Micro-migration: Global domestic intergenerational cultural conflict.

Abstract

Many countries in Europe and North America experience waves of immigrants and refugees with cultural, religious and socio-economic backgrounds that are different and oftentimes clash with traditions and cultures of the host countries (Amnesty International, 2018; Clifton, 2012; Newport, 2018). Many developed as well as emerging and developing economies have been experiencing internal immigration where there are waves of populations’ shifts from poor rural areas to the rapidly developing and expanding urban industrial metropolises (McCranalan & Martine, 2014; Tocali, 2012). The magnitude of acrossand withincountries migrations is immense and they cause significant strains on all communities involved. Newcomers who were uprooted from their previous milieu are required to adapt to the new unfamiliar environment while struggling with financial shortage, lack of basic necessities and oftentimes hostility of non-hospitable threatened citizenry. Migration is currently considered to be a global problem causing concerns on multiple facets of well-being. Nations, cities, neighbourhoods and individuals are affected and remedies to reduce negative impacts should be and are being taken. Migration is influenced by globalization and the exponential explosion of technological advances. Triggers for migration include shaken personal safety, violent conflicts, natural disasters, poverty, discrimination as well as other reasons that may cause desperation. In pursuit of happiness and prosperity, people are driven to perceived better destinations. Dream images are oftentimes formulated by interpretation of messages in mass media and personal Internet and phone networks. Legal and illegal national and global transportation routes facilitate mobility within and across borders. Issues of macro populations’ migrations from one geographic location to another occupy news media, politicians and social scientists on a daily basis. Social and economic mobility, fluidity and instability are of a wide interest and concern. Micro-migration is “Exodus of ‘modernized’ youth from the bondage of the oppressing traditional cultural values of their parents, extended family and society”. It has been percolating under the surface of social texture of a number of traditional societies and eventually may be a force to change them in situ. A major driver of micro-migration has been the proliferation, intensive and extensive penetration and availability of Internet-driven information, ideas and trends. Laptops and especially smartphones are widely available, inexpensive and a basic personal necessity in many areas that are considered, by Western perception, to be ‘remote’ and poor. Attempts by governments or closed communities to block or limit electronic information have mostly failed. The power of electronic communications was clearly demonstrated in the protests of the so-called ‘Arab spring’. Internet is also wisely used by commercial, political and even underground organizations. E-communications penetrate closed domestic walls and enter ears and minds of any person who is exposed to them. Western fashions, trends, ideas and concepts flood the e-information vehicles and networks. Women and other disadvantaged populations become more aware of their potential opportunities, possibilities and rights, and these may be misaligned with laws implemented in their countries and imposed by their families. In traditional societies, there is an intergenerational gap in the impact and rate of changing attitudes and cultural norms. Importantly, a large number of highly educated females whose aspirations are at odds with those of their families’ expectations are struggling for selffulfilment and realization of their equal rights and dreams. They do not necessarily wish to run away and migrate out of their community and home. They emotionally, culturally and conceptually migrate from their nest but stay within it.