Embodied Migration: an Affective Understanding of the Push-pull Theory

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Copyright: Duan, Hao
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Abstract
By the first decade of the 21st century, human migration had increased to an unprecedented volume and has now become a common experience. Although numerous studies have theorized migration, two changing societal contexts energy stress and technological advances increasingly challenge the adequacy of existing understandings of migration. The majority of current migration research is based on classical models, which abstract migration as a decision-then-move process. This abstraction can be traced to a commonly accepted assumption in social sciences: humans are primarily rational beings and thus usually consciously plan their behaviour. However, using in-depth interviews with academic and student migrants, this thesis argues that migration is not always a decision . The empirical evidence encourages the consideration of embodiment into migration studies; i.e., the body and the mind are not two separated faculties but different expressions of the same being. Thus, besides exploring activities of the mind, such as decisions , we can also understand migration through bodies. Through embodiment, this thesis argues that the philosophical foundation of classical migration models should be reconsidered. Among classical models, the push-pull model offers the most accurate description for the empirical evidence of this research. In the push-pull model, migrants are pushed by negative factors in their origins and pulled by positive factors in their destinations. The passivity of human behaviour, which is ignored by many models, is innately addressed in the push-pull model. However, the push-pull model, both in its original form and later versions, is constrained by some assumptions, particularly relating to rational choice, which must be challenged from the perspective of embodiment. Building on the push-pull framework, this thesis scrutinizes such assumptions and re-interprets them through embodiment. The embodied push-pull theory argues that push and pull factors must be understood through migrants experiences, including active aspects, such as planning, and passive aspects, such as affect . Both activity and passivity reside in migrants bodies, taking effect through desire, memory, and perception. Bodies, though diverse, cannot escape from the socio-cultural context in which they are produced. Therefore, this thesis proposes an embodied understanding of migration, requiring researchers to explore bodies, as well as the context producing bodies.
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Author(s)
Duan, Hao
Supervisor(s)
Sharpe, Scott
Tranter, Paul
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Publication Year
2012
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Thesis
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PhD Doctorate
UNSW Faculty
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