Comparative moves
"The Pursuit of Value and Belonging in Transnational Migration Toward a "Better Life
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 2149587 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Valerio Simoni (0000-0001-9517-0253, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, corresponding author), Jérémie Voirol (0000-0002-9464-9403, University of Manchester), E Hjalmarson (0000-0002-4571-2293, Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 48 |
| Issue | 10 |
| Pages | 1921-1941 |
| Publication date | 2025-07-27 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Ethnic and Racial Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0141-9870 • E-ISSN: 1466-4356 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/01419870.2024.2354321 |
| OpenAlex | W4398223066 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 46 |
Moving beyond comparison as a method that juxtaposes community-based case studies, this article explores how migrants with different backgrounds and trajectories themselves deploy comparison in their everyday lives and decision-making. To do so, it examines Cuban and Ecuadorian migrants' comparative appraisal of different places, values, and visions of a "better life", shedding new light on the motives, stakes, and effects of their endeavors. The proposed approach advances understandings of how migrants cope with the dominant comparative scripts and hierarchies that migration activates, notably by either conforming to, subverting, or unraveling them. Also highlighted are comparison's entanglements with questions of choice, belonging, and its experiential and emotional effects, including the suffering it elicits. A multi-dimensional exploration of how comparison plays out among migrants opens research avenues related to transnational living and people's pursuits of a "better life", while also raising ethical and epistemological questions for comparative research on migration and beyond
Criminology · Economic geography · Geography · Political economy · Political science · Sociology · Value (mathematics · Computer Science · Diaspora, migration, transnational identity · Gender Studies · Migration and Labor Dynamics · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy
The Seductions of Quantification
Cultural Values
Cruel Optimism
Introduction
Anthropology, by Comparison
International Migration, Social Demotion, and Imagined Advancement
Comparing Cultures
The Value of Comparison
Emotions on the move
The Promise of Happiness
Aspirations and the subjective future of migration
Migration and the Global Crisis
National Geographic
Caribbean Transnational Return Migrants as Agents of Change
The new 'twice migrants
On the Move
Remittances and morality
Mobility, Moralities and Motherhood
Transnational Families
Transnationalism and identity
Aspiration, desire and drivers of migration
Migration and the Search for a Better Way of Life
Comparaisons contextualisées
Rethinking Past and Present in Cuba
At Home but Not at Home
Beyond the ethnic lens
Comparison as critique
Economization, moralization, and the changing moral economies of 'capitalism' and 'communism' among Cuban migrants in Spain
Value and virtue
Return Migration
Moral Maps and Medical Imaginaries
Putting Belonging into Place
The Power of Imagination in Transnational Mobilities
The Emergence of a Transnational Social Formation and The Mirage of Return Migration Among Dominican Transmigrants
Transnationalization in international migration
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |