Researching Current Migration. A Case for Theoretical and Methodological Eclecticism

Seminar paper from the year 2021 in the subject African Studies - Miscellaneous, University of Botswana (University of Botswana), course: Sociology, language: English, abstract: Migration has been evolving over the years in terms of its causes, scale, dynamics, and consequences. This evolution presents challenges for both its research and theorizing. Traditionally, migration was conceptualized as a unidirectional process involving people changing places of residence-moving from a place of origin to a place of destination, either permanently or semi-permanently. Economic factors were given prominence as both "pull" and "push" factors. People were seen to be pulled toward places of destination by better economic prospects than those available in their places of origin. In the same vein, people were viewed as being pushed from their places of origin by harsh socio-economic and political factors. Once in their places of destination, the focus of migration theorists and researchers was largely on the integration of migrants into their new environments. Contemporary trends in migration, such as transnationalism, irregular migration, feminization, child migration, and its non-linearity, call for eclecticism in both theorizing and research. This paper examines how the transnationalization of migration requires a multi-paradigmatic and multi-method approach to capture the lived experiences of migrants. Transnationalism presents particular challenges to the traditional conceptualization, operationalization, and measurement of migration, as researchers attempt to understand transnational experiences such as multiple involvements and exclusions, cultural hybridization, and identity formation.