Presentation immigration flows and academic migration

Migration and Integration in Europe and Russia:New Challenges and Opportunities

International Conference, St. Petersburg,

November 16-18, 2012.

Classification of Immigration Flows with the Special Focus on Academic Immigration.

Dr. Olga Lakizyuk, 17.11.2012.


Migration and Integration in Europe and Russia: New Challenges and Opportunities.

Contents of this presentation:

classification of immigration flows and migrants

academic immigration, its reasons, positive and negative aspects for the origin and hosting countries

defintion of the term Academic Migration as a result of my own theoretical and practical research

empirical and theoretical basis – habilitation/ postdoctoral studies, topic: “Local and global living environments: the influence of studying and living in Germany on the professional life and individual concepts of Academic Representatives from the Russian Federation”.

Classification of Immigration Flows with the Special Focus on Academic Migration.


To understand the classification of immigration flows it is important to consider the core reasons for migration → why do immigrants leave their home countries and which factors are for them attractive in the host countries?

Push Factors:

bad/unstable situation in the labour market, including unemployment, low remuneration and unfair, non merit based competition between applicants,

discouraging working conditions, including lack of technical, social, financial support, research possibilities and facilities, access to literature, fair work contracts, human factors and possibilities for the professional/career growth and development,



limited possibilities for further studies and advancement of existing qualifications,

contradictions between the level of personal development, personal requirements, possibilities for future development and the local conditions for its implementation,

uncertainty and unclear perspectives for the future, bad prognosis for personal growth,

disinterest or frustration with the native environment, desire to explore new horizons,

predisposition for visiting a specific country/ social appeal, impulse, wish for adventure and escape, timing / suitable age for travel,


advice from friends, imitation of friends and relatives similar behaviour/ previous experience,

lack of institutional / infrastructure development,

primitive legislative environment, for example - immigration policy,

unfair/complex taxes,

high criminality levels,

political repression,

religious suppression,

cultural norms,



adjustment aspects (distance between the home and host cultures),

cultural novelty aspects, the (perceived) lack of cultural life,

low living standards and bad living conditions, unsatisfactory general housing conditions,

restricted mobility within distinct countries or within the home country, transportation systems used in the home country,

climatic conditions,

high population growth and densely populated land,

low/primitive level of health care facilities,



limited social guarantees and social security infrastructure,

abusive and compulsory military service,

lack of family protection policies and

the lack of privileges for highly qualified workers/ students (P. Han, R. and G. Riepe, M. Bös, p. 59- 63, Wenning, p. 219-222, Carrington/ Detragiache, Wilson, Inkson.

Reasons of academic migration?




Pull factors are logically the opposite to the recently mentioned reasons

So the economical, industrial, high-technological, political, cultural, demographical, personal reasons of migration, possibilities for professional development, conditions in the every day and social life determine the following types of immigrants:

● international contract workers (international students, international health care staff, journalists / media and hospitality industry);

● immigrants arriving as a result of family reunion;

● diplomats and diplomatic corps;


● artists;

● refugees;

● trainees;

● missionaries and their families;

● military representatives;

● TCKs and Global Nomads;

● immigrants arriving as a result of the International Development Aid;

● members of Peace Enforcement Corps-type / UN Organizations;

● professional athletes;

● study abroad students and

● international exchange foreign students (Baran, LaBrack).



“Brain drain” encompasses such processes as:

brain overflow, brain migration and brain exchange.

Positive and negative aspects of immigration for the origin and host countries:

economical,

industrial,

high-technology,

scientific,



political,

cultural,

demographic,

social (increase of social capital as a local resource, socio-economic infrastructure, etc.) advantages and disadvantages.

Accordingly to the above mentioned aspects it is meaningful to assume that the more developed countries obtain more benefits from this process

However, it is also a question of personal preferences as well (less economical/ industrial developed societies and their particular pull factors)




Types of immigrants (according to E. Robert):

unaware strangers (people, who have little or no knowledge about past or current changes in a particular society),

cognizant strangers (for these people it takes not much time to become aware of the new surrounds),

deliberately at home (for these immigrants the return is more difficult than integration, they need more time to become aware and to accept changes),

instinctively at home (this group of immigrants live in both cultures simultaneously, integration as readjustment do take the usual time, but do not cause problems).

