This study examines how pre-departure dependants shape remigration intentions of international returnee migrants in the context of Ethiopia by using the 2021 Labor Force and Migration Survey (LFMS). While much of the existing literature focuses on the role of various socio-economic factors on remigration intentions, evidence on pre-departure dependants defined as dependants left behind by returnee migrants during their initial migration journey remains limited. As such, by extending the Theory of Planned Behaviour and the Theory of Social Capital, this study contributes to the existing line of literature by answering the following research question: Do pre-departure dependants influence remigration intentions, and how does economic reintegration mediate their relationship? The main results robustly confirm the significant and positive association between having pre-departure dependants and remigration intentions. Conversely, economic reintegration does not substantially mediate the influence of pre-departure dependants on remigration intentions, nor is it significantly associated with remigration intentions. Furthermore, the heterogeneity analysis reveals that males are more inclined to take family responsibilities than females. The findings suggest the need of family-based reintegration programs, such as family counselling, reducing family-related responsibilities of returnees, and moving beyond employment-based economic reintegration efforts.
Given that population ageing and international migration of young people are issues of global geriatric concern, this study focused on the phenomenon among University of Ghana students with emigration aspirations. Objectives of the study were to explore perspectives of university students on potential challenges to caregiving for ageing parents if they emigrate and strategies that could ensure care for older adults in their absence. A qualitative research design was utilised, and convenience and purposive sampling methods were used to recruit participants. This consisted of 32 social work students at the University of Ghana. Data were collected through in-depth individual interviews and focus group discussions and analysed thematically. Findings indicated that potential challenges to providing care for older adults due to emigration include physical absence and emotional distance and dependence on external caregivers with associated issues of trust. Additionally, emotional conflict and gendered dilemmas as well as communication-related barriers and concerns about health of ageing parents shaped participants’ views on perceived challenges to caregiving. Nevertheless, participants suggested strategies including the use of professional caregivers, remittances, digital communication, and maintaining connections through visits for continuity of care. It is concluded that international migration of young people could strain intergenerational care and widen gaps in care for older adults. Thus, it would be useful for stakeholders to invest in the adult social care sector through measures including establishment of formal training for geriatric caregivers and policies that promote collaboration between families and professional caregivers for a sustainable provision of care for older adults.
Migrant women face a heightened risk of violence at every stage of the migration journey, yet recent evidence on its forms, determinants, and consequences remains fragmented. This study is aimed at investigating migrant women’s exposure to violence across the migration continuum, pursuing four objectives: to identify its forms; its associated risk and protective factors; women’s experiences of and responses to it; and its physical, mental and social consequences. A scoping review following PRISMA guidelines was conducted between February and March 2024, searching for the PubMed, Scopus, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and Web of Science databases. From a total of 445 articles retrieved, 32 articles were selected, including quantitative, qualitative and mixed-methods studies published between 2019 and 2024. Findings showed that women face pervasive violence across all migration stages, including torture, physical and sexual abuse, camp-based atrocities, and intimate partner violence. Despite facing such violence, fear of arrest and stigmatization makes them underreport and become “tolerant” to the abuse, leading to severe mental health, physical health, and social consequences. Studies have reported a series of risk factors, like prior violence, irregular migration routes, disability, poverty, service barriers and patriarchal norms; while traveling with children, higher education, known male accompaniment, economic independence and robust legal/NGO supports were found as protective factors. Survival strategies such as acceptance and reliance on informal networks may afford short-term protection, but they risk normalizing abuse deepening women’s vulnerability. The lasting impacts of violence on women’s health highlight a public health concern that governments should address, developing prevention strategies uniting legal reform, tailored health services, community empowerment, and ongoing research.
