China's quest for sustainable development has given birth to a set of contested ‘ecological construction’ programmes. Focusing on ‘ecological resettlement’, a type of policy measure in a programme for restoring degraded grasslands, this thesis sets out a critical analysis in opposition to the dominant technical and managerial approaches to understanding environmentalisation. The aim is to draw out the politics of the formulation, implementation and effects of ecological resettlement at and across different scales. The study combines fieldwork, interviews, analysis of policy documents, and statistical analysis while theoretically, in addition to political ecology, it incorporates concepts and models from environmental governance, migration, and pastoralism studies. Environmentalisation is examined through three types of analysis: environmentalisation of the state, reshaping of state-society relations, and (re)territorialisation. A central theme is how local processes are linked to national considerations and how the local state acts as an intermediary between the central state and the pastoralists. The analysis exposes the practices that enabled the central state to define the problem of grasslands and devise interventions, illustrating the environmentalisation of the state. However, at the local level, incentives and interests defined by the political structure drove the developmental local state to pursue short-term-effective rather than sustainable practices. On the other hand, while the pastoral households responded to the projects with different strategies, their migration decisions suggested that social, economic and cultural considerations played a more important role than environmental concerns. Moreover, ecological resettlement has led to a significant change of Mongolian pastoralism. Land-tenure-based management further fragmented rangelands while the emergence of new social arrangements enabled migrant households to remain involved with pastoralism.

This dissertation focuses on the mobility trajectories of highly skilled and relatively affluent migrants who move between highly developed countries of the “global North”. While these “migrants by choice” are often seen as “desired immigrants” who hold the privilege to move internationally relatively unrestricted, little is known about their actual migration decision-making behaviour and their lived experiences in their place(s) of destination. To address this research gap, I explore the migration trajectories of German migrants by choice moving to and from Canada as a case study. Drawing on 48 narrative life story interviews with Germans at different stages of their migration trajectories (i.e., the pre-movement phase, the phase of settling down and living in Canada and the phase of return and/or onward movement) I specifically analyse a) their lived experiences in their day-to-day life (including experiences of settlement and integration as well as the place attachments they form during their mobility trajectories to b) understand how these experiences impact their decisions of leaving, staying, returning, or moving onward, i.e., to be internationally mobile. The results demonstrate that emotional or ideational reasons as well as chance were the main drivers behind my interviewees’ movements to Canada. Moreover, the findings underline that migration decisions are often formed in ongoing processes that change and evolve over time and are closely tied to my interviewees’ lived experiences at their local places of destination as well as significant life course events, such as the birth of a child or relationship break-up. Drawing on these findings, I ultimately propose a new and comprehensive model explaining the migration decision-making processes of migrants by choice. In doing so, this dissertation makes five important contributions to the field of migration and mobility studies, namely 1) it challenges the sedentary bias in migration studies; 2) it underlines the importance of moving away from strictly national or transnational perspectives on migration movements; 3) it highlights the importance of considering the lived experiences as well as the challenges and hidden frictions of highly skilled migration movements; 4) it challenges a purely economic or political understanding of migration processes; and 5) it highlights the importance of exploring the dissonance between policy intentions and the actual behaviour of migrants.

This thesis explores the role of environmental perceptions and activism in migration decision-making within the context of a country highly vulnerable to climate change. It focuses on a case study of young climate activists in Bangladesh, and their aspirations for staying or moving. The qualitative data were collected through semi-structured interviews. For analysis of migration decisions, the study utilizes a theoretical framework of aspirations and capabilities by De Haas (2021), while incorporating concepts of Hirschman’s (1978) “voice” and Robins’(2022) “duty to loyalty”. The study reveals that climate activists are aware of and concerned about environmental changes, but do not perceive them as immediate threat to their current livelihoods. While they face daily challenges and witness the vulnerability of communities, they express hope and actively choose to stay in their country. Activism serves them to voice their concern and help their community. The constant interaction between the environmental perceptions and activism, shapes their capacity to envision a better future and enhances their aspirations for staying in their motherland

This study explores the influence of social media on Iranian students’ migration decisions, specifically choosing Sweden as their study destination. The study contributes to addressing identified gaps in understanding major factors and drivers of migration decisions and social media’s potential role in the process. A quantitative approach was utilized to collect data through the online survey of Iranian students currently residing in Sweden. The online survey aimed to research the key migration influencers and assess the impact of social media on respective decisions. The analysis indicates that migration decisions are influenced by a combination of internal and external factors. Generally, migration decisions are influenced by economic factors, related to the country of relocation, political climate, and personal development potential. Social media, specifically Instagram and Telegram, was a valuable source of information and social interactions; its impact was moderate compared to identified influencers. Despite a clear role in creating migration perceptions, economic, social, and safety factors drive these decisions to this point.

The PhD thesis 'Vietnamese in Czechia and the world: migration and adaptation tendencies' sheds light on the development of international migration of the Vietnamese since the mid 20th century to the present with special emphasis on Czechia as a country of destination. The main aim is to identify the key factors that initiate international migration of the Vietnamese and how they determine main directions of these movements, affect migrants' and non-migrants' expectations and determine adaptation strategies. In this respect, the methodology of the paper is based on the combination of macro-level and micro-level approaches. Therefore, the thesis brings an analysis of main structural factors encouraging international migration of the Vietnamese such as economic development, economic and political reforms Đổi Mới and pro-emigration policy of the Vietnamese government; and also an analysis of actors' personal interpretations of these factors. The key part of the thesis is also identifying the transformation of importance of these factors depending on the stage of migration and on the socio-economic-political context of migration or migration-decision making. The paper stems from the analysis of available statistical data and legal documents, and results of three-year research, which was carried out...

