INTERNATIONAL MIGRATIONS - A FRAMEWORK FOR DIRECTING RESEARCH

Current, large-scale, cross-cultural migrations offer promising resear ch targets for the study of human adaptations. The opportunities for s uch research, however, remain substantially unused in the mainstream o f psychology. The purpose here is to provide a framework encompassing components of the migration experience to aid such research. Contextua l factors in the sending and receiving societies impinge on the compon ents of the migration experience: social networks, socioeconomic statu s, and culture. The components, treated as intertwining transitional e xperiences in migration, should be juxtaposed in research to examine t heir effects. Gender and age mediate the effects. The framework aims t o benefit research that implicates, directly or heuristically, the exp eriences of persons exposed to rapid sociocultural change and the cons equences of such changes in their lives.