Editorial
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12216 |
| Author | Howard Duncan |
| Published date | 01 December 2015 |
| Date | 01 December 2015 |
Editorial
The world has now fixed its attention on migration in the Mediterranean region with a special focus
on Syrians fleeing the violent turmoil in their country as well as migrants crossing the sea from
North Africa to Europe, sometimes with tragedy as the end result. The world has received a domi-
nant image of migration chaos and human despair from this region over the past few years, peak-
ing, at least for now, with the desperately sad photo of the Syrian boy lying lifeless on a beach in
Turkey.
These portrayals of chaos and despair, although undeniably accurate, do not convey the entirety
of the migration experience in this part of the world. Not all migration in the MENA region is
irregular, chaotic, spurred by violence or economic hardship, or wrought with despair. In this final
issue of International Migration for 2015, we offer you a look into aspects of migration and the
lives of migrants here that reveal a more common, less extreme experience than what we have
become accustomed to seeing from the international news media. These unsensational phenomena
are not for this reason of less interest or importance for either scholars or policy makers, but rather
represent the enduring and quotidian realities and challenges that both must attend to if we are to
have responsible and effective management of migration and its consequences for the migrants,
their families, their destination countries, and their homelands.
What determines socio-cultural integration outcomes are the subject of a large study by Tineke
Fokkema and Hein de Haas that compares first generation immigrants from Morocco, Senegal,
Egypt, and Ghana in southern Europe. They explore both pre-migration and post-migration determi-
nants, finding that education and pre-arrival information about the destination society enhances
socio-cultural integration and that, post-arrival, occupation is a significant factor, over-reaching
employment alone. Lina Andersson and Mats Hammarstedt look at the integration of immigrants
from the Middle East in Sweden, specifically at the relationship between residence in an ethnic
enclave and the propensity of self-employment as a vehicle for economic integration.
Three papers look at migration in the context of Israel. Beginning with Brent David Harris, we
learn that the myth of return to Israel, aliya, is of diminishing significance as the state of Israel
matures. Israelis in Vancouver express little guilt from having left Israel, their longing for family
and friends displacing their longing for the homeland. Nir Cohen, Daniel Czamanski and Amir
Hefetz bring us the example of internal migration in Israel amongst minority Arab Israelis, a move-
ment that sees more women than men migrating from the rural periphery to the urban core of con-
temporary Israel. The consequences of new regulations governing the employment of foreign
workers in Israel’s construction sector is the focus of Yoram Ida’s and Gal Talit’s study which asks
whether this regulatory change has improved the lives of these workers or not.
As Turkey’s economic performance has risen, so too has its allure as a destination country for
migrants, Turkish emigres and non-Turks both. Juliette Tolay takes us through the development of
a new field of scholarship that looks at migration to Turkey, noting its academic strengths and rela-
tive weaknesses and pointing to directions that future research in the area ought to take. And as
conditions in Afghanistan remain highly uncertain, the protracted refugee situation continues.
Dr. Howard Duncan, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
doi: 10.1111/imig.12216
©2015 The Author
International Migration ©2015 IOM
International Migration Vol. 53 (6) 2015
ISSN 0020-7985Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
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