Journal articles on the topic 'Migrations'

The aim of this paper is to describe the socioeconomic status of migrating seniors before and after migration. This analysis will enable us to determine whether the overall effect of their migrations is a positive one or a negative one. In order to determine subjective reasons for migrations, questionnaire surveys are used. An analysis of the responses allows us to compare the migrants’ living conditions before and after migration with a view to confirming or rejecting Wolpert’s (1965) assumptions and to describe the role of migrations in meeting pensioners’ needs. Our study confirms the approach of Wolpert (1965), assuming that the behaviour of migrants, including migrating pensioners, is determined by place utility, i.e. the sum of advantages to be obtained by the migrant. The pensioners who migrated are well‑off, our respondents report that they are able to meet all their needs if spending money prudently.

Database migration is a crucial aspect of digital collections management, yet there are few best practices to guide practitioners in this work. There is also limited research on the patterns of use and processes motivating database migrations. In the “Migrating Research Data Collections” project, we are developing these best practices through a multi-case study of database and digital collections migration. We find that a first and fundamental problem faced by collection staff is a sheer lack of documentation about past database migrations. We contribute a discussion of ways information professionals can reconstruct missing documentation, and some three approaches that others might take for documenting migrations going forward. [This paper is a conference pre-print presented at IDCC 2020 after lightweight peer review.]

Mass migrations of dense cell populations occur periodically during embryonic development. It is known that extracellular matrices, through which the cells migrate, facilitate locomotion. However, this does not explain how cells, such as neural crest, can migrate as a dense cohort of cells in essentially continuous contact with one another. We report here that unique behavioral characteristics of the migrating cells may contribute to cohesive migration. We used time-lapse video microscopy to analyze the migration of quail neural crest cells and of two crest derivatives, human melanoma cells and melanocytes. These cells migrated poorly, if at all, when isolated, but could be stimulated up to 200-fold to travel following contact with migrating cells. This phenomenon, which we have termed “contact-stimulated migration,” appeared to activate and sustain migration of the mass of cells. Cells that became dissociated from the others ceased directional migration, thereby limiting aberrant cell dispersion. Fibroblasts were minimally responsive to this novel phenomenon, which may be crucial for major, mass cell migrations.

The accuracy of time migrations done with finite‐difference schemes deteriorates with increasing reflector dip. Some properties of migration in general, and of finite‐difference approaches in particular, suggest a way of improving the accuracy of finite‐difference schemes for migrating steep dips. First, although data will be undermigrated when too low a velocity is used in migration, a correctly migrated result can be obtained by migrating again, this time with the previously undermigrated result as input. In fact, a sequence of undermigrations will yield the correct result as long as the sum of the squares of the migration velocities used in the different migration stages equals the square of the correct migration velocity. A second property is that the apparent spatial dip of a reflector perceived by the migration process is a function of not only the time dip of the unmigrated reflection, but also the velocity used in the migration. In a sequence of low‐velocity migrations, the apparent spatial dip perceived at each migration stage can be considerably less than the true dip. Thus, because finite‐difference migration is accurate for small spatial dips, the cascaded migrations yield a more accurate result than that of single‐stage migration. Also, because each migration stage is done with low velocity, the depth step can be large; hence, the computational effort need not be. The accuracy of the method is not compromised (in fact, it improves) in media in which velocity increases with depth. Moreover, the cascaded approach suffers no more than other methods of time migration where velocity varies mildly in the lateral direction. In applications of the method to stacked data from the Gulf of Mexico, reflections from near‐vertical flanks of salt domes were migrated with accuracy comparable to that achieved by frequency‐wavenumber domain migration.

Cloud computing has seen tremendous growth in recent days. As a result of this, there has been a great increase in the growth of data centers all over the world. These data centers consume a lot of energy, resulting in high operating costs. The imbalance in load distribution among the servers in the data center results in increased energy consumption. Server consolidation can be handled by migrating all virtual machines in those underutilized servers. Migration causes performance degradation of the job, based on the migration time and number of migrations. Considering these aspects, the proposed clustering agent-based model improves energy saving by efficient allocation of the VMs to the hosting servers, which reduces the response time for initial allocation. Middle VM migration (MVM) strategy for server consolidation minimizes the number of VM migrations. Further, randomization of extra resource requirement done to cater to real-time scenarios needs more resource requirements than the initial requirement. Simulation results show that the proposed approach reduces the number of migrations and response time for user request and improves energy saving in the cloud environment.

Larner and Beasley (1987) introduced cascaded migrations and showed, without proving it rigorously, that iterating a 15-degree migration with proper choice of migration velocity was equivalent to a 90-degree migration. In this paper, I will give a proof based on a power series expansion that makes it possible to compare this method with other migration methods. This analysis shows, for example, that cascaded 45-degree migrations yield higher accuracy than cascaded 15-degree migrations with fewer iterations.

Editorial handovers are migrations that signal and embody movement, transition, and transformation. To attend to, and indeed to salute this shift as I launch my editorship of Departures in Critical Qualitative Research—what I am framing as an editorial migration—I present to the readers the first of a curated double issue that focuses on migration and its attendant features, borders, and margins. I begin this introductory essay by enacting my own experiences of migration before leading the reader into essays by ten writers from distinct disciplines and fields who embraced, energetically and generously, my call to address the notion of migration in their own areas, contexts, subjects, and locations.

The goal of this research lies in identification of the key problems of modern historiography with regards to the history of population migration in Ural in the XX century. The author analyzes the results of study of migration history in the region, determines the range of questions within the problematic field of the research, as well as the leading vectors of research. An attempt is made to shape future prospects of research work on the topic of migrations in Ural. The relevance of the article is substantiated by the possibilities of fundamental understanding of the historical and modern trends of population migration and scientific conceptualization of the history of migrations in the XX century. The migration of population in Ural in the centenary historical retrospective have not been previously been an independent subject of historiographical analysis. The conducted study demonstrates that the scholars determined the migration, its key factors and directions; suggested the variations of periodization of the history of migration in Ural; studied the role of migrations in demographic development of the Ural regions at different historical periods. The article highlights the main problems of historiography: exodus, evacuation and re-evacuation, migration policy, “migration transition”, migrations of urban and rural population, roles of migration in urbanization processes, formation of regional population, ethnic specificities of migration. It is established that significant attention of the historians is dedicated to the study of migrations in the 1920’s – 1930’s, as well as the years of the Great Patriotic War. The research carries fragmentary character. Its prospects are associated with the detailed examination of migrations in the Ural regions, and fundamental generalization aimed at identification of patterns and mechanism of the transformation of migrations, as well as the formation of their coherent picture in Ural in the XX century.

Neurons destined to form several precerebellar nuclei are generated in the dorsal neuroepithelium (rhombic lip) of caudal hindbrain. They form two ventrally directed migratory streams, which behave differently. While neurons in the superficial migration migrate in a subpial position and cross the midline to settle into the contralateral hindbrain, neurons in the olivary migration travel deeper in the parenchyma and stop ipsilaterally against the floor plate. In the present study, we compared the behavior of the two neuronal populations in an organotypic culture system that preserves several aspects of their in vivo environment. Both migrations occurred in mouse hindbrain explants dissected at E11.5 even when the floor plate was ablated at the onset of the culture period, indicating that they could rely on dorsoventral cues already distributed in the neural tube. Nevertheless, the local constraints necessary for the superficial migration were more specific than for the olivary migration. Distinct chemoattractive and chemorespulsive signal were found to operate on the migrations. The floor plate exhibited a strong chemoattractive influence on both migrations, which deviated from their normal path in the direction of ectopic floor plate fragments. It was also found to produce a short-range stop signal and to induce inferior olive aggregation. The ventral neural tube was also found to inhibit or slow down the migration of olivary neurons. Interestingly, while ectopic sources of netrin were found to influence both migrations, this effect was locally modulated and affected differentially the successive phases of migration. Consistent with this observation, while neurons in the superficial migration expressed the Dcc-netrin receptor, the migrating olivary neurons did not express Dcc before they reached the midline. Our observations provide a clearer picture of the hierarchy of environmental cues that influence the morphogenesis of these precerebellar nuclei.