Puerto Rico, an island in the Caribbean and an unincorporated territory belonging to the United States (US), is facing an uncertain future as its population rapidly declines through emigration. The American public has only begun to pay attention to this problem in recent years as more and more Puerto Ricans relocate to the US mainland. This study therefore aims to understand the migration decision-making process of Puerto Ricans by exploring the underlying causes and motivations. In conducting qualitative research, the findings center on interviews conducted with seven Puerto Ricans who relocated from Puerto Rico to the US mainland between 1985 and 2018. Their reflections on their migration decision-making experiences demonstrate that the process is complicated, multi-focal, and multidimensional. Focusing specifically on the concepts of citizenship, migration as an adaptive strategy, and migration decision-making, the findings indicate that Puerto Ricans are US citizens in name only. They are more predisposed than other US citizens to relocate when faced with environmental and economic stress, yet not all Puerto Ricans have the desire, nor the ability to relocate. Despite the finite scope of this research, the findings nonetheless provide valuable insight into the ongoing trends of Puerto Rican migration

Cette thèse porte sur les déterminants de la migration des compétences au Liban, dont l'objet principal est l'identification des facteurs et des risques associés à la migration chez les individus hautement qualifiés. La problématique se résume par la question suivante : À formation universitaire égale, quel diplômé devient-il migrant ? Afin de combler le manque de données sur le sujet, nous avons réalisé une enquête (en ligne) auprès des diplômés de la Lebanese American University et de l'Université Saint-Esprit de Kaslik, au Liban. Ces diplômés forment une pluralité et une mixité culturelle, linguistique et socio-économique représentatives des étudiants du Liban. L'objectif de l'enquête était de comparer les similarités et de contraster les différences entre des diplômés migrants et non-migrants, afin de comprendre les logiques différenciées de leurs comportements migratoires. Au début, nous avons effectué une segmentation des diplômés pour les répartir en sous-groupes en fonction de leur statut migratoire, ce qui nous a permis d'identifier et de comprendre les logiques différenciées de leurs comportements migratoires. L'analyse descriptive des résultats de l'enquête révèle des différences en termes de caractéristiques démographiques, économiques et familiales entre diplômés migrants et non-migrants, mais un peu moins de divergences en ce qui concerne leurs parcours universitaires et le domaine des études. À partir de la modélisation, nous avons démontré comment le risque de migrer à l'étranger peut être déterminé par certains facteurs individuels et familiaux, mais surtout en fonction du temps, c'est-à-dire en fonction de la durée depuis l'obtention du diplôme universitaire le plus élevé. Nous démontrons ainsi que, même à formation universitaire égale, le capital humain et le capital social peuvent engendrer des migrations internationales parmi des diplômés ayant effectué un même parcours universitaire et ayant vécu les mêmes conditions socio-économiques au Liban. Nous examinons également des obstacles qui freinent la migration des compétences, pour finalement analyser brièvement les facteurs qui déterminent la migration de retour au Liban. Sur la base de ces conclusions, nous confirmons que nous avons vérifié nos hypothèses par les faits qui se basent sur les résultats de notre enquête. Malgré la difficulté relative à l'étude des migrations internationales en générale et à l'utilisation de la technique de l'enquête en ligne, nous avons réussi à obtenir des résultats très intéressants, que nous avons comparés à des données disponibles sur la migration des compétences au Liban et à l'échelle globale. / This thesis focuses on the determinants of the highly skilled migration in Lebanon whose main purpose is to identify factors and risks associated with migration among highly skilled graduates. The research problem is summarized in the following main question: Given equal level of education, which graduate becomes a migrant? To address the lack of data on this particular topic, we conducted a (online) survey on graduates from the Lebanese American University and the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik in Lebanon. Graduates from both universities form diverse cultural, linguistic and socioeconomic characteristics that are representative of Lebanese graduates in general. The aim of the survey was to compare similarities and contrast differences between migrant and non-migrant graduates in order to understand their diverse behavior with regard to migration. Based on survey results, we carried out a segmentation of graduates and divided them into sub-groups based on their migration status allowing us to understand their behavior with regard to migration. The descriptive analysis of the survey results reveals differences in demographic, economic and family characteristics between migrant and non-migrant graduates, but little divergence were found regarding their university studies and the field of education. We also modeled a number of risks associated with migration and we demonstrated that the risk of migrating could be determined by a number of individual and family factors, but mainly over time, i.e. the time since graduation with the highest university degree. We also demonstrate that even at equal level of education, human capital and social capital can determine international migration among graduates who have obtained the same level of education and experienced the same socio-economic conditions in Lebanon. We have also explored barriers that hinder migration among skilled graduates and briefly analyzed the main factors determining their return migration to Lebanon. Based on these findings we confirm that we have validated our assumptions by facts based on survey results. Despite the relative difficulty in the study of international migration in general and the implementation of online surveys, we managed to obtain very interesting results which we also compared to available data on skilled migration in Lebanon and at the global level.