Persistent inequalities around early motherhood? A comparison of maternal employment trajectories of natives, immigrants and their descendants in Spain
Mengyao Wu, Alberto Del Rey Poveda, Guillermo Orfao, JesĂșs GarcĂa GĂłmez
Why do some people want to migrate while others do not, and why are only some willing to do so irregularly? Existing explanations emphasise socio-demographic characteristics, political and economic contexts, and access to migrant networks. This article tests socio-psychological factors as predictors of variation in migration aspirations, plans, preparations, and irregularity willingness. Using original, nationally representative survey data from Montenegro, it tests the effects of personal values, risk aversion, self-efficacy, interpersonal trust, behavioural inhibition, and personality traits. In particular, individuals who value openness-to-change and self-enhancement and are less risk-averse are significantly more likely to express a desire to migrate, even when controlling for conventional predictors. Psychological factors play a more limited role in explaining the more behavioural plans and preparations, where structural and enabling factors dominate, consistent with the aspirationsâcapabilities framework, though perhaps reflecting statistical power. Willingness to migrate irregularly displays a largely distinct pattern of associations, particularly higher interpersonal trust and lower conscientiousness. Overall, the results suggest that psychology is particularly well suited to explaining why people want to migrate and how they would be willing to do so, while migration behaviour depends more heavily on capabilities.
Book Review: Diaspora and Soft Power LorengEva. 2025. Diaspora and Soft Power: Influence of Indian American Elites in US Foreign Policy. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. 177 pages. EUR 119.99.
Book Review: Asian Immigrant Teachers in Australia YipSun Yee. (2026). Asian Immigrant Teachers in Australia: Negotiating Identity, Navigating Adaptation, and the Paradoxes of Belonging. New York: Routledge. 180 pages. ÂŁ155.00.
Immigrant deportations are salient in many countries, but scholarship on deportation attitudes remains limited. Because some immigrants are especially likely to face harm if deported, we examine how immigrantsâ identity and economic characteristics shape deportation attitudes. We focus on unauthorized LGBTQ+ immigrants in the United States, examining the interplay between immigrantsâ economic contributions and respondentsâ partisanship. We rely on an original survey experiment with a sample of U.S. respondents that mirrors Census quotas for key socio-demographic indicators. We present three main findings. First, without any information on economic contributions, similar levels of support emerge for the deportation of gay and straight unauthorized immigrants. Second, immigrantsâ economic contributions substantially reduce support for deportation among both groups. Third, this apparent consensus masks important partisan differences. Democrats reward gay unauthorized immigrants significantly more than straight unauthorized immigrants for their economic contributions. The opposite occurs for Republicans: support for deportation is substantially lower for straight unauthorized immigrants who have made economic contributions. These findings illustrate how partisan identity structures the application of deservingness heuristics in immigration attitudes, with implications for immigration policy debates around vulnerable immigrant populations.
Ethnic and Racial Studies
Antisemitism and Islamophobia in Europe: the constellation as an analytic tool for the critical study of race and religion
China's accelerating population aging has sparked growing interest in the subjective wellâbeing (SWB) of older adults. Much of the existing literature on aging in place demonstrates that personâenvironment (PâE) fit significantly influences their SWB. However, little research has examined the effects in a potential curvilinear form. Using data from the 2023 China Longitudinal Aging Social Survey (CLASS), this study developed a comprehensive measure of PâE fit based on individual and neighborhood characteristics across facility, service, and social domains. We employed structural equation modeling to examine the curvilinear associations of this measure with SWB (positive affect, negative affect, and life satisfaction). The findings reveal an inverted Uâshaped pattern. In general, higher PâE fit was associated with improved SWB. However, the tooâmuchâofâaâgoodâthing (TMGT) effect emerged, showing diminishing and even negative returns when the PâE fit was extremely high. Distinct mediating pathways were explored: physical activity mediated the link between facility fit and SWB, while social interaction mediated the associations of service fit and social fit with SWB. These findings highlight the importance of neighborhood interventions that are âjust rightâ rather than âtoo much,â aligning resources with older adults' actual competencies to support active aging.
