Segmented Macrosystems, Networking Individuals, Cultural Change: Balancing Processes and Interactive Change in Migration

Abstract

Until a decade ago, scholarship has dealt with migration in terms of disruption (Vecoli 1964). Under present-day immigration pressures on countries in the Atlantic economies, politicians and conservative voters demand restrictionist policies. Continuities of culture and migration flows, however, characterize intra-European migrations as Moch (1992) has emphasized and Nugent (1992) has pointed to the continuity in the demographic transition.

Parts of this essay were read at the symposia Migration and Settlement in a Historical Perspective, Wassenaar, Sept 1993 and Interethnic Relations and Social Incorporation in Europe and North America, Toronto, Oct 1994.