(Post)transformational Migration

Perceived inequalities, such as the lack of a proper job or bad living conditions, can play the role of push factors that make people migrate. Apart from this, there are studies which focus more on relative deprivation, exacerbated by inequality, as a basic determinant of people’s mobility, and also some are focused on the influence of income inequality on migration. Such «structural conditions» are only a part of the story of migration, particularly because differences and inequalities are social facts, elements of the universal shape of modern open societies. Ultimately inequality, as more general departure point, can’t be merely an element of explanation, and it is important to remember that not only do «objective» social differences and the inequalities caused by them foster migration behaviour, but so do their social perceptions.

Marek Nowak, PhD in sociology; lecturer at the Institute of Sociology at Adam Mickiewicz University Poznan (Poland); specialised in Economic Sociology and sociology of social activism.
Michal Nowosielski, PhD in sociology, Deputy Director of the Institute for Western Affairs, Poznan (Poland); research interests: Poles in Germany, ethnic and immigrant organizations, diaspora policies.