The thesis analyses the discursive construction of migrants’ identities through their native language communications, using Russian-speaking migration in the UK as the case study. Material from internet forums these migrants were engaged in the years 2002-2005 forms the basis of this research. The project is concerned with the question of how Russian-speaking migrants, faced with the process of accustoming themselves to a new place of residence (UK), re-negotiate the Self, their homeland (in both real geographical terms and metaphorically through their cultural affiliations) and the Other. This study draws on theories from a range of research perspectives including hermeneutics, discourse analysis, cultural studies, and ethnography. The theoretical framework developed in this thesis combines Foucault’s analysis of discourse with Lotman’s model of dialogue between cultures. The thesis also develops sampling techniques for virtual data. By examining how the dichotomy Russia vs. Europe/the West is imagined in the researched data, this study argues that the concept of Europeanism obtains positive associations, while the concept of the West retains its ambiguity for Russian-speaking migrants. The thesis identifies Europeanism as a discursive object of knowledge and examines its categorizations. The study identifies kul`tura and tsivilizatsia as grids of specifications of Europeanism, and investigates Self/Other dialectics attached to the object of knowledge. Finally, the thesis analyses the dynamics of cultural appropriation under influences of the host context, and elaborates on semiotic “translation” of new phenomena.

Cette recherche doctorale constitue un essai de systématisation de l'analyse de la communauté ivoirienne en Hexagone afin de comprendre d’une part, les logiques agissantes dans la structuration de celle-ci à travers le fait associatif et d’autre part, rendre intelligible le processus de diasporisation auquel elle est confrontée. Pour le dire autrement, il s’agit d’interroger la dynamique diasporique au prisme du mouvement associatif ivoirien en Île-de-France afin de déceler les logiques sur lesquelles repose la fragmentation de ce champ associatif. Les analyses ont été menées sur la base d’une combinaison des approches quantitatives et qualitatives. De cette démarche, il ressort que la fragmentation du champ associatif et l’émergence d’un inconscient diasporique dans la communauté ivoirienne en Île-de-France relève d’un même processus de construction identitaire dont l’enjeu repose sur une quête d’une visibilité aussi bien dans le milieu d’installation que dans celui d’origine. / This PhD research is an essay about systemization of the analysis of the Ivorian community in France, in order to understand, first the active logic inside structure within associative actions, and second, to make intelligible the diaspora process which the community faces.This means to question the diaspora dynamism at the heart of the Ivorian associative movement in Paris area in order to detect the logic upon which the breaking up of such an associative field lies. Studies have been led on a principle, which is the combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches. According to the research, the fragmentation of the associative field and the emergence of diaspora unawareness among the Ivorian community in the Paris area belong the same process, which is the establishment of an identity whose stakes lie upon a quest of visibility at the same time, at the center of the settings and at the source.

Les décideurs politiques, appelés à gérer les relations entre les migrants, les communautés qu’ils créent et la population des pays d’accueil, répondent en élaborant différentes politiques d’intégration selon leur histoire démographique, leurs modèles d’incorporation, ainsi que leurs conditions contingentes. Mais, en dépit des déclarations d’intention, ces politiques se configurent plutôt comme des mécanismes de gestion des migrants. En effet plusieurs États soumettent l’acquisition de la nationalité à la réussite de tests évaluant les compétences en langue et les connaissances en éducation civique. Cependant une société démocratique doit adopter des politiques qui garantissent la cohésion sociale : la réalisation de ce but implique une approche intégrationniste qui met en cause les droits et les responsabilités des migrants et des sociétés d’accueil. Les migrants se définissent comme un groupe vulnérable en raison de leur condition de faiblesse. D’ailleurs ils doivent investir beaucoup d’énergie pour reconfigurer leur propre identité et pendant ce passage, le soutien public s’avère fondamental. La société d’accueil ne doit pas se limiter à reconnaître l’existence de la diversité, mais elle doit être éduquée à celle-ci, afin de développer une attitude positive à l’égard de l’inconnu. Le processus d’insertion passe par la nécessité de franchir la barrière linguistique : la définition de langue retenue fait référence tout particulièrement à sa fonction de vecteur pour l’accès à l’univers des comportements et des valeurs d’une communauté linguistique. Seul l’exercice de la citoyenneté active favorise l’autonomisation et le développement d’un sentiment d’appartenance. / The phenomenon of migration represents an important dimension of the social transformations and it constitutes a complex reality which has many consequences of historical-political, socio-legal and linguistic-cultural nature.The immigrant, often pushed by a condition of severe poverty, loses his points of reference, social recognition, the sense of autonomy assimilated in a lifetime, his own identity. All these factors put immigrant in a condition of extreme weakness. The danger for the immigrant is to be relegated to the margins of society and to be a victim of segregation and marginalization.The insertion and integration process in the new social reality is accompanied, at all levels, by the need to learn the language. This need, in fact, coincides not only with the understanding of the structure and grammatical rules, but it also refers to the need to understand the vision of the world and culture of a linguistic community. The organisation of language training is complex due to different ideologies based on national policies, territorial subdivision of courses, variety of situations and needs of the recipients, or different organization of the training, etc.The integration of immigrants is a matter to be treated with great caution, because it has an immediate impact on the political and economic level and because it directly impacts the social structure of States. The toughest challenge for national Governments is to find a balance between respect and enhancement of culture and the language of origin of the immigrant and the need to learn the culture and language of the host country.

