Immigration Article of the Day: Three Emergent Migrations: An Epochal Change by Saskia Sassen
Three Emergent Migrations: An Epochal Change by Saskia Sassen, Columbia University – Department of Sociology, July 7, 2016
Abstract: New types of migratory flows are emerging, and they should not be confused with long established ones. Examining migrant flows at their outset allows us to better understand the complex dynamics behind them. They tell us something about a larger mix of conditions that will only continue to grow, from new types of war and violence to massive losses of habitat. They invite us to recognise these larger structural conditions rather than just the existence of these flows themselves. Here Saskia Sassen analyses three new, and each very different, migrant flows, specifically:
(1) unaccompanied minors from Central America that head to the United States of America;
(2) the surge in Rohingyas, a Muslim minority fleeing from Myanmar; and
(3) the migration towards Europe originating mostly in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and several African countries, notably Eritrea and Somalia.
While often it is households that play the crucial role in producing an economic calculus that allocates particular family members to the migration option, Sassen notes that these flows are different. They emerge from sharply delineated conditions operating, respectively, at the city level, at the regional level, and at a global geopolitical level.
KJ