Migration Can Fall Apart: Life Stories from Voluntary and Deportee Return Migrants (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780761840008)

This work captures the compelling life stories of three types of Jamaican immigrants, including deportees, and examines how the transfer of different types of social capital affects their quests for social mobility. The concept of this particular type of social capital, in this case referred to as 'colonial capital' is introduced in the literature to categorize migrants. The term and idea of colonial capital derives from a quartet of ancient prejudices about family and skin pigmentation; education; social graces; and financial capital. The acquisition of any one element of colonial capital is of little use in achieving a higher class status. The stories of these immigrants reveal three types of migrants: those with high colonial capital who resettle in Jamaica; disgruntled migrants with mid-colonial capital who often become transmigrants; and deportees_a group whose low-colonial capital renders them vulnerable abroad and in Jamaica. As a consequence of the evaluation of this phenomenon, the 'Transnational Theory' is re-evaluated and extended to the 'Colonial Capital Theory of Migration.'

Author: O. Alexander Miller
ISBN-10: 0761840001
ISBN-13: 9780761840008
Publisher: University Press of America
Language: English
Published: 04/01/2008
Pages: 160
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.53lbs
Size: 8.86h x 6.27w x 0.45d

Review Citation(s):
Reference and Research Bk News 05/01/2008 pg. 93