How PostâStudy Plans Project Into Onward Mobility Trajectories: Compromise, Attunement and Migrant Subjectification in (Reâ)Routing PostâStudy Migration of African Migrant Students in China
In this article, I depart from the current majority of studies on international studentsâ plans of postâstudy to delve into how these plans unfold into their onward mobility trajectories. I situate the movement complexities within the theoretical perspective of an interplay between global mobility regimes and migrant subjectivities. Drawing on a longitudinal ethnographic engagement with African migrant students at a Chinese university, I reveal how they encounter a situation of struggle and subsequently (reâ)route their postâstudy migration with accompanying compromise and attunement. Specifically, I show two most prevalent situations of difficulty faced by many African students, that are, (i) the plan to stay in China is thwarted by inadequate employment opportunities and policy support, and (ii) the plan to leave for a third country, usually a Western country in the âglobal Northâ, is impeded by a lack of sufficient capital resources. They eventually had to return to their home country, at least temporarily, or descend to a âsecond state of immobilityâ that prolongs their stay in China. By revealing the unexpected challenges experienced by African migrant students during their postâstudy phase, this article contributes to problematising the dominant narrative that often portrays postâstudy migration as a calculated, planned outcome. It also contributes to staging postâstudy migration as part of âstepwise multinational migrationâ by showing how students (reâ)route their onward trajectories in response to the emergent unexpectedness.
Migrants on the Property Ladder: The Role of Location in Shaping Housing Wealth Disparities in Urban China
Existing studies on migrant housing have predominantly focused on access to homeownership and housing conditions in destination cities, largely overlooking the dimension of asset accumulation. In recent decades, an increasing number of migrants have achieved homeownership in their destination cities, hometowns, or elsewhere. However, where they purchase property significantly impacts the wealth they are able to accumulate. Drawing on data from the âEmployment Status and Living Conditions of Migrants in Yangtze River Delta Citiesâ survey, this study investigates how migrants with varying socioeconomic characteristics and migration patterns choose the location for entering homeownership within the urban hierarchy, thereby influencing their housing wealth accumulation. The findings reveal that owning property in destination cities leads to higher market values and faster housing appreciation compared to owning property in hometown cities. However, only migrants with institutional and economic advantages, as well as those originating from higherâtier cities, are more capable of securing homeownership in destination cities, thereby boarding the escalator of housing wealth accumulation. By adopting a spatial perspective, this study highlights the profound impact of a city's position within the urban hierarchy on migrants' asset accumulation. The findings offer policy implications aimed at reducing institutional barriers, such as housing purchase restrictions, to enhance migrants' access to the property ladder, promote asset accumulation, and support greater social integration.
Traversing Terrains of Proximities and Place Attachment in Forced Migrants' Lives in Finland
This study focuses on place attachment in the experiences of forced migrants in Finland. We are interested in how places feel distant or close and analyze the relations of everyday materialities and place attachment. Forming place attachments and a sense of home during forced migration is crucial for wellbeing and requires negotiation between a place and the people settling in. We draw from 25 interviews with ten participants, combining walking interviews with reflective followâup sessions. Our findings demonstrate that place attachment is shaped by three types of proximity: spatioâtemporal , affective , and positional proximity. These three are closely entangled with each other, influencing how close, safe, or comfortable a place feels. The participants' accounts stress that there is an urgent need to start considering how to create places of joy, where forced migrants can feel a sense of belonging as well as take control of their own lives.
The New Trend in China's Internal Migration: From RuralâtoâUrban Migration to UrbanâtoâUrban Migration
This study investigates the emerging transition in China's internal migration patterns, shifting from ruralâtoâurban migration to urbanâtoâurban migration and examines its historical evolution, underlying drivers, and the characteristics of urbanâtoâurban migrants. Over the past 75 years, China's internal migration has followed an evolutionary trajectory characterised by a sequence of âfree migration, restricted migration, ruralâtoâurban migration and urbanâtoâurban migrationâ. Key factors contributing to the rise of urbanâtoâurban migration include the advancement of urbanisation processes, widening disparities in regional development levels, industrial agglomeration and regional economic integration, improvements in human capital and enhanced conditions for migration. Drawing on Amap migration big data, we observe that urbanâtoâurban migration is rapidly increasing, with no clear spatial distinction between the origins and destination. Based on the Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS), we reveal that individuals engaged in urbanâtoâurban migration generally exhibit higher levels of educational attainment, more conservative marriage and fertility behaviours, superior employment quality and a greater tendency to socialise with friends rather than neighbours. Other developing countries may also witness a similar transformation in migration patterns from ruralâtoâurban to urbanâtoâurban in the future. The experience from China has unique value for global migration studies.
