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Decentering Migration Knowledge (DemiKnow)

Migration affects countries of departure, transition, and destination. But knowledge production about migration is dominated by destination countries in the Global North. The project aims to reduce this inequality by creating a dialogue about drivers, processes, and consequences of migration form multiple perspectives; producing and disseminating knowledge by scholars from both the Global South and Global North; and generating insights on how to make international research partnerships more inclusive.

The project is funded by the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and coordination by Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU). The project brings together four migration research centres, from Australia, Canada, China, and India to create new knowledge about migration from the Global South and North about:

  • The roles of families in migration in different contexts; and
  • How best to navigate different structures, cultures, and interests in collaborative international research.

Working in interdependent teams, each project partner focuses on:

  • Studying how families shape migration decisions; facilitate and impede settlement and integration of migrants; and are impacted by migration related policies and processes.
  • Creating opportunities for emergent scholars and students to enhance their capacity for international work by conducting joint studies and exchanging visits.
  • Jointly preparing a proposal for a large-scale migration research project informed by lessons learned from DemiKnow.

In Australia, a project component on family decision making and transnational grandparent migration is led by Prof Loretta Baldassar, Dr Catriona Stevens, and Dr Hien Thi Nguyen (hereinafter referred to as the ECU Demiknow Team). This component involves two research entities: the ECU SAGE Lab and the ECU TRACS Migration Research Network. The ECU DemiKnow team explores intergenerational family decision making, migration experiences, and settlement of migrant grandparents from various nationalities who leave their homelands and join families in Australia. The research themes focus on:

  • The processes of intergeneration family decision making and settlement and acculturation processes for grandparent migrants and their families in Australia.
  • The determinants that influence the intergenerational family decision-making process for grandparents’ migration.
  • The roles, responsibilities, obligations, and experiences of grandparents in transnational families.
  • The impacts of migration policies and family decision making processes on grandparent’s lives, temporary migration experiences and on other families in both the sending and receiving places.
  • The impact of COVID-19 on migration experiences and on family decision-making processes.
  • The use of ICTs and new media by transnational families and grandparents to cope with the constraints caused by geographic distance or forced separation.

Upon project completion, we aim to create and share best practices for future research and policies on ageing, aged care, and evidence-based models. These will benefit older people and their families who are ageing away from their home countries.

Funding agency

The Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (2021-2024).

Project duration

January 2021 – December 2024

Publications

Researchers

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