A Stage Approach to Transnational Migration. Migrant Narratives from Rural Romania

• Main Author: Ciobanu, Ruxandra Oana
• Other Authors: Prof. Dr. Michael Bommes
• Format: Doctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2010
• Subjects: biographical narrative interviews; culture of migration; migration policies in the country of origin; Romanian migrants; Spain; social networks; stages of migration; systems theory; transnational migration; 71.49 - Soziale Prozesse: Sonstiges; ddc:300
• Online Access: https://repositorium.ub.uni-osnabrueck.de/handle/urn:nbn:de:gbv:700-201007306415

If one takes a snapshot of Romanian migration, the first observation might be that the home villages or communities are very different. This is also the conclusion that Massey et al. (1994) first reach when comparing Mexican communities. However, if one compares migrant communities in a longitudinal manner, it can be seen rather that they are converging towards similar migration patterns rather than diverging. To explore this, I conducted fieldwork research in two villages from different socio-cultural regions of Romania, and for the second phase of the research followed the migrants to their destinations in Spain. In total I conducted more than 50 biographical narrative interviews with migrants and fifteen in-depth interviews with representatives from local authorities and other key informants on rural Romanian life. The biographical narrative interviews allowed me to take a longitudinal perspective on the migration from the two villages. The aim in comparing the two villages was to understand the internal logic of migration and examine to what extent two different villages showed any syncretism through cumulative structural effects. Analysing migrants’ projects, the family migration and the general migration from the two villages – each accounting for different levels of analysis – allowed me to specify the stages of migration. In the thesis, firstly I explain the socio-economic, cultural and geographical context in the origin community which shapes migration. Secondly, I compare the migration patterns of two families from the two villages, and thirdly I abstract three migration projects specific to the two communities. All these allow me to show that the two villages are at different stages in the migration process (Massey et al. 1994) and also to explain the mechanism of passing from one stage to the next. So far, the literature on migration policies has looked at the receiving countries. Few references are made to the origin countries, and these refer to Mexico, the Philippines and some of the Northern African countries, countries which have an active policy of promoting migration. Literature with regard to the European cases – for example Serbia, which has a Ministry of the Diaspora, or Poland, a country with a very long history emigration – is absent. Moreover, topics such as grounded migration policy making or the local dimension of policy making are still new in the reflexion of scholars. The thesis fills this gap with respect to migration policies of bonding migrants and involving them in development in the home community. The theory that holds together all these components is Luhmann’s systems theory (1995), in the way it was adapted to migration research by Bommes (2005) and Bommes and Tacke (2006a, 2006b). Using systems theory allows me to perform a critique of concepts like migration networks and transnationalism, which are very often used in the analysis of migration.