Given a frequency f, CDP interval Δx, and upper‐surface velocity v(0), the spatial Nyquist criterion defines a range of unaliased emergence angles for seismic reflection events. For migration, events outside that range should be discarded beforehand by dip filtering, or the migration operator should be trained to ignore them. In this paper, we express the spatial Nyquist criterion as a limitation on the CDP interval, rather than on emergence angle, which allows Δx to be adjusted as a function of emergence angle, increasing with decreasing emergence angle. We exploit this fact by creating two separate migration grids: a fine grid, with trace spacing Δx, for migrating events with large emergence angles; and a coarse grid, with trace spacing 2Δx, for migrating events with small emergence angles. Combining the two migrations is straightforward. The coarse grid migration, involving one‐half the number of input traces and one‐half the number of output traces, represents a considerable time savings over the small‐emergence‐angle portion of the migration on the original fine grid. The two migrations need not be performed separately, so that overhead associated with migration setup operations need not be paid twice. In fact, a modification of this idea allows the migration to be performed with almost no increase in storage requirements.

Abstract This article analyses the international migrations and statuses of people who left Syria after the outbreak of the civil war. In addition to exploring the dynamics of Syrian refugee migrations since 2011, we also discuss future prospects and possibilities of return. The ambition of the article is twofold. First, we aim to develop and nuance the typology of migrations of Syrians. Secondly, the article seeks to explore useful lessons from former large-scale refugee migrations; that is, knowledge which may hopefully contribute to preparing the relevant institutions and organisations for Syrian migrations in the eventual post-war period. Based on experiences from other post-conflict situations, several possible future scenarios of Syrian migrations are discussed. The proposed typologies of migrants and repatriation regimes may help us understand the nuances, the dynamic of status change and the complexity of the forced migrations. It is maintained that migration trends, reception, and repatriation conditions and policies are highly interconnected. Refugees’ responses to reception and repatriation regimes result in transitions in their legal statuses in receiving countries and changing motivations for migration and repatriation.

Abstract The phenomenon of migration can be observed from the times of the formation of larger population centers associated with a given area. It can be said that migrations have accompanied the entire history of mankind inseparably. Migration is caused by economic crises (economic migrations), political crises (political migrations) or are triggered militarily as part of “demographic weapon”. Migration should be considered in many aspects - both in terms of security as well as socio-economic. It affects many sectors of the functioning of the state. High mobility of the population contributes to the reduction of social and economic disparities between regions. It is also very beneficial from the economic point of view and contributes to the reduction of unemployment with a distinct regional structure. There are also so-called chain migrations. It turns out that migrants from a given country, region or locality tend to concentrate in the same places in the countries of migration destination. This is due to the access to information among migrants and the need to ensure a sense of security by living in one community. Contemporary migration is carried out practically from all countries of the world. A significant improvement in the mobility of the world’s population contributes to the intensification of this phenomenon. The processes of migration is not connected only to changing the place of residence, but also include changing the affiliation and adaptation of the individual to the community.

Main improvements of external migration statistics in EU are presented in the article. On the base of papers presented during the 95th DGINS Conference, experiences of some EU-countries as well as their activities to improve the statistical data quality concerning external migrations are discussed. The statistical system of external migrations in Poland is presented in this context. These very statistics should deliver both data on streams and migration resources. Polish migration statistics use three types of data sources as follows: the administrative system, statistical surveys, foreign data sources. An estimation methodology of migration sizes is an important factor. Some activities, i.e. a spectrum extension of existing as well as a search for new data sources and improvement of current surveys as well as developing international cooperation and wider using results of scientific researches, and intensification of cooperation with government administration as well as units using information on migrations or responsible for migration politics, were implemented to improve the Polish statistical system of external migrations.

Developers heavily rely on Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) from libraries to build their software. As software evolves, developers may need to replace the used libraries with alternate libraries, a process known as library migration. Doing this manually can be tedious, time-consuming, and prone to errors. Automated migration techniques can help alleviate some of this burden. However, designing effective automated migration techniques requires understanding the types of code changes required to transform client code that used the old library to the new library. This paper contributes an empirical study that provides a holistic view of Python library migrations, both in terms of the code changes required in a migration and the typical development effort involved. We manually label 3,096 migration-related code changes in 335 Python library migrations from 311 client repositories spanning 141 library pairs from 35 domains. Based on our labeled data, we derive a taxonomy for describing migration-related code changes, PyMigTax. Leveraging PyMigTax and our labeled data, we investigate various characteristics of Python library migrations, such as the types of program elements and properties of API mappings, the combinations of types of migration-related code changes in a migration, and the typical development effort required for a migration. Our findings highlight various potential shortcomings of current library migration tools. For example, we find that 40% of library pairs have API mappings that involve non-function program elements, while most library migration techniques typically assume that function calls from the source library will map into (one or more) function calls from the target library. As an approximation for the development effort involved, we find that, on average, a developer needs to learn about 4 APIs and 2 API mappings to perform a migration and change 8 lines of code. However, we also found cases of migrations that involve up to 43 unique APIs, 22 API mappings, and 758 lines of code, making them harder to manually implement. Overall, our contributions provide the necessary knowledge and foundations for developing automated Python library migration techniques. We make all data and scripts related to this study publicly available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.24216858.v2.

Many migrations are temporary—a fact that has often been ignored in the economic literature on migration. Such omission may be serious in that expected migration temporariness can impart a distinct dynamic element to immigrants' economic behavior, generating possible consequences for nonmigrants in both home and host countries. In this paper, we provide a thorough examination of the various aspects of temporary migrations that matter for the analysis of economic phenomena. We demonstrate the extent of temporary migrations in population movements. We show how temporariness can affect the various economic choices and how better data have improved both the measurement of nonpermanent migrations and the analyses of various aspects of migrant behavior. We propose a general theoretical framework for modeling temporary migration decisions, based on which we outline the various motives for temporariness while simultaneously reviewing related literature and available data sources. We discuss the possible consequences of migration temporariness for nonmigrants in both home and host countries. (JEL F22, F24, J11, J61, K37, O15)

This article presents a reassessment of archaeological and anthropological articles, lexicostatistical glottochronology, genetic probability affinities, and traditional Cherokee legends to describe the origin and migrations of the Cherokee people. The scenario begins with the Cherokee migrating from their first homeland in middle North America along the Mississippi River to the Greater Southwest around 2800 B. P. Then they began migrating to the southern Great Plains around A.D. 900. A third migration around A.D. 1500 brought them to the Fort Ancient region along the Ohio River. By A.D. 1600, hostile neighbors forced them south across the Ohio River into the Allegheny Mountain ranges of the Southeast. Finally in the late A.D. 1830s, the Cherokee were forced to migrate back to their ancestral homeland in Arkansas and Oklahoma.

