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The Ganges–Brahmaputra–Meghna delta is one of the most populous deltas in the world, threatened by diverse environmental stressors, including salinity intrusion, causing adverse consequences on livelihood adaptation. Shrimp farming has been recognized as one of the most practiced livelihoods among various livelihood opportunities. Growing global demand and higher economic returns encouraged many farmers to convert their agricultural land to shrimp farms by intruding saline water into the farmlands to produce shrimps. In this study, we investigated whether the growing trend of shrimp farming influences the migration aspirations of the vulnerable coastal communities in Bangladesh. The study employed qualitative interviews with individuals in four villages in southwest coastal Bangladesh. Satellite images were analyzed to detect land-use changes and changes in soil salinity in the last 28 years, confirming a rapid increase in shrimp farms. Results from the qualitative interviews indicate that poor people with limited resources cannot produce paddy on their land because of increased soil salinity caused by shrimp farming. Such a situation leads them to aspire to migrate. Thus, our analysis contributes to the discourse on “aspiration and capability” in environmental migration by adding the impacts of land-use changes on livelihoods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the migration aspirations of young people from the remote border area of Kinmen, Taiwan and their migratory trajectories—internal migration to the main island of Taiwan and cross‐border migration to China. Located between Taiwan and China, Kinmen is an offshore island with a long history of migration. Based on multi‐site ethnographic data from 30 young people, this paper explores their migratory trajectories and aspirations concerning the instability of socio‐political context and the growing social and cultural inequalities of today's globalised world, China's rise in particular. It contributes to the population geography literature by using migration aspiration as a critical lens to analyse how young people negotiate their borderland identity through mobility under the changing cross‐strait political economy. The paper emphasises the importance of considering the transformation of regional economy and culture when analysing youth migration experiences. In recognising the socially grounded aspects of migration aspiration, it highlights the fluid and transformative nature of migration to enrich our knowledge of how marginalised youth form subjectivities and negotiate complex identities through migration. The distinctive experiences of peripheral youth shed new light on the conceptualisation of border crossing, place and desires under the sway of globalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the effect of structural and individual factors on migration aspirations in a secondary migration context. Through an online survey experiment conducted with Syrian migrants (N = 551) living in Turkey, we unpack factors explaining aspirations to stay and move onward from the current country of residence. The findings indicate that open borders alone do not compel migrants to move onward. Instead, employment opportunities in their current residence play a crucial role in shaping aspirations to stay put. Moreover, individuals inclined to take risks are more likely to migrate, even when strict border controls are in place. By highlighting the question of what motivates migrants to stay as well as to move onward, this research emphasizes individual differences in forming migration aspirations and contributes to migration aspirations literature in the secondary migration context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on a series of qualitative fieldwork in peripheral rural settlements of Hungary, this paper aims to explore the intertwined nature of development and migration by developing a theory-based methodology as a tool. Specifically, the goal is to understand how personal perceptions of local changes are connected to outwards mobility aspirations of rural dwellers. The series of fieldwork, conducted in 8 remote villages of Hungary in the period of 2014–2019 along with the 163, verbatim-transcribed semi-structured and in-depth interviews specifically engaged in understanding changes and migration goals, sets the ground for a detailed investigation of the topic. During the analytical process, a theory-based system is provided for the categorisation of respondents into migration aspiration groups. Differences and similarities based on personal perceptions of social change are then analysed in this distinction. Results show that both voluntary mobile and involuntary immobile people regard local changes as deterioration and development programmes as unsatisfactory, with the former group speaking in relative, contextual terms and the latter with the terminology of invariability, fixedness and hopelessness. Conversely, voluntary immobile respondents regard local changes as positive enabling (though not facilitating) factors of their desire to stay, while understanding their ineffective nature on local economy in general. This paper argues (im)mobility aspirations to be determined by similar freedom-maximizing strategies in all mobility groups, with different forms of freedom being preferred by the different groups. Consequently, to reach the goals of decreasing the depopulation of the countryside, public development policies are expected to enhance the forms of freedom preferred by people who desire to stay.

