Characteristics of Temporary Migration in European-Asian Transnational Social Spaces

This book focuses on the experiences of temporary movements between Asia and Europe from the perspective of migrants and mobile people. It raises important questions such as: Why do people migrate on a temporary basis and what does this actually mean? How are these trajectories shaped? What are the implications of temporary moves for migrants and non-migrants? And how are transnational ties and practices characterized in the context of temporary migration? 

By shedding light on the practices and experiences of individual migrants, the book provides useful insights into understanding the challenges arising in an increasingly interconnected and mobile world. The chapters indicate that temporary migratory movements are on the rise: on the one hand on a voluntary basis such as reflected in labour migration, lifestyle migration and international student mobility, and on the other hand in an involuntary way as expressed in different forms of forced migration. Either way, temporary migration has diverse political. legal, economic, social and cultural implications, including the emergence of novel transnational networks and practices.

The book is based on the findings of the international research project Transnational Migration in Transition: Transformative Characteristics of Temporary Mobility of People (EURA-NET), funded by the European Union’s 7th Framework Programme for period 2014-2017. 

Dr. Pirkko Pitkänen is Professor of Educational Policy and Multicultural Education and Research Manager of the Research Centre on Transnationalism and Transformation (TRANSIT) (www.uta.fi/transit) at the University of Tampere, Finland. Her areas of expertise include transnational migration, cross-cultural work and multicultural training. Professor Pitkänen has extensive experience of leading large-scale international and national research projects. These include five EU Framework Projects (FP3; FP5; FP7; Horizon 2020). She has published widely in national and international fields. Among her international publications are, Pitkänen, P., İçduygu, A. & Sert, D. (eds. 2012) Migration and Transformation: Multi-Level Analysis of Migrant Transnationalism (Springer); Pitkänen, P., et al. (eds. 2002) Education and Immigration: Settlement Policies and Current Challenges (RoutledgeFalmer); and Pitkänen, P. & Kalekin-Fishman, D. (eds. 2007) Multiple State Membership and Citizenship in the Era of Transnational Migration (Sense Publishers).

Dr. Mari Korpela is senior research fellow at the University of Tampere, Finland, and she has a PhD is social anthropology. Dr. Korpela has conducted extensive ethnographic research among Western lifestyle migrants in India. Her research interests include anthropology of childhood, 'third culture kids', lifestyle migration, transnational communities, countercultures, gender and travel, temporary migration and ethnographic research methods. She has been a visiting scholar at the Sussex Centre for Migration Research, UK. Dr. Korpela has published in both national and international journals and authored several book chapters for international edited volumes. Her publications also include the book Korpela, M. & Dervin F. (eds. 2013) Cocoon Communities. Togetherness in the 21st Century (Cambridge Scholars Publishing).

Dr. Mustafa Aksakal is a senior researcher at Bielefeld University, Germany, and he has a PhD in sociology and development studies. Currently, he is involved in various international and national research projects. His research is concerned with temporary transnational migration between Asia and the EU, with youth mobility within the EU, Indian professionals’ and students’ mobility and the integration into the German labour market and society. In these research fields, he has published a number of journal articles and book chapters on various methodological, conceptual and empirical questions. He also teaches on migration, education, development and climate change at Bielefeld University.

Dr. Kerstin Schmidt is a senior researcher at the Faculty of Sociology at Bielefeld University, Germany. She holds a PhD in migration studies (human geography) from the University of Sussex, UK. Her research and teaching interests include the transnational perspective on migration, current developments of migration and mobility to Germany and related policies, migration and international development, the social dimensions of global environmental change (GEC), and GEC governance. She is currently involved in several research projects on temporary migration, youth mobility as well as the mobility of highly-skilled migrants. She has published on different methodological and conceptual aspects of migration and mobility as well as on her empirical findings. She is also co-editing the book series Politics, Community and Society in a Globalized World by LIT Academic Publishing.