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RESEARCH PRODUCT
Overcoming the crisis : the changing profile and trajectories of Latvian migrants
David MccollumMaris BerzinsZaiga KrisjaneElina Apsite-berinasubject
Economic crisismedia_common.quotation_subject0507 social and economic geographyWageNDASContext (language use)GF Human ecology. AnthropogeographyEmigrationPoliticsHH Social SciencesArts and Humanities (miscellaneous)050602 political science & public administrationEconomicsLabour migrationDemographymedia_common05 social sciencesLatvianSDG 10 - Reduced InequalitiesLatviaGFlanguage.human_language0506 political scienceEmigrationEffects of the Great RecessionWestern europelanguageOnline surveyDemographic economics050703 geographyDemographydescription
The work was funded by the National Research Programme [grant number 5.2.4] and the Latvian Council of Sciences [grant number 514/2012]. Taking mobility between Latvia and Western Europe as an empirical lens, this analysis explores the complex relationship between spatial disparities in earning potential and migration. The very dramatic shifts in the economic and political context against which migration from Latvia has occurred over the period 2004-2012 make it an especially apposite focus of research investigating the link between mobility and labour market circumstances. As an analytical starting point, conventional economic theory broadly explains the movement of workers from lower to higher wage regions. However this investigation seeks to contribute to understandings of the economic drivers of migration through consideration of the effects of the Great Recession on not only the volume of flows from Latvia to higher wage economies elsewhere in Europe, but also on the characteristics of the migrants themselves and of the processes that produce their mobility. This is undertaken through analysis of a large scale online survey of Latvian emigrants in five European countries. The findings point towards the Great Recession creating a distinctive cohort of reluctant ‘crisis migrants’. Analytically the quantitative and qualitative attributes of this new phase of mobility raise a number of conceptually significant questions about understandings of the economy – migration nexus. Postprint Peer reviewed
| year | journal | country | edition | language |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016-09-19 |