Abstract Studies on migration aspirations have provided fresh perspectives for two decades by focusing on the changing nature of aspirations, the aspirations-cap/abilities nexus, and by offering a counterpoint through the ‘aspirations to stay’. Building from these, this article proposes a model to explain the intensity and strength of (im)mobility aspirations, given that these can be strong and specific but also weak, mild, conditional, and even conflicting. To do so, I focus on the preferences to migrate or to stay by examining how the two dimensions of (im)mobility – the intrinsic and the instrumental – interact. I study the different emotions and thoughts attached to (im)mobility, how life and migration aspirations are intertwined, and the ways in which migration and stay aspirations can co-exist. In doing so, I differentiate between three ideal-type strengths of aspirations: harmonious, conflicting, and indeterminate aspirations. Harmonious aspirations capture strong convictions about what is more convenient: staying or migrating. Conflicting aspirations stress that both migration and stay aspirations can be concurrently present and equally strong. Indeterminate aspirations represent uncertainty or indifference about where to be. With this focus, the paper provides a simple approach to orient research beyond ideal-type categories by incorporating complex, often contradictory emotions. The paper draws on 37 qualitative interviews in two former mining regions in North-West Spain to advance theorization on migration aspirations and decision-making and to question if the division between migration and stay aspirations is clear-cut.

Imagination is central to migration. Geographical imaginaries, often shaped by historical narratives and mainstream media, allow people to envision futures elsewhere and influence migration aspirations. Using interviews with Nepalis who migrated to Malta in recent years, this article seeks to uncover how people imagine new destinations about which they have limited or no prior knowledge, and how these imaginaries compare to those of established destinations. Through this lens, the article then examines participants' aspirations to migrate to Malta. The analysis shows how participants contextualised the information they found about Malta by drawing extensively from imaginaries of better-known European destinations, in a mechanism I call spatial imaginary spillover. Participants moved to Malta seeking increased personal freedoms, rights and safety, economic stability and affluence, exploration and social prestige linked to migration to Western destinations. As such, Malta is part of a group of new European destinations for Nepalis that are more accessible than established destinations in the West, and which participants prefer over historical destinations for Nepali workers. This article provides novel insights into how imaginaries of new destinations and other unfamiliar places are produced, and how the lens of geographical imaginaries yields rich perspectives on migration aspirations and destination preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article investigates the impact of parental migration on the migration aspirations of university students in Moldova. Through 24 semi-structured in-depth interviews with university students, the article aims to answer the questions of what shapes the migration aspirations of young students and whether and to what extent their parents’ migration experience impacts this process. The findings show that young Moldovan students are mainly pushed to emigrate by very low living standards, economic and political uncertainty and pulled abroad by better job offers and higher incomes. Highly skilled positions and short-term stays abroad were preferred, corresponding more to the new economics of labour migration concept than the neoclassical economics model. The study results question the validity of the cumulative causation theory, as there was only a mixed indication that parents’ former migratory experience strengthens their child’s pro-migration aspirations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThis paper investigates the under-explored question of how migrants in so-called ‘transit countries’ make sense of migration aspirations. Drawing from recent scholarship on migration-related ambivalence, we focus on how people reflect on the past and present of their migration aspirations, employing a migrant-centered approach. Based on semi-structured interviews with refugees in Libya and Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as complementary expert interviews, we find that ambivalence, which (re-)shapes migration aspirations, is a necessary reaction to the structures of uncertainty installed in current European externalization measures beyond EU borders. By adopting a migrant-centered approach and taking into account the multidimensional and processual nature of ambivalence, our research contributes to a better understanding of migrants as self-critical and reflective actors facing the challenges of making decisions in situations of uncertainty; thus, ambivalence is produced in a dialectic interplay between migrants’ agency and the opportunities/limitations of changing structures that surround them which, in turn, informs the interplay between forward and backward migration aspirations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most migration studies and theories focus on understanding the initial migration of people from their home country. Less attention has been paid to the factors influencing immigrants' preferences to either permanently settle in the host country, return to their home country or move onwards to another destination. Understanding the characteristics and motives of those who aspire to leave the host country is, however, valuable for both host and home countries to formulate appropriate and effective policies in order to retain their valued immigrants or citizens and foster their successful (re-)integration. This paper provides a comprehensive global analysis of the characteristics and circumstances that shape first-generation immigrants' aspirations to stay, return or migrate onwards, based on individual-level data from the Gallup World Polls across 138 countries worldwide between 2009 and 2016. Our study reveals that immigrants' stated preferences are strongly influenced by demographics, human and spiritual capital, as well as by soft