AbstractMigrations as an inevitable fact of socioeconomic trends pose a security challenge for migrant countries, transition countries, and the countries where migrants come as to the ultimate destination. They are realized in a large area with a large number of participants and global consequences. This paper, through the basic determinants of migrations, statistical indicators on migrations, security challenges, risks and threats, migration policy and international security, provides answers to the questions about the numerical movement of migrants from the seventies of the last century to today on a global scale. Responses are also given about the reasons for triggering migrations, the most desirable migrant destinations, and the impact of migrations on security in departure, transit and destination countries. Particular attention is given to the last migration crisis that has largely affected the European Union.

Determining migratory connectivity within and among diverse taxa is crucial to their conservation. Insect migrations involve millions of individuals and are often spectacular. However, in general, virtually nothing is known about their structure. With anthropogenically induced global change, we risk losing most of these migrations before they are even described. We used stable hydrogen isotope (δ2H) measurements of wings of seven species of butterflies (Libytheana carinenta, Danaus gilippus, Phoebis sennae, Asterocampa leilia, Euptoieta claudia, Euptoieta hegesia, and Zerene cesonia) salvaged as roadkill when migrating in fall through a narrow bottleneck in northeast Mexico. These data were used to depict the probabilistic origins in North America of six species, excluding the largely local E. hegesia. We determined evidence for long-distance migration in four species (L. carinenta, E. claudia, D. glippus, Z. cesonia) and present evidence for panmixia (Z. cesonia), chain (Libytheana carinenta), and leapfrog (Danaus gilippus) migrations in three species. Our investigation underlines the utility of the stable isotope approach to quickly establish migratory origins and connectivity in butterflies and other insect taxa, especially if they can be sampled at migratory bottlenecks. We make the case for a concerted effort to atlas butterfly migrations using the stable isotope approach.

The stereotyped distribution of identified neurons and glial cells in the leech nervous system is the product of stereotyped cell migrations and rearrangements during embryogenesis. To examine the dependence of long-distance cell migrations on positional cues provided by other tissues, embryos of Theromyzon rude were examined for the effects of selective ablation of various embryonic cell lines on the migration and final distribution of neural and glial precursor cells descended from the bilaterally paired ectodermal cell lines designated q bandlets. The results suggest that neither the commitment of q-bandlet cells to migrate nor the general lateral-to-medial direction of their migration depend on interactions with any other cell line. However, the ability of the migrating cells to follow their normal pathways and to find their normal destinations does depend on interactions with cells of the mesodermal cell line, which appears to provide positional cues that specify the migration pathways.

International migration is one of the most discussed and controversial subjects in policies, programs, and practices. The discussions and controversies commonly revolve around issues of gains and/or otherwise of international migrations: to the world, to the sending and receiving countries, and to the migrants, for example. The objective ramifications of these issues, however, remain unclear in accounts, processes, and outcomes thereby leading to tangled and intellectually complicated narratives and deployments with different effects on international migration policies and practices. What is unclear includes how international migrations should be governed and narrated, how migrations affect development, and how migrants survive at destinations. International migration narratives fall broadly within pro- and anti-migration sentiments with different camps developing narratives to drive their own perspectives. Underlying these tangled perspectives are national, continental, and global orientations. This review essay examines the trajectories of common narratives of international migrations from the perspectives of key international organizations, renegotiations of survival strategies by irregular migrants, and the development experiences of return migrants, all of which will enhance our understanding of the contours and ramifications of international migration.

The migrations of cells and growth cones contribute to form and pattern during metazoan development. To study the mechanisms that regulate cell motility, we have screened for C. elegans mutants defective in the posteriorly directed migrations of the canal-associated neurons (CANs). Here we describe 14 genes necessary for CAN cell migration. Our characterization of the mutants has led to three conclusions. First, the mutations define three gene classes: genes necessary for cell fate specification, genes necessary for multiple cell migrations and a single gene necessary for final positioning of migrating cells. Second, cell interactions between the CAN and HSN, a neuron that migrates anteriorly to a position adjacent to the CAN, control the final destination of the HSN cell body. Third, C. elegans larval development requires the CANs. In the absence of CAN function, larvae arrest development, with excess fluid accumulating in their pseudocoeloms. This phenotype may reflect a role of the CANs in osmoregulation.

Frequency‐domain shot‐record migration can produce higher quality images than Kirchhoff migration but typically at a greater cost. The computing cost of shot‐record migration is the product of the number of shots in the survey and the expense of each individual migration. Many attempts to reduce this cost have focused on the speed of the individual migrations, trying to achieve a better trade‐off between accuracy and speed. Another approach is to reduce the number of migrations. We investigate the simultaneous migration of shot records using frequency‐domain shot‐record migration algorithms. The difficulty with this approach is the production of so‐called crossterms between unrelated shot and receiver wavefields, which generate unwanted artifacts or noise in the final image. To reduce these artifacts and obtain an image comparable in quality to the single‐shot‐per‐migration result, we have introduced a process called phase encoding, which shifts or disperses these crossterms. The process of phase encoding thus allows one to trade S/N ratio for the speed of migrating the entire survey. Several encoding functions and two application strategies have been tested. The first strategy, combining multiple shots per migration and using each shot only once, reduces computation in direct relation to the number of shots combined. The second strategy, performing multiple migrations of all the shots in the survey, provides a means to reduce the crossterm noise by stacking the resulting images. The additional noise in both strategies may be tolerated if it is no stronger than the inherent seismic noise in the migrated image and if the final image is achieved with less cost.

Many zooplankton and fishes vertically migrate on a diel cycle to avoid predation, moving from their daytime residence in darker, deep waters to prey-rich surface waters to feed at dusk and returning to depth before dawn. Vertical migrations also occur in response to other processes that modify local light intensity, such as storms, eclipses, and full moons. We observed rapid, high-frequency migrations, spanning up to 60 m, of a diel vertically migrating acoustic scattering layer with a daytime depth of 300 m in the subpolar Northeastern Pacific Ocean. The depth of the layer was significantly correlated, with an ∼5-min lag, to cloud-driven variability in surface photosynthetically available radiation. A model of isolume-following swimming behavior reproduces the observed layer depth and suggests that the high-frequency migration is a phototactic response to absolute light level. Overall, the cumulative distance traveled per day in response to clouds was at least 36% of the round-trip diel migration distance. This previously undescribed phenomenon has implications for the metabolic requirements of migrating animals while at depth and highlights the powerful evolutionary adaptation for visual predator avoidance.

In order to solve the problem of service interruption caused by user movement and the limited service range of edge nodes, a service migration algorithm based on the multi-attribute Markov decision process was proposed for mobile edge computing. By performing service migration, the distance between the user and the service is always kept to a small range. In addition, in order to prevent the service quality from being affected by the frequent migration of users, the return function of the model was defined by comprehensively considering the service quality, the resource demand of the service, the migration cost, and the movement income of users in each node, and on the premise of taking into account the migration cost and resource conditions, which did not only make up the deficiency of the service migration scheme based solely on distance. The number of migrations is also reduced, and a single migration target server is no longer used. The candidate server set was constructed based on the user’s motion trajectory, and the Q-Learning algorithm was used to solve the problem. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm can reduce the number of migrations and ensure the balance between the number of migrations and the cost of migrations.

