Ethnic Groups in Motion by Milica Z. Bookman

Author:Milica Z. Bookman [Bookman, Milica Z.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Ethnic Studies, General
ISBN: 9780714652313
Google: FZ4czgEACAAJ
Publisher: Frank Cass
Published: 2002-01-15T01:17:14+00:00

Housing

Few potential migrants have no concerns about housing in their future location. Rumors of families living on streets, in cardboard boxes, and under bridges reach far beyond the city limits of Calcutta, Rio de Janeiro, and Hong Kong. The existence of shantytowns, ghettos, and barrios attests to the inability of host governments to address the housing needs of newcomers. As a result, unresolved housing questions act as a deterrent to migration for all but the most desperate (indeed, in the former Soviet Union and the Czech Republic, while workers were free to move within state borders, they were restricted by the housing shortage38).

Another impediment to migration, limited to some traditional cultures, has to do with the huge importance of the family abode. In relatively immobile societies, such as Yugoslavia, Russia, Estonia, and the Czech Republic, the family home is often passed on from generation to generation and its walls contain family tradition and myths as much as anything else. The house represents the family identity and its members are formed by their relationship to their home. In such societies, potential migrants are deterred from leaving. By contrast, in mobile societies such as the United States, Canada, and Australia, where geographical and occupational mobility is common, a house is rarely a home because it lacks longevity and memories. As a result, mobility induces further mobility.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.