This thesis explores how second and 1.5-generation migrants of Peruvian origin living in Turin identify themselves. The results show that second and 1.5-generation migrants have complex and multi-identities. They see themselves as Italians, Peruvians, Turinese, citizens of the world and Latinos/as and are mostly categorized as Peruvians, Italians and foreigners. From the study emerged that place of birth and age at arrival are crucial variables that affect their self-identification, while phenotype and language play an essential role in their ascribed identity. Nevertheless, second and 1.5-generation migrants are challenging the mainstream and traditional idea of what it means to be Italian connected to appearance. Italian citizenship is not an essential factor that influences their identity, even though it has the function of validating a pre-existing identity. This study contributes to increasing the academic knowledge regarding the identity of a specific group of youth of migrant origin living in a defined place.

The principle of non-discrimination is recognised as vital to the human rights field. In May 2013 the Swedish parliament passed a law that provides undocumented migrants the same limited health care as asylum seekers. In relation, the Swedish Red Cross in a partnership with Malmö University created and distributed a questionnaire amongst Swedish politicians, that in part pertains to this law and also the situation of undocumented migrants’ right to health care.In applying the perspective of non-discrimination, legal challenges to undocumented migrants’ access to health care in Sweden, and the political attitudes surrounding this issue are duly examined. This produces the observation that the non-discrimination principle’s application is of relevant use. In concluding that the legislation examined fails to meet international standards regarding the principle of non-discrimination and the right to health care for undocumented migrants, it provides examples to illustrate that this conclusion is not necessarily representative of the views held by the selected group of politicians included in the twofold questionnaire study.

Yes / In early 2021, over 5 million European Union (EU) citizens had applied for settled status to secure their right to continue to live, work and study in the United Kingdom (UK) after the country’s withdrawal from the EU (Brexit). In 2018, the Home Office launched a Statement of Intent to implement an application process for EU citizens through its EU Settlement Scheme. In the period leading to Brexit, the UK government assured EU migrants that their existing rights under EU law will remain essentially unchanged, and that applying for the settled status will be smooth, transparent and simple. However, the application process has resulted in some long-term residents failing to obtain settled status, despite providing the required information. Based on qualitative in-depth interviews with 20 EU migrants living in 2 major metropolitan areas in North East England, this article discusses the significant barriers which EU citizens face with the application process. This situation affects especially the most vulnerable EU migrants with limited English language skills and/or low literacy levels as well as those who are digitally excluded. This study contributes to the growing body of research on the consequences of Brexit to vulnerable EU migrants in the UK, focusing specifically on Central and Eastern European migrants.

Yes / This study investigates the employment transition among Vietnamese skilled migrants in Australia and examines the cultural factors that influence this transition. Employing a qualitative approach, we conducted fifty semi-structured interviews with Vietnamese skilled migrants who migrated to Australia within the last five years and twelve interviews with Australian recruiters to gain further insights into the barriers skilled migrants face. The findings highlighted the cultural challenges encountered by Vietnamese skilled migrants as they moved from Vietnam to Australia, two countries of great cultural distance. Without cultural adaptation support, most skilled migrants had to experience career setbacks before recognising and devising strategies to overcome these hurdles. This study emphasises the need for specialised human resource management (HRM) interventions and strategies that account for the cultural dimensions influencing employment outcomes for this international mobile workforce. Additionally, it calls for future research to expand beyond the examination of skilled migrants’ human and social capital and incorporate various contextual factors in investigating the employment journey of skilled migrants.

This study is aimed to increase the knowledge about the Swedish immigration authorities’ assessment of the asylum applications based on particularly distressing circumstances, submitted by disabled undocumented migrants. Making an attempt to explain the reasons of asylum-seekers’ health deterioration during the asylum process, this study determines the factors in migration authorities proceedings affecting such deterioration. Documents in five personal files concerning six disabled asylum-seekers, whose applications were declined, were studied by applying two observational methods: content analysis of the documents in the personal files and non-participant observations made during receptions of undocumented migrants at the Swedish Asylum Committee. The results of the study have shown that migration authorities' way of applying the principle of child’s best interests have a declarative character, while the disability perspective is completely ignored. The migrations authorities make free interpretations of the information on the countries of asylum-seekers' origin, while adaptation to Swedish conditions does not work at all as cause for residence permit. Advocates, who neglect their prior duties, have also a negative influence on the asylum process. Analyzed from the perspective of appropriate sociological concepts, the results of this study have shown that the above mentioned observations cause disabled undocumented migrants health deterioration.

