Sociology PhD student Christian Ramirez explores the biases behind migration sociological research in his latest publication "Decolonizing Migration Studies: A Chicanx Studies Perspective and Critique of Colonial Sociological Origins" which will appear in the upcoming journal Rio Bravo: A Journal of the Borderlands.
The abstract reads:
Sociological research on international migration shares a fundamental question: What underlining forces drive migration? Sociologists use a number of theories such as neoclassical economics, new economics of migration, network theory, segmented labor market theory, and world systems theory among others to untangle the complexities of individual and group migration patterns. These theoretical propositions, and the methodological applications that are informed by them, are colonial in their epistemic origins and assumptions. This paper reveals the assumptions, limitations, and the epistemic privileging within westernized migration studies and sociology. Chicanx Studies systematically addresses this question by confronting colonization’s impact on how we contemporarily study, measure, and analyze human behavior including migration. Moreover, the discipline works to humanize Chicanx populations and their historic migratory life ways. For borderland theorist Gloria Anzaldua the underling force that drives Chicanx and Mexican migration is their ontological and epistemological connection to their indigenous tradition of “long walks” across recent politicized borders. Her work contributes to migration studies’ lack of epistemic diversity and also gives insight to the historical relationship Chicanxs have with migratory practices to other parts of the U.S. beyond the Southwest.
Rio Bravo: A Journal of the Borderlands is an interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed publication of the Mexican American Studies Center at the University of Texas - Pan American. The journal publishes scholarly and creative works about Mexican descent communities in both South Texas and nationally. The journal promotes debate, dialogue, awareness, and insight into the U.S.-Mexico border experience. The next issue will be released on Jan. 25, 2020.