Post-graduation policy pathways shape whether international graduates can remain after study, but the governance structures behind these pathways are underexplored in small state hubs. I examine this problem through Luxembourg, using Singapore as a narrower shadow case. Small state hubs are treated here as small states that combine limited domestic capacity with highly connected positions between regional and global systems, using niche economic strategies to mediate flows of labour, capital, and students. Luxembourg is the primary case because its 2023 legislation directly changed the post-study pathway available to eligible third-country graduates and researchers. Singapore is included because its 2023 COMPASS reform shaped the skilled-employment route into which international graduates may move after the post-study period. Drawing on a policy integration framework, I analyse parliamentary records, government documents, and official guidance across immigration, labour, housing, and integration domains. I argue that Luxembourg’s pathway is relatively permissive, offering a 12-month job-search period and dependent labour market access, but weakly coordinated across adjacent policy domains. Graduate retention appears in immigration reform without becoming a shared objective across the wider policy environment that shapes whether graduates can realistically remain. The Singapore contrast indicates that small-state-hub status does not preclude more selective skilled-migration criteria, while clarifying what Luxembourg gains in case-by-case flexibility and leaves less specified at the study-to-work transition. The article contributes to research on the education-migration nexus by shifting attention from retention outcomes to the domestic governance structures that make post-graduation pathways more or less coherent.
This study is the first to examine the 2016 reform of Germany’s Residence Act that intended to foster refugee integration by extending the waiting period for permanent residency from 3 to 5 years and introducing requirements, such as proficiency in German and partial financial independence. Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), we employ a difference-in-differences design to analyse employment and full-time employment trends among refugees. Results show that the reform did not accelerate take-up rates of either overall or full-time employment. However, administrative data from the German Central Register of Foreign Nationals reveals that after the reform, permanent residency acquisition rates significantly declined. The findings call into question the efficacy of conditional residency policies in fostering labour market integration.
While rates of domestic/intimate partner violence (D/IPV) are not higher among immigrants in Canada, immigrant and refugee populations may face heightened vulnerability when violence occurs due to intersecting structural inequalities. Premigration experiences of violence such as war, civil unrest, displacement, and prior exposure to D/IPV can shape postmigration stress and influence experiences of violence and help-seeking in Canada. This study, based on national qualitative data, examines how a diverse group of professionals working with immigrant and refugee populations including counselors, police officers, legal professionals, settlement workers recognize, and understand the impacts of premigration trauma in the context of D/IPV. Findings highlight how service providers deal with premigration trauma, cultural and religious expectations, language barriers, and mistrust of institutions. The study underscores the importance of trauma- and violence-informed and culturally responsive approaches such as improved access to specialized mental health supports, reduced language barriers, and professional development for service providers working with immigrant and refugee survivors and perpetrators of D/IPV.
Building on an ethnographic research with Brazilians of Italian descent who acquired Italian citizenship and migrated to Italy or to Spain and the UK, this paper analyses the interplay of citizenship acquisition, ancestry and migration in their biographical trajectories against the backdrop of evolving Italian regulations on citizenship by blood. Until a reform enacted in March 2025, Italian law permitted descendants of emigrants to obtain citizenship without limitations on the number of generations. While policymakers intended this provision to maintain connections with the Italian diaspora, they created an unforeseen route to migration to the EU. The law implicitly assumed a linear progression from ancestry to citizenship, and possibly return migration to the ancestral homeland, but real-life trajectories of citizens by ancestry often deviated from this model. Analysing the mismatch between the routes expected by the law and those taken by individuals allows us not only to grasp the meanings individuals attach to citizenship but also to better understand how the state conceives its membership in relation to the past, the present and the future.
Gendered inequalities in wellbeing among women from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds remain insufficiently understood, despite evidence of intersecting constraints related to caregiving, employment, language, and social participation. Vietnamese migrant (VM) women represent a significant and understudied CALD group, offering a valuable case study for examining these dynamics in a Western settlement context. Drawing on subjective wellbeing homeostasis and intersectionality theories, this study examines gender differences in wellbeing among VM adults in Australia. It explores how migration may be associated with women’s wellbeing. Data were pooled from two community-based studies involving VM in Australia (N = 240, 81.3
This study examines whether immigrant-native wage differentials vary between union-covered and non-unionized employment in Canada. Using pooled monthly Labour Force Survey public-use microdata for 2021–2025, the analysis focuses on paid employees aged 25 to 64 and estimates weighted log-hourly wage models with province-year clustered standard errors. It supplements the regression evidence with Oaxaca-Blinder decompositions, year-specific models, alternative clustering, functional-form checks, inverse-probability weighting, Oster sensitivity analysis and post-2022 robustness. The findings show that immigrants earn less than comparable non-immigrants, with larger wage penalties for recent immigrants than for established immigrants. Union-covered jobs are associated with higher wages overall, but immigrants receive a smaller union wage premium than comparable non-immigrants. The triple-interaction results further show that immigrant women occupy the lowest predicted wage positions, particularly outside union-covered employment. Decomposition evidence indicates that the immigrant-native wage gap is concentrated more in differential returns to observed characteristics than in differences in the characteristics themselves, and that the gap is wider in unionized than in non-unionized employment. Overall, union coverage remains an important wage-setting institution, but it does not eliminate immigrant wage disadvantage in the Canadian labour market.