This thesis examines the lived experience of economic migration of young and degree level educated migrants from Poland to Britain. The main aim is to explore how the participants of economic migration within the borders of the European Union experience migrating. The special feature of this migration is the fact that they leave a postcommunist country and come to a country with a well established capitalist economy and long-standing democracy. The particular questions are: how these migrants construct their experience of migrating, are they faced with any problems while doing it, and if so - how do they resolve them? The data comes from twenty-two semi-structured interviews with migrants educated to degree level who were residents and worked in one of the regions of England at a professional level or below their qualifications (manual or simple clerical work). The research utilises the critical discourse analysis perspective; the data is approached with analysis focused on linguistic choices (lexical and grammatical) evident in the respondents’ statements. This kind of analysis enables observation and in-depth interpretation of the way experiences of migrating are constructed. The migrants’ narratives were full of discursive struggle while constructing their experience of migrating. Firstly, the interviewees made an effort to present their migration as rational. Secondly, they were trying to rationalise their financial needs to refute accusations of greed for money. Thirdly, the underemployed migrants justified their employment choices by distancing themselves from work below that which they were qualified for. Fourthly, the interviewees were making an attempt to withdraw from a multicultural community by constructing the negative Other. Exploring lived experience of living and working abroad reveals competitive discourses and ways of coping with ambivalence. Understanding these discursive practices requires knowledge of their beliefs and values that underpin the discourses available in the Polish postcommunist society. Overall, the narratives overflowed with dilemmas that showed this migration as more complicated on an individual level than the official discourse of free movement of people in the EU suggests. This thesis captures the migrants’ lived experience within one year after the EU enlargement; it reflects on the narratives being shaped when migrants were given the opportunity to introduce the new discourses on migration or re-think the old ones as a result of new macro-processes in the European Union. This research complements other studies exploring migrants’ voices in search of insight into what their experiences were and how they made sense out of them. However, with the methodology used, it focuses more on uncovering the struggle over arguments available to build their stories. It offers explanation to their discursive practices by analysing them against the discourses as being products of postcommunism. The study’s results may shed more light on recent processes within this group of migrants and also inform institutional policy and practice about problems affecting members of this group, reported in this thesis.

Titre de l'écran-titre (visionné le 12 février 2024) / Au fil des dernières décennies, un virage majeur s'est opéré dans les politiques migratoires canadiennes, marquant le passage d'une approche principalement fondée sur l'immigration permanente vers un système de plus en plus axé sur la migration temporaire. Ce virage a favorisé la production d'un vaste bassin de migrant$.$es considéré$.$es comme « temporaires » sur le territoire, et par conséquent comme « extérieur$.$es » à la population nationale. Assigné$.$es à une position sociale subordonnée, dans laquelle leurs droits sont limités, les migrant$.$es temporaires sont particulièrement vulnérables aux abus, aux violences et à l'exploitation en milieu de travail. Malgré ce contexte défavorable, ils et elles s'engagent dans diverses formes de contestation et d'action collective, visant à défendre leurs droits et à transformer leurs conditions. Le présent mémoire s'intéresse à ces résistances, en éclairant la manière par laquelle les travailleur$.$ses migrant$.$es en viennent à agir politiquement au Canada, ainsi que la manière par laquelle ces expériences du politique sont vécues. À partir d'un terrain mené au Centre des travailleurs et travailleuses immigrants (CTI), il met en lumière l'émergence et le développement de processus de subjectivation politique des travailleur$.$ses migrant$.$es qui s'impliquent dans ce centre, en adoptant une perspective centrée sur une dialectique entre les pôles individuel et collectif de ce phénomène. Ainsi, l'analyse éclaire différentes pratiques quotidiennes et relations sociales qui favorisent la subjectivation politique des travailleur$.$ses migrant$.$es, parmi lesquelles la pratique du « casework » joue un rôle central. Ces expériences transformatrices, mais aussi la culture de soutien mutuel, d'entraide et de convivialité qui caractérise le Centre, ont pour effet ultime l'institution d'une communauté politique dynamique de travailleur$.$ses migrant$.$es, qui se transforme au gré des contributions de certain$.$es de ses membres, particulièrement de ceux et celles ayant une riche expérience militante ancrée dans leur pays d'origine. / Over the last decades, a major shift occurred in Canadian migration policies, marking a transition from an approach mainly based on permanent immigration to a system increasingly focused on temporary migration. This shift produces a large group of migrants deemed "temporary" on the territory, and therefore "foreign" to the national population. Confined to a subordinate social position with limited rights, temporary migrants are particularly vulnerable to abuse, violence, and exploitation in workplaces. Despite this adverse context, they engage in various forms of protest and collective action to defend their rights and transform their conditions. This thesis sheds light on such resistances, by exploring how migrant workers come to act politically in Canada, and how these political actions are experienced. Drawing on a field study at the Immigrant Workers Centre (IWC), it analyzes the emergence and development of political subjectivation processes among migrant workers involved in this center. Doing so, it adopts a perspective centered on a dialectic between the individual and collective poles of this phenomenon. The analysis highlights various everyday practices and social relationships that foster political subjectivation among migrant workers, including the central practice of "casework." These transformative experiences, as well as the culture of mutual aid and conviviality that characterizes the Center, ultimately result in the institution of a dynamic political community of migrant workers. This community is constantly evolving in response to individual members' contributions, especially from members who have a strong activist background rooted in their home countries.