Essays & Articles Archives - Page 4 of 5

Reflections on Conducting a Lean Research Field Study

November 30, 2019December 19, 2021 Lori Zimmermann 905 Views 0 Comment Lean Research, Research Reflection

By Sarah Carson, under the supervision of Kim Wilson.
Field research is a common and often powerful piece of post-graduate training in international affairs and development. But sending students to the field also comes with risks to both students and study participants. What happens when you send five students abroad to execute Lean Research on their own? What challenges might they encounter, and what innovative solutions could they develop? And what do they learn that could be applied to similar experiences in the future?

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

Retaining, Changing, and Surrendering Hegemonic Masculinities

April 30, 2019January 15, 2022 Lori Zimmermann 1253 Views 0 Comment Bangladesh, Costa Rica, Dangers and trouble, Destinations, Gender, India, Nepal, Pakistan, The Journey

By Subin Mulmi, under the supervision of Kim Wilson. Transatlantic migration from South Asia is a long, arduous, and expensive journey but each year many South Asians risk their lives to reach the supposed dreamland of the United States. A large majority of the South Asians that I met during our re-search in 2018 in Costa Rica were men, prompting a focus on how men experienced long-distance migration.

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

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

April 30, 2019June 30, 2022 Lori Zimmermann 1351 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 1527 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?

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 1330 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 1691 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 Essays & Articles Long-Distance Journeys North America Publication Spotlight Publications Sub-Saharan Africa

What Can Hotels Teach Us about Smuggling?

March 31, 2019June 30, 2022 Ellysse V. Dick 1430 Views 0 Comment Bangladesh, Bribery and Corruption, Cameroon, Costa Rica, Dangers and trouble, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Haiti, Host and Transition Communities, Identity and Documents, India, Lodging and Food, Money and Finance, Nepal, Nigeria, Smuggling

By Maria Teresa Nagel, under the supervision of Kim Wilson. There is limited research describing the smuggling industry and its actors, particularly in Central America. Our study hopes to address this knowledge gap by disclosing how human smugglers lodge their clients and the role hotels play in the smuggling ecosystem.

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

Migrants Hold onto Their Religious Identities for Emotional Support and to Build Networks Crucial to Their Journeys

March 31, 2019November 13, 2021 Ellysse V. Dick 1227 Views 0 Comment Costa Rica, Dangers and trouble, Ghana, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Religion, The Journey

By Lea Abi Zeid Daou and Nidhisha Philip, under the supervision of Kim Wilson. Writings on why religion is of significance to individual migrants have explored themes of religion as a reason for migration, religion as a means of sustenance in difficult circumstances, religion as an identity marker in new socio-cultural contexts, and religion as a source of reconciliation and healing. In this essay, we explore some of these same themes, basing our insights on interviews with trans-continental migrants traveling through Costa Rica and bound for the north.

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

In Adjusting to New Labor Markets, Migrants Draw on Past Experience and Retain a Strong Sense of Pride in Being Able to Contribute

March 31, 2019June 30, 2022 Ellysse V. Dick 1059 Views 0 Comment Bangladesh, Bribery and Corruption, Cameroon, Colombia, Dangers and trouble, Friends and Networks, Ghana, Language, Livelihoods, Money and Finance, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sierra Leone, The Journey

By Conor Sanchez, under the supervision of Kim Wilson. Popular notions of migrants as unskilled or uneducated laborers, while sometimes true, are often false. Their jobs back home may not have always ensured adequate income, a factor that could have played a role in their decision to migrate, but they often required some technical knowledge or training. Our subjects had worked as photographers, teachers, accountants, sociologists, and business owners. Some were property owners, tending to farms and livestock or selling various kinds of merchandise out of their home. In many of the interviews, it also became apparent that these jobs had clearly formed an unshakeable part of their identity.

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

Language Isolation on the Migrant Trail

March 31, 2019January 15, 2022 Ellysse V. Dick 955 Views 0 Comment Barriers, Cameroon, Colombia, Dangers and trouble, Fletcher students’ research experience, Ghana, Language

By Charlie Bentley, under the supervision of Kim Wilson. I connected to most migrants I interviewed using the same first casual topic: “I’m struggling to get around without Spanish. What about you?” Despite having the help of two Spanish-speaking colleagues, I still found that traveling through Colombia without Spanish language skills was an immense challenge.