Glossary

Circulation:

Chance of position within a spatial defined system without a change of the main place of residence (tourism, commuting).

Ethnic niches/enclaves:

A distinct territorial, cultural, or social unit enclosed within or as if within foreign territory. On the one hand the enclave or niche represents a network that increases the opportunities for gainful trade in the labour market and disseminates information on job opportunities, and constitutes an environment where the immigrant is less exposed to the discrimination encountered elsewhere on the labour market. On the other hand the ethnic enclave or niche provides less interaction with natives and reduces the incentives for acquiring, e.g., language skills. The enclave thus can hinder the move to better jobs and reduces earnings in the longer run.

Migration:

Change of position within a spatially defined unit with a change of the main place of residence. According to the duration of the stay, migration can be divided into non-permanent and permanent migration.

Mobility:

In social sciences, mobility refers to the changes a person can make between different entities of a system. A distinction can be made between social and spatial mobility. Social mobility is a change of position made within a social system (for instance from one social class in another) while spatial mobility refers to a displacement in physical space (for instance from one country to another).

Permanent migration:

A permanent movement of an individual between different geographical units (for example emigration).

Pull factors:

A feature or event that attracts a person to move to another area (for example higher income, political stability, less risks etc.).

Push factors:

A feature or event that pushes a person away from or encourages a person to leave his or her current residence (for example no job opportunities, poverty, repressive culture etc.).

Remittances:

Remittances are money transfers earned by migrants workers to their home countries. For many countries remittances form an important share of their GDPs.

Seasonal migration:

Refers to non-permanent movements of individuals such as seasonal work as a consequence of seasonality in agriculture or tourism.

Social capital:

Social capital enables actors to secure benefits by virtue of membership in social networks and other social structures. It refers to networks, membership of groups, relationships of trust and reciprocity and to access to wider institutions of society. Initially, this term was used mostly in sociological and political discussions, but it has recently been applied in other fields, and become an influential concept in understanding the modern world.

Social mobility:

Change of position within a social defined unit within a given society, usually as a result of education, an expending economy and resulting higher-level income and employment opportunities.

Spatial mobility:

Change of position within a spatial defined unit (can be divided into circulation and migration).

Transnationalism:

Transnationalism is a social movement that refers to the growing interconnectivity of people all around the world due to processes of globalisation (especially due to the developments in telecommunication and transport) and the loosening of boundaries between countries. It encourages change in and re-examination of concepts like citizenship or nationalism and migration.

Transnational migration approach:

An approach that proposes that migrants should be understood as forming a part of two or more dynamically intertwined worlds and transnational migration as the processes by which migrants forge and sustain multi-stranded social relations that link their societies of origin and settlement together Thus, sending and receiving societies became understood as constituting one single field of analysis.

Transnational social space:

By participating in social interactions across borders, immigrants operate in a transnational social space as they engage in activities that link them with at least two localities – the place of origin and the new place of work and living (Portes et al. 1999). According to Faist (2000) transnational social spaces are formed by people (e.g., a group of co-nationals) whose actions crosse and overlaps boundaries between nation-states. The crossing takes the form of exchanges of capital (e.g., economic, social, and/or cultural) between the immigrants and their co-nationals. The overlapping refers to the reconfiguration of social units (e.g., a family) to include individuals who are localized across nation-state borders.