Migration impact inside-out: stayers, sociology and social remittances

The article presents a novel approach to understanding the impact of migration on sending countries. It looks at the topic the other way round from conventional approaches. Rather than only studying migrants' influence on countries of origin, as migration scholars naturally do, I recommend first mapping social trends in sending countries to understand the most significant changes, before analysing why change takes place. Such analysis involves qualitative sociological research to understand the causes of change: how social remittances and more indirect migration influences combine with other factors. Focusing on sending country residents, the approach also applies concepts and findings from receiving societies research. The approach encourages a thorough investigation of transnational social space, seeing sociological phenomena such as socialisation or social activism taking place across international borders. The case study is twenty-first century Europe, with its dense and diverse migration patterns. The article discusses my experience of applying the approach to Poland, suggesting that migration exposure's special role may be to reinforce national trends (e.g. towards more open-to-difference attitudes) even in social groups and geographical locations which are generally more conservative. Finally, I discuss how the approach might be applied in other post-communist countries, as well as further afield.

Automated summary

The article proposes a novel approach to studying the impact of migration on sending countries by first examining social trends in these countries before analyzing the reasons behind change, involving qualitative sociological research. By focusing on sending country residents, concepts and findings from receiving societies research are also utilized to understand the transnational social space. The approach encourages a comprehensive investigation of sociological phenomena taking place across international borders, with a case study on twenty-first century Europe.