The roles and limitations of data science in understanding international migration flows and human mobility

2021 ◽  
pp. 42-57
Author(s):  
Marie McAuliffe
Babel ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 66 (2) ◽  
pp. 208-225
Author(s):  
Francisco J. Vigier-Moreno

Abstract Globalisation, cross-border human mobility and international migration flows have prompted cross-linguistic and cross-cultural services (e.g. translation and interpreting) in all spheres of current societies, including a sector as sensitive as justice. In Spain, as in many other countries, in the last two decades, despite fierce criticism from practitioners and academics, there has been a trend for the authorities to meet these needs by outsourcing these services to private companies rather than hiring qualified professionals individually, on the grounds that this system allows for cheaper and more efficient services. This article presents the most relevant results of a research project based on the analysis of a corpus of authentic interpreter-mediated criminal proceedings, the first project of this kind in Spain. After briefly explaining how the project was carried out and how the corpus was transcribed, annotated and analysed, special attention is paid to the findings in relation to the interpreters’ performance in terms of fidelity and accuracy, and some illustrative examples are provided. The aim is to address the quality of outsourced interpreting services in Spanish criminal courts as well as to indicate areas for improvement.


Author(s):  
Jeannette Money ◽  
Sara S. Kazemian ◽  
Timothy W. Taylor

Although migration has been a human phenomenon from time immemorial, international migration in the contemporary sense is usually dated from the Treaty of Westphalia (1648), which created a state system and the concept of state sovereignty with the associated power to control borders. Migration is usually divided into two categories, “forced” and “voluntary.” This is a useful dividing line, even though it is widely acknowledged that migrants have multiple reasons for moving and that there is often no clear dividing line to distinguish “forced” versus “voluntary” migrants. This article covers only voluntary international migration, both short term and long term. It does not cover the research on forced migration flows (refugees and asylum seekers) as defined in the United Nations Convention and Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees (1951 and 1967). International migration—defined as individuals living outside their country of origin for more than one year—remains the exception rather than the rule. The decline of transportation and communication costs has increased human mobility, with international travel expanding exponentially since the Second World War. Although the absolute number of migrants continues to increase, as a proportion of the population, international migration has remained relatively stable, running around 3 percent of the global population. International migrants travel in all directions, with at least half moving within the Global South. However, the distribution of international migrants is not uniform; typically migrants move from poorer, more unstable states to wealthier, more stable states. And international migration has become a salient political issue virtually everywhere: in receiving societies, in sending societies, and even in transit societies. So a bibliographical article on the various dimensions of international migration is timely. In this second edition, updated through June 2019, the citations in each section have expanded and sections have been added to reflect the breadth and depth of contemporary research. Subsequent to the overview of international migration and migration processes, the literature is organized around six themes: the economic consequences of immigration; immigration control and enforcement; specific migration flows; immigrant incorporation; migration governance, including migrant rights; and linkages between international migration and other international issues, such as security, trade, aid, and development. This article reflects scholarship on international migration produced in the Global North and/or published in globally prominent scholarly journals. Additional resources, in regional or national journals and books, are often referenced in the articles and books cited in this bibliography.


2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 381-396 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ibrahim Sirkeci ◽  
Jeffrey H. Cohen

We approach Turkish mobility using a culture of migration perspective with reference to conflict. Conflicts are defined broadly into an array of situations including minor disputes, tensions or latent conflicts on the one hand and major violent events on the other. These situations, defined along a security continuum shape individual perceptions. Increasing perceptions of human insecurity are positively correlated to a rise in migration propensity. Applied to Turkey’s international migration history we note that major conflicts have determined inflows and outflows of populations and created a Turkish culture of migration, which reinforces continuous population flows between countries of destination and origin. Migration flows between Germany and Turkey are exemplary in this regard.