factors, such as social ties and sociocultural integration, while economic factors have a more feeble influence. Changes in circumstances in the home and host countries are also important determinants of locational aspirations. Some interesting exceptions to our results stand out when we differentiate home and host countries by their economic development levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study how slow-onset environmental changes impact the adaptive capacity of rural women living in the Souss-Massa region of Morocco. Given the immobility of many women in rural regions, we especially focus upon the internal migration aspirations of rural woman. In this way our study aims to shed light on the interrelationships between environmental change, gender relations and social and migration aspirations in a gradually environmentally degrading region. Based on Carling's aspiration/ability model, we analyse how slow-onset environmental changes influence the internal migration aspirations and trajectories of rural women, taking into account important background factors such as household characteristics, land heritage systems and migration networks. Our study is based on 38 interviews with inhabitants of the Souss-Massa region of Morocco that (used to) work in the agricultural sector, of which 15 interviews were conducted with rural women. Our findings show the ambiguous role of slow-onset environmental changes in the development of migration aspirations of rural women in a Moroccan rural context and underscores that environmental changes should be taken into account in migration decision making processes, both for internal and international migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the migration transition in Cisternino, a rural town in Southern Italy, after the Second World War, and analyses the social changes that influenced the observed migration shifts. Based on archival research, statistics and primary data, the article presents the town and its migration patterns before and after the Second World War. It then examines the town's main social changes over the 1950–1990 period, and shows that three processes explain the changing migration patterns: the expansion of the state, cultural transformations and the restructuring of the local economy. The article shows that, after the war, migration became an adaptation strategy in reaction to rapid societal changes, including new aspirations among local residents. Therefore, migration became of vital importance at a time of high uncertainty. The article also shows the many ways in which, at crucial moments of transition, the state affected local livelihoods and people's decision to either adapt locally or migrate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines the relationship between past experience of involuntary immobility in a family and the current migration intentions of its members. While family migration experience has been shown to be positively related to migration intentions, the role of past unrealised migration intentions in a family is understudied. Using the case of the former communist bloc, we focus on the migration intentions of people whose family members' mobility aspirations were stifled by the restrictive political regime. Drawing on data from the Life in Transition III Survey, we show that close relatives of people who had been prohibited from going abroad under communist rule are more likely to report migration intentions compared with people without such family experience. We explain these findings with the intergenerational transmission of mobility aspirations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a quasi-standardized hypothetical interview-guide question and demonstrates its applicability in addressing participants’ general life aspirations, and, in particular, the embedded migration aspirations. The proposed interview question is related to the hypothesized behavior of participants in the off chance of having won the national lottery. Based on fieldwork results, conducted in rural Hungary between 2014-2019, the paper demonstrates how this question, introduced as a closing question during interviews, may be useful in addressing cultural values and attitudes in an agency-oriented way and with a reduction of perceived structural constraints affecting them. The question was eligible in differentiating between forms of geographical mobility, reflecting some migration-related phenomena that were formerly claimed challenging to be specifically addressed, revealing that pro-migration structural constraints might mask general attitudes to stay among those seemingly opting for emigration, and conversely, structural, restraining-constraints that, in some cases, mask pro-migration attitudes among those seemingly aspiring to stay.

Increasingly high numbers of migrants around the globe have led migration scholars attempting to understand determinants of migration aspirations for many years. This study specifically looks at migration aspirations from two angles, (1) migration under conditions of a continuum of crises, in this case the (civil) war in Syria and precarious lives in Turkey, highlighting uncertainty and temporality entailed in crisis and (2) the role of family in migration aspirations. So far, scholarship primarily focuses on individuals in countries of origin and on voluntary migrants. Migration aspirations of forced migrants who have found refuge in another country are far less studied. Their situation, however, differs from voluntary migrants in distinct ways. Second, although the literature emphasizes the role of family for migration aspirations deep-level empirical inquiries are rare. Based on a survey among around 1,900 Syrian refugees in Turkey, this article addresses these gaps and explores the role family plays for migration aspirations among forced migrants. We take a close look by exploring how geographical family networks relate to migration aspirations and interact with other characteristics. We find that staying in Turkey seems to be the most likely option for participants at the time of the survey, but we also identify a substantial degree of uncertainty regarding migration aspirations. Furthermore, participants' aspired places of living depend on the location of family members, above and beyond other characteristics. Moreover, (trans-)national family networks enhance or diminish effects of other determinants of migration