The Development of a Migratory Disposition: Explaining a "New Emigration"

Abstract

Since the late 1990s, migration from Ecuador has diversified with migrants now targeting a range of new destinations. By highlighting the recent immigration of non-Jewish undocumented migrants from Ecuador to Israel, this article looks to discern not only a new trajectory but primarily a new type of migrant. Empirical findings point in the direction of an increased number of migrants who operate their migration largely from outside the realm of transnational networks. These migrants have no established connection in their destination and they thus also base their decision to migrate there upon very little information, which is usually obtained from an acquaintance who had been there. It appears that these migrants make their decision to migrate in an individual and hasty manner. Often they do not deliberate their migration plans with their close family and household. Nonetheless, once they have successfully operated their migration independently, they then regularly serve as pioneers who encourage and facilitate the migration of their relatives and friends.In an attempt to provide a sociological explanation to the motivational structure and the more individualist migration pattern of this new type of migrant, this article proposes the conceptualization of the migratory option as a disposition, inculcated mainly in large segments of the Ecuadorian low-middle class. A migratory disposition is being formulated as people try to make sense of migration-related transformations in both the physical and the social context in which they are embedded. These transformations impinge on people's economic and social perceptions of migration, encouraging them to credibly view the possibility to operate migration in an independent fashion. Concurrently, potential migrants increasingly consider transnational networks as structures characterized by high levels of connectivity and receptivity toward compatriots in migration destination. 168Kalir Potential migrants thus become audacious in their willingness to migrate alone and connect to the network once in destination. Ethnographic data demonstrate that in most cases this strategy of migrants has been proven effective.Focusing on this new type of migration can help explain the changing role of transnational networks in the decision-making process of potential migrants. It might also clarify the limited effect that restrictive migration policies, directed to curb the extension of established transnational networks, have had on the continuation of migration.

Better Off at Home? Rethinking Responses to Trafficked West African Footballers in Europe

“…9 The previous quotes resonate with 'White Man Kontri' discourses, and the associated construction of 'an imagined geography that elides spaces of the West with worlds of material consumption as the basis of an enduring dream' (Nyamnjoh and Page 2002, 628). This perpetuates the idea that travelling to the West leads to social mobility and contributes to what Kalir (2005) terms a 'migratory disposition' to describe the manner in which people develop the desire to leave through experiences of socioeconomic inequality and expressions of wealth connected to migration. CFS is concerned that this belief that 'football + Europe = financial success' is encouraging young African's to place themselves in potentially dangerous situations.…”

The third alternative: Latino immigration from the United States to Canada, 1980 to 2009

“…Doubtless, there are Latinos who immigrated directly to Canada, bypassing the United States entirely because of its divisive gatekeeping polices and its deteriorating appeal for immigrants. Indeed, there is a new and growing migrant flow of workers from Latin America to Northern Europe (Millman and Vitzthum 2003) and from Latin America to Southern Europe-Spain and Portugal in particular (Padilla and Peixoto 2007)-and from Ecuador to Israel (Kalir 2005). These developments suggest that as the United States declines as a viable immigration destination, other alternatives such as Canada may become increasingly favourable.…”

“…Although our data is, unavoidably, less than that minimum threshold, the purpose of our analysis is not forecasting. 1986, 1994, 1996, 2005. Sept. 11 Attacks 2001 Unites States (US Latino immigration to Canada).…”

Mad Flight? The Montréal Migration of 1896 to Brazil

“…Kalir argues that the formation of a disposition toward migration "entails an embodiment, namely, a disposition constitutes an inherent part of one's sense-making mechanism, which does not only include calculative practices but also bodily feelings, emotions, and desires." 22 If people who might never seriously have considered migrating do so in response to enticing propositions, they act impulsively, not solely by calculated decision based on an assessment of needs and information on prospective destinations. Enticements create a disposition in them to migrate, but they do not test or verify details through the normal information networks of prospective migrants.…”