! Certainly the above defined types are flexible, can appear in mixed form or complement each other.



Study and work abroad or academic migration:

are compared with tourism a process, which means the long-term change of the main place of residence of a person. It is not relevant to determine the periods of study and/ or work abroad as well as the change of living interests,

can be subdivided into work and study, the common aspect here is the process itself, aiming mainly to develop professional skills. In the particular case of other important goals for staying abroad it would be more relevant to speak about other type of immigrants / immigration,


processes, related with economical, industrial, high-technology, political, cultural, demographic, personal reasons for immigration, possibilities of professional development, conditions in the every day life and social life,

are positivelly connected not only with development of professional skills, but also with improvement of communication abilities, motivation in life, better networking, intercultural and global understanding, personal development and new friendships,




can play an important role and meaning in the life of academic representatives, however the complete spectrum of possible relations and emotions to this process, including admiration, (particular) sympathies, relative indifference and sceptic relations is possible. It is a question of personal characteristics of each individual and type of conditions met while working and studying in the other country,

are often connected with difficulties during integration and reintegration. Here seems also relevant to mention personal character traits and every-day conditions including coaching and family/ state/ friendship support in the home and host country or the absence of this support, that is, the full freedom or the “Ad-Hoc-Politic”,



have, in many cases, an influence on the growth and development of the societies in the home and host country alike, mostly including infrastructure development and improvements, political and social change, progress in the scientific / high technology field, economic growth and development of new business ideas,

can be directly linked with the state of the home country in regards to financial losses, lack of or less progress and professional development, increased costs for the reintegration process in the case of expatriates,

are for the societies of host countries and in many cases, the inefficiently used immigration resource, related with the decreasing of professional and communication skills of highly qualified immigrants,


are phenomena, which rational implementation in the home and host country depends on such factors as duration of immigration; amount of immigration streams; laws and (re)integration (support); work and every day conditions; public policy; brain exchange aspect or brain outflow and (amount of) (ethnic) communication,

can contribute to the global development in the economy, science, legislative policies, politics, social and spiritual life, better social and professional participation of individuals,



are processes, in many cases connected with bigger levels of freedom, better social status, public perception and patriotic perspectives concerning the home and host country – nevertheless are the opposite developments also often various: the unsuccessful (re)integration, (lack of) social support, limited professional possibilities and every day conditions can cause the opposite developments.


Literature:

Baran, Rıza. (2005): Von GastarbeiterInnen zu MigrantInnen. Migrationsrat Berlin und Brandenburg. (Ed). Online: http://www.migrationsrat.de, Mai, 2005.

Bös, Mathias. (1997): Migration als Problem offener Gesellschaften. Globalisierung und sozialer Wandel in Westeuropa und in Nordamerika. Leske und Budrich, Opladen.

Carrington, William, Detragiache, Enrica. (1998): How big is the brain drain? International Monetary Fond. Research Department (Ed.). In: IMF Working Paper No. 98/102.

Han, Petrus. (2000): Soziologie der Migration. Lucius & Lucius. Stuttgart

Inkson, Kerr. (2003): „The big OE”: self-directed travel and career development. In: Career Development International, Vol. 8, Iss. 4. Massey University, Auckland University (Ed.).

LaBrack, Bruce. (2011): After Shocks! The Trip May Be Over But the Journey Continues! University of the Pacific. (Ed.). Online: http://web.pacific.edu/x10280.xml, June, 2011.

Riepe, Regina und Georg. (2001): Fremd ist der Fremde nur in der Fremde. Lamuv Verlag, Göttingen.

Robert, E. (2006): The Value of Your Repatriates/ Repatriation Strategies. ExpatRepatServices. (Ed.). Online: http://www.expat-repat.com/value.php, May, 2011.

Wenning, Norbert. (1997): Migration. In: Schmalz-Jakobsen, Cornelia, Hansen, Georg: Kleines Lexikon der ethnischen Minderheiten in Deutschland. Beck, CH, München.

Wilson, Angene H. (1993): A cross-national perspective on reentry of high school exchange students. In: International Journal of Intercultural Relations,Volume 17, Issue 4.

Presentation immigration flows and academic migration

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