Editorial

This issue comes out during a period of political drama in many of our readers' countries with a number of elections just past or soon to take place in Europe, with the effects of the US election taking more shape, and with many of these electoral dynamics being played out on the back of the issue of migration. The surprise election in the United Kingdom, although the government is seeking a clearer mandate to take that country out of the European Union, will inevitably be fought partly on the basis of immigration policy. Recent elections in continental Europe brought the possibility of governing anti-immigration populist parties to our doorstep, but none has yet succeeded. The effects of the Trump election victory in the United States are beginning to play out, if only from a fear of how the White House may act on immigration and refugee policy in the future. The current administration has spoken of large deportations of undocumented migrants including asylum seekers which, together with talk of constructing a wall across the southern border of the US and actions against those travelling from a subset of Muslim-majority countries, has created a sense of fear amongst many migrants, whether they are with or without legal authorization to reside in that country. Adding to this fear is the talk of actions against Sanctuary Cities in the US and some of the state governments that support them. Canada, which has long been relatively immune to flows of undocumented migrants, has seen a significant rise in the numbers of those crossing the border illegally, both those with legal residence in the US and those who are being smuggled from further afield. This is shaping up as a test of their Safe Third Country Agreement which, generally-speaking, allows each of the two countries to return asylum seekers to the country of first asylum. At issue now, according to some advocates, is the status of the US as a safe country. As these matters occupy national and local authorities, the international community continues with the process of drafting a Global Compact on Refugees and a separate Global Compact on Migration. States are developing their positions in preparation for what at times will be hard negotiations to reach agreements that have the potential to change how migration and asylum are managed around the world. Although these compacts will be non-binding, there will be expectations that those who commit to them will adhere to their principles. The stakes are high. Those of us in the academic community have both an opportunity and a responsibility to support this effort with analyses and advice to both the international organizations involved and their individual member states whose work will ultimately determine the outcome of the processes and the content of the two compacts. We hope that over the next few months some of our authors will submit to our journal analyses and empirically-grounded advice for those involved in these discussions and negotiations. We open this issue with a number of articles exploring various aspects of that ambiguous concept, ‘integration’. What that term means varies tremendously from one country to another as well as from one theorist to another. What integration success or failure means also has many different accounts, and we will start with the question of whether onward migration is an indicator of integration failure or, perhaps, simply an indication of a new paradigm in migration patterns, that of multiple migration. Sapeha takes us to Australia in an exploration of onward migration from that country, one that collects an enviable amount of migration data including about exits. Schmid opens the link between integration and transnationalism and the implications that modern transnationalism poses for policy, both regarding migration and citizenship. Relatively little has been written on the well-being of older immigrants, although this is beginning to change, one might surmise as a result of broad-based population ageing. Vega and Aguila look at the economic well-being of older immigrants in the US, particularly at the impact of foreign pensions on their finances which only a very few receive. Social scientists have long-studied the link between education and wages amongst immigrants to Canada and the US. Smith and Fernandez update us on the state of disparities between immigrant and native-born Canadians and Americans, finding that those borne abroad remain disadvantaged regardless of their educational qualifications. Crossing the Pacific Ocean gives us a look at a long-studied issue, that of the integration outcomes for marriage migrants in Korea, especially amongst women in multicultural families. Kim notes the supports available to multicultural families and as well as the effects of social networks on the likelihood of foreign brides living in poverty. Domestic workers in Singapore have fought hard for a mandatory day-off and lately with some success. How their advocates have achieved a measure of success is examined by Koh, Wee, Goh, and Yeoh who find that powers of persuasion can be increased by one's choice of words. A rising area of interest on economic integration is that of entrepreneurs, including transnational entrepreneurs. Brzozowski, Cucculelli, and Surdej find that amongst ICT entrepreneurs in Italy, the propensity to do business transnationally decreases with time spent in that country. Two articles look at the economics of international student migration, primarily in the United Kingdom. Moskal considers the potential for international students in that country to remain to live and work following the completion of their studies, learning that many experience difficulty in a country that practices academic capitalism at the same time as it tries to reduce the number of immigrants arriving there. Further exploring how in the UK – but we would add that the UK is far from alone in this - education has become a commodity that is marketed and marketised, are Findlay, McCollum, and Packwood who see modern post-secondary education as having been shaped by neo-liberal economics. The final section of this issue looks at migration from the point of view of the country of origin. Fuller advances the study of migration as a family affair, looking at the emotional difficulties for the parents left behind in Mexico, despite the potential offered by modern communications to stay in touch with their migrant children. Finally, Möllers examines the steep rise in emigration from Kosovo over the past two years, finding that it results not from a desire to earn higher incomes and remit monies back home, but from a desire to escape a weak political system that offers little hope for the future.

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