Glossary

A migrant is in a situation of illegal entry into the territory of a country if he or she moves outside the legal conditions set by national regulations. Especially Senegalese media have used this term in recent years following the repatriation of irregular migrants to Spain. It is important to point out that ‘illegal’ does not mean ‘illegitimate.’ An act could be illegal under the law which, however, could be contested in courts or could have mitigating circumstances. For example, killing someone may be illegal under the law but self-defence could be presented as a legitimate reason. Similarly crossing the borders of a country without permission is illegal but a person may cross the border to seek asylum for the legitimate reasons of being persecuted in their country of origin.

⇢ see also: Asylum; Asylum seeker, Irregular migration, Migrant, Refugee

References and further reading:

Tandian, Aly. 2020. “Profils de Sénégalais candidats à la migration : des obsessions aux désillusions.” In Revue africaine des migrations internationales. 2020: 2–22.

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[AT / MM]

 

Inclusion is a societal approach that values and appreciates diversity by seeking to create “equal rights and opportunities” for every individual, independent of their national, cultural, ethnic, or religious background (ECRI 2021, n. p.). To achieve this aim, citizens, governments, and local authorities have to work together to create “conditions which enable the full and active participation of every member of society” (ECRI 2021, n. p.). An inclusive society is the prerequisite for successful integration of migrants in destination countries.

⇢ see also: Diversity, Integration, Welcome culture

References and further reading:

European Commission against Racism and Intolerance. 2021. Integration and Inclusion. URL: https://www.coe.int/en/web/european-commission-against-racism-and-intolerance/integration-and-inclusion.

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Inequality – the opposite of equality (see the entry on “equality”) – is about differences between people in terms of their legal, social, cultural, and economic rights, as well as their differences in access to and ownership of assets (e.g., land, capital, and housing), that reflect the socio-economic characteristics of a country. Reasons for the unequal treatment of a specific group in a country can be their race, gender, ethnic background, geographic origin, socio-economic background, migrant status, etc.

Discrimination against migrants in employment, pay, allocation of housing, etc. can lead to their lower social and economic status and create a socio-economic gap between citizens and migrants over their lifetime. It is, however, important to note that such discriminations happen to a large degree on account of racial, cultural, and religious differences that migrants share with the native-born population of similar race, culture, and religion (Messkoub 2005). Access to and integration into the labor market is one of the most important paths to the integration of migrants and to reducing the inequality between them and the local population (Federico and Baglioni 2021).

Migration status is also an important ground for differences in social rights in any country. The right to vote and stand for public office in elections are usually reserved for nationals; at the same time, the right to work, attend school, own property, set up a business, etc. varies across countries and depends on each country’s specific laws regarding different types of immigrants in an escalating degree of integration. While residency rights may qualify an immigrant to work and own property and give them the right to vote in local elections, the right to vote in national elections is reserved exclusively for nationals. These rights can also affect the children of immigrants even if they are born in the immigration country, depending on whether the nationality laws are jus sanguinis (i.e., through ‘blood,’ parents, or ancestors) or jus soli (i.e., through ‘land,’ or rather the status of having been born in the country). Citizenship based on jus soli offers the offspring of immigrants a clear and speedy path to equality with other native-born populations.

For further discussion of inequality, see the explanation provided by Social Europe. For a discussion of inequality in different settings (e.g., economic, social, gender), see the information provided by the OECD.

⇢ see also Discrimination, Gender

References and further reading:

Federico, Veronica, and Baglioni, Simone, eds. 2021. Migrants, Refugees and Asylum Seekers’ Integration in European Labour Markets: A Comparative Approach on Legal Barriers and Enablers. Cham: Springer.

Messkoub, Mahmood. 2005. “Migrants in the European Union: Welfare in Old Age.” Public Finance Management 5.2: 269–289.

OECD. 2021. “Inequality.” OECD. URL: https://www.oecd.org/social/inequality.html. Date of access: August 24, 2021.

Social Europe. 2021. “What is inequality?” Social Europe. URL: https://socialeurope.eu/focus/what-is-inequality. Date of access: August 24, 2021.