aspirations such as perceived living conditions in Turkey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the basis of data gathered by two independent ethnographic studies of gay Chinese migrants in France and Belgium, this paper aims to identify the role of intersecting and parallel aspirations which shape their migration trajectories toward Western countries. These aspirations include motivations to respond to or appropriate traditional family configurations, imaginaries that characterize the countries of destination, the desire to fulfill same-sex sexual and relationship goals, as well as class, educational, national, and ethnic affiliations. Using concepts of intersectionality and super-diversity, this paper further argues that the simultaneous and overlapping nature of these motivations deserves to be discussed as a subset of current Chinese diasporas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, the European Union (EU) and other donors have increasingly instrumentalised their development cooperation to meet their own domestic migration policy goals, under the assumption that different development interventions—such as building climate resilience – may result in less outward migration from the recipient country. However, it is not yet understood how increased climate resilience would influence individual migration aspirations and capabilities. We conducted 32 in-depth interviews (IDI) and eight focus group discussions (FGD) with beneficiaries of the EU RESET Plus climate-resilience building project in southern Ethiopia. Half of the respondents are adult direct beneficiaries, and the other half are indirect beneficiaries (youths 17–24 years old). By applying a modified aspirations-capabilities framework, we extended the migration-development nexus to climate change and climate-resilience building. We found that climate change worsened perceived conditions and prospects for the future, while the development intervention mostly reinforced already emerging migration aspirations. By improving agricultural output in the context of climate variability, the RESET Plus project contributed to supporting people who wanted to stay to actually be able to do so but also encouraging those wanting to leave by slightly increasing migration capabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on longitudinal research with 33 Chinese international students in 10 European countries, this article examines their polymorphic identifications towards homeland and asks how these changing perceptions constitute the underlying logic of their particular migration aspirations during the COVID-19. Specifically, the article explores how homeland identifications function as a driving force to facilitate 'voluntary immobility' in the study destination while being used as a tackling strategy to adapt to their 'involuntary immobility' overseas. It also examines how these identifications articulate with the students' mixing and shifting migration aspirations formulated during the pandemic. In doing so, the article demonstrates that polymorphic perceptions closely relate to the generation, exercise and reproduction of their migration aspirations that are temporally distributed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a quasi-standardized hypothetical interview-guide question and demonstrates its applicability in addressing participants' general life aspirations, and, in particular, the embedded migration aspirations. The proposed interview question is related to the hypothesized behavior of participants in the off chance of having won the national lottery. Based on fieldwork results, conducted in rural Hungary between 2014-2019, the paper demonstrates how this question, introduced as a closing question during interviews, may be useful in addressing cultural values and attitudes in an agency-oriented way and with a reduction of perceived structural constraints affecting them. The question was eligible in differentiating between forms of geographical mobility, reflecting some migration-related phenomena that were formerly claimed challenging to be specifically addressed, revealing that pro-migration structural constraints might mask general attitudes to stay among those seemingly opting for emigration, and conversely, structural, restraining-constraints that, in some cases, mask pro-migration attitudes among those seemingly aspiring to stay. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract It is well-documented that border controls make migration journeys riskier for people on the move. Policymakers construe deaths in migration journeys as resulting from the individual risk-taking attitudes of migrants. However, risks involved in migration journeys are not only related to border control measures. Based on the analysis of 30 semi-structured interviews conducted with Syrian and Afghan migrants in Turkey, we embrace a social constructionist approach to unpack how migrants form their aspirations based on their risk perceptions. Our findings explain why some migrants would still move onwards despite violent borders while others stay or search for “safer” ways for onward migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Survey data on migration aspirations, plans and intentions is important for understanding the drivers and dynamics of migration. Such data has been collected since the 1960s but has expanded massively in recent decades. This paper provides the first comprehensive overview of existing survey data in an inventory of 212 surveys with recorded metadata on geographic and temporal coverage, survey population, sample size, and other characteristics. ‘A survey’ is not always a clear-cut unit of analysis, but we adopted procedures that enable systematic comparisons, and identified surveys through systematic searches and follow-up investigation. The paper has three objectives. First, it facilitates reuse of survey data and secondary analysis, albeit with limitations in data access, which we document. Second, it helps consolidate a sprawling field and thereby contribute to methodological and theoretical strengthening. Third, it informs debates on the ethics, politics and biases of data collection by documenting broad patterns in the body of knowledge. The inventory of survey data on migration aspirations and related concepts gives migration researchers a new tool for locating existing data and strengthening the foundations for collecting new data.

