The Would-Be Migrant: Post-Socialist Primitive Accumulation, Potential Transnational Mobility, and the Displacement of the Present in Northeast China

2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiang Biao
Keyword(s):  
Northeast China ◽  
Living Conditions ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Migration Studies ◽  
Primitive Accumulation ◽  
Central Figure ◽  
Transnational Mobility ◽  
Accumulation Potential ◽  
Do So

AbstractThis article argues that ‘would-be migrants’ – people who prepare for migrating overseas to the extent that their present lives are significantly changed – should become a central figure in migration studies. There are many more would-be migrants than actual migrants, and they also have deeper impacts on migration processes and local societies. Instead of treating the would-be migrant as a derivative of the category of ‘migrant’, this article establishes it as the primary figure, and argues that migration is a contingent outcome of being a ‘would-be’. In order to do so this article delves into the living conditions of would-be migrants in northeast China, with a focus on two aspects that concern them the most: the exorbitant intermediary fees and the high risks involved. The would-be migrants' experiences suggest that the prevalent pattern of unskilled outmigration since the 1990s should be understood as a result of developments inside of China, particularly a condition that I call the ‘displacement of the present’. The figure of would-be migrant is not only methodologically revealing for migration studies, but also urges us to rethink how we may engage with rapid social changes.

Science and Physical Culture – A Glimpse into the Future

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-14
Author(s):  
Nenad Živanović ◽  
Petar Pavlović ◽  
Veroljub Stanković ◽  
Zoran Milošević ◽  
Nebojša Ranđelović ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Physical Exercise ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Technological Development ◽  
Living Conditions ◽  
Physical Culture ◽  
Social Changes ◽  
Technological Revolution ◽  
Look Back ◽  
Marketing Activities ◽  
Nourishing Food

Summary The end of the 20th and the first decade of the 21st century are characterized by a technological development which could be described as having revolutionary speed. If we were to look back on the revolutionary events during the 17th and 18th century, in the domain of great scientific changes, changes in industry, agriculture, economy, the organization of social relations (democracy and socialism), we could say that we are witnesses to this sixth technological revolution. All these civilizational leaps forward have conditioned, quite expectedly, big changes in our profession. This has been reflected in the goals which have been imposed by social changes initiated by numerous revolutionary changes. Even though man and his need for physical exercise, as the nourishing food necessary for his being, have remained the same, the circumstances which have imposed different living conditions have required changes in our profession. Naturally, this was reflected in our science as well (which we refer to by different names today). The time we live in, caught up in this new sixth technological revolution, requires a different approach to man and his personality. Now, the question is not only how to “drag” him out of a sedentary culture, but also how to fight the increasingly present physical and intellectual inactivity. Through perfectly guided marketing activities which have been made possible by the implementation of new technological aids, man has been drawn into the hedonistic waters of his own inactivity. And unfortunately, he cannot free himself from this skillfully set trap. That is why physical culture and science must be included in finding a means of helping man find his way out of this hedonistic labyrinth and return to his roots.

The Multi-life Stories of Gautama Buddha and Vardhamana Mahavira

2012 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Naomi Appleton
Keyword(s):  
Life Stories ◽  
Central Figure ◽  
The Past ◽  
Do So

Like Buddhist traditions, Jain traditions preserve many stories about people’s past lives. Unlike Buddhist traditions, relatively few of these stories narrate the past lives of the tradition’s central figure, the jina. In Jainism there is no equivalent path to the bodhisatt(v)a path; the karma that guarantees jinahood is bound a mere two births before that attainment, and the person who attracts that karma cannot do so willfully, nor is he aware of it being bound. There is therefore no Jain equivalent to the ubiquitous j?taka literature. In this paper I will explore what the absence of a j?taka genre in Jain traditions tells us about the genre’s role in Buddhism. Focusing upon the multi-life stories of Gautama Buddha and Vardham?na Mah?v?ra, I will ask how these two strikingly similar narratives betray some fundamental differences between Buddhist and Jain understandings of the ultimate religious goal and the method of its attainment.

scholarly journals Following Fatigue, Feeling Fatigue: A Reflexive Ethnography of Emotion

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 126-135
Author(s):  
Mirjam Wajsberg
Keyword(s):  
Humanitarian Aid ◽  
Aid Workers ◽  
Feminist Scholarship ◽  
Migration Studies ◽  
Control Field ◽  
Humanitarian Aid Workers ◽  
Migration Control ◽  
Methodological Tool ◽  
Emotional Geographies ◽  
Do So

