Organized violence, new migration patterns, and development: A comparative study in Europe and the Americas
Final Report Abstract
Forced migration is of increasing global relevance, and it takes different forms depending on the contexts in which it takes place. In the project we developed a concept of forced migration as change(s) of residence as taken-for-granted everyday life pushed by a considerable degree of enforcement and life-threatening caused to a great extent by force, compulsion, or coercion in the form of persecution because of racial, religious, ethnic, political, national or gender reasons or based on life threatening disasters or catastrophes. Combining symbolic interactionism, lifecourse research, social practice and neo-institutional theory, we analyzed forced migration as "objective” social situation with "an existence of its own” and as a matter of "subjective” perception and interpretation of social situations – for the affected themselves as well as for broader communities and societies in countries of origin, of transit and of arrival. We also identified organized violence as the decisive factor for forced migration: from civil wars in the Middle East to organized criminal and political violence in Central America. Organized violence was also identified as a reiterative experience for migrants in transit countries, either in the form of extortion by migrationofficials and other institutional agents, of criminal networks profiting from the trafficking and forced labor of migrants, or as a side-effect of discriminatory migration policies that emphasize securitization strategies rather than the preservation of migrants’ basic rights. Our data gathering consisted of (1) a survey with more than 700 life-course oriented respondents in Turkey and Mexico, mainly taken within classic migratory routes and places of daily-life of forced migrants, (2) 30 autobiographical narrations with forced migrants in both countries and (3) 27 expert interviews with representatives of state agencies, national and international governmental and non-governmental organizations. Some new insights of the project are: • Violence and especially organized violence are substantially more relevant as frequently considered in scientific publications and public discourse; this can be partly explained by mechanisms of taking violence as ‘natural part of everyday-life’ or of blocking negative experiences out; e.g. Central American migration through Mexico and Afghan migration through Turkey are often considered economic migration, when it has great part of FM. • Besides some commonalities between Mexico and Turkey (middle income countries that turned from pure emigration to emigration/immigration/transit migration; USA and EU as important destination countries pushing for externalizing border control), the politicalinstitutional settings differ substantially (only policy-military ‘assistance’ for border control by USA, substantial humanitarian and development aid by EU). • In the life-courses of interviewees, FM is a longer lasting period (average about two years), where conditions and experiences of violence do not disappear but change in types and intensity; aims and destinies shift according to contingent and chosen factors; the institutional setting of reception, negligence or rejection by state and non-state actors are relevant; migrants themselves act between self-efficiency and external control. • Migration trajectories and biographical narrations of interviewees vary less than expected by gender in both countries, strongly according to country of origin in Turkey but less in Mexico; nevertheless, female migrants and those of non-standard sexual orientations were more affected by experiences of violence; ethnic groups were relevant in Turkey, not so in Mexico. • The combined longitudinal approach (trajectories and biographies) resulted as innovative and adequate for the perspective on FM as social practice in everyday-life; the mixed methods and comparative approach of the project was crucial for taking into account the politico-institutional settings in which actors develop their life. Interdisciplinary and interinstitutional cooperation in the project team worked very well. • Transnational cooperation in an international team over 3 countries (Germany, Mexico, Turkey) worked well despite of challenging Covid-conditions due to a mix of some personal encounters and many internet-based tools and meetings.
Publications
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The Interplay of Organized Violence and Forced Migration: A Transnational Perspective. New Migration Patterns in the Americas (2018, 7, 26), 27-55. American Geophysical Union (AGU).
Pries, Ludger
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New Migration Patterns in the Americas. (2019). American Geophysical Union (AGU).
Bada, X.; Feldmann, A.E. & Schütze, S. (Eds.)
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Traces and Sediments of Organized Violence in Biographical Narratives of Migrants in Mexico. Göttinger Beiträge zur soziologischen Biographieforschung (2020), 145-162. American Geophysical Union (AGU).
Pries, Ludger; Schramm, Christian & Wieschalla, Melanie
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Erfahrungen organisierter Gewalt in Lebenserzählungen syrischer Flüchtlinge zwischen Exit, Voice und Loyalty. In: Forum: Qualitative Sozialforschung, Vol. 22 (3).
Pries, L. & Linsel, N.
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Trayectorias migratorias y violencia organizada en el corredor Centroamérica - México - Estados Unidos. In: Periplos, Revista de Investigación sobre Migraciones. Vol. 5 (1), pp. 82-107
Alba Villalever, X. & Schütze, S.
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Organized violence as a never-ending story? Reflections in light of the Russian aggression against Ukraine. Frontiers in Sociology, 7 (2022, 8, 24).
Pries, Ludger
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The Nexus of Forced Migration and Organized Violence. The Routledge History of Modern Latin American Migration (2022, 8, 24), 309-321. American Geophysical Union (AGU).
Alba, Villalever Ximena; Pries, Ludger & Schütze, Stephanie
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Between Humanitarian Assistance and Externalizing of EU Borders: The EU-Turkey Deal and Refugee Related Organizations in Turkey. Journal on Migration and Human Security, 11(1), 57-74.
Pries, Ludger & Zülfikar, Savci Berna Safak
