Recommended Citation
Bottomley, Gillian, The export of people: emigration from and return migration to Greece, Centre for Multicultural Studies, University of Wollongong, Occasional Paper 1, 1984, 21.
https://ro.uow.edu.au/cmsocpapers/2
Abstract
Most studies of migration have been studies of immigration. This has happened for a number of reasons - the receiving countries have more resources for research, the research has often been problem oriented, and prevailing theoretical frameworks may have limited rather than extended our understanding of migration. Classics such as Thomas and Znaniecki's memorable work "The Polish Peasant in Europe and America" have shown how important it is to see migration as a continuing process of constant interaction between homeland and the country of immigration. The assumption that people leave home as "permanent" migrants has always been a dubious assumption. Many emigrants return home, and many others would like to. Even where immigrants remain in another country as satisfied settlers, ties with the homeland may have great significance. And the political, economic and social forces that create emigration must also be taken into account. An understanding of migration, therefore, requires the broadest of perspectives. People do not, for example, carry a culture with them. They carry what Bourdieu calls "habitus", sets of "durable, transposable, dispositions" (p. 72, 1977). Culture is historically created and recreated under specific conditions. We need some historical analysis of those conditions. We also need to place migration within an international framework. This has been done over the last decade by writers interested in the political economy of migration (cf. Berger and Mohr 1975, Castles and Kosack 1973, Paine 1976, Piore 1979). Their publications have provided a valuable reorientation of migration research, linking 20th century migration to processes of industrialization and the uneven development accompanying industrial capitalism.