Radboud University (RU), Nijmegen, The Netherlands
J. Kok (RU) j.kok@let.ru.nl
Mobility, both within and across borders, is part and parcel of modern life. Mobility means adjusting to new environments and forming bonds with persons (both within and outside households) who are also mobile and may leave soon. Thus, social networks are becoming increasing fluid, which may have an effect in two directions. For some, the ever-expanding geographical network may provide the social capital (sometimes dubbed ‘spatial capital’) needed for career success. For others, the crumbling of traditionally stable systems of support by kin, friends and neighbours may add to their troubles, such as poverty and loneliness.
Understanding the interplay between geographic mobility and long-term well-being is a relatively new field. To begin with, typologies of residential careers will have to be developed. The project is particularly interested in the residential careers of vulnerable groups. To what extent did the trajectories of the single, the poor, the widowed and the foreign immigrants differ from the ‘normal’ patterns? How did this affect their integration in local networks, and can we relate these patterns to later life outcomes? One of the topics to be explored is the impact of immersion in kinship networks. Some of the databases involved in the Network allow for the simultaneous study of individual life courses and the extended family network. The question will be whether the movements of ‘vulnerable’ people were circumscribed or channelled by their extended network (because they needed kin protection).
Empirically, the ESR will develop ways to extract migration and household trajectories from micro-data sets. Conceptually, the ESR will develop a comparative set of definitions and typologies that can be used to analyse migration trajectories and sequences of households over the life course. This presupposes the ability to think in terms of processes. Analytically, the ESR will develop skills to convert data from the different datasets on addresses and households to files ready for statistical processing.
The project deliverables are reports on concepts and algorithms, to be integrated in a more substantive dissertation on the integration of individual residential histories in the study of vulnerability and well-being.
LONGPOP EXPECTED RESULTS:
4.1. Concepts and definitions. A working paper about a critical literature review on migration trajectories and health based on historical and contemporary studies.
4.2. Algorithms. Creation of a residential episode file from IDS-HSN.
4.3. Research design. A PhD research design, personal development plan.
4.4. Statistical tool. A tool to explore this mobility statistically.
4.5. GIS mobility tool. A tool to visualize trajectories and extended kin networks, using GIS.
4.6. Analytical tool. A tool to explore the links between migration trajectories and later-life outcomes in terms of social status and well-being.
4.7. Research report. Report on the role of residential mobility patterns in the life courses of vulnerable people in at least two countries.
See working papers, presentations and publications for more information about these results.
LONGPOP WORKING PAPERS AND PRESENTATIONS:
Sesma Carlos, D. Coping with ageing: a longitudinal study of late-life return migrations, 1850-1890 Dutch cohorts. 3rd European Society of Historical Demography Conference in Pecs (2019).
Sesma Carlos, D. Old age mortality in the Netherlands during industrialization and epidemiological transition: a longitudinal study (1850-1940). N.W. Posthumus Institute Conference, Institutions and innovations, Ghent (2019).
Sesma Carlos, D. Experiences of internal migration, social structure and old-age mortality: a longitudinal study in the Netherlands. 10th Demographic Conference of “Young Demographers”, Prague (2018).
Sesma Carlos, D. Internal Migrations and Later-Life Mortality over the Life Course. the Netherlands, 19th-20th Centuries. European Population Conference 2018.
Sesma Carlos, D., Puschmann, P., Kok, J. Internal migrations and later-life mortality. The Netherlands, birth cohorts 1850-1922. European Social Science History Conference, Belfast (2018).
Hermsen, T., Sesma Carlos, D., Kok, J. & Puschmann, P. Visualizing migration trajectories using the Intermediate Data Structure. European Social Science History Conference, Belfast (2018).
Dolores Sesma Carlos is an Early Stage Researcher for LONGPOP project and PhD Candidate at the History Department, Radboud University in the Netherlands, since 2016. Her research project focuses on migration processes and long well-being of vulnerable groups in different European countries. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Sociology (Public University of Navarre) and a Master’s degree in Public Health (University of Zaragoza, Spain). Her master thesis focuses on social inequalities in health exploring the Spanish National Health Survey, 2006-2012. She has specialized in applied social research and statistical data (Centre for Sociological Research, Spain). Between 2007 and 2012, as a project assistant she contributed to the analysis of large databases in different topics (local participation, health systems, life conditions and migration) at the Spanish National Research Council. More recently, as researcher assistant she has studied migrant trajectories’ and adaptation strategies in rural scenarios at the University of the Basque Country.
Contact: M.SesmaCarlos@let.ru.nl
Link to her profiles in Research Gate here and in Linkedin here.