Ambivalence as an interpretive tool in sociology refers to the social experience of any complex, cognitively confusing, or emotionally charged phenomenon that calls simultaneously for opposite reactions. Migrants’ life conditions, as this Special Issue illustrates, are particularly subject to ambivalence. This introduction reviews the predominant understandings of ambivalence as a sociological category, its specific relevance in migration studies, and its implications for empirical research. It then reviews the articles in this Special Issue that are collectively intended to advance our understanding of the relevance of ambivalence for migration studies.
AlbaRFonerN (2015) Strangers No More: Immigration and the Challenges of Integration in North America and Western Europe. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
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Arribas-AyllonMBartlettA (2013) Sociological ambivalence and the order of scientific knowledge. Sociology48(2): 335–351.
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BelloniM (2018) Refugees and citizens: understanding Eritrean refugees’ ambivalence towards homeland politics. International Journal of Comparative Sociology60 (1-2): 55–73.
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BergO (2006) Accelerating Luhmann: Towards a systems theory of ambivalence. Theory, Culture & Society23(5): 49–68.
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BoccagniP (2017) Migration and the Search for Home. New York: Routledge.
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BoccagniPBaldassarL (2015) Emotions on the move: Mapping the emergent field of emotion and migration. Emotion, Space and Society16: 73–80.
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BolzmanCABridjiS (2019) Older Immigrants Living in Switzerland and Ambivalence Related to Return Around the Retirement Period. International Journal of Comparative Sociology60 (1-2): 14–36.
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BossP (1999) Ambiguous Loss: Learning How to Live with Unresolved Grief. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
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ConnidisIA (2015) Exploring ambivalence in family ties: Progress and prospects. Journal of Marriage and the Family77(1): 77–95.
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ConnidisIAMcMullinJA (2002a) Sociological ambivalence and family ties: A critical perspective. Journal of Marriage and Family64(3): 558–567.
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ConnidisIAMcMullinJA (2002b) Ambivalence, family ties, and doing sociology. Journal of Marriage and Family64(3): 594–601.
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ConstableN (1999) At home but not at home: Filipina narratives of ambivalent returns. Cultural Anthropology14: 203–228.
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FanshaweSSriskandaraijahD (2010) “You Can’t Put Me in a Box”: Superdiversity and the End of Identity Politics in Britain. London: IPPR.
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FlamHTerpeS (2009) About emotional ambivalence. In: Paper presented at the ESA conference. Lisbon, Portugal, 2–5September.
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GalloE (2018) A Broken Chain? Colonial History, Middle-class Indian Migrants and Intergenerational Ambivalence. International Journal of Comparative Sociology60 (1-2): 37–54.
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HaganJ (2001) Cause and country: The politics of ambivalence and the American Vietnam war resistance in Canada. Social Problems48(2): 168–184.
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HandlinO (1973) The Uprooted, 2nd edn.Boston: Little, Brown.
KivistoPVecchia-MikkolaVL (2013) Immigrant ambivalence towards the homeland: The case of Iraqis in Helsinki and Rome. Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies11(2): 198–216.
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KivistoPVecchia-MikkolaVL (2015) The integration of Iraqis in two European cities: Emotions and identity work. Emotion, Space and Society16: 90–98.
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LendonJPSilversteinMGiarrussoR (2014) Ambivalence in older parent-adult child relationships. Journal of Marriage and Family76(2): 272–284.
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LópezSL (2015) The Remittance Landscape: Spaces of Migration in Rural Mexico and Urban USA. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
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McIlwaineCBermudezA (2015) Ambivalent citizenship and extraterritorial voting among Colombians in London and Madrid. Global Networks15(4): 385–402.
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McNevinA (2013) Ambivalence and citizenship: Theorizing the political claims of irregular migrants. Millennium: Journal of International Studies41(2): 182–200.
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MadianouM (2012) Migration and the accentuated ambivalence of motherhood. Global Networks12(3): 277–295.
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MertonRK (1976) Sociological Ambivalence and Other Essays. New York: The Free Press.
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MorawskaE (1987) Sociological ambivalence: The case of east European peasant-immigrant workers in America, 1880s-1930s. Qualitative Sociology10(3): 225–250.
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NicholsLT (2016) The enduring social psychology of Robert K. Merton: Motivating sentiments, reference groups and self-fulfilling prophecies. American Sociologist47(2–3): 356–381.
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PalmbergerM (2019) Relational Ambivalence: Exploring the social and discursive dimensions of ambivalence – the case of Turkish aging labor migrants. International Journal of Comparative Sociology60 (1-2): 74–90.
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PillemerKMunschCLFuller-Rowell Tet al. (2012) Ambivalence towards adult children: Differences between mothers and fathers. Journal of Marriage and Family74(6): 1101–1113.
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RiccioB (2001) From “ethnic group” to “transnational community”? Senegalese migrants’ ambivalent experiences and multiple trajectories. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies27(4): 583–599.
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RobinsonG (1992) The consequences of alterity: Zygmunt Bauman’s modernity and ambivalence. Thesis Eleven31: 168–178.
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RodríguezEG (2007) The “hidden side” of the new economy: On transnational migration, domestic work, and unprecedented intimacy. Frontiers28(3): 60–83.
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RoomR (1976) Ambivalence as a sociological explanation: The case of cultural explanations of alcohol problems. American Sociological Review41(6): 1047–1065.
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SayadA (2004) The Suffering of the Immigrant. Cambridge: Polity Press.
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SingletonVMichaelM (1993) Actor-networks and ambivalence: General practitioners in the UK cervical screening programme. Social Studies of Science23(2): 227–264.
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SjöbergO (2010) Ambivalent attitudes, contradictory institutions: Ambivalence in gender-role attitudes in comparative perspective. International Journal of Comparative Sociology51(1–2): 33–57.
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SmelserNJ (1998) The rational and the ambivalent in the social sciences. American Sociological Review63(1): 1–16.
SzmiginICanningL (2015) Sociological ambivalence and funeral consumption. Sociology49(4): 748–763.
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UehlingG (2002) Sitting on suitcases: Ambivalence and ambiguity in the migration intentions of Crimean Tatar Women. Journal of Refugee Studies15(4): 388–408.
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VertovecS (2007) Super-diversity and its implications. Ethnic and Racial Studies30(6): 1024–1054.
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WimmerAGlick-SchillerN (2002) Methodological nationalism and beyond. Global Networks2(4): 301–334.
