Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2000. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The migratory flow of Africans to South Africa form the north of Africa was restrained until the early 1990's. Before this period the political ideology of apartheid discriminated against African immigrants, while favouring the migration of people of European descent. Although numerous studies have drawn attention to the implications of the influx of African immigrants to South Africa and their socio-economic adaptation, not much research has been done on reasons for international migration as provided by the migrant. The demographic and economic implications of African migration not only dominate most of the work in this field, but it even seems to be the only concern of researchers investigating international immigration of Africans. The study focuses on factors underlying the decision of African immigrants to migrate to South Africa and who choose Cape Town as their place of destination. Data from in-depth interviews are analysed to determine the motivations for migration to Cape Town. Attention is being paid to the circumstances in the migrants' home countries that motivated their decision to emigrate, the role of social networks in providing information regarding the choice of destination and migration routes, the obstacles they encountered, their adaptation in Cape Town and their perceptions of Cape Town as a place of permanent residence. From the literature review on reasons for migration, is emerges that there are two dominant theoretical approaches (i.e. macro and micro theories) for explaining why international migration begins. The macro theories focus on migration stream, identifying the conditions under which large-scale movements take place and describing the demographic, economic and social characteristics of the migrants in aggregate terms. Micro theories focus on the socio-psychological factors that differentiate migrants from non-migrants, together with theories of motivation, decision-making, satisfaction and identification. Although each theory ultimately seeks to explain the same phenomenon, they employ different concepts, assumptions and frames of reference. The various explanations offered are not necessarily contradictory in nature but are, in fact, a reflection of how social realities could be studied and understood from various angles. This study employs an eclectic approach by using insights from both macro and micro levels of analysis. The study also considers the appropriateness of a qualitative research design in researching specific aspects of migration and employs a qualitative case study method. This method allows for a deeper reflection on the part of the individual on factors responsible for their decision to move. Semi-structured in-depth interviews have been conducted with four African immigrants in the central business district of Cape Town. The study found that in certain instances the immigrants migrate for different reasons, but under similar circumstances. It emerged from the case material that the same issues sometimes hold different significance for each migrant. One aspect shared by all four immigrants, is that it seems that circumstances in their countries of origin forced them to move and that they did have much of a choice - their lives were threatened. Their relatively high level of training and access to funding most probably assisted them in their move. Those people in not such a favourable position are left behind. The study also found that exchange and free flow of information and social networks directs destination of movement, rather than determine whether migration takes place. However, the information immigrants receive is not always correct and tends not to focus on the negative aspects of immigration. Once in Cape Town the immigrants felt isolated, experienced prejudice, and suffered hostility and discrimination at the hands of South Africans. It appears that many South Africans do not distinguish between asylum seekers, refugees and economic migrants. The common denominator of their "foreignness" appears to be all that is necessary for many to harbour negative attitudes. Xenophobia not only manifests itself in negative attitudes, but also increasingly in victimisation against the immigrants. Because of these factors and the problems they experience in finding jobs where they can apply their skills, the immigrants indicated that they do not intend staying permanently in South Africa. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die migrasie van inwoners van die noorde van Afrika na Suid-Afrika was tot die vroeë 1990s relatief beperk. Voor hierdie tydperk het die politieke ideologie van apartheid gediskrimineer teen inwoners van die res van Afrika, terwyl die migrasie van Europeërs aangemoedig is. Alhoewel verskeie studies die aandag gevestig het op die sosio-ekonomiese aanpassing en die implikasies van die invloei van immigrante uit Afrika na Suid- Afrika, bestaan daar weinige navorsing oor die redes vir internasionale migrasie soos verskaf deur die migrant self. Die demografiese en ekonomiese implikasies van immigrasie domineer nie slegs die meeste van die werk in hierdie verband nie, maar blyk ook die enigste besorgdheid te wees van navorsers wat die internasionale migrasie van Afrikane bestudeer. Die studie fokus op onderliggende faktore wat immigrante uit Afrika motiveer om na Suid-Afika te immigreer en Kaapstad as bestemming kies. Data van indiepte onderhoude word ontleed ten einde die motiverings vir migrasie na Kaapstad vas te stel. Aandag word gegee aan die omstandighede in die migrante se lande van oorsprong, die rol van sosiale netwerke in die verskaffing van inligting oor die keuse van 'n bestemming en migrasieroetes, die struikelblokke langs die pad, hulle aanpassing in Kaapstad en hulle persepsies oor Kaapstad as 'n permanente bestemming. Dit blyk uit die literatuuroorsig oor redes vir migrasie dat daar twee dominante teoretiese benaderings (makro en mikro benaderings) vir die verduideliking van internasionale migrasie bestaan. Die makro benaderings fokus op migrasiestroom en identifiseer die omstandighede waaronder grootskaaaise bewegings plaasvind en beskryf ook die demografiese, ekonomiese en sosiale eienskappe van die migrante in groepsverband. Daar teenoor fokus mikro teorieë op die sosiaal-sielkundige faktore wat migrante van nie-migrante onderskei, tesame met teorieë oor motivering, besluitneming, bevrediging en identifikasie. Alhoewel elke teorie uiteindelik dieselfde verskynsel verduidelik, word verskillende konsepte, aannames en verwysingsraamwerke toegepas. Hierdie studie gebruik 'n eklektiese benadering waarin insigte uit beide mikro- en makrovlak ontledings gebruik word. Die studie oorweeg ook die geskiktheid van 'n kwalitaitiewe navorsingsontwerp vir die bestudering van spesifieke aspekte van migrasie en maak gebruik van 'n kwalitatiewe gevallestudie metode. Die metode fasiliteer 'n dieper refleksie van individue betreffende die faktore wat bygedra het tot hulle besluit om te migreer. Semi-gestruktureerde indiepte onderhoude is met vier immigrante gevoer. Daar is vasgestel dat immigrante oor verskillende redes migreer, maar onder dieselfde omstandighede. Uit die materiaal van die gevallestudies blyk dit dat dieselfde kwessies partykeer uiteenlopende betekenis vir elke migrant het. Een aspek wat deur al vier immigrante gedeel word, is die feit dat omstandighede in hulle lande van herkoms hulle forseer het om te migreer - hulle lewens is bedreig. Hulle . relatiewe hoë opleidingspeil en toegang tot fondse het hulle heel waarskynlik daartoe in staat gestelom te trek. Diegene in 'n minderbevoorregte posise het agtergebly. Die studie bevind ook dat die uitruil en vrye vloei van inligting en sosiale netwerke eerder die plek van bestemming bepaal as om die besluit om te migreer beïnvloed. Dit blyk egter dat die inligting wat immigrante ontvang soms verkeerd is en nie op die negatiewe aspekte van migrasie fokus nie. Wanneer die immigrante eers in Kaapstad is, voel hulle geïsoleerd, ervaar hulle vooroordeel, vyandigheid en diskriminasie van Suid-Afrikaners. Dit wilook voorkom asof baie Suid-Afrikaners nie 'n onderskeid tref tussen asielsoekers, vlugtelinge en ekonomiese migrante nie. Net die feit dat hulle vanaf 'n ander Afrika land afkomstig is, maak baie mense negatief teenoor hulle. Xenofobie manifesteer egter nie slegs in negatiewe ingesteldhede nie, maar daar is ook toenemende viktimisasie. Weens hierdie faktore en die probleme wat hulle ondervind om werksgeleenthede te vind waarin hulle hul vaardighede kan toepas, dra daartoe by dat immigrante Suid-Afrika nie as 'n permanente tuiste beskou nie.

