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Novels approaches based on sequences analysis and graphs for grasping complexity of migrations

Francois Mialhe, Université Lyon 2
Florence De Longueville, Facultés Universitaires Notre-Dame de la Paix, Belgium
Samuel Bonnand, Maison des Sciences de l'Homme
Sabine J. F. Henry, University of Namur

This paper focuses on the sequence of migrations over the course of a lifetime or over a period of time, defined as the migration pathway (MP). While the literature on migration is extensive, the literature on migration pathways is much more tenuous. This is due to the lack of data collection allowing to take into account the sequence of migrations and the cumulative effects of migration over a period of life. This paper aims to break a theoretical barrier concerned about knowledge regarding MP and a methodological one, focusing on data collection and analysis. It seeks to reconstruct and group similar MPs in order to derive migrants' strategies and the multiple factors (multi-scalar and multi-dimensional) that influence them. It is thus hypothesized that the analysis of MPs based on sequence analysis and graph analysis is a relevant tool to unveil part of the complexity of migrations. Two analytical approaches were developed for grasping MPs, one based on sequence analysis and another on graphs. It is therefore an innovative work which paves the way of considering migration from new perspectives. It is based on a case study in Philippines but the theoretical and methodological lessons can be transposed to other countries.

Keywords: Internal migration, International migration, Methodology, Experimental methods

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  Presented in Session 170. Understanding Migration: Applying New Data and Methods