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#SBIB:314H250 --- Migratie: algemeen

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#SBIB:39A73 --- #SBIB:39A6 --- #SBIB:314H250 --- Etnografie: Afrika --- Etniciteit / Migratiebeleid en -problemen --- Migratie: algemeen

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In this study, Romanian workers’ migration strategies are considered as transnational economic practices that are related to the neoliberalising spaces of Romanian post-socialism. The basic idea for this approach comes from the attention for human mobility in Marxist political economy. On an abstract level this theoretical strand has been elaborated by Jean-Paul De Gaudemar and David Harvey. Karl Polanyi’s own nuanced political-economy of social reproduction is also related to this ‘school’. Alejandro Portes, Stephen Castles, Michael Burawoy and Saskia Sassen among others, developed more applied forms of the theory in the 1970s and 1980s. Such (transnational) political-economic approaches to migration, have, for various reasons, however, been moved into the background of migration theory production. It is the main goal of this work to reintroduce this approach in migration studies. Central in the analysis on the abtract level, is the problem that on the one hand capitalism lives of ‘freed workers’ whose working time is dominated by wage work regulated by the market, but that on the other hand the production of ‘freed workers’ partly occurs through other systems than the market. The approach of migration then comes down to describing how 'production' and 'reproduction' are segregated from each other. Segregation is beneficial for capitalist development in the area of immigration because cheap labour is provided. In the area of emigration, it is the vortex of capitalism, spreading ever further into space which creates, through a process of ‘disembedding’, 'footloose' people that are forced to migrate to the production centres. An update of the theory by linking it theoretically with Rob Stones’ ‘strong structuration theory’ reveals that its basic ideas appear to be highly relevant for the case of East-West migration within Europe.Based on empirical work in north-east Romania, existing of literature study, semi-structured interviews, focus groups and a survey of 916 returned migrants, I argue that: First of all, the population in north-east Romania moved already before the socialist period in many ways through space because of changing geographies of economic development. Later, socialism redistributed its labour force according to the priorities of the plan and the resources at hand. The large-scale investments in the valleys on the western side of the region at the beginning of the socialist period and the encouragement of commuting in the second period caused the dense urbanisation of these valleys. Secondly, I argue that on the systemic level, capitalist expansion has definitely been playing a role in the development of work migration. The introduction of neoliberalism from the mid-1990s and its articulation with the socialist urban geography has caused major social reproduction problems in urban and rural spaces in north-east Romania. Thirdly, I argue that on the institutional level, work migration can be seen as a transnational network of ‘position-practices’ that emerges out of the strategical actions of migrants, employers, states, recruiters, and diverse other actors. Migrant position-practices are semi-permanent ways of organising work abroad which exist separately from particular migrant workers. The Romanian migrant position-practices evolved over time as a consequence of the shifting Schengen visa regime, the increasing presence of family and friends abroad who offer housing and job possibilities and the number of migrant workers.Fourthly, I argue that in order to link the systemic, the institutional and the individual level, a life course approach offers an excellent conceptual device. Work abroad is seen as a solution, though not always successful, to meet the deep-seated expectations in Romania to perform certain acts at a certain age such as buying a house and starting up a family at a certain age. The systemic reforms took away many of the possibilities to meet these expectations within the site

Academic collection --- #SBIB:39A6 --- #SBIB:314H250 --- Etniciteit / Migratiebeleid en -problemen --- Migratie: algemeen --- Theses

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#SBIB:011.GIFT --- #SBIB:316.8H16 --- #SBIB:314H250 --- Welzijns- en sociale problemen: migranten, rassenrelaties --- Migratie: algemeen

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Emigration and immigration. --- Boundaries. --- Emigration et immigration --- Frontières --- #SBIB:39A6 --- #SBIB:314H250 --- Etniciteit / Migratiebeleid en -problemen --- Migratie: algemeen --- Frontières