This ethnographic study of asylum seekers in East Anglia, UK, poses the following questions: how do asylum seekers adapt, cope and adjust to life in the UK when their future is so uncertain? To what extent do people seeking asylum relate to an asylum seeker identity? How do asylum seekers negotiate interactions with others as they await an outcome to their application for asylum? This study explores these questions in an effort to gain insight into the role of identity reconstruction during the process of asylum seeking. This thesis is based on twelve months of fieldwork in the towns of Norwich and Great Yarmouth, and to a lesser extent in Peterborough and London, where asylum seekers had been dispersed by either the London Boroughs or the Home Office’s NASS (National Asylum Support Service). During 2002 and 2003, I conducted fieldwork amongst asylum seekers, as well as amongst support workers working for various NGOs that offered a number of support services for asylum seekers. The focus on asylum seekers’ speech-acts is a method to observe the primary form of social action by which asylum seekers articulate a shared place, liminal immigration system and interaction with others. These elements shape asylum seekers’ identity in the UK. Consequently, asylum seekers’ predicament can be understood as a movement through the immigration system, but also an existential movement as each person tries to negotiate their existence. / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1331561 / Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Social Sciences, 2008

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of Government and Public Administration

This dissertation examines the cross-border flows of media texts, migration and the construction of ethnic identity in the receiving state. It focuses on the recent wave of Shan ethnic nationals from Burma who migrate to seek work in Thailand and their relationships with Shan media -- primarily in the forms of audio cassettes, video CDs, and movies -- that follow these mobile people. My purpose in linking mass media and migration is to understand how displacement shapes the social construction of identity and how Shan ethnic media plays a significant role in shaping identity in a situation of displacement. Based on eighteen months of ethnographic work with the Shan migrant community in Chiang Mai, Thailand, this dissertation argues on two grounds. First, while Shan media shows the ability to cross the borders, and hence disturbs the boundaries of the state, transnational flows are also shaped by the politics and practices of a nation-state. The diversification of Shan media that now include a variety of local, national and transnational as well as commercial and community media illustrates ways in which mass media can offer both a technology of state control as well as parallel spaces for alternative transnational practice. Second, I argue for the need to pay attention to diversity within a migrant population, in particular the presence of various groups of migrants at the same point of time. In trying to understand how different social and material conditions and the history of migration shape the ways people ascribe to ethnic and national identity, this study draws on four different categories of Shan migrants -- the new arrivals, the long-term residents, the ethno-nationalists, and the exile prisoners. Each of these points to different ways of engagement with this media and the different meanings the individuals in each category ascribe to the notion of Shan nation and to what it means to be Shan. / text

