Lori Zimmermann, Author at The Journeys Project

The Ties that Bind (or Not): Social Networks Among Extra-Continental Migrants

April 30, 2019June 30, 2022 Lori Zimmermann 1340 Views 0 Comment Angola, Bribery and Corruption, Cameroon, Costa Rica, Dangers and trouble, DRC, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Friends and Networks, Haiti, Honduras, Smuggling, Somalia, The Journey

By Heather Kunin, under the supervision of Kim Wilson. Social networks have long been recognized as playing a pivotal role within migration, with multiple studies examining, among other phenomena, the role of social networks in predicting the decision to migrate and choice of destination, as well as in impacting migrants’ chances for integration. Social network analysis (SNA) is a methodology for visualizing and interrogating relationships among actors and is highly applicable to a field where social networks are considered “one of the fundamentals of the migration process.” Until recently, this discipline has been woefully underutilized within migration studies, although this is beginning to change.

Central and South America Central and South America Essays & Articles Long-Distance Journeys North America Publication Spotlight Publications Sub-Saharan Africa

No Sweat – If You Are a Woman

April 30, 2019January 15, 2022 Lori Zimmermann 1512 Views 0 Comment Cameroon, Colombia, Dangers and trouble, Fletcher students’ research experience, Gender, Haiti, Lodging and Food, Money and Finance, Venezuela

By Madison Chapman, under the supervision of Kim Wilson. What does it mean to have dignity and personal agency as a migrant? Men and women told their stories to me in very distinct ways, through body language and in their retelling of traumatic events. What does this tell us about understanding gender in ethnographic research and the stories we do and do not hear while interviewing?

Financial Biographies Long-Distance Journeys Publications

Financial Biographies, Volume I

April 30, 2019September 22, 2022 Lori Zimmermann 2026 Views 0 Comment Friends and Networks, Money and Finance, Technology, The Journey

By Kim Wilson et al. This collection of financial biographies traces the ways in which extra-continental refugees and migrants finance their journeys and manage money along the way. It also highlights the importance of friendships, both old and new, in making a journey possible. Additionally, communication tools like mobile phones, WhatsApp, or Google Translate leverage friendships and kinships to help piece together successful long-distance travel.

Central and South America Central and South America Central and South Asia Essays & Articles Long-Distance Journeys Publications Sub-Saharan Africa

You and I Are Not Friends: The Challenges of Ethnographic Study in the Migration Field

April 30, 2019April 9, 2021 Lori Zimmermann 1315 Views 0 Comment Barriers, Cameroon, Colombia, Dangers and trouble, Fletcher students’ research experience, Gender, Identity and Documents, India, Language, Nepal, Venezuela

By Padmini Baruah, under the supervision of Kim Wilson. Transnational migration has been one of the most talked-about phenomena of the past decade. With prolonged armed conflict, economic crises, and climate change affecting different parts of the world adversely, it is not a surprise that an estimated 258 million people live in a country that is not the country of their birth.1 Much news has been generated on this subject, and multiple studies have focused on the macro aspects of this issue. However, equally vital is not losing sight of the fact that while broad patterns and theories can explain the macrophenomenon of transnational migration, each migrant’s story is ultimately a subjective and entirely personal lived experience. The powerful contribution of the individual narrative as well as of ethnographic observations to academic studies in this field cannot be overlooked.

Central and South America Central and South Asia Essays & Articles Long-Distance Journeys North America Publication Spotlight Publications

Tracing the Financial Journeys of Nepali Migrants

April 30, 2019June 30, 2022 Lori Zimmermann 1682 Views 0 Comment Bribery and Corruption, Costa Rica, Dangers and trouble, Destinations, Fletcher students’ research experience, India, Lodging and Food, Money and Finance, Nepal, Pakistan, Smuggling, The Journey, USA

By Subin Mulmi, under the supervision of Kim Wilson. The 2015 earthquake in Nepal resulted in the deaths of 8,970 people with 22,302 injured. Several reports have estimated that more than one million houses were destroyed, affecting the lives of six million people. Only a handful of families have been relocated to safer places. Even before the quake, the country was reeling from the effects of the decade-long civil war that claimed the lives of 13,236 people and led to the disappearance of thousands more. In June 2009, the Nepal IDP Working Group reported that up to 70,000 people displaced by the conflict had not yet found durable housing. They remained unable to return home, integrate locally, or resettle elsewhere.

