Full Description
This book complements abundant research about immigrants by contributing novel data, knowledge, and theories about potential immigrants-those who might have immigrated but did not despite the benefits of migration to immigrants and origin and destination societies. The text examines three mechanisms that reduce or restrict immigration-governments denying visas, policies and social forces deterring many from applying for visas, and potential immigrants becoming disenchanted with immigration. Jacob expands the Push-Pull Model to a Push-Retain-Pull-Repel Model that accounts for why many remain ambivalently immobile. Narratives of might-have-been-immigrants reveal an (im)mobility paradox: factors facilitating migration-socio-economic resources and social ties-also hinder it. The book analyses denial, deterrence, and disenchantment from the perspective of countless people who do not immigrate due to one of these processes, revealing how they are socio-economically stratified with respect to each other and immigrants. This provokes a deeper, more global understanding of inequalities in migratory opportunities.
Contents
1. Introduction: a specter of might-have-been-immigrants haunts international migration; Part I. Denial: 2. What ties individuals to a society?: how (Im)mobility capital stratifies international movement; 3. How the strategic presentation of the non-immigrant self undermines the non-immigrant/immigrant binary; Part II. Deterrence: 4. The gendered ways familial ties reduce international migration and mobility; 5. not settled enough to be internationally mobile: how deadlines in the life course schedule deter potential migrants; Part III. Disenchantment: 6. Disenchanted with the immigrant's dream: the gradual sociological formation of ex-immigrant subjectivity; 7. "I wanted to immigrate until ________": what type of sudden shocks end immigration projects?; 8. What we gain from more knowledge about denial, deterrence and disenchantment and those who never immigrate; Methodological appendix; Bibliography.