The aspiration-capability framework introduces four (im)mobility categories – mobility, voluntary immobility, involuntary immobility and acquiescent immobility – which have received considerable attention. However, few studies have examined how people move across such categories. Drawing on the migration experiences of 17 self-identified Latin American gay individuals, this paper shows how prospective migrants can be pushed into a state of involuntary immobility by their families, and how they can adapt to overcome immobility and fulfill their migration aspirations. The article finds, firstly, that heteronormative values and familial expectations regarding sexuality shape the possibility of mobilizing the family's economic, informative and emotional resources. Secondly, I discuss the adaptation strategies that individuals use to surpass involuntary immobility. To understand movement across (im)mobility categories, as well as the role of social boundaries for migration, this paper differentiates between individual and collective migration aspirations and capabilities. In doing so, the article introduces an approach to explore how interactions between social groups and their individual group members shape the (im)mobility projects of the latter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For small, low-to-middle-income countries such as North Macedonia, the prospect of young, educated people leaving their place of residence (i.e. emigrating) can have significant negative societal-level effects. Understanding the complexity of the brain-drain phenomenon and its antecedents is critical to developing multi-level (i.e. global, societal and individual) strategic solutions. A qualitative analysis of several focus-group interviews was used to understand young, educated residents’ reasons either for emigrating or for remaining in North Macedonia. Two overarching themes served to organise the participant-identified drivers for emigration and those opposed to it. Three sub-themes emerged describing the factors for emigration: 1) a lack of professional opportunities, 2) institutional systems, and 3) cultural tightness. Likewise, three sub-themes emerged describing the factors for staying: 1) community, 2) culture and 3) social responsibility. Insights serve to contextualise some of the experiences of young, educated people in small, low-to-middle-income, countries which impact on their emigration decisions.

The welfare aspects of intra-European migration remain an important and controversial topic of academic and political debates. These discussions touch upon the classical ‘welfare magnet’ or ‘welfare tourism’ hypothesis. Transcending the politicised concept of ‘benefit tourism’, our paper examines how welfare-state considerations in relation to migration decisions vary across the life course. Relying on micro-level qualitative research focusing on Spanish intra-EU movers, the paper probes deeper into how individuals perceive welfare systems, analysing the subtle and nuanced meanings of different aspects of the welfare for their migration decisions. We focus more specifically on welfare provisions in terms of health care, compulsory education, child support and other care responsibilities, unemployment and pensions and retirement. Our research indicates that, in studies on the migration–welfare nexus, it is necessary to move beyond the current narrow focus on the welfare magnet hypothesis and to examine how diverse welfare arrangements continuously and dynamically set the context for migration decisions at various stages of an individual’s life. The results of our research show how features of the Spanish welfare system, in comparison to those of potential destination countries, might act as both a trigger and/or a barrier to migration. As such, we get a ‘thicker description’ of the role which welfare might play in shaping individuals’ eventual migratory aspirations and decisions.

• Using a multi-level design, we ask which societal circumstances and individual characteristics make people wish to migrate to another country. • We draw on a large-scale survey conducted in 25 communities in ten countries across Asia, Africa and the Middle East. • Determinants at the individual and community level both contribute to forming migration aspirations. • The community level analysis shows that individual-level factors are far from consistent in determining who has / has not migration aspirations. In this article we ask which societal circumstances and individual characteristics make people wish to migrate to another country. Drawing on a large-scale survey conducted in 25 communities in ten countries across Asia, Africa and the Middle East, we conduct multi-level regression analysis, allowing us to assess the effects of diverse individual and community-level determinants on international migration aspirations. This multi-level design has delivered two insights in particular. First, determinants at the individual and community level both contribute to forming migration aspirations. Second, the analysis at the community level shows that individual-level factors are far from consistent in determining who has migration aspirations and who does not. We conclude that such multi-level analysis holds much potential for generating greater understanding of how migration processes work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article uses Carling's aspiration/ability model and the social anchoring concept proposed by Grzymala-Kazlowska to explain the post-deportation experience of Mexicans deported from the United States of America. I analyze how deported people's aspirations are shaped by US migration policies and by their families, as well as by local community obligations. The data comes from seven years of longitudinal research in a rural community in Oaxaca. I conclude that under the immobility regime produced by the US for the deported Mexicans, their aspirations of remigration evolve into desperation. Often unable to remigrate to the US, they are stuck in a limbo of desperation until they refunnel their aspirations and anchor them in Mexico. At the same time, they resynchronize their life courses with other community members. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Sociology & Space / Sociologija i Prostor is the property of Institut za drustvena istrazivanja u Zagrebu (Institute for Social Research of Zagreb) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article focuses on nationals from Ghana who have lost interest in pursuing migration dreams to Europe and North America after failed attempts to migrate. Many less experienced youths who attempt to migrate to Europe and North America face challenges such as strict immigration laws, high cost of financing migration plans, or illegal recruiters. Some risk their lives through dangerous routes to achieve their migration goals. The negative consequences recorded are numerous, including death en route to Europe and North America. Using life stories, this article lets failed migrants recount the frustration, wasted resources and years spent to fulfil their migration dreams. It discusses individual factors such as experiences that affect the decision not to pursue migration dreams despite the culture of migration in their communities. The article concludes that strict immigration policies in Europe and North America have restricted international migration among less experienced and less skilled youth in Ghana, leading to personal decisions not to migrate but adjust to the conditions at home, and later describing their stay as a preferred decision.

