Saara Pirjetta Koikkalainen

The Oligarchic Diffusion of Public Policy Deploying the Mexican “Magic Bullet” to Combat Poverty in New York City

Conditional cash transfer (CCT) policies are characterized as “magic bullets in development.” The New York City (NYC) CCT program, Opportunity NYC, was framed as a policy transfer experiment from Mexico’s Oportunidades. This article shows how Opportunity NYC was used to legitimate Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s power and symbolize his policy efficacy, while its private funding overrode concerns of democratic accountability. The policy rationales that justify CCTs cannot explain why particular models travel across borders, nor how such ideas are globally diffused. The case is discussed in relation to theories on diffusion of public policies and a new type, oligarchic diffusion, is proposed.

Imagining mobility: the prospective cognition question in migration research

ABSTRACT Most migration research is focused on migrant experiences after mobility and settlement. We argue that empirical researchers would benefit from studying how cognitive migration, the narrative imagining of oneself inhabiting a foreign destination prior to the actual physical move, influences migration behaviour. This article notes a gap in our current understanding of the process by which individuals decide to cross international borders and offers an agenda for remedying this. The interdisciplinarity of migration research has not fully extended to social psychology or cognitive social sciences, where a dynamic research agenda has examined human decision-making processes, including prospection and the connections between culture and cognition. The study of socio-cognitive processes in migration decision-making has been largely overlooked because of the after-the-fact nature of data collection and analysis rather than an aversion to these approaches per se. We highlight a number of strategic findings from this diverse field, provide examples of migration scholarship that has benefited from these insights, and raise questions about the sides of migration process that have received insufficient attention. A more nuanced understanding of prospective thinking—imagining potential futures—can shed light on the classic puzzle of why some people move while others in comparable situations do not.

Finnish Highly Skilled Migrants and the European Economic Crisis

Abstract Europe is home to a globally unique area where the barriers of transnational migration have been largely removed. This article focuses on Finnish highly skilled, intra-European migrants and their labour market situation immediately following the economic crisis of 2008. Based on two consecutive online surveys (carried out in spring 2008 and summer 2010) of tertiary educated Finns living in other EU countries, the article examines the effects of the global economic downturn on the careers of these highly skilled migrants. Only 16 per cent of the respondents report that their labour market situation had worsened. A higher percentage (24%) felt that their situation had improved and the majority (54%) had either experienced no change in their situation or stated that their reasons for changing jobs or moving had nothing to do with the crisis. The article concludes that these migrants were protected from the full force of the crisis by their high human capital, flexibility of alternating between studying and work, employment in international workplaces and their intra-European migrant status.

Transnational highly skilled Finnish migrants in Europe: Choosing one's identity

When transnational migration begins to resemble internal mobility, as is the case in the European Union, is there any need for integration into the country of destination, or do intra-European migrants adopt a European identity? This article is based on data collected about highly skilled Finns who have moved within the EU. Most of them continued to form their identity around their country of origin. Nearly 60% of the migrants of the study also identified with Europe, while only one-third identified with their country of residence. The article argues that, for such privileged migrants, the possibility of choice is central to identity formation. Neither the national identity of the new home country nor a European identity per se can substitute the former, more important identity received through socialization. However, moving abroad does have an impact on the ways these migrants ‘do identity’. Adding a dimension of Europeanness to their existing national identity is a way of belonging to a greater collective when the localized identification with the country of residence is not required.

Free Movement and EU Citizenship from the Perspective of Intra-European Mobility

In his kick-off text, Floris de Witte argues that the value of free movement lies in its capacity to emancipate the individual from the nation state, to recalibrate questions of justice and democracy, and to sever ties to a homogenous political ‘community of fate’. My contribution builds on empirical research on intra-European mobility and elaborates on his first claim on emancipation. I offer two factors to support my interpretation of the strong link between free movement and EU citizenship: 1) the development of the very concept of European citizenship is at least partly the result of a longer history of free movement and 2) the concrete advantages of EU citizenship are strongly linked to free movement. I finish with the conclusion that free movement makes the EU real also for those Europeans who have not exercised their right to move.