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1 – 10 of 91Compared to younger and older generation migrants, middle-aged migrants in the diaspora seem to be more conflicted regarding their belonging. This paper aims to explore how…
Abstract
Purpose
Compared to younger and older generation migrants, middle-aged migrants in the diaspora seem to be more conflicted regarding their belonging. This paper aims to explore how middle-aged migrants in the diaspora define themselves in space and time.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is based on ethnographic fieldwork done among Malawian migrants (herein referred to as Lydiatians) settled at Lydiate informal settlement in peri-urban Zimbabwe.
Findings
The paper reveals that, while younger migrants have a “radical transnational stance”, and older migrants regard their place of settlement as their final home, middle-aged migrants prefer to maintain a “strategic dual sense of place” regarding their place of settlement in the diaspora. These middle-aged migrants can be entrepreneurs considering their current settlement as a strategic place for petty commodity trading or those who find informal settlements to provide needed opportunities for cheap housing as the migrants pursue work in the nearby towns.
Practical implications
The paper offers a deeper understanding of how middle-aged migrants navigate their sense of place and contribute to host nations by functioning as key resources, dynamizing local economies through entrepreneurial activities and labour provision for various industries. The implications of this research should encourage states to positively interact with migrants, leveraging their potential for societal and economic development.
Originality/value
The finding that migrants in the diaspora have a dual, strategic view of their settlements is fascinating, if not new. Before this, scholars presented migrants as transnational figures, successively moving to a better place, which finally becomes home. However, the data presented in this paper suggests that this characterization associating migrants with maintaining a “stable, sedentary, bounded and fixed perception of home” is oversimplified. This is because migrants can sometimes continue to cherish the idea of informal settlements in the diaspora as home, just as the migrants also entertain the nearby established towns as useful places in their life.
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Michiel Verver, David Passenier and Carel Roessingh
Literature on immigrant and ethnic minority entrepreneurship almost exclusively focusses on the west, while neglecting other world regions. This neglect is problematic not only…
Abstract
Purpose
Literature on immigrant and ethnic minority entrepreneurship almost exclusively focusses on the west, while neglecting other world regions. This neglect is problematic not only because international migration is on the rise outside the west, but also because it reveals an implicit ethnocentrism and creates particular presumptions about the nature of ethnic minority entrepreneurship that may not be as universally valid as is often presumed. The purpose of this paper is to examine ethnic minority entrepreneurship in non-western contexts to critically assess two of these presumptions, namely that it occurs in the economic margins and within clear ethnic community boundaries.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors draw on academic literature (including the authors’ own) to develop two case descriptions of ethnic minority entrepreneurship outside the west: the Mennonites in Belize and the Chinese in Cambodia. For each case, the authors describe the historic entrepreneurial trajectory, i.e. the historical emergence of entrepreneurship in light of relevant community and society contexts.
Findings
The two cases reveal that, in contrast to characterisations of ethnic minority entrepreneurship in the west, the Mennonites in Belize and the Chinese in Cambodia have come to comprise the economic upper class, and their business activities are not confined to ethnic community boundaries.
Originality/value
The paper is the first to elaborate the importance of studying ethnic minority entrepreneurship outside the west, both as an aim in itself and as a catalyst to work towards a more neutral framework.
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Issah Justice Musah-Surugu, Albert Ahenkan, Justice Nyigmah Bawole and Samuel Antwi Darkwah
The much-trumpeted Green Climate Fund and several other official financial mechanisms for financing adaptation to climate change under the UN Framework Convention on Climate…
Abstract
Purpose
The much-trumpeted Green Climate Fund and several other official financial mechanisms for financing adaptation to climate change under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change have fallen short in meeting adaptation needs. Many poorer people are still grappling with the scourge of climate change impacts. Consequently, there has been a dominant research focus on climate change financing emanating from official development assistance (ODA), Adaptation Fund, public expenditure and private sector support. However, there has been little attempt to examine how migrants’ remittances can close adaptation financing gaps at the local level, ostensibly creating a large research gap. This paper aims to argue that migrants’ remittances provide a unique complementary opportunity for financing adaptation and have a wider impact on those who are extremely vulnerable to climate change.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is aligned to the qualitative research approach. Both secondary and primary data acquired through interviews and focus group discussions were used for the study. Multiple sampling methods were also used to select the respondents.
Findings
The findings show that remittances are used to finance both incremental costs of households’ infrastructure and consumption needs, as well as additional investment needs to be occasioned by ongoing or expected changes in climate.
Originality/value
In the wake of dwindling government/public revenue, ODA and poor commitment of Annex II countries to fulfil their financial obligations, the study makes the following recommendations: First, the financial infrastructure underpinning money transfers in both sending and recipient countries should be improved to make transfers attractive. Second, significant steps should be taken to reduce the fees on remittance services, especially for the small transfers typically made by poor migrants. Finally, adequate climatic information should be made available to local people to ensure that remittances are applied to the right adaptation option to avoid maladaptation.
