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Culture is not new to the study of migration. It has lurked beneath the surface for some time, occasionally protruding openly into the discussion, usually under some pseudonym. The authors bring culture into the open. They are concerned with how culture manifests itself in the migration process for three groups of actors: the migrants, those remaining in the sending areas, and people already living in the recipient locations. The topics vary widely. What unites the authors is an understanding that though actors behave differently, within a group there are economically important shared beliefs (customs, values, attitudes, etc.), which we commonly refer to as culture. Culture and identity play a central role in our understanding of migration as an economic phenomenon; but what about them matters? Properly, we should be looking at the determinants of identity and the determinants of culture (prices and incomes, broadly defined). But this is not what is done. Usually identity and culture appear in economics articles as a black box. Here we try to begin to break open the black box.

The integration of migrants into the society of the host country is one of today’s greatest challenges. Recent increases in the number of newcomers are creating great challenges for European nation-states that are receiving migrants, especially for those countries that traditionally do not define themselves as multicultural societies. In order to help newcomers’ economic and social integration into the host country, their specific characteristics, which result from their linguistic and cultural background, need to be considered. Furthermore, migration is often stressful, and it often acts as a stress factor that contributes to lowered mental health (Bhugra, 2004). Thus, migrants’ inclusion into the mental health-care system of the host country is not only essential to prevent lowered mental health, but might serve as an indicator of their integration into the country’s national institutions as well.

This chapter examines migrants’ subjective notions of integration and their psychological well-being in Germany. The first part of this chapter reviews previous research on migrants’ integration in Germany and presents theoretical frameworks that aim to explain migrants’ integration and psychological adaptation. The second part of the chapter describes an empirical study conducted among psychotherapy patients with a migrant background, and discusses migrants’ subjective notions of integration and psychological well-being in the German mental health-care system.

Samuel Huntington’s vision in the early 1990s of a “clash of civilizations” struck a chord to such an extent that his core theme was reignited after the attacks of September 11th. International migration seems to be viewed as an issue that signifies this so-called clash (Bade & Bommes, 1996). Migration, culture, ethnicity and conflict have become linked. The result is that conflicts arising from migration are more likely to be seen as an outcome of the multiplication of different cultures within one country. Germany, the U.K., the Netherlands and Switzerland have all been described as multicultural societies and advised to pay attention to this “fact.” This has been combined with the view that even if there was no road to multiculturalism without social conflicts, there was also no viable alternative to tolerance as a device for the interaction of cultures (Leggewie, 1990).

Approximately 3.5% of the world’s population currently lives outside the borders of its birthplace, and the impetus for its emigration are myriad, but underlying all migration is the anticipation of improved opportunities. Among the specific reasons that people migrate is the aim to escape conflict in the homeland; included in the range of experiences that immigrants may have in the host country is conflict. This chapter provides an overview of global migration with particular focus on (1) when its impetus is conflict in the homeland, and (2) migration-related conflict in the host country. It addresses both voluntary and forced migration and presents a model of the migration – conflict nexus and some thoughts, methods, and tools that can be utilised to mitigate difficulties in both nation of origin and of destination.

Culture and network may be interacted according to their impact on international trade, in such a way that networks alleviate the negative effect of cultural dissimilarity. This study investigates the effect of network and culture on international trade, and a possible interaction between two effects. Empirical findings from the augmented gravity model using a bilateral data set of 34 OECD countries confirm the positive effect of cultural proximity and network on trade. More importantly, the findings also reveal an interaction effect in a way that networks, such as FDI, migration and internet, play a significant role in mitigating the deterrent effect of culture dissimilarity on international trade. The internet is found to have the strongest interaction effect, followed by FDI and migration.

The term “parenting” has come to assume a specific sociological meaning: it defines parents’ role and agency not only with regard to their children, but also to the state, medical doctors, psychologists and educators. How normative stances toward parenting affect the lives of parents has started to be analyzed in the social sciences, however less is known about how the “culture of parenting” impacts on the way migrant families take care of their children. The purpose of this paper is to untangle the conceptual and disciplinary roots of parenting studies stemming from early anthropological studies of kinship and ethno-psychological theories, through to the anthropology of childhood and child rearing and the current socio-anthropological studies of parenting. This review offers conceptual tools for the creation of a critical perspective on migration and parenting.

The paper acknowledges the theoretical and empirical gap in the study of migration and parenting by illustrating the sparse and interdisciplinary literature which has dealt with migration and parenting.

The paper discusses the presented literature’s limits and potentialities in light of the new culture of parenting.

The paper addresses future paths for ethnographic work.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the data connection, spatial distribution characteristics and trends in genealogical information. First, it implements a spatial-temporal visualization of the Hakka genealogical information system that makes these individual family pedigree charts appear as one seamless genealogy to family and researchers seeking connections and family history all over the world. Second, this study applies migration analysis by applying big data technologies to Hakka genealogies to investigate the migration patterns of the Hakka ethnic group in Taiwan between 1954 and 2014. This innovative library service enhances the Hakka genealogical migration analysis using big data.

The platform is designed for the exchange of genealogical data to be used in big data analysis. This study integrates big data and geographic information systems (GIS) to map the population distribution themes. The general procedure included collecting genealogical big data, geographic encoding, gathering the map information, GIS layer integration and migration map production.

The analytical results demonstrate that big data technology is highly appropriate for family migration history analysis, given the increasing volume, velocity and variety of genealogical data. The spatial-temporal visualization of the genealogical research platform can follow family history and migration paths, and dynamically generate roadmaps to simplify the cartographic steps.

Technology that combines big data and GIS is suitable for performing migration analysis based on genealogy. A web-based application for spatial-temporal genealogical information also demonstrates the contribution of innovative library services.

Big data play a dominant role in library services, and in turn, provide an active library service. These findings indicate that big data technology can provide a suitable tool for improving library services.

Online genealogy and family trees are linked with large-volume, growing data sets that are complex and have multiple, autonomous sources. The migration analysis using big data has the potential to help genealogy researchers to construct minority ethnic history.

This chapter deals with the perception of (sensed) discrimination and the coping strategies of Russian-speaking female scholars in Germany and applies an intersectional approach between culture, migration, gender and social background. Based on telephone interviews, the study aims to contribute to the discussion on discrimination in research environments and individuals’ professional integration by exploring narratives of migration and work in 13 women who migrated from the former Soviet Union (FSU) to Germany from 1990s to 2010s. Based on the findings, the author derives implications for policy and practice, such as a recommendation to implement introductory conversations with newcomers to reduce culture clash in competitive work contexts.

For many immigrants, especially those from Central America and Mexico, it is common for a mother or father (or both) to migrate to the United States and leave their children behind. Then, after the parent(s) have achieved some degree of stability in the United States, the children follow. In our previous research, we found that children separated from parents during migration are more likely to be behind others their age in school, are more likely to repeat a grade, and are more likely to drop out of high school. The negative impact of separation during migration on educational success is largest for children separated from their mothers (in contrast to fathers), for those whose parents have lived in the United States illegally, and for those who reunited with parents as teenagers (rather than at younger ages).

In this chapter, we suggest public policies to help immigrant children separated from parents during migration to succeed in U.S. schools. The policies that we discuss are based on focus group discussions with parents separated from their children during migration, interviews with psychologists and school administrators, and an online survey of elementary and high school teachers.