This article takes the emotion of fatigue both as its analytical object as well as a methodological tool to engage in a reflexive ethnography, to question the categorical borders of researcher, researched and the field, in the politicised context of migration studies. I do so by drawing on ethnographic material collected during my fieldwork between Athens, Hamburg and Copenhagen in 2019–2020. This article’s theoretical and conceptual framing is informed by feminist scholarship on emotions, as well as decolonial scholarship in migration studies. By bringing these theoretical threads into the conversation, I study the different qualities of fatigue, amongst others the collective; how fatigue circulates in and through the ethnographic field; and how it shapes relations between refugees, humanitarian aid workers, activists and researchers such as me. Following fatigue across and through its many different instances in this reflexive ethnography of emotions lays bare the uneven emotional geographies that exist and are (re-)produced in the encounters between actors in Europe’s migration control field.

scholarly journals The Impact of Refugee Camps on the Process of Migration Towards Europe: An Assessment

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Sebastian Paul
Keyword(s):  
Asylum Seekers ◽  
Social Systems ◽  
Living Conditions ◽  
Refugee Camps ◽  
Migration Studies ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Mass Migration ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Asylum Seekers And Refugees ◽  
The Eu

In recent years, migration studies focused very much on forced displacement, especially after the influx of migrants to Europe in 2015. Some European countries accept immigrants from non-EU regions. Others blame migrants for taking advantage of Europe’s social systems and follow restrictive policy measures. The EU is as divided as never before in its history, and the process of migration to Europe has become more critical. In this context, the characteristics, fleeing reasons, and refugees’ and asylum seekers’ journeys are relevant. This dissertation looks at these factors in the framework of refugee camps. Even though refugee camps are frequently an essential part of the journey of asylum seekers and refugees on their way to Europe, there is only limited literature in this field. Thus, the research aims to analyze migration and refugee movements as a consequence of the miserable and inhumane conditions in refugee camps and identifies indicators for (mass) migration to Europe. For this purpose, and since everyone speaks about migrants, but not with migrants, I conducted quantitative and qualitative research in 192 fully-structured and 17 semi-structured interviews. The research provides a comprehensive comparison of the living conditions in non-EU and EU refugee camps, analyses their role in the process of migration to Europe, and emphasizes the differences between different camps. Furthermore, the characteristics of asylum seekers and refugees and their motives for coming to Europe were examined. The findings of the study show who these people are and from where they originate. There is evidence for the hypothesis that the majority of people flee because of severe danger (e.g., armed conflicts) and are not ‘economic migrants’ despite the claims of nationalistic governments in the EU. However, there is evidence for the hypothesis that improved living conditions in camps could reduce mass migration movements to Europe. The dissertation enhances the discussion of refugee camps in migration studies, provides new perspectives and insights about the journey of asylum seekers and refugees to Europe, and people’s characteristics leaving their country of origin.

Intersectionality and Primary Accumulation: Caste and Gender in India under the Sign of Monopoly-Finance Capital

2016 ◽  
Vol 68 (6) ◽  
pp. 37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judith Whitehead
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Global South ◽  
Political Strategies ◽  
Primitive Accumulation ◽  
Global Political Economy ◽  
Monthly Review ◽  
Finance Capital ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Subsequent Incorporation ◽  
Do So

The overarching goal of this article is to explain how the relations between capitalist imperialism, primary accumulation—often misleadingly called "primitive accumulation"—and intersectionality operate in contemporary global political economy. From many recent studies, it is clear that certain populations are more vulnerable to processes of primary accumulation than others, and that many people in the global South now experience the dispossession and displacement caused by primary accumulation without any subsequent incorporation into waged work. Understanding how ethnicity, gender, and class intersect within contemporary patterns of global accumulation is important in order to develop clear political strategies against ongoing dispossessions.… To do so, imperialism, primary accumulation, and intersectionality all need to be rethought, especially in relation to each other.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.