Refugee Camps as Contested Gendered Spaces: Afghan Women's Liminality, Inequality, and Agency in Germany
This article examines how migrant women from Afghanistan who arrived in Germany in or after 2015âincluding asylum seekers, refugees, and those with rejected casesâexperience and contest the everyday challenges within the liminal and precarious confines of camps and campâlike structures, including asylum reception and collective accommodation centres. It contributes critically to camp and refugee studies by centring the gendered experiences, liminality, intersectional vulnerabilities, and agency of women in these settings. The article argues that camps and campâlike spaces are contested gendered spaces where female migrants navigate and challenge multiple inequalities by exercising agency through diverse strategies. Afghan migrant women provide a compelling case, justified by their intersecting origins and the limited research on their experiences. Inâdepth interviews, participant observation, and a review of the literature are utilised to collect data using a qualitative design that implements an engaged narrative inquiry. Two interconnected themes emerge from the research. The first analyses how participants categorise their living arrangements as camps and heims , while addressing the spatial inequalities, gendered vulnerabilities, and liminal experiences they encounter. The second examines women's agency and the various strategies they exercise to navigate and contest these inequalities. Specifically, three forms of agency are highlighted: creative spaceâmaking, resilient navigation, and solidarity through faith and sisterhood.
Stability and Changes in Social Network Profiles After Widowhood and Their Implications for Depressive Symptoms Among Older Adults in South Korea
Following the loss of a spouse, older adults often experience changes in their social networks across various dimensions, which may affect their mental health. Guided by continuity, disengagement, and activity theories, which posit diverse trajectories of social network adaptation to spousal loss, this study adopted a typological approach to investigate the stability and change in social network profiles before and after widowhood and their associations with depressive symptoms among older adults. This personâcentered approach reconceptualizes how social networks evolve in later life, moving beyond single indicators to capture the multidimensionality and heterogeneity of older adultsâ social worlds as they navigate significant life transitions within their specific socioâspatial contexts. This study analyzed data from 727 older adults who were married at Time 1, experienced widowhood at Time 2, and responded to questions on depressive symptoms at Time 3 in three consecutive waves of the Korean Longitudinal Study of Aging. A latent transition analysis identified five distinct social network profilesââdiverse,â âchildâfocused,â ârestricted,â âcoresident, diverse,â and âcoresident, restrictedââbefore and after widowhood, along with their transition patterns. Multivariable regression, controlling for baseline depressive symptoms, showed that older adults who (1) transitioned from the diverse to childâfocused profile, (2) transitioned from the diverse to coresident, diverse profile, or (3) maintained the coresident, restricted profile were more likely to report higher levels of depressive symptoms after widowhood than those who maintained the diverse profile. These findings highlight the complexity and dynamics of social networks and intergenerational coresidence among older Koreans following widowhood, calling for interventions to promote diverse social networks among widowed older adults. Ultimately, this study resonates with recent scholarship calling for a shift from a focus on âaging in placeâ toward âaging in networks,â emphasizing that healthy aging depends on social embeddedness across various spatial and relational contexts.
International Migration
What Drives the Entrepreneurial Intentions of Migrant Students in a New Destination Country? A Case Study of Ukrainians and Belarusians in Poland
Krzysztof Wach, Katarzyna MroczekâDÄ browska, Aleksandra GaweĆ, Agnieszka GĆodowska
This study explores the factors shaping the entrepreneurial intentions of migrant students in a new destination country, Ukrainians and Belarusians studying in Poland. By addressing a relatively underexplored topic, the research implements an abductive approach and develops a hierarchical model of factors influencing these students' entrepreneurial aspirations, identifying antecedents, classifying them as driving, linkage, dependent, or autonomous factors, and mapping both direct and transitive links among them. The study employs a mixedâmethod qualitative approach in two stages: (i) focus groups to identify antecedents of entrepreneurial intentions; (ii) data collected based on survey responses were analysed using TISM and MICMAC to classify these antecedents according to their interrelationships and hierarchical structure. The research uncovers 11 antecedents of entrepreneurial intentions of migrant students, and based on their interrelationships, constructs a fourâlevel hierarchical model that maps how these factors influence and connect with one another. Legal and formal issues, such as stay legalisation, financial conditions, and business regulations, are three driving forces of entrepreneurial intentions, consistent with earlier research on migrant entrepreneurship. We also identified three dependent factors: partnerships, cultural attitudes, and attitudes towards migrants, likely due to students' integration within academic communities.