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Without the use of any modifier, integration is a mode of migrant incorporation which requires migrants’ adherence to the legal and political framework of the host community and their identification with the common culture of citizenship. Ethnic and/or cultural differences are relegated to the private realm. It differs from assimilation in that migrants are not required to renounce their particular national, ethnic, religious or cultural identities and to conform to the culture of the majority community in order to belong. Given that both assimilation and integration focus on the individual, they do not facilitate the recognition of groups and the importance of diversity and cultural pluralism in society. Accordingly, integration policies, and the demands made by states for (better) integration of migrants, often fall short of treating migrants as full members of, and equal participants, in the community.

⇢ see also: Inclusion, Solidarity (with migrants), Welcome culture

References and further reading:

Castles, Stephen and Davidson, Alastair. 2000. Citizenship and Migration: Globalisation and the Politics of Belonging. Basingstoke: Macmillan Press.

Kostakopoulou, Dora. 2010. "The Anatomy of Civic Integration." In Modern Law Review. 7.36: 933–958

Kostakopoulou, Dora. 2002. “Integrating’ Non-EU Migrants in the European Union: Ambivalent Legacies and Mutating Paradigms.” In Columbia Journal of European Law. 8.2: 1–21.

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Intercultural understanding is a philosophical concept grounded in hermeneutics. It refers to a person’s ability and willingness to acknowledge, appreciate, and overcome cultural differences in cross-cultural encounters. The prerequisite for intercultural understanding is an “‘intercultural mind” (Sommer 2013), i.e., a mindset which challenges racism, ethnocentric worldviews, and stereotypical representations. Based on the principles of empathy, perspective taking, and recognition, intercultural understanding advocates intercultural dialogue and multiperspectivity in contact zones, multicultural contexts, or other cross-cultural encounters.

⇢ see also: Empathy, Multiperspectivity, Perspective taking, Recognition

References and further reading:

European Commission. 2020. "Intercultural Dialogue." European Migration Network Glossary. URL: https://home-affairs.ec.europa.eu/networks/european-migration-network-emn/emn-asylum-and-migration-glossary/glossary/intercultural-dialogue_en.

Sommer, Roy. 2013. “Other Stories, Other Minds: The Intercultural Potential of Cognitive Approaches to Narrative.” In Stories and Minds: Cognitive Approaches to Literary Narrative, edited by Lars Bernaerts, Dirk De Geest, Luc Herman, and Bart Vervaeck, 155–174. Lincoln, NE and London: University of Nebraska Press.

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[CG / RS]

 

Intermedia agenda setting is a term that historically refers to the extent to which certain media determine the topics about which other media publish. These media are then the opinion leaders. The media that follow other media do so for economic reasons, because it is too expensive for them to track down the news themselves, or for socio-psychological reasons, because certain media perceive other media as guiding them. For example, Raymond Harder, Julie Sevenans, and Peter Van Aelst (2017) point out that, historically, newspapers such as The New York Times or The Washington Post from America had this guiding role. In today’s media landscape with 24/7 news, the patterns through which media influence each other become more complex and intermedia agenda setting is more difficult to trace.

⇢ see also Frame analysis (aka framing analysis)

References and further reading:

Budak, Ceren, Nathalie Jomini Stroud, Ashley Muddiman, Caroline Murray, and Yuyin Kim. 2023. “The Stability of Cable and Broadcast News Intermedia Agenda Setting Across the COVID-19 Issue Attention Cycle.” In Political Communication: 1–21. DOI: 10.1080/10584609.2023.2222382. Date of access: September 8, 2023.

Harder, Raymond, Julie Sevenans, and Peter van Aelst. 2017. “Intermedia Agenda-Setting in the Social Media Age: How Traditional Players Dominate the News Agenda in Election Times.” In International Journal of Press/Politics 22: 275–293.

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[DC / LH / SM]

 

Successful migration requires not only strong motivation, access to financial resources, and some luck but also sufficient know-how, including interpersonal skills, language skills, crosscultural skills (important for negotiations with stakeholders, accessing social networks, etc.), technical skills, and competencies (for accessing labor markets at destination), information about regular and irregular options for migration, as well as geographic, cultural and legal knowledge, psychological resources and a high degree of resilience.

