A place migrants would call home: open-ended constructions and social determinants over time among Ecuadorians in three European cities

Is there a place in particular that international migrants would call home? How do they talk about it, where does it lie, and what characteristics is it expected to have, given their demographics and patterns of settlement? Similar questions are meaningful in themselves and in illuminating migrant biographical, family and housing trajectories. We address them, in this paper, through the categorization and multinomial analysis of the responses to a dedicated open-ended question in a survey on Ecuadorians in Madrid, Milan and London (n = 1175). This original dataset allows us to explore migrant views of home against the background of their demographics and of their migration and housing conditions. We analyse respondents’ ways to articulate, spatialize and prioritize key aspects of home through a logit model, thereby assessing their association with age, length of stay, housing tenure, family networks and city of residence. Overall, their predominant construction of home points to a place in the country of settlement, but not necessarily to their own dwelling. Younger and newcomer immigrants see home as a primarily relational construct, whereas older and long-stayers emphasize its place-based and private dimension. Significant variations in the expected emplacement and bases of home can be found across cities of residence. However, no significant variations are associated either with gender or with migrants’ transnational engagement.

Success and Failure in the “Land of Opportunities”: How Social Class Informs Educational Attitudes Among Newcomer Immigrants and Refugees

Despite the wide-ranging scholarship on the educational attitudes held by native-born members of the middle and working class, few researchers have examined the impact of class on the attitudes of new arrivals. This article addresses this gap using data gathered through an ethnographic study conducted among 30 newly arrived refugee and immigrant youth from varying class backgrounds. Although all the students expressed high aspirations, those from a middle-class background were more likely to view academic performance in individualistic terms than their working- and lower-class peers, who were more critical of meritocracy. Optimistic views of opportunity may motivate students to overcome barriers, yet they may also obscure the significance of class disparities in education and foster a sense of self-blame among failing students.

Culturally Sensitive Healthcare for Newcomer Immigrants

This chapter will give an overview of the healthcare-related challenges that most newcomer immigrants and refugees encounter as they acculturate into their new environments in Western countries. It will highlight practical tips that can: enhance the caregiver and patient relationships across cultures and across continents; enhance culturally sensitive healthcare services; and help to create culturally inviting healthcare environments. Current demographics indicate that most developed countries continue to experience a growing influx of cross culturally diverse immigrants and refugees that represent the world’s 210 nations. It is also evident that, although these newcomers enrich their new nations with their diverse backgrounds, language, and cultural differences continues to pose formidable obstacles to their health, healthcare providers and health system in general. While the patients and providers realize the effects of immigration on the quality and access to healthcare, they seem to be overwhelmed by the barriers.