Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Moved by Modernity: How Development Shapes Migration in Rural Ethiopia

Moved by Modernity: How Development Shapes Migration in Rural Ethiopia

Schewel, Kerilyn

Hardcover

General SociologyImmigration & Refugees

ISBN10: 0197680712
ISBN13: 9780197680711
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: Nov 21 2025
Pages: 288
Weight: 1.28
Height: 0.81 Width: 6.14 Depth: 9.21
Language: English
Across headlines and scholarly research alike, migration from countries like Ethiopia is often framed as a crisis: poverty, climate change, and conflict pushing people from their homes. These dominant push factor narratives suggest that migration is a problem--and that development is the solution.

Moved by Modernity turns this assumption on its head, revealing how social and economic development can drive migration rather than reduce it. In this groundbreaking study, Kerilyn Schewel draws on extensive fieldwork in Wayisso, a rural Ethiopian village, to examine how generations of families adapted their aspirations, livelihoods, and migration strategies amid their country's tumultuous pursuit of modernization. Their stories offer rich insights into what development actually looks like in rural societies--and why it so often fuels both internal and international migration.

Interweaving life histories, survey data, and ethnographic vignettes, Moved by Modernity explores how key forces of social change--political reform, education, market expansion, and foreign investment--reshape both aspirations and capabilities to migrate. Schewel shows that those who leave Wayisso are not fleeing poverty; they are often more educated, better connected, and actively seeking modern lives. Meanwhile, the poorest households remain behind, unable to migrate--trapped by the very forces assumed to push them out.

Moved by Modernity offers a new framework for understanding why people migrate--and why they stay. It is a compelling critique of conventional development thinking and an essential resource for researchers, policymakers, and anyone seeking to understand the deeper forces shaping global mobility today.

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