Fertility rates vary considerably across and within societies, and over time. Over the last three decades, social demographers have made remarkable progress in documenting these axes of variation, but theoretical models to explain family change and variation have lagged behind. At the same time, our sister disciplines-from cultural anthropology to social psychology to cognitive science and beyond-have made dramatic strides in understanding how social action works, and how bodies, brains, cultural contexts, and structural conditions are coordinated in that process. "Understanding Family Change and Variation: Toward a Theory of Conjunctural Action" argues that social demography must be reintegrated into the core of theory and research about the processes and mechanisms of social action, and proposes a framework through which that reintegration can occur. This framework posits that material and schematic structures profoundly shape the occurrence, frequency, and context of the vital events that constitute the object of social demography. Fertility and family behaviors are best understood as a function not just of individual traits, but of the structured contexts in which behavior occurs. This approach upends many assumptions in social demography, encouraging demographers to embrace the endogeneity of social life and to move beyond fruitless debates of structure versus culture, of agency versus structure, or of biology versus society.

Return migration is a topic of growing interest among academics and policy makers. Nonetheless, issues of psychosocial wellbeing are rarely discussed in its context. Return Migration and Psychosocial Wellbeing problematises the widely-held assumption that return to the country of origin, especially in the context of voluntary migrations, is a psychologically safe process. By exploding the forced-voluntary dichotomy, it analyses the continuum of experiences of return and the effect of time, the factors that affect the return process and associated mobilities, and their multiple links with returned migrants' wellbeing or psychosocial issues. Drawing research encompassing four different continents - Europe, North America, Africa and Asia - to offer a blend of studies, this timely volume contrasts with previous research which is heavily informed by clinical approaches and concepts, as the contributions in this book come from various disciplinary approaches such as sociology, geography, psychology, politics and anthropology. Indeed, this title will appeal to academics, NGOs and policy-makers working on migration and psychosocial wellbeing; and undergraduate and postgraduate students who are interested in the fields of migration, social policy, ethnicity studies, health studies, human geography, sociology and anthropology.

While the rise and abolition of slavery and ongoing race relations are central themes of the history of the United States, the African diaspora actually had a far greater impact on Latin and Central America. More than ten times as many Africans came to Spanish and Portuguese America as the United States.
In this, the first history of the African diaspora in Latin America from emancipation to the present, George Reid Andrews deftly synthesizes the history of people of African descent in every Latin American country from Mexico and the Caribbean to Argentina. He examines how African peooples and their descendants made their way from slavery to freedom and how they helped shape and responded to political, economic, and cultural changes in their societies. Individually and collectively they pursued the goals of freedom, equality, and citizenship through military service, political parties, civic organizations, labor unions, religious activity, and other avenues.
Spanning two centuries, this tour de force should be read by anyone interested in Latin American history, the history of slavery, and the African diaspora, as well as the future of Latin America.

" A] theoretical milestone that signposts provocative new directions for scholars and students of displacement. This volume offers an exceptional critical synthesis of emergent strands of thinking about displacement while also posing new questions about how processes of 'home making, un-making, and re-making' unfold for people who must navigate the socially transformative and uncertain conditions generated by conflict and structural violence." . Stephen C. Lubkemann, author of Culture in Chaos: An Anthropology of the Social Condition in War

Based on anthropological studies across the globe, this book explores the social practice of home-making amongst people whose lives are characterized by movement and violence. Social scientific and policy understandings of home and migration tend to focus on territory, culture and nation, often carrying implicit 'sedentarist' assumptions of a naturalised link between people and particular places. This book challenges such views, drawing attention instead to unpredictable forms of dwelling in the often violent processes that connect yet differently affect the movement of people and capital. Taking seriously the political implications of this challenge, the authors do not resort to a free floating, placeless approach. Instead, through the detailed ethnography of lived experiences of displacement and emplacement, *Struggles for Home* investigates the power sedentarism may have to provide or prohibit hope. Research conducted in Sri Lanka, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Zambia, Cyprus, the Palestinian West Bank, Guatemala, and amongst Romanians and Moroccans in Spain articulates a novel theoretical framework for the development of a critical political anthropology of one of the most controversial and fascinating issues of our time - the remaking of home in migration.

Stef Jansen is Senior Lecturer in Social Anthropology at the University of Manchester. His research centres upon critical ethnographic investigations of home and hope with regard to nation, place and state transformation on the intersection of postwar and postsocialist change in the post-Yugoslav states.