Central and South America Central and South Asia Long-Distance Journeys North America Publication Spotlight Publications Reports Sub-Saharan Africa

The Other Migration: The Financial Journeys of Asians and Africans Traveling Through the Americas

April 30, 2019February 5, 2023 Lori Zimmermann 1658 Views 0 Comment Bangladesh, Bribery and Corruption, Cameroon, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dangers and trouble, Destinations, DRC, Friends and Networks, Gender, Ghana, Haiti, Host and Transition Communities, Identity and Documents, India, Language, Money and Finance, Nepal, Pakistan, Religion, Smuggling, Technology, The Journey

By Kim Wilson et al.

Central and South Asia Essays & Articles Middle East-North Africa North America Publications Putting Down Roots Sub-Saharan Africa

“I’m the Everything”: The Overlooked Heroism of Refugee Youth in the United States

February 28, 2019January 15, 2022 Lori Zimmermann 1025 Views 0 Comment Afghanistan, Coping and Thriving, DRC, Family, Integration, Iraq, Language, Livelihoods, Money and Finance, Syria, USA

By Julie Zollmann. Nine voluntary agencies have the official responsibility for resettling refugees into communities throughout the United States. They find their clients new housing, schools, and jobs. They help them get social security numbers and open bank accounts. They play an indispensable role in helping refugees settle into their new homes. But the work of integration, of truly building a life in a new country with a new language, new transportation system, new labor market, and a whole new set of social norms is a much bigger job, one that in many families is being done stoically, even heroically, by young refugees in their teens and early twenties.

Central and South Asia Essays & Articles Middle East-North Africa North America Publications Putting Down Roots Sub-Saharan Africa

Financial Integration of Refugees in Dallas, Texas

February 28, 2019January 15, 2022 Lori Zimmermann 1062 Views 0 Comment Afghanistan, Barriers, DRC, Financial Health, Friends and Networks, Humanitarian Aid, Integration, Iraq, Language, Livelihoods, Money and Finance, Syria, Technology, USA

By Julie Zollmann, Airokhsh Faiz-Qaisary, Kenza Ben-Azouz, Kim Wilson, and Radha Rajkotia. Refugees resettled in the United States are typically supported quite closely early in their transition as support agencies help them settle into new homes, open bank accounts, get their first jobs, and register their children in school. Agencies monitor whether refugees are “self-sufficient,” meaning that their incomes cover their most essential expenses as quickly as possible. However, little is known about the next stage of refugees’ financial and economic transitions, once refugees are no longer interacting regularly with resettlement agencies. In July 2018, we interviewed 29 refugees who had been resettled two to three years earlier to understand the phases of their financial transition and identify possible opportunities to accelerate refugees’ financial gains.

Publications

Striking the Match: Digital Financial Inclusion for Jordan’s Refugees

December 31, 2017November 13, 2021 Lori Zimmermann 526 Views 0 Comment Mediterranean

By Allyson Hawkins, Kim Wilson

Central and South Asia Essays & Articles Europe Long-Distance Journeys Middle East-North Africa Middle East-North Africa Publications

‘I followed the flood’: A Gender Analysis of the Moral and Financial Economies of Forced Migration

December 31, 2017January 15, 2022 Lori Zimmermann 1220 Views 0 Comment Afghanistan, Dangers and trouble, Denmark, Family, Gender, Greece, Humanitarian Aid, Iraq, Jordan, Smuggling, Syria, Turkey

An article by Roxanne Krystalli, Allyson Hawkins, and Kim Wilson, published in “Disasters.” What would a gender analysis of refugee crises reveal if one expanded the focus beyond female refugees, and acts of physical violence? This paper draws on qualitative research conducted in Denmark, Greece, Jordan, and Turkey in July and August 2016 to spotlight the gendered kinship, hierarchies, networks, and transactions that affect refugees. The coping strategies of groups often overlooked in the gender conversation are examined throughout this study, including those of male refugees and those making crossings outside of the context of a family unit. The analysis is theoretically situated at the intersection of critical humanitarianism and the politics of vulnerability, and rooted in debates about the feminisation of refugees and corresponding protection agendas. A key contribution of this work is the ethnographic tracing of how refugees embody these politics along their journeys.