HUN-REN Centre for Social Sciences, Institute for Sociology cordially invites you to the following event: 

Zuzanna Brunarska : Family Influences on Migration Intentions – The Role of Past Experience of Involuntary (Im)mobility

Date: 13:00, 17th of October, 2024

Abstract

While family migration experience has been shown to be positively related to migration intentions and behaviour, the role of past unrealised migration intentions in a family has been understudied. Moreover, a growing body of evidence for the ‘family migration capital’ hypothesis – whereby migration experience in a family leads to a greater propensity to move among migrants’ descendants – has so far relied on accounts of any migration experience, including voluntary moves. However, in the case of voluntary migration, a considerable part of the observable effect may be due to self-selection into migration and passing the migration-driving characteristics across generations rather than due to the transmission of ‘capital’ derived from migration. In three studies, by examining the relationship between past experience of involuntary (im)mobility in a family and the current migration attitudes, intentions and behaviour of its members, we attempted to address the above-mentioned limitations of the existing research. Using the case of the former communist bloc, we focused on the migration intentions of people whose family members’ mobility aspirations were stifled by the restrictive political regime (Study 1 and Study 2) and whose families experienced forced mobility (Study 3). In Study 1, conducted with Artjoms Ivlevs (University of the West of England, Bristol), using data from the nationally representative Life in Transition III Survey collected in 32 countries in Eurasia, we showed that close relatives of people who had been prohibited from going abroad under communist rule are more likely to report migration intentions compared with people without such family experience. We explained these findings with the intergenerational transmission of mobility aspirations. Study 2 shed light on the character of family stories concerning unrealised emigration experienced under emigration restrictions and their potential intergenerational impacts. To this end, I explored the family stories on unfulfilled intentions to emigrate from two countries that were part of the socialist bloc, drawing on data from semi-structured in-depth interviews with people whose family members intended to emigrate from the Polish People’s Republic and the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic but who have not fulfilled their plans. The study highlighted how memories on the experience of unrealised emigration have been transmitted across generations within families, how the character of family stories varies, and what mechanisms may underlie the potential influence of the experience over migration-related attitudes, norms, aspirations, and in some cases intentions and behaviour, of the non-migrants’ descendants. In Study 3, co-authored with Artjoms Ivlevs, we considered the effects of family experience of forced migration, where self-selection is less prevalent than in voluntary migration, on current migration intentions. Drawing also on data from Life in Transition III Survey, we showed that descendants of people who experienced forced displacement as a result of World War II are more likely to report an intention to migrate than people in similar circumstances but without this kind of family experience. Our findings demonstrate that migration-related family experience – even if the outcome was involuntary – can lead to the accumulation of ‘family migration capital’ that is passed across generations and have long-lasting consequences for subsequent generations’ migration attitudes, intentions and (potentially) behaviour.