Manual migration between various third-party libraries is a problem for software developers. Developers usually need to study the application programming interfaces of both libraries, as well as read their documentation to find suitable comparisons between the replacement and the replaced methods. In this article, I will present a new approach (MIG) to machine learning that recommends mappings between the methods of two API libraries. My model learns from manually found data of implemented migrations, extracts a set of functions related to the similarity of the method signature and text documentation. I evaluated the model using 8 popular migrations compiled from 57,447 open source Java projects. The results show that the model can recommend appropriate library API mappings with an average accuracy rate of 87%. This study examines the problem of recommending method comparisons when migrating between third-party libraries. A new approach is described that recommends the comparison of methods between two unknown libraries using features extracted from the lexical similarity between method names and textual similarity of method documentation. I evaluated the result by checking how this approach and three other most commonly used approaches recommend a comparison of migration methods for 8 popular libraries. I have shown that the proposed approach shows much better accuracy and performance than the other 3 methods. Qualitative and quantitative analysis of the results shows an increase in accuracy by 39.51% in comparison with other well-known approaches.

In the recent Central American migrations spurred by violence, political instability, and economic insecurity, women grapple with whether and when to bring their children with them in pursuit of safety in another country, and with fulfilling their roles as mothers from afar. Drawing from the transnational motherhood literature and critical feminist theories, this interpretive qualitative study examined transnational motherhood grounded in the lived experiences of Central American women (n = 19) over the course of their migrations to the US. Informed by the principles of grounded theory, the inductive analysis identified five processes in which migration and violence shaped meanings of motherhood: risking everything, embodying separation, braving reunification, mothering others, and experiencing motherhood due to sexual violence. The findings contribute knowledge of how violence shapes and informs women’s migrations and decision-making, and the consequences women endure in taking action to mitigate threats of violence in their own and their children’s lives. The analysis furthermore highlights the specific and profound effects of family separation on mothers. The voices, perspectives, and experiences of migrating mothers and the ways in which migration and violence shapes notions and lived experiences of motherhood are imperative to research, practice, and advocacy to change oppressive immigration policies.

Migration of population isn't just peculiarity of this area (Serbia, Republic of Srpska) or of this time. Since always, through out the history, people have been moving from villages to cities (depending on the society type, where the migrations were more or less present), and a large number of migrants had left their country of origin or ethnical provenance migrating to other countries in a search for better life or looking for a protection from persecution and violence. There should be question asked, what are the main causes of migrations? What problems do migrations cause for villages and what for cities? Is it possible to stop these processes? Do the nowdays villages differ from the ones in the past, are the villages merging, does the plummet of people creates big problems for cities? This paper will be mostly about the flows of migration from villages to cities with special accent on the Republic of Srpska. There will be explained the issues that villages encounter, are there policies that are based on conservations of villages, whether young remain in villages or ''flee'' to the cities and other key issues. Attention will also be focused on location and demographics structure of the rural population in the Republic of Srpska.

AbstractThe main aim of the study is to identify the main streams of permanent migration and determine their reach. Special attention has been paid to rural areas (a rural commune, the rural area of an urban–rural commune) as the origin and destination of migration. The study has been conducted at the lowest level of territorial division in Poland (NUTS 5 – cities and communes). The analysed data cover the period between 2002 and 2017 and come from the online database Demografia GUS [Demography, Statistics Poland]. While presenting the volume and directions of migrations, the total and maximum values of migration have been considered. This approach allowed identifying the catchment areas as well as the areas of migratory attractiveness. These areas are highly similar in terms of their spatial extent. However, they differ significantly in terms of magnitude and reach of the main migration streams. Permanent internal migrations within rural areas are the least significant among all migration directions. One of their characteristics is the fact that they are short–distance migrations, occurring between neighbouring units. Permanent internal migrations appear to be a good indicator of urbanisation of suburban zones and the shaping of functional urban–rural–urban connections.

The internal and external migrations of the population in the Komi Autonomy from the time of its creation in 1921 to the end of the 1930s are studied. The authors considered some characteristics of migration processes in the Komi Autonomy of the 1920s - 1930s: the direction of migrations, the role of internal and external, voluntary and forced migrations in the 1920s and 1930s, the ratio of migration and natural increase, the influence of migrations to expand the populated territory and the ethnic composition of the population, the main types of new settlements. It is noted that in the 1920s migration growth was inferior to natural one. Migration processes, the emergence of new settlements and the expansion of the populated territory occurred due to internal demographic resources during voluntary resettlement and agricultural colonization of previously undeveloped lands. In the 1930s migration growth prevailed over natural growth due to the forced resettlement of special settlers and prisoners into the region, sent to work in timber extraction, development of coal and oil fields and construction. By the end of the 1930s the system of settlements and the ethnic composition of the population of Komi Autonomy changed.

The global migrations of athletic workers have increased dramatically in magnitude, composition, and direction in recent years. Studies examining these migrations have, however, remained limited to specific areas and have restricted their vision to those workers employed in the athletic sector. Few studies have drawn on concepts derived from research tracing the migrations of workers in other areas: the highly skilled for example. This paper shows how an understanding of athletic labor migration could be extended by drawing on research from the area of highly skilled labor migration. The paper also proposes a potential framework for future research in this area.

In this issue, we have brought together articles focusing on Indian and South Asian migration experiences and patterns. India has been a major player in international migration, including remittances flows, but also a major scene of internal migrations. This is to an extent perhaps expected as the second largest population in the world residing across a vast geography rich with ethnic, religious and linguistic diversity. The 2018 United Nations World Migration Report states that the Indian diaspora is the largest in the world, with over 15.6 million people living outside the Sub-continent. International migration from India can be traced back even before indentured labour flows initiated under the British colonialism. India is a leading country of origin and a major supplier of skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled work force. These migration flows from India has attracted significant interest among scholars of migration studies. In this editorial, we are offering some insights and an overview of Indian migrations since the British era.

Women have always taken part in migrations, but their presence varied depending on their origins, on the labour market situation both in the areas of origin and in the target areas, as well as the migration policies in the immigration areas. Their presence was not always visible and did not attract as much scholarly and political attention as today. What happened, how can one explain such an interest lately, whereas only few years ago the subject was marginal, in the shadow of the "mainstream - malestream", i.e. migration as a phenomenon which focuses on geographic mobility of men, while women are not considered as equal protagonists, they either follow or remain at home. Could the so called "feminization" of migration explain the great and sudden interest for women and gender in migrations? This text critically examines the notion of "feminization" considered today as one of the main dimensions of global migration flows. Drawing on trends both globally and in specific countries, it shows that "feminization" is neither a new nor a sudden trend and entails variations depending on the origins, level of development and maturity of migration flows. In some groups men were primo-migrants and with a gradual feminization the flows reach a balanced sex ratio. There where women migrated first, or became numerically predominant, one observs the opposite trend: a "masculinization". Some authors rightly refer to "gender transition", the term which covers both trends. It is argued in the conclusion that the visibility and growing interest for women in migration and, more recently, for a gender perspective in migration, is not only due to the changing migration patterns and profile of migrants but also to the renewal of theoretical perspectives in migration and gender studies in a context that largely facilitated that renewal. The focus of our attention today on specific aspects of migration is triggered not only by genuine changes in migration trends, but it is also a result of a long process of visibilisation in the academic production on migration, women and gender. These trends may have existed earlier in the migration history but had remained in the shadow of categories defining, recording and analyzing migration.

