Session Information
Contribution
The pattern of migration within and into Europe has changed in character many times during recent centuries. Up until 100 years ago most migration was within and out of Europe. Recently, as is now well documented in the media, there has been a strong surge of inward migration. This has followed a period of primarily, but not exclusively, internal migration. The migration wave is similar to many that have preceded it. It is one born of increasing poverty, political destabilisation and war turmoil on neighbouring continents. It has in this sense, in contrast to earlier migrations in the post-War 2 period, a characteristic push-dynamic. The migrant wave is characterised primarily by flight from something. This may be a fear of religious, language or ethnic political persecution, including the threat of torture, death or just outright poverty and starvation. It stands therefore in contrast to the majority migrations in the post Second World War era period, which can be categorised more by a pull-dynamic where migrants travelled as economic labour power into productive labour-market zones to industries that lacked manual workers. Migrants today face a quite different labour market conditions with higher unemployment and higher demands for workers on academic degrees and language skills in order to get permanent work (Nilsson, 2004). These conditions have led to different mobility patterns for migrants within receiving countries. The few remaining labour force migrant move to more attractive areas. Those relocated by national Migration Boards appear to be more diffusely spread over the country's geography to far flung parts of a nation well away from the major urban areas and possibilities of employment. Sweden is a good example, but it is not alone in these respects (StatisticsSweden, 2008 p. 77). Non labour market related (push) migrants are located in remote regions where they may remain for many years.
Quantitative studies have analysed the probability of migrant employment in relation to different factors, such as former nationality, marital status and place (Bevelander & Pendakur, 2012; Jonsson & Rudolphi, 2011). Within the project “Rural youth – education, place and participation” we have identified and begun to analyse these developments based on classroom observations with push-migrants and their children. The projects overarching interest and foci were differences in students participation in rural schools, how students address possibilities to work and social influence in the present and in the future? However for this paper the particular interest is in: What does some newly arrived immigrants in rural areas in Sweden hold as important factors when discussing their career choices? This question is in particular analysed in relation to gender and place.
Connell’s (1987) concept of gender order and Massey’s (1994) understanding of gender and place have informed the research. Connell recognises three characteristics of society which interrelate to form a gender order that is not fixed but rather constantly remade through social interaction and therefore subject to change . These characteristics are employment, power and personal relationships. They are understood in line with Massey (1994) as characteristics of a local area that must be conceptualised in terms of the evolution of the wider structures of capitalist economy (p. 89). The identity of a place does not derive from some internalised history. It derives, in large part, precisely from the specificity of its interactions with ‘the outside’ (p. 169).
Both theories are interested in structures and interrelations between local and global regimes and more overarching orders and they therefore provide useful concepts for analysing and understanding local (inter-)actions in wider contexts. They make it possible to discuss young migrants’ understandings of place in relation to their future career development.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Bevelander, P., & Pendakur, R. (2012). Citizenship, Co-ethnic Populations, and Employment Probabilities of Immigrants in Sweden. Journal of International Migration and Integration, 13(2), 203-222. doi:10.1007/s12134-011-0212-6 Connell, R., W. (1987). Gender and Power. Stanford: Stanford university press. Essed, P. (1991). Understanding everyday racism: An interdisciplinary theory. Newbury park: Sage. Gillborn, D., Rollock, N., Vincent, C., & Ball, S. J. (2012). ‘You got a pass, so what more do you want?’: race, class and gender intersections in the educational experiences of the Black middle class. Race Ethnicity and Education, 15(1), 121-139. doi:10.1080/13613324.2012.638869 Jeffrey, B., & Troman, G. (2004). Time for ethnography. British Educational Research Journal, 30(4), 535-548. Jonsson, J. O., & Rudolphi, F. (2011). Weak Performance—Strong Determination: School Achievement and Educational Choice among Children of Immigrants in Sweden. European Sociological Review, 27(4), 487-508. doi:10.1093/esr/jcq021 Massey, D. (1994). Space, place and gender. Cambridge: Polity press. Nilsson, Å. (2004). Demographic Reports 2004:5 Immigration and emigration in the postwar period. Stockholm: Statistics Sweden. Rosvall, P.-Å. (2015). ‘Lad’ research, the reproduction of stereotypes? Ethnographic dilemmas when researching boys from working-class backgrounds. Ethnography and Education, 10(2), 215-229. doi:10.1080/17457823.2015.1016054 Rosvall, P.-Å., & Öhrn, E. (2014). Teachers’ silences about racist attitudes and students’ desires to address these attitudes. Intercultural Education, 25(5), 337-348. doi:10.1080/14675986.2014.967972 StatisticsSweden. (2008). Demographic reports 2008:4 Immigrants’ migration patterns. Stockholm: Statistics Sweden.
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