This paper is based on 27 semi-structured interviews conducted in multiple locations in peripheral municipalities in Hungary between March 2022 and April 2024 with older adults who had migrated to Hungary either from Western Europe or from Ukraine. The research employs the theoretical framework of international retirement migration (IRM) while broadening the geographical scope of related research. Our contribution explores the multiple motivations and strategies of older migrants from the East and West. The research presents new data on a topic that has been overlooked in post-socialist countries such as Hungary and explores the peculiarities of narratives among older adult migrants. Our data draws on the understanding of geographical arbitrage described by Hayes (2014), whereby individuals exploit global inequalities to mitigate financial insecurity or improve their circumstances in retirement. The paper seeks to link the concept of ontological security with the IRM literature. It argues that, given the perceived status loss resulting from the neoliberal transformation of the state and geopolitical conflicts, migration can be interpreted as a strategy employed by older adults to reaffirm ontological security. Notably, a desire for security (with an altered meaning) emerged as a narrative strategy in both groups, partly to conceal the economic reasons for migration. Western European older migrants list ideological reasons for moving to Hungary, which they describe as secure and traditional. Migrants from Ukraine—overwhelmingly ethnic Hungarians—also emphasise their sense of belonging to the motherland.
It has been widely demonstrated that proficiency in the host country’s language is important for the labour market integration of immigrants. However, few studies have analysed the role of immigrants’ language skills in bilingual contexts. Drawing on representative data from five Spanish autonomous communities, we investigate the differential role of fluency in Spanish—the state language—and in the regional co-official languages (Catalan, Basque, and Galician). The results show that fluency in Spanish is associated with a higher likelihood of being employed, whereas fluency in a regional language shows no measurable association with this outcome. However, when considering access to highly skilled occupations, a different pattern emerges: fluency in two of the three regional languages (Catalan and Basque) is positively associated with skilled employment, while Spanish shows no significant association. These findings suggest a dual function of language skills: Spanish acts as a general gateway to the labour market, while regional languages function as symbolic and context-specific capital, facilitating access to skilled occupations. The article challenges a uniform view of linguistic capital and underscores the relevance of local identity dynamics in shaping migrants’ labour trajectories. It concludes by suggesting the value of moving beyond mere course provision and pointing to the importance of promoting both the effective acquisition of language skills by immigrants and their recognition by employers and institutions as part of professional development pathways.
At its core, migrants’ integration involves developing a sense of belonging to their society of residence, which may be particularly challenging for older migrants. Even if belonging has been established, it is an ongoing and dynamic process that responds to sociopolitical events. This study examines the sense of belonging among long-settled older Russian-speaking migrants in Finland. It examined the period between 2019 and 2022, which included two major events, the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, both of which potentially intensified the othering of Russian-speaking migrants. Using two-wave data from a population-based study of Russian-speaking migrants aged 50 years and older in Finland, this study assesses the dynamics of belonging to groups labeled the “Finns,” the “Russians,” and migrants of any nationality (“migrants”) between 2019 and 2022 as well as the role of discrimination in shaping those dynamics. Our results show that belonging to the “Russians” declined, while belonging to the “migrants” became more pronounced, and belonging to the “Finns” remained stable. At the same time, reported experiences of discrimination decreased. Using longitudinal data, this study demonstrates that belonging is not a settled outcome of long-term residence but an ongoing, contingent, and at times fragile process.
