Contexts and Experiences of Migration

Abstract

Our analysis in this study suggests that the ways in which migration is experienced over time challenges the categorical term of ‘migrant’ (Griffiths et al., 2013) and makes visible migration as a process rather than as only a status of destination. Kofman (2004) argues that migration is rarely about individual decision making but is life course and life event related and is not simply a direct response to economic forces. Migrants travel to join established groups of settlers, while maintaining links with their countries of origin. We have therefore employed the term migration rather than emigration in the book. The former implies ongoing movement, contact and communication while the latter term suggests the notion of break or rupture and no return to country of origin (Fortier, 2000).