⇢ see also: Migration

References and further reading:

Tandian, Aly, and Tall, Serigne Mansour 2010. Regards sur la migration irrégulière des Sénégalais : vouloir faire fortune en Europe avec des pirogues de fortune [Technical Report, Migration Policy Centre]. CARIM Analytic and Synthetic Notes 2010/50. URL: https://cadmus.eui.eu/handle/1814/14405.

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Knowledge by acquaintance is knowledge based on direct interaction with an object or a situation; the term was coined by Bertrand Russell (1910–1911). The Cross Talk format developed in OPPORTUNITIES aims to facilitate encounters between migrants, citizens, and other stakeholders and is designed to thus shift public perceptions of migration from knowledge by description to knowledge by acquaintance. 

⇢ see also Cross Talk

References and further reading:

Russell, Bertrand. 1910–1911. “Knowledge by Acquaintance and Knowledge by Description.” In Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society. 11: 108–128.

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Work Package: 2, 3, 6, 7

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The term Kollektiverzählung (‘collective narrative’), introduced to narrative theory by Roy Sommer (2009, 2017), describes the narrative construction of an “imagined community” (Anderson 2006 [1983]). While the term originally applied to nations, it can also be used to describe other communities whose coherence relies on some kind of unifying vision or narrative – from football fans to corporate cultures or diasporic communities. In this sense, an imagined community is always also a “narrative community” (Müller-Funk 2012) defined by a set of shared and shareable stories. The analysis of collective narratives can focus on the processual dimension of narrative construction or the result of that process (the German composite noun perfectly captures this semantic indeterminacy), some kind of narrative identity which may also inform, in sociological terminology, an in-group’s attitudes towards out-groups. Narrative identities created through collective storytelling include antagonistic notions of self vs. other or ‘us’ vs. ‘them’ as well as inclusive concepts foregrounding narrative bonding. A collective narrative can also be viewed as an ensemble of stories or narrative templates which all members of a narrative community recognize as representative or constitutive of their shared experience.

Examples of inclusive narrative communities based on a shared collective narrative are diasporas whose constitutive stories typically revolve around migration, generations, cultural traditions, experiences of racism and rejection, or conviviality and inclusion. Examples of exclusive narrative communities are nationalist discourses which reject cultural hybridity or multiculturalism in favor of ethnic homogeneity and shared traditions. Inclusive and exclusive collective narratives are often engaged in counter-narrative dynamics.

⇢ see also Anti-racism, Conviviality, Diaspora, Frames of migration, Othering, Racism

References and further reading:

Anderson, Benedict. 2006 [1983]. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. Revised edition. New York, NY and London: Verso.

Müller-Funk, Wolfgang. 2012. The Architecture of Modern Culture: Towards a Narrative Cultural Theory. Berlin and New York, NY: De Gruyter.

Sommer, Roy. 2009. “Kollektiverzählungen: Definition, Fallbeispiele und Erklärungsansätze.” In Wirklichkeitserzählungen: Felder, Formen und Funktionen nicht-literarischen Erzählens, edited by Christian Klein and Matías Martínez, 229–244. Stuttgart: Metzler.

Sommer, Roy. 2017. “Kollektiverzählungen: Wie narrative Wirklichkeitsentwürfe gesellschaftlich wirksam werden.” In Liechtenstein erzählen 1: Demokratische Momente, edited by Roman Banzer, Hansjörg Quaderer, and Roy Sommer, 213–235. Zurich: Limmat Verlag.

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The term labor migration refers to migration that is carried out for employment purposes. States such as Senegal have instituted specific regulation of immigration for employment purposes. Some states of origin play an active role in regulating labor migration and seeking employment opportunities abroad for their nationals.

⇢ see also Brain drain, Migration

References and further reading:

Tandian, Aly, and Sylvia I. Bergh. 2014. “From Temporary Work in Agriculture to Irregular Status in Domestic Service: The Transition and Experiences of Senegalese Migrant Women in Spain.” In Migration, Gender and Social Justice: Perspectives on Human Insecurity, edited by Thanh-Dam Truong, Des Gasper, Jeff Handmaker, and Sylvia I. Bergh, 47–67. Berlin and Heidelberg : Springer. URL: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-28012-2_3.

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