Darren P. Smith

A Cross-National Comparison of the Impact of Family Migration on Women's Employment Status

In this paper we consider the effects of family migration on women’s employment status, using census microdata from Great Britain and the United States. We test a simple hypothesis that families tend to move long distances in favor of the male’s career and that this can have a detrimental effect on women’s employment status. Unlike many previous studies of this question, our work emphasizes the importance of identifying couples that have migrated together, rather than simply comparing long-distance (fe)male migrants with nonmigrant (fe)males individually. We demonstrate that women’s employment status is harmed by family migration; the results we present are surprisingly consistent for Great Britain and the United States, despite differing economic situations and cultural norms regarding gender and migration. We also demonstrate that studies that fail to identify linked migrant couples are likely to underestimate the negative effects of family migration on women’s employment status.

Studentification and ‘Apprentice’ Gentrifiers within Britain's Provincial Towns and Cities: Extending the Meaning of Gentrification

This paper focuses on processes of studentification, and explores the link between higher education students and contemporary provincial gentrification. The paper provides two main, interconnected, contributions to advance debates on gentrification. First, the discussion appeals for wider temporal analyses of the lifecourses of gentrifiers to trace the formation and reconfiguration of the cultural and residential predilections of gentrifiers across time and space. With this in mind, it is argued that there is a need to rethink the role of students within the constraints of third-wave gentrification, and to consider how ‘student experiences’ may influence the current and future residential geographies of young gentrifiers within provincial urban locations. Drawing upon recent studies of studentification, it is asserted that this profound expression of urban change is indicative of gentrification. Second, the paper advances Clarks recent call to extend the term gentrification to embrace the wider dominant hallmarks and tendencies of urban transformations. Controversially, in light of a deepening institutionalisation of gentrification, we contend that gentrification can be most effectively employed at a revised conceptual level to act as a referent of the common outcomes of a breadth of processes of change.

Socio-cultural representations of greentrified Pennine rurality

This paper examines the processes of change in two ‘rural’ environs of Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire, associated with the in-migration and consumption practices of relatively affluent households. In doing so, we address the knowledge gap identified by Phillips (J. Rural Studies 9 (1993) 123) relating to the gentrification of rural locations. The term ‘rural greentrification’ is suggested to emphasise the varying cultural predilections of in-migrant households in the consumption of ‘green’ spaces. More specifically, a geography of greentrification is identified in the locale, which encompasses two socio-spatial relationships: ‘village’and ‘remote’. These are interpreted as distinct constructions of rural ‘habitus’ and thus exemplify the significance of Hebden Bridge as a special place, where the multiple appeals and meanings of different representations of greentrified Pennine rurality enable cultural and social differentiation. The findings reaffirm the value of viewing the rural as a socio-cultural construct, tied to place and time, which is specific to individuals and social groups.

Gender inequality in employment status following family migration in GB and the US: the effect of relative occupational status

Presents the findings of a study of long distance migrations for employment opportunities in both the US and the UK. Compares the cross‐national differences between the two countries and tries to investigate the effects of the relative resources of the partner in their subsequent search for employment. Attempts to discover any gender differences based upon occupational status. Evaluates the similarity and differences between the countries.

An 'untied' research agenda for family migration; loosening the 'shackles' of the past

This paper focuses on recent methodological and theoretical developments associated with studies of long‐distance family migration. The starting point for the discussion is that previous quantitative‐based studies have over‐privileged economic‐related outcomes, and masked the underlying social and cultural decision‐making processes of family migrants. Emphasising the perceived merits of qualitative frameworks to tease out the ‘non‐economic’ dimensions of family migration, the paper identifies two issues of concern. First, some current under‐researched themes of family migration are illuminated, and an unfolding research agenda for qualitative studies of family migration is outlined. It is contended that this provides a useful entrée to future research activities. Second, and with this in mind, the paper stresses the need for more sophisticated analyses of the human agency of family migrants. Therefore, and building upon Halfacree’s thesis of the intentional/unintentional agency of family migrants, an adaptation of Giddens’ stratification model of action is presented. It is argued that this will allow a more structurationist reading of family migration decision‐making processes, and a fuller understanding of non‐economic processes and outcomes. Finally, the paper stresses the complementarity between qualitative and quantitative methods, and calls for the utilisation of mixed‐method research designs for studies of family migration.

