Abstract
It is no longer contested that migrant transnational linkages are becoming a
replacement social organization where nation-states’ institutions and regulatory
capacities are increasingly failing to guarantee decent livelihoods or, at least peace, to
their citizens, and where potential destination countries’ policies are restrictive of
immigrants. This essay explores the patterns and correlates of the contemporary
migration decision-making and its timing, focusing on the role of transnational
networks in that process. It is a quantitative study that uses a comprehensive dataset
that Forced Migration Studies Programme collected in 2006 on the South African,
Mozambican, Congolese and Somali immigrants residing in the Inner-city of
Johannesburg. Based on personal experience of 594 international immigrants among
those, the study challenges the well established argument in international migration
theories that position economic opportunities as the primary explanatory factor
underlying the contemporary migration decisions. While the study recognize the
importance of economic factors, the study reveals that the entrenched history of
migration between countries of origin and destinations and the resultant web of
transnational ties explain better than economic factors the contemporary African
migration decisions and their timing. With its relatively new approach to analysis of
the patterns and correlates of migration decision timing, the study manages to position
the importance of transnational ties in migration decisions and to show how they
command the swiftness of migration decision-making processes.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/5963 |
| Date | 22 January 2009 |
| Creators | Nshimiyamana, Theogene |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf, application/pdf, application/pdf |
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