Call for Chapters
MIGRATION AND EDUCATION: TRACES OF TRANSNATIONALISM
Editors:
Lesley Bartlett (Teachers College, Columbia University)
Ameena Ghaffar-Kucher (University of Pennsylvania)
INTRODUCTION
The world is witnessing an era of unprecedented human mobility, creating transnational institutions, social networks, and families: in 2010, an estimated 214 million people migrated internationally (Koser & Laczko, 2010). Labor demands, economic crises, urbanization, entrenched poverty, political instability, and conflict continue to fuel the global movement of peoples. Securing basic social, health and educational services has become a pressing concern for migrants in all regions of the world. The understudied phenomenon of “South-South” migration continues to expand at a rapid pace: nearly half of the migrants from developing countries reside in countries in the south (74 million); almost 80% of that migration flows between neighboring countries (Ratha & Shaw, 2007, p. 3).
The existing literature on migration and education has primarily examined immigrants in the United States and Europe, and has often focused on the economic and, to some extent, political implications of such separations. Research has documented that economic and even educational aspirations spur migration (especially among those seeking post-secondary education in the North), though some qualitative work suggests that parents may also send their children back home at key developmental periods, such as adolescence (Levitt, 2002). Other studies suggest that the anticipation of migration may dampen demand for secondary or post-secondary schooling in sending countries. Economic concerns have prompted studies of migration and education that focus “on two types of relationships: first, the investment of migrant remittances in the education of their children back home; and second, the perspective of ‘brain drain’ that refers to the migration of skilled workers from the developing to the developed world” (Rao, 2010, p. 137). Comparative studies have mainly examined educational attainment and labor market outcomes (Holdaway et al., 2009). Yet few studies in the extant literature examine processes of inclusion and exclusion.
OBJECTIVE
This volume seeks to explore the educational, cultural and social processes emergent among transnational institutions, families, and social networks. The edited volume, based on qualitative studies, will offer key revisions to contemporary theory regarding migration and education.
RECOMMENDED TOPICS & THEMES
The editors welcomes chapter proposals based on qualitative research from across the globe – especially Latin America, Middle East/North Africa, South Asia, East Asia.
Suggested topics include:
- The impact of transnational migration on the educational aspirations and achievement of the children left behind, as well as those who later migrate to reunite with their parent(s) or are born in the destination country;
- The ways that adolescent immigrants negotiate the cultural ideologies they encounter in their new home, including those imposed by schools, co-ethnics, peers, and religious institutions;
- Immigrants’ and/or forced migrants’ access to and treatment within schools in their destination country;
- New forms of cultural production, including gender and racial formations, provoked by migration and schooling.
SUBMISSION PROCEDURES
Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit a 500 word abstract clearly explicating the goals of the proposed chapter on or before September 16, 2011. Please send proposals to Ameena Ghaffar-Kucher: agk@gse.upenn.edu. Authors of accepted proposals will be notified by September 30, 2011.
LENGTH OF CHAPTER SUBMISSIONS
6500 words (including references).
IMPORTANT DATES
Abstract (500 words) – September 16, 2011
Notification of acceptance – September 30, 2011
Draft of chapter from authors – October 30, 2011
Comments back to authors – December 5, 2011
Revised chapter from authors – January 9, 2012
Copy edits back to authors – March 12, 2012
Edited final version from authors – April 16, 2012