Staffan Lofving is Lecturer in the Department of Social Anthropology, Stockholm University. The editor of books on Cultural Economics (2005) and Identity Politics (2002), his current research revolves around the neoliberal social contract in Colombian and Central American polities.

In over 300 densely packed, oversized pages (including 140 index pages), members of the Greater Omaha Genealogical Society have rendered a faithful accounting of over 5,000 marriages and applications for marriage on file from the county's inception until 1881. In all, these records touch on roughly 50,000 brides and grooms, plus their parents and witnesses.

Refugees and asylum seekers are the subject of major debates both at national and international level. But the debates exclude a gendered perspective that considers the experiences and needs of men and women. This study provides a comprehensive account of the situation of women refugees globally and explains how they differ from men. Looking at causes of refugee flows, international laws and conventions and their application, the policies and legislation of Western governments, and lived experiences of refugees themselves, this book is a much-needed addition to the migration literature.

This volume takes stock of the current status of the comparatively new discipline of `Anthropological Demography', and discusses its major methods, its main strengths, and its chief limitations. It includes contributions from both mainstream demographers and foremost anthropologists, all stressing the necessity of a shared agenda for each discipline to progress successfully and avoid marginalization. While the unique research and personal satisfaction afforded by `participant observation' is described, the book also highlights the potential contribution to the understanding of demographic events of much more than the field methods of traditional anthropology. In particular, it stresses the insights possible from qualitative focus group interviews, from longitudinal studies and from a greater interest in `armchair' anthropology, in which demographers complement their quantitative findings with qualitative information and understanding gleaned from a careful reading of the anthropological literature, in the form of both ethnographies and anthropological theories. In addition, it stresses the larger world of the ideal anthropological demographer: a world that includes the cultural context of course, but also takes into account the historical and political forces that condition so much individual behaviour. But the book is also a critical venture. It includes therefore considerable discussion of the common limits of the purely anthropological approach for understanding demographic events and processes, especially from a larger policy perspective, at the same time as it emphasizes the crucial role of the anthropological approach to designing policy that is potentially effective as well as socially and culturally sensitive. It reiterates the often complementary role of anthropological demography and also discusses some specific questions in demographic research which it does not as yet seem to have the capacity to illuminate. The book is aimed primarily at demographers wishing to broaden their research agenda and deepen their understanding of demographic behaviour, but it also hopes to convert mainstream anthropologists to take a more active interest in demographic issues. Both disciplines, after all, have a common intense interest in the kind of life and death issues that they can fruitfully explore together or by using one another's research methods.

Anyone who has studied international migration to Western Europe should be familiar with Nermin Abadan-Unat, who has been a central figure in charting Turkish labor migration to Germany, the Netherlands, France, and other European countries since the early 1960s. In addition, she has made major contributions to the broader social sciences. She is especially known for her research on the position of women-in Turkey, in international migration, and in processes of social development . . . Her many books and scientific articles span the social sciences, and this has given her the ability to make linkages and to unravel complex processes of development, modernization, and globalization. From the Foreword

One of the foremost scholars on Turkish migration, the author offers in this work the summary of her experiences and research on Turkish migration since 1963. During these forty years her aim has been threefold: to explain the journeys made by thousands of Turkish men and women to foreign lands out of choice, necessity, or invitation; to shed light on the difficulties they faced; and to elaborate on how their lives were affected by the legal, political, social, and economic measures in the countries where they settled. The extensive research done both in Turkey and in Europe into the lives of individuals directly and indirectly affected by the migration phenomenon and the examination of these research results further enhances the value of this wide-ranging study as a definitive reference work.

The only book to address translation and discourse processes in the context of migration studies. Covers a very topical subject of broad international interest - immigration and language use in multicultural societies Examples cover a range of transnational media such as radio, television, advertising and the internet

The banlieue, the mostly poor and working-class suburbs located on the outskirts of major cities in France, gained international media attention in late 2005 when riots broke out in some 250 such towns across the country. Pitting first- and second-generation immigrant teenagers against the police, the riots were an expression of the multiplicity of troubles that have plagued these districts for decades. This study provides an ethnographic account of life in a Parisian banlieue and examines how the residents of this multiethnic city come together to build, define, and put into practice their collective life. The book focuses on the French ideal of integration and its consequences within the multicultural context of contemporary France. Based on research conducted in a state-planned ville nouvelle, or New Town, the book also provides a view on how the French state has used urban planning to shore up national priorities for social integration. Collective Terms proposes an alternative reading of French multiculturalism, suggesting fresh ways for thinking through the complex mix of race, class, nation, and culture that increasingly defines the modern urban experience.