Since 2011, the Ivorian government has invested heavily in higher education to meet its labour market’s growing demand. In this article, we analyse the drivers of Ivorian student mobility from Côte d’Ivoire to France and Switzerland, highlighting the central role of migrant networks. We focus on the decision-making process and find that migration networks play an important role at every step: from initial aspirations to concrete plans and efforts to study abroad. Using 38 in depth interviews and two focus groups with Ivorian students who aspire to study in France and Switzerland, members of the education board, migration officers, and members of the Ivorian diaspora, we reveal that the functioning of the Ivorian higher education system is a factor of uncertainty for many students who consider that salvation can only come from migration. In addition, social representations linked to foreign diplomas inspire Ivorian students to choose international mobility. Migrant networks further encourage Ivorian students to move abroad because stories from successful migrants sharing their mobility experience are coupled with the provision of key resources to support mobility projects.

Based on the multiple regression model and scenario approach to forecasting, the article estimates the Ukrainian migration aspirations towards Germany (the scale of migration, the economic activity of migrants, and their economic benefits). It is argued that major transformations in the gender-age structure of the German population may cause a demographic crisis and labour market imbalances. Our projections indicate the growing role of foreign human resources in the German economy. When modeling the scale of emigration from Ukraine, an integrated approach is applied, considering not only trends of pull-push factors but also special aspects of the German migration policy and the outflow of 8–10 million Ukrainian migrant workers. Given the poor statistical data on the scale of labour emigration needed for constructing reliable econometric models, the use of expert forecasting method remains the most optimal technique for assessing potential migration flows and migration systems.

Gender plays a role in all aspects of migration but is underrepresented in migration theories, particularly relating to environmental migration. In this research I address how men and women experience vulnerabilities to environmental change differently and how these vulnerabilities are reflected in their aspirations and ability to migrate. I focus on two urban areas in Morocco with distinct migration histories and environmental contexts: Tangier and Tinghir. I conducted qualitative interviews with a total of 48 informants. My findings indicate that vulnerability to environmental change and aspirations and ability to migrate are influenced by access to social, financial, and economic resources, and are structured by gender. Further, my analyses identified interactions among gender, generation, migration networks, and place of residence and explain why populations most affected by environmental change are unable to migrate, increasing gender inequalities within these regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on qualitative research with western scholars working at Sino-foreign universities (SFUs), this paper highlights the emerging academic mobility trend moving from the Global North to South. With a theoretical focus on 'emotions in migration', the paper first asks how these foreign scholars' migration aspirations towards China are initiated and nurtured before the move. Second, it explores after the move, how they emotionally encounter China in everyday life and perform agency, i.e. exercising specific 'emotional labour' to reframe their lived experiences and migration aspirations. Third, it examines how their capacity of materialising migration aspirations can be facilitated and constrained by a set of structural factors at the macro, meso and micro level, and how their migration aspirations towards the future are reconfigured accordingly. In doing so, the paper enriches our understanding of academic migration by focusing on the China context and unpacking the emotional predicaments involved in the lives of mobile scholars who are conventionally seen as rather privileged. Critically, this paper develops an emotionally-sensitive approach, to demonstrate that the process in which migration aspirations are generated, exercised and reproduced is an emotional, dynamic and uncertain one, constantly shaped by migrants' agency and multiple structural forces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Comparative Economic Research is the property of Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Lodzkiego and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Medical education in Nigeria faces numerous challenges and problems; a lack of a coherent admission policy, inadequate funding, poor planning, and erosion of values have led to a general perception of low standards and quality. In the face of these, questions arise as to their influence on medical students' aspirations and intentions to migrate after graduation. This study uses a sequential mixed-method design to examine the extent to which the perceptions of the quality of medical education in Nigeria affect the aspirations and plans of Nigerian medical students to migrate after graduation. 211 final year students (out of a potential 580) participated in a survey; aged between 20 and 45. While the survey showed that the students perceived medical education to be of sufficiently good quality across a spectrum of variables, interview respondents described a dysfunctional medical education that failed to meet their aspirations. The perception of a declining standard in medical training is a major issue for Nigerian medical students and graduates. The inability to halt the decline in the quality of medical training in Nigeria, therefore, leaves many medical students and graduates feeling inadequately trained, and inadvertently feeds their desires and aspirations to migrate abroad after graduation.

