GEOG20011 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Immigration, Cosmopolitanism, Cultural Capital
16 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
LECTURE 8: MIGRATION AND INEQUALITIES
• International migration – presented as two broad extremes
o By the highly advantaged or disadvantaged
MIGRATION
• Migration: Movement from one place or resident to another (usually between countries)
• Crossing a boundary, and staying put
• Framed geographically, from a transgression of stable places, an exceptional rupture in a
normal settled life
MOBILITY
• Mobility: movements of people and associated flow of tangible and intangible resources
• Movement over any distance, for any length of time – not necessarily an end destination
• Framed economically, socially and culturally, as a normal and meaningful social activity
• Less about nation-state view, more the individual as the centre of analysis
Mobility and Class
• Hypermobilities of the Super-rich
• Have financial resources and social and cultural capital to establish themselves in different places
• But living within small complexes – spatially and socially contained
Middle Class Mobility
• Education
• Work – extent of travel for work (how has this changed in the last 50 years)
• Social – retirement or family
Middle Class Cosmopolitanism
• Cosmopolitanism historically associated with elites
• But poorer and middle classes also develop cosmopolitan identities
o Multiple skills, experience and knowledge
• New academic focus on ordinary cosmopolitans
Scale of Mobility and Migration
• At different spatial scales: intercontinental, intracontinental, interregional
• Over different temporal scales: sudden onset or slow trickle, seasonal, yearly
Patterns of Movement
• Majority of migrants move within own countries
• Half of worlds international migrants come from 20 (largely industrialised) countries, with the largest number (21%) coming
from new EU countries
• Most internal migrants are economic migrants – for work or better economic opportunities
• < 10% of worlds international migrants are refugees (political migrants)
• Extreme events displace people (conflict, environmental)
DRIVERS OF MIGRATION
Economic
• Majority of migrants move within their own country
• Most internal migrants are economic migrants – in search for works
• Rarely a simple shift from A to B – involves complex spatial and temporal scales
Mobility in India
• Rural – urban migration
• Mobility has long been part of a suite of livelihood strategies
• Increasing attention to impact of rural-urban mobility
o Impact on the urban
o Impact on those left behind
• Decisions made as a family – individual leaves to earn money to send home
Regional Mobility
Lecture Outline
• Migration v mobility
• Mobility and Class
• Scale and patterns
• Drivers of mobility:
o Economic
o Political
o Environmental
Inseparable Economic/Political
drivers
• Migration/mobility never about
a single driver
• Journey from A to B is rarely
direct – often partial, repeated
• Risks of journey
• Destination often does not offer
the safety imagined
Document Summary
International migration presented as two broad extremes: by the highly advantaged or disadvantaged. Migration: migration: movement from one place or resident to another (usually between countries) Framed geographically, from a transgression of stable places, an exceptional rupture in a normal settled life. Lecture outline: migration v mobility, mobility and class. Scale and patterns: drivers of mobility, economic, political, environmental. Mobility: mobility: movements of people and associated flow of tangible and intangible resources, movement over any distance, for any length of time not necessarily an end destination. Framed economically, socially and culturally, as a normal and meaningful social activity. Less about nation-state view, more the individual as the centre of analysis. Mobility and class: hypermobilities of the super-rich, have financial resources and social and cultural capital to establish themselves in different places, but living within small complexes spatially and socially contained. Middle class mobility: work extent of travel for work (how has this changed in the last 50 years)