Why migrants decide to remain in a destination city is a key question for research on migrant settlement and local integration, particularly beyond capital-city contexts. This article examines the determinants of settlement intentions among international migrants in Poznań, a major non-capital city in western Poland. Drawing on original survey data from 186 migrants and using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM), the study analyses how settlement intentions are shaped by attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control, selected migration motives, destination-related factors, and socio-demographic characteristics. The findings suggest that, within the surveyed sample, settlement intentions are influenced primarily by post-arrival evaluations and social influences rather than by pre-migration motives. Subjective norms and attitudes emerge as the strongest direct predictors of intentions to stay, while perceived behavioural control operates indirectly. Local opportunity structures—especially labour market opportunities, quality of public services, and the presence of co-ethnic networks—strengthen settlement intentions through their effects on attitudes and subjective norms. By contrast, push factors related to the country of origin do not significantly explain intentions to remain. The study advances research on migrant settlement by showing that local opportunity structures do not affect settlement intentions directly and uniformly but are translated into intentions through migrants’ attitudes, subjective norms and perceived settlement feasibility. The findings also suggest that long-term migrant retention in non-capital urban destinations depends not only on labour demand, but also on the quality of local inclusion.
This systematic review maps and critically examines trauma-related mental health assessment practices applied to adult refugees in European host countries, drawing on peer-reviewed studies published between 2014 and 2024 and interpreted in light of advances in the field up to 2026. A systematic review was conducted using major electronic databases to identify peer-reviewed 46 studies published between 2014 and 2024 that assessed trauma-related mental health among adult refugees or asylum seekers in 18 European host countries. Eligible studies reported the use of mental health assessment instruments or structured evaluation procedures. Data extraction included assessed domains, instruments, and sample characteristics, and methodological quality was evaluated using the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) Critical Appraisal Checklist with independent reviewers and checklist to assure disagreement resolution. Findings reveal a strong concentration of research in a limited number of host countries and a heavy reliance on a small cluster of Western-developed screening tools, most notably the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire, Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25, and PTSD Checklist for DSM-5. While PTSD, depression, and anxiety dominate assessment priorities, substantial variability was observed in measurement strategies, diagnostic thresholds, and modes of administration. Cultural adaptation, linguistic validation, and contextual sensitivity were frequently underreported. In contrast, emerging use of instruments targeting post-migration stressors, functional impairment, and resilience suggests a gradual shift toward more comprehensive conceptualizations of trauma-related disorders. These findings support the implementation of standardized, culturally adapted assessment pathways combining validated screening instruments with clinician-administered interviews and contextual evaluation of post-migration stressors. Such approaches may improve early identification of trauma-related conditions and inform trauma-focused psychological care for refugee populations across European settings.
Since the implementation of the “Remain in Mexico” policy in 2020 by the USA, Mexico has become one of the countries with the greatest number of immigrants and asylum seekers. Still, the literature on migration discourses in Mexico is scarce. This study assesses this gap by analyzing local news from three border cities with a mixed-method approach consisting of a three-level news frame analysis (Entman, 1993; Scheufele Iyengar, 2012) and a critical approach (Aldrete Fernández-Ardèvol, 2023). Additionally, the newsroom’s proximity was analyzed as a framing factor. The most-read digital outlet in each city, Tijuana, Ciudad Juárez, and Reynosa, was observed during October 2023, gathering 391 news articles. The results reveal a change from the findings of previous studies on Mexican media, becoming more hostile toward alien immigrants. The news stories focus on migration as a threat to the local population with urgent and worrying narratives, which may be a major factor influencing social discrimination and political support for anti-immigration policies.
This study investigates the labour market experiences of highly skilled Ukrainian academics who sought refuge in Sweden following Russia’s 2022 invasion. Although the displacement represents Europe’s largest migration crisis since World War II, Ukrainian refugees have generally encountered strong public support. Among refugees are academic scholars whose expertise presents both opportunities and challenges for labour market integration. Yet little is known about how these academics access support initiatives or navigate the Swedish academic labour market. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 30 displaced Ukrainian academics and five representatives from four Swedish universities, the study provides a dual perspective of both individual workers’ experiences and organisational employer practices. Our findings reveal that displaced academics and host universities face significant barriers for Ukrainian researchers to both enter academia and remain, including language difficulties, cultural differences, limited networks, and the prevalence of short-term funding structures and political initiatives such as the EU’s Temporary Protection Directive. Individualised research practices in the humanities/social sciences made integration more challenging than in team-based disciplines. Research participants demonstrate resilience and a strong desire to continue contributing to their fields. The study highlights the need for longer-term, centrally organised, and clearly communicated support structures to prevent opportunities. It further shows that prior international collaborations, language proficiency, and sensitivity to gender and family circumstances shape labour market outcomes, underscoring the importance of addressing diverse needs. Overall, this research advances understanding of the integration of highly educated newcomers and offers lessons for future crises. Proactive and sustainable institutional and organisational strategies can foster more inclusive academic environments that benefit both displaced researchers and the academic community.