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Folorunsho M. Ajide and John A. Olayiwola
In this paper, we investigate the impact of remittances on control of corruption in Nigeria for a period of 1986–2016.
Abstract
Purpose
In this paper, we investigate the impact of remittances on control of corruption in Nigeria for a period of 1986–2016.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses ARDL modeling framework, dynamic OLS estimation, variance decomposition and impulse response analysis to examine the relationship between the two variables.
Findings
The study finds that remittances significantly improve the control of corruption in Nigeria. We further examine the robustness test of the results using dynamic OLS estimation, variance decomposition and impulse response analysis. Our results remain significant and consistent to the earlier one reported in ARDL framework which supports the extant literature.
Practical implications
Our study suggests that international remittances can be used, through the cross-border transfer of norms and practices, to significantly impact the socioeconomic progresses of a country by reducing corruption.
Originality/value
The existing studies on the relationship between corruption and remittances document conflicting results. In addition, study on corruption - remittances nexus that specifically focuses on any African country is largely absent despite the fact that most of the countries in the region are recognized as highly corrupt. This paper provides insights on how remittances can be used as part of tool kits to control corruption in African nation.
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Oluyemi Theophilus Adeosun and Oluwaseyi Omowunmi Popogbe
Human capital flight from developing countries to developed nations has been rising and giving concerns to governments and scholars alike. This paper aims to explore the impact…
Abstract
Purpose
Human capital flight from developing countries to developed nations has been rising and giving concerns to governments and scholars alike. This paper aims to explore the impact migration from Nigeria has on economic output growth by focusing on the migration rate, remittances, population growth and secondary school enrolment. This has not received adequate attention in the literature, as many papers have primarily focused on the impact of remittances on economic growth.
Design/methodology/approach
Leveraging on the macro-level approach to migration, remittances and the economy, this research considers the nexus among the human capital flight and output growth variables by using the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) method of analysis for time series data between 1986 and 2018.
Findings
The net migration rate from Nigeria was found from the empirical analysis to be more disadvantageous for the economy, given its negative relationship with economic growth despite the large volume of foreign incomes (remittances). It also shows that secondary school enrolment positively and significantly impacted the Nigerian growth rate in the long run.
Originality/value
This research has widened the use of variables by combining net migration rate, remittances from abroad, population growth rate and secondary school enrolment to obtain a more robust outcome with implications for research and practice.
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Subrato Adhikari, Anirban Mandal, Fedric Kujur and Sriparna Guha
The aim of this study is to define the aspects of place attachment and their effect on migratory behaviour. It also aims to identify the connection between migration…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this study is to define the aspects of place attachment and their effect on migratory behaviour. It also aims to identify the connection between migration decision-making and workforce supply at the source, as well as to track the impact of adequate employment supplies and the improvement on employment generation.
Design/methodology/approach
A primary study was conducted among the migrants who returned back during nationwide lockdown with the help of tested structured questionnaire. The variables identified through review of literature and pilot study are tested using a structural equation modelling model.
Findings
The result exhibited that all hypothesised relationships had a positive and significant connection. The overall results showed there is a significant and positive connection between place attachment and migratory behaviour, and both have a positive impact on economic activity.
Originality/value
This survey is conducted in the districts of West Bengal, India. There are several documents on the connection to the place attachment and the migratory behaviour. There are, however, no studies focusing on place attachment and its effect on economic activity on West Bengal, India, where migration is a serious problem. This is the first article that discusses three main concepts together such as place attachment, migratory behaviours and its influence on the economic activity of the districts of West Bengal, India.
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The paper aims to look into the implications of urban informality in Chris Abani's Graceland as represented in slum life and urban poverty as products of over urbanization and…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to look into the implications of urban informality in Chris Abani's Graceland as represented in slum life and urban poverty as products of over urbanization and globalization, seeking to unravel multi-layers of the human side of the slum.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper examines slum life from a descriptive approach to highlight how people survive under poverty. The study of the culture of slums entails an analysis of the survival techniques and everyday practices of slum dwellers, the relations and patterns of behavior and the outcomes of the interplay between place, culture and power relations in such communities.
Findings
The urban slum dwellers utilize everyday forms of resistance which comprise a number of “low-profile techniques” to subvert state-imposed power structures and break the cycle of poverty.
Research limitations/implications
Despite the relevance of a post-colonial approach to the texts, this paper is limited to the study of the impact of urban poverty on individuals.
Practical implications
The margin, represented in the urban poor, is brought into focus and perceived in a new light of empowerment which challenges alienating discourses.
Social implications
The multidimensional vision of Nigeria in Abani's text highlights the cultural and economic impacts of multiculturalism, neocolonialism and globalization on the urban poor.
Originality/value
The paper formulates a framework for understanding the culture of the slum as a space of a peculiar nature, seeking to deconstruct a fixed view of slum life and poverty culture.
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