3 results
6 - Transnational dynamics of family reunification: reassembling social work with refugees in Belgium
- Edited by Emilio José Gómez-Ciriano, Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Elena Cabiati, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milano, Sofia Dedotsi, University of West Attica, Athens
-
- Book:
- Migration and Social Work
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 17 January 2024
- Print publication:
- 16 January 2023, pp 95-111
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
Introduction
Belgium – as most other Western European countries – has become an immigration country in the last decades. One in five Belgian citizens has or was born with a non-Belgian nationality. On a yearly basis, around 140,000 immigrants arrive in Belgium (Myria, 2020). Refugees granted international protection represent about 10 per cent of these immigrants. The increasing numbers of refugees Belgium has been confronted with from 2015 onwards – due to wars in the Middle East and the persecution of people by authoritarian states – have mainly led to policy initiatives aimed at asylum reception and integration, while support for maintaining family ties across borders and support during the process of family reunification has received far less political attention. Family reunification is for refugees and other migrants, however, the most important legal ground for migration to Belgium: 42 per cent of migrants from non-EU countries and 27 per cent of EU citizens migrating to Belgium obtained their first residence permit on the basis of family reunification. In total this concerned 35,169 people in 2018 (Myria, 2019). Within the group of non-Europeans, 2,722 people had received an approval for family reunification with someone with refugee status (Myria, 2018).
Family reunification is a unique process within the migration processes, as it concerns ‘not only “outsiders knocking at a state's doors and requesting entry” but also the “moral claim of insiders”, people living within state borders who ask to be united with their family’ (Block, 2012: 37). Notwithstanding the right to family life inscribed in Article 16 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, in Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights and in Article 22 of the Belgian Constitution, family reunification is subject to a policy of problematisation and suspicion. The association with ‘fraudulent marriages’ and possible fraud involving papers, ages or relational ties has become standard. Wray (2006: 303) calls this ‘moral gatekeeping’, which contributes to the image of ‘the undesirable family migrant’.
In general, the political discourse on migration is often very negative. Migration is framed by some as a danger; a threat from the outside for the ‘body of the nation’ (Schrooten et al, 2016). Numbers are thereby enlarged and exaggerated to create an image of massive influx. Moreover, refugee immigration is coupled with unprecedented problematisations of Islam – including an association with terrorism – and widespread populism (Lucassen, 2018).
Hidden Homelessness: A Scoping Review and Avenues for Further Inquiry
- Harm Deleu, Mieke Schrooten, Koen Hermans
-
- Journal:
- Social Policy and Society / Volume 22 / Issue 2 / April 2023
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 21 September 2021, pp. 282-298
- Print publication:
- April 2023
-
- Article
- Export citation
-
Traditional interpretations of homelessness focus on people living on the streets or in shelters. However, homelessness encompasses many more living situations. This article reports on a scoping review of studies on hidden homelessness. A systematic search in scientific databanks was combined with an exploration of Google Scholar. The results of the review reveal a lack of consensus regarding the definition of the concept. Moreover, since most studies focus on a certain subgroup in the population, it is hard to compare profile characteristics of people living in different forms of homelessness. The applied research methods prove to be valuable, although they often underestimate the number and/or character of the phenomena. Very little longitudinal research on hidden homelessness seems to be available. Based on the findings of the scoping review, the article draws up an agenda for further research in order to capture the complex reality of contemporary forms of homelessness.
Chapter Five - Transmigration: The Rise of Flexible Migration Strategies as Part of Superdiversity
- Edited by Jenny Phillimore, University of Birmingham, Nando Sigona, Katherine Tonkiss, Aston University
-
- Book:
- Superdiversity, Policy and Governance in Europe
- Published by:
- Bristol University Press
- Published online:
- 04 March 2021
- Print publication:
- 21 October 2020, pp 100-121
-
- Chapter
- Export citation
-
Summary
Introduction
In the last decades, several concepts have been put forward to capture the shape and impact of demographic changes in western societies as a consequence of human mobility. Changes in these concepts reflected changing views and understandings of this new reality. Thus, the concept of multiculturalism has been gradually replaced by the concept of (super) diversity (Vertovec, 2007; Meissner and Vertovec, 2014; Boccagni, 2015b; Geldof, 2016). Moreover, within social sciences, views on the process of human movement itself have evolved: originally, migration was understood as a unidirectional, purposeful and intentional process from one state of fixity (in the place of origin) to another (in the destination country). However, this is not the pattern most newcomers in Europe today follow. Increasingly, people accumulate – by choice or by necessity – multiple mobilities and different trajectories; they become transmigrants (Schrooten et al, 2016b). In our research, transmigration is understood as a form of mobility that implies serial cross-border mobility, either between two countries or more, as is the case with complex migration trajectories (Schrooten et al, 2016c). More recent scientific insights explicitly point to the importance of these ‘multiple, overlapping and turbulent processes of migration, dislocation, displacement, disjuncture and dialogism’ (Urry, 2007, 35), emphasising the co-existence of many different forms of movement, ranging from shortterm temporary movements to permanent migration.
The impact of these complex forms of mobility and diversity has also been described in social work literature. In general, social work researchers argue that social work practices are not yet fully equipped to deal with a clientele presenting an increasing diversity regarding ethnicity, religion, language and immigration status (Furman et al, 2010; Phillimore, 2015; Furman et al, 2016). Social workers are often unfamiliar with these complexities inherent to superdiversity, and may reproduce one-dimensional and reductionist frames of reference, reducing the social problems with which they are confronted to mere ethnicity or culture (Boccagni, 2015a). Social welfare policies and practices may thus contribute to the structural exclusion of newcomers, as they are, for instance, not equipped to deal with multilingualism and exclude people with particular immigration statuses from certain rights or welfare allocations.
![](/core/cambridge-core/public/images/lazy-loader.gif)