This study contributes to the scholarly call to increase studies on migration from the perspective of postcolonial thought by exploring a novel ethnographic case; the migration of Tibetans who have migrated from Tibet via Nepal to India and who often aspire migrating onwards from India. It is argued that postcolonial thought gives a fuller understanding of migration via one place or several towards migrants' final destinations, often called transit migration in scholarly writings, by demonstrating how unequal power structures, such as unequal distribution of wealth or access to mobility and opportunities, increase migration (aspirations) of Tibetans both in China and in India, where they have a minority position. Despite this, their migration reveals an active subaltern agency taking advantage of the various opportunities during their migratory processes, such as the international networks in Dharamsala and the images of Tibetans as exotic 'Others'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Taking our cue from an earlier study of East African Asians who 'onward-migrated' to the UK in the 1960s and 1970s, this paper looks at the more recent phenomenon of Bangladeshi immigrants in Italy who are onward-migrating to London. We seek to answer three questions. First, why does this migration occur? Second, how does the ethnic group we call 'Italian-Bangladeshis' narrate their working lives in London and to what extent do they feel 'at home' there? Third, what are the gaps between their expectations held before the move and the actual social and economic conditions they encounter in London? Empirical evidence comes from 40 in-depth interviews with Italian-Bangladeshis who have already onward-migrated or plan to. Most Italian-Bangladeshis move to London to escape socially limiting factory work in Italy, to invest in the educational future of their children, and to join the largest Bangladeshi community outside of their home country. In London, they describe feeling more 'at home' than in Italy, due to the size and multiple facilities of the Bangladeshi community, their lack of 'visibility' and of racialisation, and the greater sense of religious freedom. But their onward-migration experience has its more negative sides: the inability to access more than low-paid casual work in London's service economy, the cost of housing, and the difficulty of making social contacts beyond their ethnic community, especially with those they regard as 'natives', i.e. 'white' British. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The cosmopolitan citizen in a world of fading boundaries: a research on the migration aspirations of the Dutch and Flemish that have settled in Morocco Within the scientific literature on migration, there is a seemingly strong emphasis on migrants who migrate to countries that are wealthier than their country of origin. Literature regarding the phenomenon of people moving to countries less wealthy than their country of origin is scarce. Therefore, the focus in this study is on Flemish and Dutch people (without Moroccan background) who migrated to Morocco with the main objective of finding out the reason for their migration. The model of Timmerman, Hemmerechts and de Clerck (2014) takes centre stage, the aim of which is to identify factors on the micro-, macro- and meso-level which influence the individual perception on migration. This study is based on secondary data analysis of 27 interviews with 21 individuals and 6 couples. At the micro-level, the love for a partner, the love for Morocco, the preference for the climate, and the presence of the so-called cosmopolitan identity are important factors in the creation of migration aspirations. On the macro-level the economic context (mainly because of a reduction in maintenance costs) is the most important reason to move to Marocco. The migration literature is increasingly focusing on the meso-level in which the social network of the migrant is most important. Most salient is that factors at the meso-level have hardly had any influence on the creation of migration aspirations for these interviewees. The identified factors on the micro-level and macro-level are in line with the fledgling theory Lifestyle Migration. Further research could indicate if the above-mentioned results comply with migrants who move to other non-traditional migration countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is a refreshingly simple thought that migration is the combined result of two factors: the aspiration to migrate and the ability to migrate. Without having to resort to overly structural or individualistic explanations, this analytical distinction helps disentangle complex questions around why some people migrate but others do not. Still, aspiration and ability raise their own thorny theoretical and methodological questions. To begin with, what does it mean to have migration aspirations? How can such concepts be objects of empirical research? And is it meaningful to say that individuals possess the ability to migrate if their preference is to stay? The aspiration/ability model was originally proposed in this journal and has since been diversely applied and adapted. In this article, we look back at more than a decade of research to examine a series of theoretical and empirical developments related to the aspiration/ability model and its extensions. We identify two-step approaches as a class of analytical frameworks that share the basic logic of the aspiration/ability model. Covering expansive theoretical, methodological and empirical ground, we seek to lay a foundation for new research on global migration in its diverse forms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper deals with the application of multivariate analysis of variance and logistic regression in measuring, explaining and evaluating (i) gender differences in expressing migration aspirations, and (ii) a gender effect on migration motivation of university students in Croatia. The results supported the thesis that migration is a complex gendering process that assumes subjective assessment of the whole set of interrelated motives. According to logistic regression, gender is a significant predictor of migration aspirations among the selected demographic and socio-economic variables. A multivariate analysis of variance showed that gender and migration aspirations in interaction matter when it comes to migration motives, particularly related to the perceived importance of social networks. Females, and especially those who aspire to migrate, assessed these motives as more important than males.