Studies of subjective forms of immigrant integration, such as immigrants’ subjective well-being, are rare, but have grown in the past few decades for major immigrant destinations. This study extends the understanding of subjective well-being among immigrants by focusing on a non-traditional destination country, Japan, where the number of foreign residents has risen continuously in recent years. Specifically, the aim of this study is to examine whether and how the association between social capital and life satisfaction is moderated by the duration of residence among immigrants in Japan, using a nationally representative dataset, the 2018 Survey of Foreign Citizens Regarding Life and Work. In contrast to the expectations of assimilation theory, the results show that length of residence is negatively associated with life satisfaction, while social capital, both in terms of bonding social capital (social networks within the ethnic group) and bridging social capital (social networks across ethnic boundaries), is positively associated with life satisfaction. However, while bonding social capital is positively associated with life satisfaction among immigrants with shorter lengths of residence, this association is weaker among those with longer residence. Overall, the findings suggest that although some immigrants develop ties to Japanese society, life satisfaction is lower among immigrants with longer residence, and generally low levels of bridging social capital point to persistent barriers to integration.
While return occupies a central position in European migration policy discourse, it remains a loudly announced, weakly implemented, and strongly contested aspect of migration governance. The enduring “return gap,” the divergence between policy commitments and actual removals, underscores the limitations of a control-oriented framework. Drawing on a comparative study of 11 EU+ countries, the article develops an ideal-typical categorization of state responses to non-return, here termed “alternatives to return” to denote the full spectrum of formal and informal responses implemented when return does not occur, a governance reality that inevitably follows non-return. Organized across three axes, inclusive/exclusionary, explicit/implicit, and active/passive, these six governance forms reveal the coexistence of coercive and accommodating logics, challenging the assumption that return constitutes the normative endpoint of irregular migration control in Europe.
This study examines how premigratory political socialization under communism relates to the political integration of Vietnamese migrants in Poland, understood as migrants’ incorporation into the host society through both latent and manifest forms of political participation. While research on migrant integration has largely emphasized post-migration experiences and socioeconomic resources, less attention has been paid to how political orientations formed before migration influence engagement with democratic institutions. Drawing on mixed-methods data from 347 survey respondents and 15 interviews, the study distinguishes between two dimensions of communist socialization: exposure to the socialist political system and participation in communist organizations prior to migration. The findings indicates that early exposure to communist rule during formative years is associated with lower levels of political interest and participation, whereas previous involvement in communist organizations is linked to higher levels of manifest political participation. At the same time, post-migration re-socialization, particularly associational involvement and longer residence, shows positive relationships with multiple forms of political engagement. By connecting premigratory political socialization to migrants’ political participation after settlement, the study contributes to scholarship on political integration and highlights how political dispositions formed under authoritarian rule continue to influence, but not fully determine, migrants’ engagement with democratic institutions.
National and municipal social and integration policies play a key role in shaping the conditions and opportunities for access to local social provisions, e.g. housing, financial support or institutional childcare. Against this backdrop, my paper explores Ukrainian protection-holders’ subjective perspectives on the social network–based resources that they activate and recombine in order to enhance their agency regarding satisfaction of their everyday welfare needs while settling in Berlin or Munich. The paper draws on in-depth interviews with Ukrainian protection-holders that were repeated in four waves. These interviews, which were conducted in the two cities between September 2022 and March 2023, were complemented by key informant interviews with professionals from welfare institutions and NGOs. Based on an inductively developed typology of in-person and digital resources from the data, findings illustrate the resourcefulness of forced migrants from Ukraine, which is an expression of their agency in action. Such resourcefulness enables them to overcome perceived barriers when accessing welfare after forced displacement. The empirically new and less explored case of Ukrainians residing in Germany under the EU Temporary Protection contributes to scholarship on agency as contextual, relational and dynamic.
