Periodic Reporting for period 2 - MigrationRhythms (Migration rhythms in trajectories of upward social mobility in Asia)
Reporting period: 2022-11-01 to 2024-04-30
Ninety percent of the global increase in the size of middle classes is occurring in Asia. What is driving this tremendous middle-class expansion and how is it related to the unprecedented levels of internal and international migration in that region? Specifically, what roles does migration play in Asian families’ trajectories into middle-classness over time? MigrationRhythms investigates this question, discerning whether the roles of migration in trajectories of upward social mobility into middle-classness differ, and if so, how and why. The variation in distances and durations of migration among individuals in a family, over time, are described as migration rhythms. The project aims to produce a typology of different migration rhythms associated with specific trajectories of upward social mobility into the middle classes, which will enable a comprehensive theorization of the interaction of migration and social mobility of universal applicability, based on the unique data-rich Asian context. The combination of two distinct approaches will enable achieving MigrationRhythms’ objective of evaluating the roles of migration in trajectories of upward social mobility: First, the project employs a mixed-methods research design, encompassing family history interviews and quasi-longitudinal survey data from four Asian cities: Hanoi, Karachi, Manila and Mumbai. Second, it applies rhythmanalysis, as part of an inductive process-tracing framework, across the qualitative and quantitative data sets. This dual approach will enable us to identify the relative prevalence of different migration rhythms in families’ trajectories of upward social mobility into middle-classness. Through this the project makes sense of the relationships between spatial and social movement over time in families, drawing on data and experiences from four Asian cities. Understanding these interactions better can shed light on when upward social mobility is successful, and when it is harder to achieve, fluctuating and risky, which is of broader societal relevance, not least in many societies with growing lower middle-class populations.
The first stage of the project focused on theoretical preparations and conceptual development as a foundation for refining approaches to rhythmanalysis within a process-tracing framework, as applied to mapping and analyzing migration rhythms, and their roles in trajectories of upward social mobility in families over two-to-three generations. The two senior researchers (postdocs) were hired at the end of this stage. The second stage of the project focused on methodological preparations for the family history interviews and the survey data collection, in Hanoi, Karachi, Manila and Mumbai. Consultations with the project’s advisory board members were performed, concerning conceptual foundations, methodological preparations, and details related to conducting fieldwork and data collection in the four Asian cities. The third stage, from January to August 2023 data collection was ongoing, with both qualitative and quantitative data being collected. The MigrationRhythms survey was conducted working with local subcontractors, achieving the target of n=500 respondents per city, and an overall sample of n=2000. The MigrationRhythms family history interviews were conducted by the core researchers with support from local colleagues, researchers and students in different constellations as relevant in each city. A total of 106 family history interviews have been collected (Hanoi 25; Karachi 25; Manila 27; and Mumbai 29). All 106 interviews have been transcribed and translated into English, with much investment in the quality assurance of adequate and locally attuned translation into English, work which was completed by October 2023. The fourth stage of the project work is focused on analysis, which has started since July 2023, running parallel to the finalization of data collection, and processes of data cleaning, for both the qualitative and the quantitative data. This consists of working with data processing in Stata, and coding of the qualitative data in NVivo, creating the basis for further analysis of the two datasets, separately, and jointly, and the writing of articles and other outputs.
The MigrationRhythms project is pushing beyond identified conceptual and methodological research boundaries, associated with how movement across space is measured, conceptualised and categorised, as well as how change over time is understood and recorded. The challenge of gathering robust longitudinal data, which are sufficiently comparable, is something that must be addressed both conceptually and methodologically. This is an activity the project has focused much energy on in the first 30 months, in particular in relation to developing data collection tools, and subsequently tailored approaches to data analysis. Effort has been put into interrogating mobility at different geographic scales, of varying durations, at different points in time, with sensitivity to lived experience and on-the-ground realities in Asian societies. Based on these data, rhythmanalysis, extending from process tracing, but also including a more interpretative approach, will be developed and applied, in the last 30 months of the project.
The objective of evaluating the roles of migration in trajectories of upward social mobility among present-day, urban, Asian middle-class families will be achieved by overcoming the fragmentation in existing knowledge, providing an approach that considers migration of different durations and distances, within the same analytical framework, and engaging analytically with mobility over the long-term. The differences in patterns of migration – migration rhythms – of contrasting trajectories into middle classness that are identified, will enable a comprehensive theorization of the interaction of migration and social mobility, a main task in the last 30 months of the project. This will be one of the two main outcomes of MigrationRhythms: a typology of different migration rhythms associated with specific trajectories of upward social mobility. This in turn will lead to the other outcome: a comprehensive theorization of the interaction of migration and social mobility of universal applicability and relevant to the discipline of geography as well as interdisciplinary research on migration and on social mobility.
Expected results till the end of the project also include a series of comics portraying Asian middle classes and social mobility and migration interactions, and educational material targeted toward upper secondary age groups, available online.
The objective of evaluating the roles of migration in trajectories of upward social mobility among present-day, urban, Asian middle-class families will be achieved by overcoming the fragmentation in existing knowledge, providing an approach that considers migration of different durations and distances, within the same analytical framework, and engaging analytically with mobility over the long-term. The differences in patterns of migration – migration rhythms – of contrasting trajectories into middle classness that are identified, will enable a comprehensive theorization of the interaction of migration and social mobility, a main task in the last 30 months of the project. This will be one of the two main outcomes of MigrationRhythms: a typology of different migration rhythms associated with specific trajectories of upward social mobility. This in turn will lead to the other outcome: a comprehensive theorization of the interaction of migration and social mobility of universal applicability and relevant to the discipline of geography as well as interdisciplinary research on migration and on social mobility.
Expected results till the end of the project also include a series of comics portraying Asian middle classes and social mobility and migration interactions, and educational material targeted toward upper secondary age groups, available online.