Society and Culture Aims

http://www.springerlink.com/content/?k=sociology+-+crime+and+agency

How does structure and agency explain migration?    

The aspects of migration could be seen in terms of the causes for migration whether mandatory or voluntary Also aspects like how economic factors or structure could possibly impact migration.

 “one should stress that migration policies have important implications in terms of ethics, human rights or global justice and cannot therefore be solely guided by economic concerns.” (Global Commission on International Migration : 2005: Global migration perspectives :

( 2005 ) Migration without borders: an investigation into the free movement of people

The limits of the economic approach : P 12 ) : http://www.gcim.org/attachements/GMP%20No%2027.pdf

Seen from the macro angle, it refers to the social group’s views on migration , whereas in the micro aspect, it deals with a person’s exercise of individual choice to move from one place to another, or from one country to another. In both these aspects, macro and micro, underlying motivators need to be present, to facilitate migration. On the one hand, it could be for better prospects or it could be refugees fleeing from war sites or due to fear of genocide.

Migration could also be seen in the context of temporary or permanent depending upon factors that impinge upon it (Olof Stjernström, Theory and migration: Towards a framework of migration and human actions :Cybergeo,  2007 :URL : http://www.cybergeo.eu/index3827.html.

The nexus between time and space could be seen as the contributory factor for migration. It has also been seen that the social landscape is changing and this creates new changes for human migration for economic and other betterment. There could be many reasons for migration and the aspects of structure and agency are also valid. In terms of structure, it is seen that social groups or communities would need to migrate for avoid natural calamities or to avoid war, genocide or persecution. . 

Coming to the agency part, when the micro aspects are concerned, an individual is capable of taking his own decisions, and society need to consider it- his migration from one place to other, or transnational migration from one country or continent to another, could be viewed in the social context as a natural phenomena, made perforce, by circumstances and economic considerations.