Cloud data centers consume huge amount of electrical energy bringing about in high operating costs and carbon dioxide emissions. Virtual machine (VM) consolidation utilizes live migration of virtual machines (VMs) to transfer a VM among physical servers in order to improve the utilization of resources and energy efficiency in cloud data centers. Most of the current VM consolidation approaches tend to aggressive-migrate for some types of applications such as large capacity application such as speech recognition, image processing, and decision support systems. These approaches generate a high migration thrashing because VMs are consolidated to servers according to VM’s instant resource usage without considering their overall and long-term utilization. The proposed approach, dynamic consolidation with minimization of migration thrashing (DCMMT) which prioritizes VM with high capacity, significantly reduces migration thrashing and the number of migrations to ensure service-level agreement (SLA) since it keeps VMs likely to suffer from migration thrashing in the same physical servers instead of migrating. We have performed experiments using real workload traces compared to existing aggressive-migration-based solutions; through simulations, we show that our approach improves migration thrashing metric by about 28%, number of migrations metric by about 21%, and SLAV metric by about 19%.

Despite Dual Careers (sports and education) and mobility of students being priorities in the funding policies of the European Commission, migrating student-athletes report severe challenges and decreased performance or dropouts at sport and academic levels. The objective of this study was to depict and assess the perceptions on challenges, support services, and their effectiveness in consideration of specific characteristics of participants and migrations. Based on a meta-synthesis and previous findings, a 50-items questionnaire was developed and completed by 245 student-athletes in 5 European countries. Participants with Dual Careers migration experience (n = 140) were considered for analyses of qualitative and quantitative (ordinal 5pt-Likert-scaled and metric) data on the Dual Career status, migration characteristics, received services, and outcomes. Chi-square-tests were conducted for differences between countries and genders at a significance level of p < .05. Country-related differences were found for experiences and intentions to migrate (X2(12) = 50.52, p<0.001), duration of the migration (X2(16) = 38.20, p = 0.001), financial support (X2(8) = 29.87, p<0.001), and decreased performances in academics (X2(16) = 56.12, p<0.001) and sports (X2(16) = 31.79, p = 0.01). Gender-related difference emerged in financial support (X2(4) = 10.68, p = 0.03), duration of the migration (X2(4) = 14.56, p = 0.01), and decreased academic performance (X2(4) = 10.57, p = 0.03). Tutoring and counselling support was ranked as the most effective support, especially when received from the academic field (4.0±1.0 pt) and others (4.1±0.8 pt), followed by online services from sport and academic sectors (both: 3.9±0.9 pt). Considering the pervasive globalization of sport and education, Dual Career migration can contribute to the development of a European sport culture. The high ratio of migrating student-athletes underlines the relevance of migrations in the field of Dual Careers. This study contributes to the literature by adding insights on practices, challenges, supports, and outcomes perceived by student-athletes migrating in Europe. Moreover, country- and gender-related differences support the consideration of specific characteristics and reveal critical factors in specific target groups. The findings contribute to identifying requirements and effective support measures in Dual Career migrations and can be used to improve support services.

This article uses international migration flow (entry and exit) data as compiled by Walter Willcox and Imre Ferenczi (1970 [1929]) for the years between 1820 and 1924 to discuss the timing and cause of a transition in gender ratios—from male-dominated to gender-balanced—among international migrants. The article compares gender ratios for international migrants at the national, regional, and global levels and identifies when and how migration patterns to the United States resembled those to other parts of the world. Historical variations in gender ratios were considerable enough to render problematic the frequently used label “male-dominated” when applied to past migrations. The article discusses past cases of gender-balanced and female-predominant migrations and proposes an alternative typology for distinguishing among differently gendered international migrations. While some scholarly and popular sources depict the feminization of international migration as a recent phenomenon, historical data suggest that the convergence toward gender-balanced migrations began in the first half of the twentieth century. The article concludes by addressing contemporary debates over globalization and migration and cautions scholars against equating increased female mobility with egalitarian gender relations.

Dramatic events in human prehistory, such as the spread of agriculture to Europe from Anatolia and the late Neolithic/Bronze Age migration from the Pontic-Caspian Steppe, can be investigated using patterns of genetic variation among the people who lived in those times. In particular, studies of differing female and male demographic histories on the basis of ancient genomes can provide information about complexities of social structures and cultural interactions in prehistoric populations. We use a mechanistic admixture model to compare the sex-specifically–inherited X chromosome with the autosomes in 20 early Neolithic and 16 late Neolithic/Bronze Age human remains. Contrary to previous hypotheses suggested by the patrilocality of many agricultural populations, we find no evidence of sex-biased admixture during the migration that spread farming across Europe during the early Neolithic. For later migrations from the Pontic Steppe during the late Neolithic/Bronze Age, however, we estimate a dramatic male bias, with approximately five to 14 migrating males for every migrating female. We find evidence of ongoing, primarily male, migration from the steppe to central Europe over a period of multiple generations, with a level of sex bias that excludes a pulse migration during a single generation. The contrasting patterns of sex-specific migration during these two migrations suggest a view of differing cultural histories in which the Neolithic transition was driven by mass migration of both males and females in roughly equal numbers, perhaps whole families, whereas the later Bronze Age migration and cultural shift were instead driven by male migration, potentially connected to new technology and conquest.

Simultaneous comparison of planktivore and crustacean zooplankton distribution patterns in a set of British Columbia lakes suggested coupled diel vertical migration behavior in the two adjacent trophic levels. In lakes where juvenile sockeye salmon performed diel vertical migrations, most zooplankton were non-migratory and concentrated in shallow surface waters over the diel cycle. In contrast, in one lake where pelagic threespine sticklebacks were present, and where juvenile sockeye diel vertical migrations were periodically reversed, most zooplankton undertook diel vertical migrations. The presence of diel vertical migration behavior in zooplankton thus appears to be related to the presence or absence of the behavior in the predominant planktivores.

Larner and Beasley (1987) present cascaded migration as a way to increase the power and effectiveness of relatively simple migration methods. In particular, f-k migration (Stolt, 1978) can be made to accommodate a depth‐dependent velocity as a cascade of constant‐velocity migrations. The core concept is that data which have been migrated with an approximate velocity can be effectively migrated to their true velocity by migrating with a velocity that is equal to the square root of the difference between the squares of the true and approximate velocities.

The desert locust, Schistocerca gregaria (Forsk., 1775), stands as one of the most pervasive pests globally, inflicting extensive damage across Asia and Africa. Facilitated by intercontinental migration, the desert locust engages in population exchange between different source areas, perpetuating its widespread proliferation. Despite the wind being recognized as a key factor during migration events, elucidating its precise influence on intercontinental migration has remained elusive. In this study, we scrutinized monitoring data sourced from the FAO monitoring system, pinpointing 13 desert locust events featuring intercontinental migrations since 1967. From these events, four migration routes were summarized, traversing the Red Sea (RS-WE and RS-EW) and the northern Indian Ocean (IO-WE and IO-EW). Typically, RS-WE and IO-EW migrations occurred between December and March, whereas RS-EW and IO-WE migrations were observed from May to June and April to July, respectively. Our examination of wind field data spanning the past 15 years revealed that wind direction and speed facilitated intercontinental migrations. Furthermore, migration trajectory modeling indicated that desert locusts might exhibit migratory behavior both during the day and at night in the cases of RS-WE and RS-EW, with cross-oceanic migration potentially lasting for a week for IO-WE and IO-EW. In summary, our study identifies four migration routes for the intercontinental migration of the desert locust, providing crucial support for the scientific prediction of its occurrence and contributing to international food security efforts.

This study deals with seasonal migration as a special frame of migration. These migrations date back to the early days and consist of the movement of the population for a certain period of time, which are mainly related to the grazing of animals in the hilly-mountainous areas for higher productivity. In the territory of Kosova, as well, this sort of migration is quite emphatic, specifically in Rugova Mountain (Albanian Alps). The basic purpose of this research is the evidence of the main reasons of seasonal migration and the benefits of it. It is quite apparent that the main reasons are economic in nature, therefore through this research the key factor why the migrations reside those high mountain areas during warm seasons have been analyzed. Moreover, beside those migration reasons, a special emphasis in this study is given to the benefits those migrations have been bringing to the immigrant country, as well as to the migrant one.

AbstractCutaneous cysts with trematodes of Collyriclum faba have been found in birds during their spring and post-breeding migrations in the Czech Republic. During spring migrations, C. faba was found in one dunnock Prunella modularis, two European robins Erithacus rubecula, three common nightingales Luscinia megarhynchos, one song thrush Turdus philomelos and one great reed warbler Acrocephalus arundinaceus. During post-breeding migration, the same parasite was found in one garden warbler Sylvia borin, one whitehroat S. communis, three goldcrests Regulus regulus and one Eurasian treecreeper Certhia familiaris. The newly identified hosts of C. faba are dunnock, common nightingale, song thrush, great reed warbler and Eurasian treecreeper. Geographical areas of the birds' infection were identified from an analysis of reports on ringed birds of the same species, the time necessary for the development of cutaneous cysts with C. faba and the time of their survival, and hitherto known geographical areas of endemic occurrence of C. faba. It is presumed that birds trapped during spring migrations were infected in some montane and submontane regions in south-western Europe (the Alps, the Apennines). Birds infected during autumn migration or post-breeding vagrancy could have been infected in the Central European Carpathians, the region of C. faba endemic occurrence. For migrating birds, the impact of C. faba infections has not been hitherto assessed.

In this paper, I will deal with transdisciplinary artistic and media practices on the example of a project “Migrations in Art – the Art of Migrations” that was realized by the Gallery of Matica Srpska in Novi Sad, Serbia. This project is a good example of interdisciplinary connection on the topic of migration, a topic that I also deal with in my Ph.D. dissertation. I would especially like to refer to the new theoretical and sociological readings in this example and the way in which certain practices have been applied and linked in this project. I will also show why this approach is very important for understanding the way the issue of migrants and migration are presented in the media and in artistic practice, which significantly implies the presentation of this very important 21st-century issue. I would try to shift the focus toward migrant corridors and new tendencies in art projects that provide “flashbacks” to the past and search for connective tissue with the present. Article received: May 17, 2022; Article accepted: July 15, 2022; Published online: October 15, 2022; Original scholarly paper

Theorists of migration attempt to establish certain basic frameworks for their classification and ranking, and nowadays, they also do so by introducing subcategories. However, the complexities still burden the precise delineation of all nuances of migration processes and their causes. This article, as a case study, is trying to make a small contribution to the vast topic of Balkan migrations. The focus is solely on the migration processes of the Macedonian population towards the territory of Bulgaria (in the 1870s and at the beginning of the 20th century) and their aftermath (acculturation). For this occasion, starting from the premise of „all refugees are migrants, but not every migrant is a refugee”, migrations are defined only using the following terms: 1) forced migrations with their product being refugees, and 2) continuous voluntary or so-called „quiet” migration processes. This article analyses an original document produced by a marginalised group in Bulgarian society: „ notes” written on the blank spaces of the history. In this case, the viewpoints of these author(s) clash with the mainstream immigration policy of Bulgaria. This document in itself is xenophobic towards all those who do not originate from Bulgaria. However, certain details it provides correspond to the ways in which so-called „quiet” migrations unfold.

Temporary or permanent, local or international, voluntary or forced, legal or illegal, registered or unregistered migrations of individuals, whole communities or individual groups are an important factor in constructing and modifying (modern) societies. The extent of international migrations is truly immense. At the time of the preparation of this publication more than 200 million people have been involved in migrations in a single year according to the United Nations. Furthermore, three times more wish to migrate, mostly from sub-Saharan Africa towards some of the most economically developed areas of the world according to the estimates by the Gallup Institute (Esipova, 2011). Some authors, although aware that it is not a new phenomenon, talk about the era of migration (Castles, Miller, 2009) or the globalization of migration (Friedman, 2004). The global dimensions of migration are definitely influenced also by the increasingly visible features of modern societies like constantly changing conditions, instability, fluidity, uncertainty etc. (Beck, 2009; Bauman, 2002).The extent, direction, type of migrations and their consequences are affected by many social and natural factors in the areas of emigration and immigration. In addition, researchers from many scientific disciplines who study migrations have raised a wide range of research questions (Boyle, 2009, 96), use a variety of methodological approaches and look for different interpretations in various spatial, temporal and contextual frameworks. The migrations are a complex, multi-layered, variable, contextual process that takes place at several levels. Because of this, research on migrations has become an increasingly interdisciplinary field, since the topics and problems are so complex that they cannot be grasped solely and exclusively from the perspective of a single discipline or theory. Therefore, we are witnessing a profusion of different “faces of migration”, which is reflected and at the same time also contributed to by this thematic issue of the journal Ars & Humanitas.While mobility or migration are not new phenomena, as people have moved and migrated throughout the history of mankind, only recently, in the last few decades, has theoretical and research focus on them intensified considerably. In the last two decades a number of research projects, university programs and courses, research institutes, scientific conferences, seminars, magazines, books and other publications, involving research, academia as well as politics and various civil society organizations have emerged. This shows the recent exceptional interest in the issue of migration, both in terms of knowledge of the processes involved, their mapping in the history of mankind, as well as the theoretical development of migration studies and daily management of this politically sensitive issue.Migration affects many entities on many different levels: the individuals, their families and entire communities at the local level in the emigrant societies as well as in the receiving societies. The migration is changing not only the lives of individuals but whole communities and societies, as well as social relations; it is also shifting the cultural patterns and bringing important social transformations (Castles 2010). This of course raises a number of questions, problems and issues ranging from human rights violations to literary achievements. Some of these are addressed by the authors in this thematic issue.The title “Many faces of migration”, connecting contributions in this special issue, is borrowed from the already mentioned Gallup Institute’s report on global migration (Esipova, 2011). The guiding principle in the selection of the contributions has been their diversity, reflected also in the list of disciplines represented by the authors: sociology, geography, ethnology and cultural anthropology, history, art history, modern Mediterranean studies, gender studies and media studies. Such an approach necessarily leads not only to a diverse, but at least seemingly also incompatible, perhaps even opposing views “on a given topic. However, we did not want to silence the voices of “other” disciplines, but within the reviewing procedures actually invited scientists from the fields represented by the contributors to this volume. The wealth of the selected contributions lies therefore not only in their coherence and complementarity, but also in the diversity of views, stories and interpretations.The paper of Zora Žbontar deals with the attitudes towards foreigners in ancient Greece, where the hospitality to strangers was considered so worthy a virtue that everyone was expected to “demonstrate hospitality and protection to any foreigner who has knocked on their door”. The contrast between the hospitality of ancient Greece and the modern emergence of xenophobia and ways of dealing with migration issues in economically developed countries is especially challenging. “In an open gesture of hospitality to strangers the ancient Greeks showed their civilization”.Although the aforementioned research by the United Nations and Gallup Institute support some traditional stereotypes of the main global flows of migrants, and the areas about which the potential migrants “dream”, Bojan Baskar stresses the coexistence of different migratory desires, migration flows and their interpretations. In his paper he specifically focuses on overcoming and relativising stereotypes as well as theories of immobile and non-enterprising (Alpine) mountain populations and migrations.The different strategies of the crossing borders adopted by migrant women are studied by Mirjana Morokvasic. She marks them as true social innovators, inventing different ways of transnational life resulting in a bottom-up contribution to the integrative processes across Europe. Some of their innovations go as far as to shift diverse real and symbolic boundaries of belonging to a nation, gender, profession.Elaine Burroughs and Zoë O’Reilly highlight the close relations between the otherwise well-established terminology used in statistics and science to label immigrants in Ireland and elsewhere in EU, and the negative representations of certain types of migrants in politics and the public. The discussion focusses particularly on asylum seekers and illegal immigrants who come from outside the EU. The use of language can quickly become a political means of exclusion, therefore the authors propose the development and use of more considerate and balanced migration terminology.Damir Josipovič proposes a change of the focal point for identifying and interpreting the well-studied migrations in the former Yugoslavia. The author suggests changing the dualistic view of these migrations to an integrated, holistic view. Instead of a simplified understanding of these migrations as either international or domestic, voluntary or forced, he proposes a concept of pseudo-voluntary migrations.Maja Korać-Sanderson's contribution highlights an interesting phenomenon in the shift in the traditional patterns of gender roles. The conclusions are derived from the study of the family life of Chinese traders in transitional Serbia. While many studies suggest that child care in recent decades in immigrant societies is generally performed by immigrants, her study reveals that in Serbia, the Chinese merchants entrust the care of their children mostly to local middle class women. The author finds this switch of roles in the “division of labour” in the child care favourable for both parties involved.Francesco Della Puppa focuses on a specific part of the mosaic of contemporary migrations in the Mediterranean: the Bangladeshi immigrant community in the highly industrialized North East of Italy. The results of his in-depth qualitative study reveal the factors that shape this segment of the Bangladeshi diaspora, the experiences of migrants and the effects of migration on their social and biographical trajectories.John A. Schembri and Maria Attard present a snippet of a more typical Mediterranean migration process - immigration to Malta. The authors highlight the reduction in migration between Malta and the United Kingdom, while there is an increase in immigration to Malta from the rest of Europe and sub-Saharan Africa. Amongst the various impacts of immigration to Malta the extraordinary concentration of immigrant populations is emphasized, since the population density of Malta far exceeds that of nearly all other European countries.Miha Kozorog studies the link between migration and constructing their places of their origin. On the basis of Ardener’s theory the author expresses “remoteness” of the emigratory Slavia Friulana in terms of topology, in relation to other places, rather than in topography. “Remoteness” is formed in relation to the “outside world”, to those who speak of “remote areas” from the privileged centres. The example of an artistic event, which organizers aim “to open a place like this to the outside world”, “to encourage the production of more cosmopolitan place”, shows only the temporary effect of such event on the reduction of the “remoteness”.Jani Kozina presents a study of the basic temporal and spatial characteristics of migration “of people in creative occupations” in Slovenia. The definition of this specific segment of the population and approach to study its migrations are principally based on the work of Richard Florida. The author observes that people with creative occupations in Slovenia are very immobile and in this respect quite similar to other professional groups in Slovenia, but also to the people in creative professions in the Southern and Eastern Europe, which are considered to be among the least mobile in Europe. Detailed analyses show that the people in creative occupations from the more developed regions generally migrate more intensely and are also more willing to relocate.Mojca Pajnik and Veronika Bajt study the experiences of migrant women with the access to the labour market in Slovenia. Existing laws and policies push the migrants into a position where, if they want to get to work, have to accept less demanding work. In doing so, the migrant women are targets of stereotyped reactions and practices of discrimination on the basis of sex, age, attributed ethnic and religious affiliation, or some other circumstances, particularly the fact of being migrants. At the same time the latter results in the absence of any protection from the state.Migration studies often assume that the target countries are “modern” and countries of origin “traditional”. Anıl Al- Rebholz argues that such a dichotomous conceptualization of modern and traditional further promotes stereotypical, essentialist and homogenizing images of Muslim women in the “western world”. On the basis of biographical narratives of young Kurdish and Moroccan women as well as the relationships between mothers and daughters, the author illustrates a variety of strategies of empowerment of young women in the context of transnational migration.A specific face of migration is highlighted in the text of Svenka Savić, namely the face of artistic migration between Slovenia and Serbia after the Second World War. The author explains how more than thirty artists from Slovenia, with their pioneering work in three ensembles (opera, ballet and theatre), significantly contributed to the development of the performing arts in the Serbian National Theatre in Novi Sad.We believe that in the present thematic issue we have succeeded in capturing an important part of the modern European research dynamic in the field of migration. In addition to well-known scholars in this field several young authors at the beginning their research careers have been shortlisted for the publication. We are glad of their success as it bodes a vibrancy of this research area in the future. At the same time, we were pleased to receive responses to the invitation from representatives of so many disciplines, and that the number of papers received significantly exceeded the maximum volume of the journal. Recognising and understanding of the many faces of migration are important steps towards the comprehensive knowledge needed to successfully meet the challenges of migration issues today and even more so in the future. It is therefore of utmost importance that researchers find ways of transferring their academic knowledge into practice – to all levels of education, the media, the wider public and, of course, the decision makers in local, national and international institutions. The call also applies to all authors in this issue of the journal.

Temporary or permanent, local or international, voluntary or forced, legal or illegal, registered or unregistered migrations of individuals, whole communities or individual groups are an important factor in constructing and modifying (modern) societies. The extent of international migrations is truly immense. At the time of the preparation of this publication more than 200 million people have been involved in migrations in a single year according to the United Nations. Furthermore, three times more wish to migrate, mostly from sub-Saharan Africa towards some of the most economically developed areas of the world according to the estimates by the Gallup Institute (Esipova, 2011). Some authors, although aware that it is not a new phenomenon, talk about the era of migration (Castles, Miller, 2009) or the globalization of migration (Friedman, 2004). The global dimensions of migration are definitely influenced also by the increasingly visible features of modern societies like constantly changing conditions, instability, fluidity, uncertainty etc. (Beck, 2009; Bauman, 2002).The extent, direction, type of migrations and their consequences are affected by many social and natural factors in the areas of emigration and immigration. In addition, researchers from many scientific disciplines who study migrations have raised a wide range of research questions (Boyle, 2009, 96), use a variety of methodological approaches and look for different interpretations in various spatial, temporal and contextual frameworks. The migrations are a complex, multi-layered, variable, contextual process that takes place at several levels. Because of this, research on migrations has become an increasingly interdisciplinary field, since the topics and problems are so complex that they cannot be grasped solely and exclusively from the perspective of a single discipline or theory. Therefore, we are witnessing a profusion of different “faces of migration”, which is reflected and at the same time also contributed to by this thematic issue of the journal Ars & Humanitas.While mobility or migration are not new phenomena, as people have moved and migrated throughout the history of mankind, only recently, in the last few decades, has theoretical and research focus on them intensified considerably. In the last two decades a number of research projects, university programs and courses, research institutes, scientific conferences, seminars, magazines, books and other publications, involving research, academia as well as politics and various civil society organizations have emerged. This shows the recent exceptional interest in the issue of migration, both in terms of knowledge of the processes involved, their mapping in the history of mankind, as well as the theoretical development of migration studies and daily management of this politically sensitive issue.Migration affects many entities on many different levels: the individuals, their families and entire communities at the local level in the emigrant societies as well as in the receiving societies. The migration is changing not only the lives of individuals but whole communities and societies, as well as social relations; it is also shifting the cultural patterns and bringing important social transformations (Castles 2010). This of course raises a number of questions, problems and issues ranging from human rights violations to literary achievements. Some of these are addressed by the authors in this thematic issue.The title “Many faces of migration”, connecting contributions in this special issue, is borrowed from the already mentioned Gallup Institute’s report on global migration (Esipova, 2011). The guiding principle in the selection of the contributions has been their diversity, reflected also in the list of disciplines represented by the authors: sociology, geography, ethnology and cultural anthropology, history, art history, modern Mediterranean studies, gender studies and media studies. Such an approach necessarily leads not only to a diverse, but at least seemingly also incompatible, perhaps even opposing views “on a given topic. However, we did not want to silence the voices of “other” disciplines, but within the reviewing procedures actually invited scientists from the fields represented by the contributors to this volume. The wealth of the selected contributions lies therefore not only in their coherence and complementarity, but also in the diversity of views, stories and interpretations.The paper of Zora Žbontar deals with the attitudes towards foreigners in ancient Greece, where the hospitality to strangers was considered so worthy a virtue that everyone was expected to “demonstrate hospitality and protection to any foreigner who has knocked on their door”. The contrast between the hospitality of ancient Greece and the modern emergence of xenophobia and ways of dealing with migration issues in economically developed countries is especially challenging. “In an open gesture of hospitality to strangers the ancient Greeks showed their civilization”.Although the aforementioned research by the United Nations and Gallup Institute support some traditional stereotypes of the main global flows of migrants, and the areas about which the potential migrants “dream”, Bojan Baskar stresses the coexistence of different migratory desires, migration flows and their interpretations. In his paper he specifically focuses on overcoming and relativising stereotypes as well as theories of immobile and non-enterprising (Alpine) mountain populations and migrations.The different strategies of the crossing borders adopted by migrant women are studied by Mirjana Morokvasic. She marks them as true social innovators, inventing different ways of transnational life resulting in a bottom-up contribution to the integrative processes across Europe. Some of their innovations go as far as to shift diverse real and symbolic boundaries of belonging to a nation, gender, profession.Elaine Burroughs and Zoë O’Reilly highlight the close relations between the otherwise well-established terminology used in statistics and science to label immigrants in Ireland and elsewhere in EU, and the negative representations of certain types of migrants in politics and the public. The discussion focusses particularly on asylum seekers and illegal immigrants who come from outside the EU. The use of language can quickly become a political means of exclusion, therefore the authors propose the development and use of more considerate and balanced migration terminology.Damir Josipovič proposes a change of the focal point for identifying and interpreting the well-studied migrations in the former Yugoslavia. The author suggests changing the dualistic view of these migrations to an integrated, holistic view. Instead of a simplified understanding of these migrations as either international or domestic, voluntary or forced, he proposes a concept of pseudo-voluntary migrations.Maja Korać-Sanderson's contribution highlights an interesting phenomenon in the shift in the traditional patterns of gender roles. The conclusions are derived from the study of the family life of Chinese traders in transitional Serbia. While many studies suggest that child care in recent decades in immigrant societies is generally performed by immigrants, her study reveals that in Serbia, the Chinese merchants entrust the care of their children mostly to local middle class women. The author finds this switch of roles in the “division of labour” in the child care favourable for both parties involved.Francesco Della Puppa focuses on a specific part of the mosaic of contemporary migrations in the Mediterranean: the Bangladeshi immigrant community in the highly industrialized North East of Italy. The results of his in-depth qualitative study reveal the factors that shape this segment of the Bangladeshi diaspora, the experiences of migrants and the effects of migration on their social and biographical trajectories.John A. Schembri and Maria Attard present a snippet of a more typical Mediterranean migration process - immigration to Malta. The authors highlight the reduction in migration between Malta and the United Kingdom, while there is an increase in immigration to Malta from the rest of Europe and sub-Saharan Africa. Amongst the various impacts of immigration to Malta the extraordinary concentration of immigrant populations is emphasized, since the population density of Malta far exceeds that of nearly all other European countries.Miha Kozorog studies the link between migration and constructing their places of their origin. On the basis of Ardener’s theory the author expresses “remoteness” of the emigratory Slavia Friulana in terms of topology, in relation to other places, rather than in topography. “Remoteness” is formed in relation to the “outside world”, to those who speak of “remote areas” from the privileged centres. The example of an artistic event, which organizers aim “to open a place like this to the outside world”, “to encourage the production of more cosmopolitan place”, shows only the temporary effect of such event on the reduction of the “remoteness”.Jani Kozina presents a study of the basic temporal and spatial characteristics of migration “of people in creative occupations” in Slovenia. The definition of this specific segment of the population and approach to study its migrations are principally based on the work of Richard Florida. The author observes that people with creative occupations in Slovenia are very immobile and in this respect quite similar to other professional groups in Slovenia, but also to the people in creative professions in the Southern and Eastern Europe, which are considered to be among the least mobile in Europe. Detailed analyses show that the people in creative occupations from the more developed regions generally migrate more intensely and are also more willing to relocate.Mojca Pajnik and Veronika Bajt study the experiences of migrant women with the access to the labour market in Slovenia. Existing laws and policies push the migrants into a position where, if they want to get to work, have to accept less demanding work. In doing so, the migrant women are targets of stereotyped reactions and practices of discrimination on the basis of sex, age, attributed ethnic and religious affiliation, or some other circumstances, particularly the fact of being migrants. At the same time the latter results in the absence of any protection from the state.Migration studies often assume that the target countries are “modern” and countries of origin “traditional”. Anıl Al- Rebholz argues that such a dichotomous conceptualization of modern and traditional further promotes stereotypical, essentialist and homogenizing images of Muslim women in the “western world”. On the basis of biographical narratives of young Kurdish and Moroccan women as well as the relationships between mothers and daughters, the author illustrates a variety of strategies of empowerment of young women in the context of transnational migration.A specific face of migration is highlighted in the text of Svenka Savić, namely the face of artistic migration between Slovenia and Serbia after the Second World War. The author explains how more than thirty artists from Slovenia, with their pioneering work in three ensembles (opera, ballet and theatre), significantly contributed to the development of the performing arts in the Serbian National Theatre in Novi Sad.We believe that in the present thematic issue we have succeeded in capturing an important part of the modern European research dynamic in the field of migration. In addition to well-known scholars in this field several young authors at the beginning their research careers have been shortlisted for the publication. We are glad of their success as it bodes a vibrancy of this research area in the future. At the same time, we were pleased to receive responses to the invitation from representatives of so many disciplines, and that the number of papers received significantly exceeded the maximum volume of the journal. Recognising and understanding of the many faces of migration are important steps towards the comprehensive knowledge needed to successfully meet the challenges of migration issues today and even more so in the future. It is therefore of utmost importance that researchers find ways of transferring their academic knowledge into practice – to all levels of education, the media, the wider public and, of course, the decision makers in local, national and international institutions. The call also applies to all authors in this issue of the journal.