerged as an ‘upward social class escalator region’ for young adults in China. After accounting for observed demographic and human capital characteristics and migrant selectivity, migrating into Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen has been found to be positively associated with earnings attainment, and the economic benefit from relocation is greater than that experienced by migrants elsewhere in the system. However, in-migrants to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen have fewer opportunities to enter government organisations and public enterprises. These results cast doubt on the potential for Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen to act as escalators for individuals wishing to achieve all-around upwards social mobility in China's urban labour market. The local hukou barrier may still be a salient factor in shaping migrants' labour market outcomes in China. This study contributes to existing knowledge on escalator theory by providing empirical evidence from an emerging market country, China. More importantly, it shed light on the role of location (such as large urban centres) in the complicated relationship between social mobility and migration.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors analyse three specific pandemic consequences: income and financial remittance volatility, dual country or transnational precarity and physical and migration status immobility.
Abstract: COVID-19 has brought a combination of health, socioeconomic and protection challenges to migrants everywhere, and a common view is that these effects have been harshest for those already in vulnerable situations before the pandemic. However, the lived experiences of Filipino irregular migrant domestic workers (IMDWs) in the Netherlands point to a range of impacts instead of a homogenous one. Drawing on interviews and participant observations, we analyse three specific pandemic consequences: income and financial remittance volatility, dual country or transnational precarity and physical and migration status immobility. We then analyse the resilience strategies deployed by IMDWs to navigate through such impacts. While our focus is on the microlevel, we also highlight the vital importance of the responses by the community on the mesolevel, and the government on the macrolevel. Following this relational approach, we put forward a conceptualisation of individual resilience as the capacity to navigate the negative impacts of a shock or crisis to maintain, adapt, or transform valued functionings. We argue that IMDWs cultivate resilience despite their precarious legal status;however, the effectiveness of strategies is contingent on personal circumstances as well as the sociopolitical context wherein they are deployed. The paper contributes to the literature by providing a more nuanced picture of the impacts of and responses to COVID-19 in relation to migrants with irregular status. The articulation of resilience in terms of valued functionings also paves the way for the advancement of the still nascent research agenda on migration and human development.
TL;DR: In this paper , the authors analyse responses to two open-text questions on the best and worst aspect of living in the Northern Territory and find that over 3500 valid responses were analysed using machine learning-based unsupervised topic modeling which uncovered latent clusters.
Abstract: Many rural areas experience population stagnation or decline from out-migration with corresponding economic downturns. This is the case for the Northern Territory in Australia, a vast and sparsely populated jurisdiction. Its government has long sought to encourage stronger population growth but its population is young and highly transient, leading to high staff turn-overs and challenges for industries and government to attract families and skilled workers. Place-based factors such as job opportunities, access to essential services or environmental amenities influence satisfaction and migration decisions. The aim of this study was to understand why people might stay or move away through analysing responses to two open-text questions on the best and worst aspect of living in the Northern Territory. Over 3500 valid responses were analysed using machine learning-based unsupervised topic modelling which uncovered latent clusters. Forty-four percent of positive aspects were clustered into lifestyle factors, while negative aspects clustered around high living costs and crime. Some aspects, such as the weather and distance to other places were discussed as both positive and negative aspects. Topics discussed by respondents could be directly related to their intention to leave the Northern Territory, and also to specific individual's demographic characteristics providing insights for policies focused on attracting and retaining population. The use of unsupervised text mining in population research is rare and this study verifies its use to deliver objective and nuanced results generated from a large qualitative data set.
TL;DR: The authors argue for a more holistic "migration-care-development" nexus that foregrounds unsustainable disruptions to care economies, highlighting the need for "decent care" policies to address care deficits in support of sustainable and gender-equitable development.
Abstract: Highly-restrictive temporary labour migration schemes are commonplace throughout the Indo-Pacific region and continue to expand amid sustained policy enthusiasm for ‘migration-development’. Yet, the developmental benefits of guestworker schemes are routinely evaluated according to narrow economic criteria, with little consideration given to transnational family separation and the displacement of socially reproductive labour that sustains everyday life. ‘Migration’, ‘development’ and ‘care’ are deeply interlinked political economic processes, yet they have been theorised in partial isolation. We challenge this analytical disconnect, situating the developmental implications of guestworker migration in relation to the total social organisation of labour, and argue for a more holistic ‘migration-care-development' nexus that foregrounds unsustainable disruptions to care economies. We ground our framework in the context of Australia's Pacific Labour Scheme to illustrate the developmental consequences for Pasifika households and communities, highlighting the need for ‘decent care’ policies to address care deficits in support of sustainable and gender-equitable development.
TL;DR: The authors found evidence of racial, ethnic, and age disparities in exposure to hurricane flooding and wind impacts, highlighting not only the uneven burden of risk placed on those unable or unwilling to move, but also the structural privilege that enables the white population to remain in place even in the face of increased hurricane damage risk.
Abstract: Hurricanes have proven to be one of the most deadly and costly natural hazards in the Gulf and Atlantic coast regions of the United States. Looming climate change and increasing population in coastal areas means these hazards could become even more devastating in the future. This paper first develops estimates of areas most impacted by hurricane flooding and wind damage and then assesses the generalised patterns of demographic change in those at-risk locations, disaggregating by both race and age to account for the complex shifts in demographic composition that have occurred over the past five decades. We find evidence of racial, ethnic, and age disparities in exposure to hurricane flooding and wind impacts. Our results highlight not only the uneven burden of risk placed on those unable or unwilling to move, but also the structural privilege that enables the white population to remain in place, even in the face of increased hurricane damage risk.
TL;DR: In this article , the authors explored why Chinese nationals move to the United Kingdom and continue to stay there illegally, even in recent years, when China has witnessed significant economic growth and United Kingdom has been increasingly hostile towards irregular migrants.
Abstract: This article explores why Chinese nationals move to the United Kingdom and continue to stay there illegally, even in recent years, when China has witnessed significant economic growth and the United Kingdom has been increasingly hostile towards irregular migrants. Using a biographical approach to study irregular migration, this article elicits migrants' life histories and considers their migration as part of their biographies and as related to other key life events. By reconstructing the biographies of three irregular Chinese migrants in the United Kingdom, this article argues that their migration is a way to escape from personal sufferings (negative childhood experiences and intimate relationship dissolutions) and a means of orienting themselves in a mobile social world. This article provides new insights into the field of irregular migration that remains dominated by economic rationalist perspectives, and it also helps to undermine the artificial dichotomy between voluntary and forced migration.