Abstract

Research on migration’s internal dynamics has focused on labour migration and drawn heavily on cumulative causation theory. It is often believed that pioneer labour migrants of middling socioeconomic selectivity facilitate the migration of others in their networks by reducing the costs and risks of migration through practical assistance. Expanding migrant networks can allow for labour migration to grow although macrostructural conditions change. For asylum migration in the context of armed conflict, the mechanisms whereby migration grows may very well differ. For one thing, pioneer asylum migrants in such contexts are often social elites. What is the relationship between the movement of these elites and that of subsequent asylum migrants? This article traces the evolution of Iraqi Kurdish asylum migration to Europe from its inception by elite pioneer migrants to its continuation by non-elites, during four decades of altered contextual conditions. The analysis is based on 106 semi-structured interviews with Iraqi Kurdish migrants. An evolving interplay between exogenous and endogenous dynamics is observed, and so are commonalities with the social processes that underpin labour migration. The basic principles of cumulative causation seem to be operating, yet there is little to indicate that established migrants functioned as ‘bridgeheads’ for newcomers. The empirical analysis feeds into a concluding conceptual discussion in which I argue that, compared to labour migration, asylum migration from conflict-affected areas may be relatively less driven by the interpersonal networks that reduce costs and risks, and relatively more driven by what the article coins ‘emulation’, the observational learning of migration.

中文翻译：

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精英和模拟器：伊拉克库尔德人向欧洲庇护的演变

摘要

关于移民内部动态的研究主要集中在劳动力移民上，并大量借鉴了累积因果关系理论。人们通常认为，具有中等社会经济选择性的先锋劳动力移民通过实际援助降低了移民的成本和风险，从而促进了其网络中其他人的移民。尽管宏观结构条件发生了变化，但扩大的移民网络可以使劳动力移民增加。对于在武装冲突情况下的庇护移民，移民增长的机制可能非常不同。一方面，在这种情况下，先驱避难者往往是社会精英。这些精英的运动与随后的庇护移民的运动之间有什么关系？本文追溯了伊拉克库尔德人庇护向欧洲迁移的演变过程，从四十年来不断变化的环境条件，从最初的精英先驱移民到非精英阶层的延续。该分析基于对伊拉克库尔德移民的106次半结构化访谈。观察到外源动力和内源动力之间不断发展的相互作用，以及与支撑劳动力迁移的社会过程的共性。累积因果关系的基本原理似乎在起作用，但几乎没有迹象表明已建立的移民是新移民的“桥头堡”。实证分析进入了结论性概念讨论，我认为与劳动力移民相比，