My dissertation examines the cultural, political, and economic relationship between Haiti and the United States in the early nineteenth century--a key period in the development of both young nations. Most scholarship on this relationship has revolved around either the Haitian Revolution or later periods, from the mid-nineteenth century onward. Through trade, migration, and politics, the two countries had a more substantial role in one another's formative years than the literature currently suggests. Haitian leaders actively sought to attract African Americans to the island and believed they were crucial to improving Haiti's economic and political standing. African Americans became essential players in determining the nature of Haiti and U.S. relations, and the migration of thousands to Haiti in the 1820s proved to be the apogee of the two countries' interconnectedness. Drawing on a variety of materials, including emigrant letters, diary accounts, travelers' reports, newspaper editorials, the National Archives' Passenger Lists, Haitian government proclamations, Haitian newspapers, and American, British, and French consulate records, I analyze the diverse political and social motivations that fueled African American emigration. The project links Haitian nation building and Haitian struggles for recognition to American abolitionism and commercial development. / text

The main purpose of my thesis is to understand, from the perspectives of Southern Sudanese themselves, their resettlement experiences in Australia, to provide knowledge about how their experiences of exile reshape their thinking of home, place, identity, gender roles, and traditional practices, to explore the extent of their resettlement and integration into Australian society, and to inform policy on the resettlement of refugees and the settlement services offered to them. The thesis explores the range of interactions and relationships among Southern Sudanese and between them and their Australian hosts. It demonstrates how these interactions and relationships shaped and reshaped the Southern Sudanese sense of identity and belonging in resettlement in Australia. The thesis also provides insights into the relationships between the war that forced them out of their homeland, their flight, life in refugee camp or in exile, and how these affected their ability to resettle. To understand these, I have listened to how they described their lives before and during the war, while seeking refuge, and of their present and future life in Australia. From this I will show how they reproduce and maintain some aspects of their culture within the context of the Australian society, as well as how they are adapting to some aspects of life in that society. In this thesis I also explore the concepts of place, home and identity. In order to understand these concepts and how fluid they are in the current transnational era, I follow Thomas Faist’s (2000) thinking about the causes, nature and the extent of movement of international migrants from poorer to richer countries (also Cohen 1997; Kaplan 1995; Appadurai 1995). Faist in particular examines the process of adaptation of newcomers to host countries and the reasons why many migrants continue to keep ties to their home or place of origin. These ties, according to Faist, link transnational social spaces which range from border-crossing families and individuals to refugee diaspora. In this, I argue that resettlement involves complex interactions between newly arrived Southern Sudanese and members of Australian society. These complex interactions include firstly an array of social interactions occurring between Southern Sudanese and the staff of support organisations delivering settlement services to them. I show how the Southern Sudanese perceived the services they receive vis-à-vis the staff’s perceptions of Southern Sudanese as recipients of their services. Secondly they include various kinds of social interactions, relationships and networks among the Southern Sudanese and between them and members of Australian society through making friendships, home visitations, joining social and cultural clubs, and becoming involved in professional associations and churches which are predominantly Australian. I show how these social relations and networking are being enacted and maintained and/or fall apart over time. I ascertain whether these relationships have enhanced their resettlement or not. Thirdly, the thesis shows the impact of a shift in gendered roles and intergenerational conflicts between parents and children on family relationships and how these in turn affect their actual settlement. This thesis is based on these themes and on the analysis drawn from detailed qualitative ethnographic research which I conducted over a period of fourteen months between January 2006 and March 2007 and from the literature. In keeping with the traditions of ethnographic fieldwork practices, I carried out structured and unstructured in-depth interviews and Participant Observation of informants during the fieldwork. The subjects of this thesis are the Southern Sudanese refugees who resettled in South Australia and some staff of organisations which delivered settlement services to them. The fundamental questions which these ethnographic explorations attempt to answer are how do the Southern Sudanese experience resettlement in Australian, interact with members of their host society, construct their identities in relation to their notions of home and place, and negotiate shifting gender roles and relationships in the family. I show how their previous life experiences in Southern Sudan, their plight, their flight from war, their life in refugee camps and/or in refugee settings in other countries, their personal socio-economic and historical backgrounds, have affected their resettlement in Australia. I also explore their current and ongoing relations with their homeland and other Southern Sudanese diaspora and show how this perpetuates their identity as Southern Sudanese. I argue that success or failure in resettlement hinges mostly on the Southern Sudanese ability or inability to understand and speak the English language, their access to employment and stable housing, relationships with Australians, and the quality and quantity of settlement services which they access and receive. I assert that the interplay between/among these factors have combined to influence significantly the settlement processes and the extent of integration of Southern Sudanese into Australian society. Furthermore, I assert that these factors are inseparable and need to be examined and explained in relation to one another as they tend to be interwoven into the daily life experiences of Southern Sudanese. / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1373733 / Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Social Sciences, 2009

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.