"This is a book well worth reading... it] offers a comprehensive background to the studied society and the complex social relationships at all levels that dominate this rural Greek microcosm. This is an excellent book, of interest to those studying globalization and the integration of markets but also those interested on contemporary Greek society and its entanglements." . Labour History Review

"Lawrence's ethnography is a valuable and intriguing contribution not only to the ethnography of Greece but to the anthropology of globalization and politics. The detailed and multi level analysis of social, political and economic transformations is both critical and well placed... It] reminds anthropology of the necessity of a critical, detailed and encompassing political analysis of the interactions and articulations between the contradictory processes, discourses and practices between people and socio-economic systems, between people and the formations and transformations of power." . Durham Anthropology Journal

"Each chapter of Blood and Oranges is densely packed with argumentation that weaves together existing literature with the political economic facts on the ground. The treatment is a learned one, rich and erudite in its treatment of the circum-stances in Argolida, and always embedding those circum-stances within a broader set of forces and connections." . American Ethnologist

A compelling account of the intersection of globalization and neo-racism in a rural Greek community, this book describes the contradictory political and economic development of the Greek countryside since its incorporation into the European Union, where increased prosperity and social liberalization have been accompanied by the creation of a vulnerable and marginalized class of immigrant laborers. The author analyzes the paradoxical resurgence of ethnic nationalism and neo-racism that has grown in the wake of European unification and addresses key issues of racism, neoliberalism and nationalism in contemporary anthropology."

Negotiating Citizenship explores the growing inequalities associated with nation-based citizenship from the perspective of migrant women workers who have made their way from impoverished Third World countries to work in Canada in the caregiving industries of domestic service and nursing. The study demonstrates the impact of the global political economy, public and private gatekeeping mechanisms, and racialized and gendered stereotypes on the contested relationship between citizen-employers and non-citizen female migrant workers in Canada.

"I strongly believe that this book will soon become a 'standard reference' in studies of Albanian society, Albanian migration, immigration to Italy (and possibly to Greece)." . Panos Hatziprokopiou

Analysing the dynamics of the post-1990 Albanian migration to Italy, this book is the first major study of one of Europe's newest, most dramatic yet least understood migrations. It takes a close look at migrants' employment, housing and social exclusion in Italy, as well as the process of return migration to Albania. The research described in the book challenges the pervasive stereotype of the "bad Albanian" and, through in-depth fieldwork on Albanian communities in Italy and back in Albania, provides rich insights into the Albanian experience of migration, settlement and return in both their positive and their negative aspects."

The immigration problem, which has been debated in the United States for over a century, is not likely to go away--least of all with the numbers of refugees and displaced and impoverished workers continuing to mount worldwide. The current bitterness and legislative stalemate over immigration policy are indications that new approaches to the issue need to be found. Removing himself from the specifics of the current congressional debate, Mark Gibney asks whether we are addressing the right questions and employing the correct criteria under our present admission practices. From a political-philosophical standpoint, the author looks at the fundamental social and moral questions that should be at the basis of any immigration policy: how do we distinguish between members and strangers, and do some strangers have more compelling claims than others for admission to this country?

Contemporary migration involves a dramatic paradox. Although much of what is considered international or transnational migration today transforms people of a wide range of social standings in the emigration countries into laborers at the bottom social and economic ranks of the immigration countries, millions of individuals worldwide seek to migrate internationally. International Migration, Social Demotion, and Imagined Advancement argues that this paradox cannot be explained for as long as common preconceptions about immigrants? economic betterment thwart even questioning why individuals who are not threatened by famine or war willingly pursue their demotion abroad. Recognizing immigrants? decline as such, this book proposes viewing contemporary migration as socioglobal mobility. Revolving around an ethnographic study of the Albanian emigration in Greece, International Migration, Social Demotion, and Imagined Advancement finds that imaginaries of the world as a social hierarchy might lie at the roots of much of the contemporary international migration. As would-be emigrants perceive different countries in terms of distinct social stations in a global order, they resolve to put up with numerous social and material deprivations in the hope of advancing internationally. Immigrants are typically thought of as aliens in their de facto home societies, however, and that makes genuine advancement all but impossible. Erind Pajo is Assistant Researcher in Anthropology and Lecturer in Social Sciences at the University of California, Irvine.

