Social Capital and Migration

Speaker: Janet W. Salaff
Department of Sociology, Emerita, University of Toronto

Monday, December 8, 2008
12:00 PM – 2:00 PM
208N – Seminar Room, North House
Munk Centre For International Studies
1 Devonshire Place

Register online at http://webapp.mcis.utoronto.ca/EventDetails.aspx?eventid=6994

The topic social capital which is the seminar series topic has been closely intertwined with migration studies and theory. We have heard of migration chains, ethnic enclaves, ethnic entrepreneurship, transnationalism, all these turn on forms of social relations in which social capital is embedded , related to migration. But is there an accepted relationship between forms of social relations, and migration? What about push and pulls in migration? Our image of the uprooted and anomic migrant. The lure of the Orient ; the dynamic Chinese economy is a more recent layer of imagery. These are alternative or competing images with social relations. Our discussion traces the comings and goings of concepts of social capital in migration with reference to Chinese migrations.

Janet W. Salaff, Professor of Sociology, Emerita, University of Toronto, Visiting Scholar, Centre of Asian Studies, Hong Kong University Arent Greve, Professor, Department of Strategy and Management, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration