The Lack of Research on Migration to the “Global South”
In Bolivia, immigrants from various destinations have settled during the last century. This is just one example of the considerable and increasing migration to countries of the ‘Global South’. Yet, in public debate as well as in Anglo-Saxon and European migration scholarship, this goes widely unnoticed. Why is there an absence of research on migration to and within such destinations? I argue that this apparent lack reflects several structural issues and questions of power.
Whenever you open a newspaper these days, you might get the impression that everybody tries to come to Central Europe or to North America. Although scientific literature in recent years has questioned such simplifying assumptions, research still tends to focus on migration from the so-called ‘Global South’ to the ‘Global North’. This alleged pull of the ‘Global North’ is often understood as related to the differences in salary, infrastructure and social security systems between the countries of origin and destination.
However, migration is much more diverse with regard to motives and directions than one might think. It affects all countries – both in terms of moving in and moving out. According to data provided by the UN, of 258 million regular international migrants in 2017, 80 million lived in Asia, 25 million in Africa and 10 million in Latin America and the Caribbean. Migration mostly takes place between countries in the same region – as can also be seen in this visualization on global migration flows. In other words, not everybody moves to the ‘Global North’, instead, also the opposite happens.
As a result, one finds much diversity in low- and middle-income countries. One example is Santa Cruz, Bolivia’s largest city with around 1.5 million inhabitants. As one of South America’s poorest countries, it has not attracted as many migrants as its neighbors and jobs in Santa Cruz generally do not come with high salaries. Nevertheless, Germans, French, Croatians, Italians, Spaniards as well as Arabs from what is today Syria and Lebanon arrived to the region at the time of the rubber boom at the beginning of the 20th century. Brazilian farmers and students have become part of Santa Cruz’ cityscape more recently and during my last stay in April 2019, the presence of Venezuelan refugees was notorious. Friends of mine originate from Taiwan, Japan, Peru, France and Switzerland and some have been living in Bolivia for decades. Indian restaurants, Korean churches and supermarkets, German and French schools, Japanese community associations and a Chinese temple are all part of the city’s urban landscape. These migrants’ motives to come to Bolivia are very diverse: some have married a Bolivian while others are ex-volunteers who decided to stay. A few of them were looking for a new start or for specific business opportunities. And some others simply like Bolivia. However, despite this increasing diversity, there is little or no research on these migrants.
Lack of Reliable Statistical Data and Career Constraints
One important reason that there is so little research on migration to Bolivia and other low- and middle-income countries are difficult structural conditions. This might for example mean a lack of reliable quantitative data. In many states, statistical information is inaccurate or inexistent. Researchers may have a difficult time to obtain data or political reasons may lead to a lack of bureaucratic transparency altogether. Moreover, in many countries, public and private research funds are generally not abundant and researchers need side jobs outside academia to make a living. And, when it comes to distributing the scarce funds, migration research is often not a top priority for many governments. Instead, they may have their own political agenda, urging researchers to focus on specific topics or even influencing the published results.
At least some of the above-mentioned constraints also apply to Bolivia. Hence, I could not find much research on (im)migration to this country. However, in the university library catalogue of Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil’s biggest university, the research term “migração” generates thousands of hits related to Chilean, Brazilian and Argentinean migration politics, to the impact of migration on Brazilian salaries as well as to recent Bolivian, Peruvian, Paraguayan and Haitian migration to São Paulo and Belo Horizonte. Thus, research on migration inside Latin America does exist but it is generally written in Spanish or Portuguese. Without translation, it might not reach an audience that does not read these languages. Because English is not the lingua franca in Latin American academia, this may also apply the other way round. And given the predominance of English-speaking journals on the indexes, Anglo-Saxon universities in the ratings etc., contributions in Spanish or other languages are not only not read often in the ‘Global North’, but may be also perceived as less relevant. In other words, rather than a general lack of research, there seems to be a lack of exchange that also reflects constellations of power within the global academic system.
Hence, due to career constraints, even researchers in the ‘Global North’ might fear not to receive funds or not to be published in the most prestigious journals if they chose such a focus because the general interest of most scientific communities is in areas geographically close to them. In the end, the audience in Europe and North America expects to discuss familiar issues.
Why an Exchange of Ideas Would Be Beneficial
I argue that migration researchers in Central Europe and the ‘Global North’ in general should broaden our perspective on the phenomenon of migration and include movements inside or between Asia, Latin America and Africa as well as so-called North-South migration.
This implies that we also take account of research published in languages other than English. Such scholarship can draw our attention to angles, aspects and discourses we were unaware of before. For example, the topic of ‘foreigner integration’ is omnipresent in Switzerland and related to specific understandings and policies. It was interesting for me that in Bolivia, although many forms of migrants’ integration might be seen as desirable, and although a law on integration has existed since 1976, the topic is practically absent from public discourse. As opposed to the rather assimilationist Swiss model of integration, after WWII, around 60,000 Mennonite migrants in Bolivia attained privileges from the state guaranteeing their exemption from military service and compulsory education, which have remained unquestioned. In general, foreigners are rather seen to bring progress to the country. For example, Bolivians often refer to the Japanese agricultural colonies, situated in the country’s lowlands, and its inhabitants as an example to follow.
To conclude, researchers in central Europe would benefit from the exchange with places that function differently. There are many relevant aspects regarding migration outside of Europe and North America, including specific characteristics of such migrants regarding their gender, education and age, or their motives for migration. This might show interesting differences and similarities of how migration is generally approached in the ‘Global North’ but also question perceptions, which are being taken for granted.
Yvonne Siemann is a PhD student at the Department of Ethnology, University of Lucerne, Switzerland. Her PhD research focuses on Japanese descendants in the Bolivian city of Santa Cruz.