The media inform the public, help political and social actors communicate with each other, influence perceptions of pressing issues, depict topics and people in particular ways, and may shape political views and participation. Given these critical functions that the media play in society, this book asks how the media represent migrants and minorities. What information do the media communicate about them? What are the implications of media coverage for participation in the public sphere? In the past, researchers studying migrants and minorities have rarely engaged in systematic media analysis. This volume advances analytical strategies focused on information, representation, and participation to examine the media, migrants, and minorities, and it offers a set of compelling original analyses of multiple minority groups from countries in Europe, North America, and East Asia, considering both traditional newspapers and new social media. The contributors analyze the framing and type of information that the media provide about particular groups or about issues related to migration and diversity; they examine how the media convey or construct particular depictions of minorities and immigrants, including negative portrayals; and they interrogate whether and how the media provide space for minorities' participation in a public sphere where they can advance their interests and identities. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies.

The British Migrant Experience 1700-2000 is a wide-ranging collection of first person accounts together with introductory essays, capturing varied aspects of the British migrant story from the eighteenth to the 20th century. Building on recent interest in the social, psychological and historical aspects of population movement within and into mainland Britain, this anthology contributes to the current debate on British national identities, and introduces readers to aspects of imperial and colonial history, the history of autobiography and self-narration, and post-colonial literature.

Few issues have provoked as much controversy over the last decade as illegal immigration. While some argue for the need to seal America's borders and withdraw all forms of social and governmental support for illegal migrants and their children, others argue for humanitarian treatment--including legalization--for people who fill widely acknowledged needs in American industry and agriculture and have left home-country situations of economic hardship or political persecution. The study of illegal immigration necessarily confronts a broad range of migrants--from the familiar border crossers to those who enter illegally and overstay their visas, to the many unrecognized refugees who enter the country to seek protection under U.S. asylum law. The subject also demands attention to American society's responses to these newcomers--responses that often focus on limited elements of a complex issue.

A comprehensive, up-to-date review of this volatile subject, this book provides an accessible, balanced introduction to the subject. Covering the full range of illegal immigrants from Mexican border crossers to Central American refugees, illegal Europeans, and smuggled Chinese, the book considers the kind of work the migrants do and the public response to them. The work is divided into four parts: Concepts, Policies, and Numbers; The Migrants and Their Work; The Responses; and Illegal Immigration in Perspective.

Mobile Chinese Entrepreneurs draws extensively on the narratives of sixteen small-to-medium business owners, born on the mainland, who have immigrated to Hong Kong and returned to their ancestral hometowns in China to establish their enterprises. For these executives, business and social life alike are marked by constant interplay of identities, such as individual identity/group membership and ancestral/immigrant identity. Yet as often as this juggling of multiple "selves" can be beneficial in the economic sphere, it can also lead to feelings of rootlessness and alienation. Writing with rare sensitivity, the two authors synthesize insights from economic sociology, psychology, ethnic relations, emotions, and social networks, creating an exploration of social capital and social identity comparable to similar groups of businessmen and -women in other parts of the world.

This book develops a comprehensive understanding of the motivations and experiences of students who choose to study abroad for the whole or part of a degree. It includes case studies of students from East Asia, Europe and the UK, and considers the implications of their movement for contemporary higher education.

View the Table of Contents.
Read the Introduction.

"Rachel Rubin and Jeff Melnick show us the skinny on pop's melting pot. The cauldron does not burn off immigrant character, creating American sameness, but intensifies its many tastes. Ladle after ladle of ethnic infusions go into the pot--"Scarface" to "Gypsy Punks," pachuco zoot suiters to Ravi Shankar, Jimmy Cliff to "West Side Story," They compound the terms of race and place until they reform the mainstream. And, suddenly, that old wasp canon has become just another ethnic style."
--W. T. Lhamon, Jr., author, most recently, of "Jump Jim Crow: Lost Plays, Lyrics, and Street Prose of the First Atlantic Popular Culture"

aA thought-provoking examination of immigration historya--"Choice"

"A sprawling and uniquely synthetic account of the role immigrants have played as performers, entrepreneurs, and as the subjects of the mass culture industry. Brings a stunning, transnational array of immigrant cultural forms, immigration policies, and cohorts together in new and important ways."
--Rachel Ida Buff, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

How does a 'national' popular culture form and grow over time in a nation comprised of immigrants? How have immigrants used popular culture in America, and how has it used them?

