The role of family relationships in migration decisions: a reconstruction based on implicit starting points in migrants’ justifications

Authors

  • Sara Greco USI - Università della Svizzera italiana

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.59670/ml.v15i1.342

Keywords:

International migration, discourse, argumentation, Endoxa, intimate relationships

Abstract

This article integrates the discourse analytical approach of Argumentation theory in the study of international migration, with the aim to study the role of family relationships in migration decisions for international migrants. Argumentation theory studies dialogical exchanges in which participants give reasons to justify their standpoints. In this perspective, interviews with migrants are considered as dialogical exchanges, in which migrants provide accounts of their crucial migration decisions by giving justificatory reasons. By reconstructing these reasons, implicit starting points emerge, in particular endoxa, i.e. participants’ personal values and beliefs that are at the basis of their decisions. The reconstruction of implicit endoxa allows a nuanced access to the role of family relationships within migrants’ accounts of their decisions. 

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Author Biography

Sara Greco, USI - Università della Svizzera italiana

Sara Greco is Assistant Professor of Argumentation at USI - Università della Svizzera italiana, Lugano, Switzerland.

She is conducting research on argumentation in different settings, mainly related to interpersonal argumentation: dispute mediation, migrants' accounts of their trajectories, educational contexts. She sees argumentation as a dialogical process and a potentially reasonable alternative to conflict. 

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Published

2018-01-01

How to Cite

Greco, S. (2018). The role of family relationships in migration decisions: a reconstruction based on implicit starting points in migrants’ justifications. Migration Letters, 15(1), 33–44. https://doi.org/10.59670/ml.v15i1.342