The Effect of Long-Distance Family Migration and Motherhood on Partnered Women's Labour-Market Activity Rates in Great Britain and the USA

Many studies of long-distance family migration demonstrate that female partners are often disenfranchised in the labour market. One factor that has not been fully considered is the role of children. Heterosexual couples may be more likely to migrate in favour of the male ‘breadwinners’ career if the couple have children, or are planning to commence childrearing in the foreseeable future. However, little work seems to have examined this empirically. The authors focus on the influence of ‘motherhood’ in different national contexts, using comparable census microdata for Great Britain and the United States. They test whether apparent ‘tied migration’ effects may in fact be influenced by family decisions related to childbearing/childrearing, and two sets of modelling results are provided. First, they examine whether the effects of long-distance family migration on womens labour-market status is influenced by the presence or absence of children of different ages. Second, they conduct the same analysis for women who have a high-status occupation. The results demonstrate that women in families with young children are most likely to be out of employment after family migration. A smaller, but similar, tied-migration effect exists for families with older children and families with no children. The same pattern exists for women in high-status occupations. Tied migration appears to influence womens labour-market status equally in Great Britain and the United States, regardless of the presence or absence of children.

Cultures of mixing: understanding partnerships across ethnicity

This article presents an extensive analysis of ‘cultures of mixing’―that is, relationships between partners from different ethnic backgrounds―based on 2001 British census data. The data is used to show how ‘mixed’ partnerships are relevant to aspects of current debates about the nature of ethnic relations in contemporary Britain. We begin with a discussion of dominant stereotypes around mixed race/ethnicity partnerships in Britain and their links to dystopian visions of majority and minority ethnic relations, before looking at frameworks of understanding that offer a challenge to these gloomy diagnoses, and in particular the concept of ‘convivial culture’. This discussion is followed by an analysis of the location and socio-economic characteristics of ‘cultures of mixing’. We argue that ‘cultures of mixing’ are spatially and socially uneven, and appear to be underpinned by more material and equity-based features of social life and provision.

Geographies of long-distance family migration: Moving to a ‘spatial turn’

Complex and uneven family geographies, and divisions between ‘family-absent’ and ‘family-dominated’ neighbourhoods, are emerging. A factor is processes of internal, long-distance family migration. To understand the linkages, theories of space and place need to be brought to the forefront of family migration scholarship. This is essential to integrate the effects of the geographic contingences of places of origin and destination, identifying how different gender, social class, sexuality and other relations are reconstituted and reproduced by family migration. Cooke’s (2008) proposal for the family to be effectively theorized within family migration needs to be extended to include a spatial turn.

The regional migration of young adults in England and Wales (2002–2008): a ‘conveyor-belt’ of population redistribution?

This paper calls for a more encompassing perspective of the regional migration patterns of young adults (16–24), extending studies of labour-motivated graduate migration. It is argued the long-distance movement(s) of young adults per se is a leading constituent of demographic and population changes in society; emphasising the connections between youthful stages of the lifecourse and high levels of population mobility that include students, graduates and other subgroups. Using revised National Health Service Central Record data to interrogate regional migration flows in England and Wales (2002–2008), our descriptive analyses reveal three key findings. First, it is shown that young adults are increasing as a proportion of regional migrants; reaffirming academic representations of young adults as a highly mobile age group. Second, it is identified that migration flows decreased for age groups between 2002 and 2008, with the notable exception of 16–24-year-olds. This suggests that young adults do not adhere to the increasing trend of non-migration, as individuals and households increasingly ‘stay-put’ due to detrimental socio-economic conditions (Cooke, T. J. 2011. “It is not Just the Economy: Declining Migration and the Rise of Secular Rootedness.” Population, Space and Place 17: 193–203). Third, major regional differences between the migration flows of 16–24-year-olds are observed, which beg questions about the escalator regions. The findings of the paper are pertinent to ongoing debates of population change, particularly given the reconfiguration of national policies (e.g. funding of higher education and housing benefit) is leading to new expressions of young adult migration.

New-build Studentification: A Panacea for Balanced Communities?

Rising concern about the negative impacts of students on ‘host communities’ has triggered debates about the consequences of studentification in the UK. For some commentators, purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) appears the panacea for studentification, as it offers the potential to reintroduce balance to studentified communities by redistributing student populations in regulated ways. This paper explores this contention, drawing upon focus groups and household surveys conducted in the vicinity of a PBSA development in Brighton, UK. The paper concludes that the location of this development in a densely populated neighbourhood has engendered adverse student/community relations, conflict, feelings of dispossession and displacement of established local residents. It is asserted that future developments of PBSA should be mindful of these issues and their implications for questions of community cohesion, quality-of-life and belonging in established residential communities. These findings are discussed in relation to debates of age differentials, segregation and new-build gentrification.