Immigration and American Popular Culture looks at the relationship between American immigrants and the popular culture industry in the twentieth century. Through a series of case studies, Rachel Rubin and Jeffrey Melnick uncover how specific trends in popular culture--such as portrayals of European immigrants as gangsters in 1930s cinema, the zoot suits of the 1940s, the influence of Jamaican Americans onrap in the 1970s, and cyberpunk and Asian American zines in the1990s--have their roots in the complex socio-political nature of immigration in America.

Supplemented by a timeline of key events and extensive suggestions for further reading, Immigration and American Popular Culture offers at once a unique history of twentieth century U.S. immigration and an essential introduction to the major approaches to the study of popular culture. Melnick and Rubin go further to demonstrate how completely and complexly the processes of immigration and cultural production have been intertwined, and how we cannot understand one without the other.

"Anna Lindley's new book is a welcome addition to the study of transnational remittances and their critical role in the lives of ordinary residents of war-torn Somalia. This work counters popular images of Somalis as thieving pirates, unscrupulous money launderers and vicious war mongers, by showing how remittances allow ordinary and peaceful Somali families cope with extraordinarily difficult circumstances. Anna Lindley has done a great service to scholars of the Horn of Africa, reminding readers that the protracted crisis in Somalia and its global remittance industry defy simplistic, 'knee jerk' explanations." . Peter D. Little, Professor of Anthropology and Director, Development Studies Program, Emory University (author of Somalia: Economy without State)

"Migrant workers' money transfers home are usually the stuff of World Bank statistics. Anna Lindley tells the human stories behind the data, and examines the relationships between people trying to survive the daily insecurity of a failed state and those who have escaped. Yet she never forgets the political economy of global inequality, which lies behind the heart-wrenching decisions that refugees and migrants have to make. This book is a remarkable combination of social analysis and story-telling, which should (but won't) be read by everyone who ever fell for the headlines about asylum seekers as a threat." . Stephen Castles, University of Sydney

"This is an interesting, humane, thoughtful and well-written account of Somali remittances, a topic that has been discussed to some extent but never in such a detailed way. It addresses current debates and policy interests in the field of migration-development very well. Lindley's data on remittances in conflict-affected areas is remarkably detailed and rich, while her multi-sited fieldwork approach provides an excellent insight into the complexities of engaging in transnational livelihoods for all those involved." . Cindy Horst, Senior Researcher, International Peace Research Institute Oslo

As migration from poverty-stricken and conflict-affected countries continues to hit the headlines, this book focuses on an important counter-flow: the money that people send home. Despite considerable research on the impact of migration and remittances in countries of origin - increasingly viewed as a source of development capital - still little is known about refugees' remittances to conflict-affected countries because such funds are most often seen as a source of conflict finance. This book explores the dynamics, infrastructure, and far-reaching effects of remittances from the perspectives of people in the Somali regions and the diaspora. With conflict driving mass displacement, Somali society has become progressively transnational, its vigorous remittance economy reaching from the heart of the global North into wrecked cities, refugee camps, and remote rural areas. By 'following the money' the author opens a window on the everyday lives of people caught up in processes of conflict, migration, and development. The book demonstrates how, in the interstices of state disruption and globalisation, and in the shadow of violence and political uncertainty, life in the Somali regions goes on, subject to complex transnational forms of social, economic, and political innovation and change.

Anna Lindley is a Lecturer in Development Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. The study on which this book is based was carried out while working at the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society and the Refugee Studies Centre at Oxford University."

With the largest population in the world, China has experienced significant demographic, social, and economic changes in recent decades. Extraordinary demographic changes took place in China in the second half of the twentieth century having wide-ranging consequences. This book, written by a group of leading experts, examines these profound changes in an effort to understand their long term impact and provide an up-to-date account of China's demographic reality. The volume provides a comprehensive and authoritative analysis of a wide range of issues such as China's unprecedented family planning program, the impact of falling birth rates coupled with increasing life expectancy, changes in marriage patterns, and increasing rural-urban migration. Anyone who is interested in China and its recent demographic changes will benefit from the rich materials and thorough analysis provided in this book.

The study deals with problems and policy options facing Third World mega-cities. It examines the major sources of urban population growth and spatial concentration and analyses the conflict between economic efficiency and decentralization. It also assesses the implications of rapid urban population growth for employment generation and poverty alleviation, discusses the relationship between urban poverty and access to housing and basic social services, and examines the problems of resource mobilization to finance urban programmes. The analysis is based on data gathered from several Third-World mega-cities. The study thus provides a comparative analysis of mega-city problems and suggests the direction in which future policies need to be developed to deal more effectively with these problems.