Improving International Students' Success: Institutional Strategies for Overcoming Barriers and Optimising Learning Outcomes Using a Hybrid Approach
Aziz Ullah, Xiaoming Sun, Yalan Wang, Hafsah Batool, Sumera Sattar
China has emerged as one of the leading destinations for international students in recent years, attracting thousands each year due to its growing global influence. This rapid increase in international students has raised concerns about whether Chinese universities can meet their academic expectations. Since the quality of higher education is often assessed through student learning experiences, this article examines the experiences of international students in China. Building on Berry's Acculturation Theory and SelfâDetermination, this work examines the mediating role of scholarship satisfaction in the relationship between financial stress, institutional support, cultural adjustment, and student learning outcomes among international students in China. The data were collected from 845 international students from several countries studying in Shaanxi, China. Modified questionnaires, SEM, LSTM were used for data analysis. The results show that cultural adjustment and institutional support significantly enhance scholarships, positively influencing academic success. Financial stress is recognised as a key barrier, negatively affecting both learning outcomes and scholarship satisfaction. Furthermore, the study highlights the complex, strong relationship between academic performance and workload, where a stable workload fosters satisfaction, and an extreme workload leads to tension and reduced performance. The theoretical contribution supports the mediation of scholarship satisfaction and the dispersal of social and institutional support theories.
Migrant Labour in the Gig Economy: The Intersection of Migrant Labour, Platform Capitalism, and Resistance. By Francesco DellaPuppa, DipsitaDhar, and NicolaMontagna (eds.), Published and Printed by Palgrave Macmillan, an Imprint of Springer Nature Switzerland AG , 2025. ISBN: 978â3â03â191261â0
A Place in the Homeland? TurkishâGerman Return Migration. By NilayKılınç and RussellKing, Edinburgh, UK : Edinburgh University Press, 2025. 315 pp. ISBN: 978â1â47â449457â1
This essay argues that our understanding of the relationship between development and migration is distorted by a focus on areas of greatest policy concern. It calls for more research into broader processes of mobility, which may be of little interest to policy but play a critical role in the lives of poor people. It develops the argument in three points. First, in the last 20 years there has been a marked shift from interest in how migration may contribute to development towards a concern with how development may help deal with the challenges of migration. Second, this discussion assumes that only orderly, safe, regular and responsible migration can make a positive contribution to development, rendering important forms of mobility as problematic and antithetical to development. Third, the analysis of migration and mobility remains too much of a niche subject within development studies, being mainly the domain of migration scholars exploring the âmigrationâdevelopment nexusâ. As a result, there is still limited understanding of the complex interlinkages between migrationâespecially the important but often unseen migrationâand development.
Correction to âDemocratic Decline and Return Migration: What Motivates HighlyâSkilled Voluntary Return to Postâ2016 Turkey?â
Immigrant integration is a multidimensional and dynamic process, yet existing theories often privilege either structural constraints or individual agency while neglecting the reciprocal nature of integration. This paper advances integration theory by developing a dynamic model that formalises the interplay between structure, agency, group characteristics, and mutual willingness. The model's originality lies in specifying willingness as a multiplicative factor, demonstrating that integration requires engagement from both immigrants and host societies. Through analysis of feedback mechanisms, the model identifies three equilibrium states (high integration, low integration and unstable equilibrium) emerging from virtuous and vicious cycles. A simulationâbased illustration shows how small changes in willingness can trigger systemic shifts, highlighting the thresholdâsensitive nature of integration dynamics. By bridging sociological insight and formal modelling, the framework contributes to theoretical precision and offers policy guidance that emphasises mutual adaptation and the cumulative dynamics of integration outcomes.
Who Returned During the Pandemic? Migration Strategies Among Kyrgyz Labor Migrants in Russia
Erin Trouth Hofmann, Claire J. Chi, Saeed Ahmad, Bermet Tursunkulova
The RussiaâCentral Asia migration system was among the most strongly affected migration systems in the COVIDâ19 pandemic. To understand how migrants made decisions in this unusual situation and how their strategies were influenced by gender, marriage, employment, and other factors, we analysed interviews with 36 labor migrants in Kyrgyzstan. Women, including those who were previously interested in longâterm migration, were most interested in return and were more able to access emergency transportation, but had less access to information about the pandemic. For most respondents, continued circular migration still appeared to be the best response to the hardships created by the pandemic, highlighting the durability of migration systems. However, some respondents changed their longâterm plans. Raising children abroad was an important driver of changed plans, as migrant mothers who had previously been committed to staying abroad returned home due to lack of social support during the pandemic.