Language as a Contested Site of Belonging

2019 ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
Reiko Shindo
Keyword(s):  
Migration Studies ◽  
Specific Context ◽  
Dual Nature ◽  
Japanese Case ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Migrant Activism ◽  
Do So

This chapter explains how the research on language in the context of migrant activism can advance one's understanding of belonging, of what it means to be a legitimate member of a community. To do so, it broadly sketches the relationship between language and community and discusses how the focus on linguistic interactions between citizens and noncitizens offers a productive yet unexplored site of investigation in migration studies. The relationship between language and community has a dual nature. Language solidifies the boundary of community, and separates citizens inside the community from foreigners outside. And yet, it can also obscure the line between the two, exposing fluidity of belonging, and in doing so, imagining community as a dissolving entity. The chapter then provides the specific context in which migrant activism takes place in Japan, and explains how the Japanese case study is helpful for examining citizenship and belonging in relation to language.

So-called Accumulation by Dispossession

2016 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Bin
Keyword(s):  
Primitive Accumulation ◽  
Accumulation By Dispossession ◽  
Historical Capitalism ◽  
Do So

Over the last two decades, the notion of primitive accumulation has been reemerging within studies of historical capitalism. Nonetheless, most research on contemporary dispossessions has related them to capitalist accumulation proper without sufficient theoretical care, in a way that virtually collapses the concepts of dispossession and accumulation into one another. The purpose of this paper is to suggest some theoretical distinctions to better understand how contemporary dispossessions and their variations, forms and mechanisms relate, contribute, or even do not contribute, to capitalist accumulation proper. To do so, I discuss the concept of classical primitive accumulation and its alleged continuity until today. I then propose the concept of redistributive dispossession which, unlike primitive accumulation, does not create any condition for the expansion of capital. Such conditions are created through the processes I discuss under the label of expanding dispossession, which I split into expanding capitalizing dispossession and expanding commodifying dispossession.

scholarly journals Migrant Family Display: A Strategy for Achieving Recognition and Validation in the Host Country

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie Walsh
Keyword(s):  
Predominantly White ◽  
Family Studies ◽  
Migration Studies ◽  
Same Sex Couples ◽  
Transnational Family ◽  
Migrant Families ◽  
The Family ◽  
Migrant Family ◽  
And Migration ◽  
Do So

This article draws on the narratives of 10 migrant families living in a predominantly White British northern UK city, Hull, and brings together the typically distinct fields of the sociology of family, transnational family studies and migration studies. By uniquely applying the lens of family display to migrant family accounts, this article offers a timely new way to understand the strategies migrant families employ when negotiating recognition and validation in an increasingly globalised world. Existing applications of family display focus on what might be referred to as unconventional families: same-sex couples, dual-heritage families, single-parent households, and families living in commercial homes. Furthermore, previous migration studies consider the strategies employed by migrant individuals, sometimes within a family, but do not do so through the lens of family display. The concept has not, then, been applied to migrant families and their everyday lives, and with a specific focus on understanding the influence of audience in family display. This article, therefore, contributes to migration and transnational family studies by providing a new way of understanding migrant family lives, and also advancing the concept of family display in three clear ways: by showing that migrant families do display family to audiences beyond the family–including the State–so as to present as a ‘legitimate’ family; by expanding understanding of how family display is enacted; and by arguing that broader narratives influence those related to ‘family’ and impact on how and why migrant families engage in family displays.

Participation of front-line soldiers in the pogroms of landlord estates in the Tambov Governorate in the first months of 1918

2021 ◽  
pp. 221-226
Author(s):  
Nikita V. Averin
Keyword(s):  
First World War ◽  
Living Conditions ◽  
Soviet Power ◽  
World War ◽  
Front Line ◽  
The First World War ◽  
Land War ◽  
First World ◽  
Do So

On the basis of various materials, we describe the process of pogroming landlord estates in the Tambov Governorate in the first months of 1918, the role of front-line soldiers in this process. The collapse of the army, the withdrawal of Russia from the First World War, the weakening and collapse of the old state, the unresolved agrarian issue, pushed the peasants to solve the problem of land shortages by force. The agrarian riots of 1917, often instigated by deserters, were a very serious problem for the Provisional Government. In addition, the very phenomenon of the revolution, partly provoked by the lack of land, war and poor living conditions for servicemen, forced them to resort to violent actions. The events in the Tambov village in the first months of 1918 were a continuation of the next stage of the agrarian revolution, which began in 1917. Another surge in the pogrom movement was associated with the massive return from the front of soldiers called up from the ranks of the peasants. The “democratic organs” of the province, which remained in the leadership of the region until March 1918, tried to resist the pogroms, but did not have the strength to do so. The Bolsheviks who came to power in early 1918 could not resolutely suppress the pogroms, for they had to rely on former soldiers as allies in the struggle for Soviet power in the countryside.

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