Section: Student Profiles

Alistair Hunter

Name
Alistair Hunter
Organisation
, School of Social and Political Studies
University of Edinburgh
Address
4.15 Crystal Macmillan Building
Telephone
07942 718 675
E-Mail
Research Interests
Return / transnational migration,retirement,welfare systems
URL
http://www.pol.ed.ac.uk/student_profiles/alistair_hunter
Alistair Hunter

Qualifications

  • BA (Hons) Middle Eastern Studies, Leeds
  • MSc by Research (Politics), Edinburgh

Working Title

Retirement Home? France's migrant worker hostels and the dilemma of late-in-life return.

Research Interests

My research addresses a paradox of immigrant integration. Older men of North and West African origin, living alone in hostel accommodation -- constructed in the 1960s and 70s by the French state with the aim of impeding the integration of immigrant workers -- do not return home definitively at retirement to be with their wives and children who have remained in the country of origin. Beyond affective ties, older migrant hostel residents also remain unmoved by the financial incentives of a return homewards, where their French state pensions, paid in euros and fully transferable, would have a far greater purchasing power.

Despite their lack of integration according to conventional indicators -- few family or social ties in France, generalised lack of competence in the French language, disinclination to acquire French nationality -- older hostel residents do not return home definitively at retirement. Rather, and in contrast to the normative image of retirement as a time of repose surrounded by children and grandchildren, older hostel residents are highly mobile, regularly shuttling back and forth between the hostel in France and the place of origin.

My research question, in its most succinct form, interrogates the reasons behind this preference for late-in-life mobility over definitive return. More broadly, by examining an extreme case of state attempts to limit the integration of labour migrants in post-WW2 Europe, my research seeks to contribute to the wider debates on what it means for immigrants to integrate and achieve inclusion in society.

Supervisors

Dr Christina Boswell; Dr Richard Freeman; Prof. Roland Dannreuther (University of Westminster)

Awards

  • ESRC 1+3 Studentship
  • Eli Shivtiel Memorial Award for Excellence in Arabic Studies 

Publications/Conference Papers

Publication (2010) 'Theory and practice of return migration at retirement: the case of migrant worker hostel residents in France', in Population, Space and Place

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/123270714/abstract

Paper 'Retraite forcée en France ou Retour possible au pays ?' [Forced retirement in France or Possible Return Home ?], address given at the one-day seminar Retraite forcée en France ou Retour possible au pays organised by the Fédération des Amicales des Travailleurs et Commerçants marocains en France, Tiznit - Morocco, 8th August 2009

Paper 'La mobilité des résidents retraités des foyers de travailleurs migrants' [The mobility of retired residents of migrant worker hostels], paper given at the Seminar series organised by the Research Unit of the French Old Age Pensions Agency (Caisse nationale d'Assurance vieillesse), Paris – France, 9th January 2009.

Paper 'Methods at the Margins: biography and the lifecourse in migration research', paper presented at the conference Moroccan Migration in Europe, University of Sussex – Brighton, 31st October 2008. 

Paper 'Back-and-forth migration at retirement among residents of migrant hostels in France', paper presented at the 1st International Sociological Association Forum of Sociology, Barcelona – Spain, 7th September 2008.

Paper 'Retirement and return of geographically single migrants: social systems inclusion and challenges to the territorial welfare state', paper presented at the Edinburgh University Migration and Citizenship Research Group's 2nd PhD Worskhop, Edinburgh, 25th June 2008.

Paper 'Retirement and return of geographically single migrants: social systems inclusion and challenges to the territorial welfare state', paper presented at the Social Policy Association's annual conference, Edinburgh, 23rd June 2008. 

Paper 'In between inclusions: theorizing the return and (im)mobility of “geographically single” labour migrants at retirement age', paper presented at the Return and Onward Migration workshop, Edinburgh, 10th April 2008.

Paper 'From wayward youths to old eccentrics: (geographically) single labour migrants and the French welfare state', paper presented as part of Edinburgh University Migration and Citizenship Research Group's seminar series, Edinburgh, 12th March 2008.

Paper 'Theorising the return and (im)mobility of “geographically single” labour migrants at retirement age', paper presented at the 3rd IMISCOE PhD Workshop, Hamburg – Germany, 8th February 2008.

Publication Report co-written with Oana Ciobanu for the symposium entitled Security and Migration: challenges to the liberal state, co-organised by the CHALLENGE network and the Migration and Citizenship research group, University of Edinburgh, 27 August 2007. http://www.libertysecurity.org/article1656.html

Paper 'Determinants of Participation in Transnational Activities: Moroccan and Tunisian Immigrants in France', paper for PhD Workshop on Migration and Citizenship, University of Edinburgh, 27 April 2007

Teaching Experience

I have lectured and tutored on the undergraduate honours course Politics of the Middle East (2005-7).

A second honours course I have tutored on is Europe and International Migration (2009).

Research Group Membership

Migration and Citizenship research group

 

This page was published on 5 February 2010


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