2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Carmen Lussi

A intensificação dos fluxos de migrações internacionais, em muitasIgrejas locais, vem acompanhada de esforços para promover e sustentar ações de assistência em situações de vulnerabilidade humana, social e jurídica. A categoria da vulnerabilidade entendida como possibilidade de ser ferido (ou de ferir) ajuda a interpretar os desafios que os sujeitos em situação de mobilidade humana atravessam. As comunidades cristãs de chegada dos fluxos igualmente enfrentam desafios nos processos relativos à presença de migrantes e à reinvenção das relações e das práticas de vida cristã, interpeladas pelo fenômeno da mobilidade humana. O artigo propõe reflexões em perspectiva missionária.Palavras-Chave: Protagonismo. Vulnerabilidade. Eclesiologia. Migrantes.Abstract: The intensification of international migration flows in many local Churches is accompanied by efforts to promote and sustain actions of assistance to people in situations of human, social and legal vulnerability. The category of vulnerability includes the possibility of being hurt (or hurting) and helps to interpret the challenges faced by individuals in a situation of human mobility. The Christian communities of arrival of the flows also have to handle with challenges in the processes related to the presence of migrants and the reinvention of the relations and practices of Christian life, called by the phenomenon of human mobility. The article proposes reflections in a missionary perspective.Keywords: Protagonism. Vulnerability. Ecclesiology. Migrants.


2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Diego F. Leal ◽  
Nicolas L. Harder

AbstractEvidence from 184 countries over the span of 25 years is gathered and analyzed to understand North–North, South–South, and North–South international migration flows. Conceptually, the analysis borrows from network theory and Migration Systems Theory (MST) to develop a model to characterize the structure and evolution of international migration flows. Methodologically, the Stochastic Actor-oriented Model of network dynamics is used to jointly model the three types of flows under analysis. Results show that endogenous network effects at the monadic, dyadic, and triadic levels of analysis are relevant to understand the emergence and evolution of migration flows. The findings also show that a core set of non-network covariates, suggested by MST as key drivers of migration flows, does not always explain migration dynamics in the systems under analysis in a consistent fashion; thus, suggesting the existence of important levels of heterogeneity inherent to these three types of flows. Finally, evidence related to the role of political instability and countries’ care deficits is also discussed as part of the analysis. Overall, the results highlight the importance of analyzing flows across the globe beyond typically studied migratory corridors (e.g., North–South flows) or regions (e.g., Europe).


Author(s):  
Shadrack B. Ramokgadi

The individual choice to decide where to live bears directly on personal freedom, and the desire for survival and economic development. The right to geographic mobility is ideally safeguarded by international migration regulatory frameworks that derive from country-specific constitutions and inter-states arrangements. On the other hand, empirical evidence suggests that some countries restrict human mobility to take predetermined migration patterns. This chapter presents that the historical evolution in the relationship between the natural environment and human activities offers the opportunity to explore requirements for the successful implementation of any International Migration Regulatory Framework (IMRF). In doing so, the author contends that extant geopolitical conditions defining such relations need to be explored within state-centric political practices and civil society perceptions, put differently, through the dialogue between the state and civil society on migration processes necessary for successful implementation of regulatory framework while surfacing resources-power relationship between migratory states and citizens.


1986 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 835-855 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Straubhaar

The empirical results for the causes of the migration flows from Italy, Spain, Greece, Portugal and Turkey to the EC-destination countries show that determinants which are used to explain migration flows inside a given country can be applied to the migration flows within a Common Market, but not to international migration flows. International migration flows are demand-determined by the existence of restrictive immigration control systems. The demand for immigrants in the destination country is the decisive condition for the phenomenon of international labor migration, and the supply of migration-willing workers is only a necessary condition.


2020 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 143-167
Author(s):  
Alexander Klein ◽  
Jelle van Lottum

ABSTRACTThis article offers the first multivariate regression study of international migration in early modern Europe. Using unique eighteenth-century data about maritime workers, we created a data set of migration flows among European countries to examine the role of factors related to geography, population, language, the market, and chain migration in explaining the migration of these workers across countries. We show that among all factors considered in our multivariate analysis, the geographical characteristics of the destination countries, size of port towns, and past migrations are among the most robust and quantitatively the most important factors influencing cross-country migration flows.


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