Survey data on migration aspirations, plans and intentions is important for understanding the drivers and dynamics of migration. Such data has been collected since the 1960s but has expanded massively in recent decades. This paper provides the first comprehensive overview of existing survey data in an inventory of 212 surveys with recorded metadata on geographic and temporal coverage, survey population, sample size, and other characteristics. 'A survey' is not always a clear-cut unit of analysis, but we adopted procedures that enable systematic comparisons, and identified surveys through systematic searches and follow-up investigation. The paper has three objectives. First, it facilitates reuse of survey data and secondary analysis, albeit with limitations in data access, which we document. Second, it helps consolidate a sprawling field and thereby contribute to methodological and theoretical strengthening. Third, it informs debates on the ethics, politics and biases of data collection by documenting broad patterns in the body of knowledge. The inventory of survey data on migration aspirations and related concepts gives migration researchers a new tool for locating existing data and strengthening the foundations for collecting new data., Competing Interests: No competing interests were disclosed., (Copyright: © 2023 Mjelva MB and Carling J.)

This special issue addresses the imagination of futures ‘away from home’ in a globalising world. While a growing number of migration scholars have taken into account that migration considerations are always socially embedded and culturally informed, the processes at work among a mounting number of (young) men and women throughout the world, who are convinced that a better life can only be found ‘away from home’, have been notably understudied. This special issue goes beyond the study of migration aspirations as a question of migration only. It focuses on the specific contexts (in five different countries) within which migration dreams are born, and sometimes even cultivated. It explores the sociocultural embedding of these aspirations by investigating the interpretation of local realities versus global possibilities, and examines how the aspirations of so many worldwide link up to the wider interconnections between globalisation and the sociocultural, political and economic transformations ‘back home’. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

These days, the imagined destinations of ever more people, particularly in the ‘global South’, are not where they were born but elsewhere. Using a case study of educated (lower) middle-class youth in Dhaka, this paper attempts to demonstrate that for many ‘aspiring migrants’, the yearning for leaving is a metaphor for disappointment and disengagement rather than the first step towards transnational migration. Economic growth, rapid urbanisation and the increasing investment in education infest the emerging urban (lower) middle-class youth with new ‘modern’ lifestyle desires that cannot be fulfilled in their home country and generate a sense of disengagement with Bangladesh. The paper focuses in particular on how the – culturally embedded – imaginations of foreign places link up to personal (re-)evaluations of local lives. Nearly all informants explained how local socio-economic, political and existential insecurities made them yearn for ‘safe’ places where their dreams could be fulfilled. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Recent studies show that the numbers of aspiring migrants continue to be on the increase worldwide not only in the typical emigration countries in the South but also in the usual destination countries in the North. Yet, while migration theorists have recently included the micro perspective of individual agency and sociocultural logics in their search for the engine behind the migration flows, far less research has been done on the sociocultural embeddedness of the imaginations of aspiring migrants, most of whom will never migrate. In Senegal, an increasing large number of men and women are very focused on transnational migration. This article tries to unravel the knot as to what lies at the core of this seeming national preoccupation with migration out of Senegal. Its conclusion suggests that the pervasive desire of so many is rooted in the way in which the economic claims of family members and friends are culturally informed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. Medical education in Nigeria faces numerous challenges and problems; a lack of a coherent admission policy, inadequate funding, poor planning, and erosion of values have led to a general perception of low standards and quality. In the face of these, questions arise as to their influence on medical students' aspirations and intentions to migrate after graduation. This study uses a sequential mixed-method design to examine the extent to which the perceptions of the quality of medical education in Nigeria affect the aspirations and plans of Nigerian medical students to migrate after graduation. 211 final year students (out of a potential 580) participated in a survey; aged between 20 and 45. While the survey showed that the students perceived medical education to be of sufficiently good quality across a spectrum of variables, interview respondents described a dysfunctional medical education that failed to meet their aspirations. The perception of a declining standard in medical training is a major issue for Nigerian medical students and graduates. The inability to halt the decline in the quality of medical training in Nigeria, therefore, leaves many medical students and graduates feeling inadequately trained, and inadvertently feeds their desires and aspirations to migrate abroad after graduation., (Copyright: © 2020 Awire E and Okumagba MT.)