Shifting senses of solidarity and belonging in the internal migration pathways of citizens in ger areas in Ulaanbaatar: A social work perspective

Introduction

During recent decades, the Asia-Pacific region has increasingly been considered a strategic area in the global field of social work education, research, policy and practice development (Tiong, 2006). The eminently diverse countries of the Asia-Pacific region vary considerably in terms of their histories, ‘economic conditions, socio-cultural backgrounds and political systems’ (Tsui and Yan, 2010: 307), yet some of these societies are caught in a policy-driven desire for rapid economic growth and development, leading to a drastic transformation of traditional social structures and an extensive (re)production of social inequalities and poverty (Shek, 2017). These developments are currently resulting in rapidly emerging and particularly challenging social issues (see Garrett, 2019; Shek, 2017). The social work profession in this region is therefore involved in a constant reconsideration and (re)negotiation of its mission and identity, and as such is also challenging ‘many of the assumptions of the global social work community’ (Shek, 2017: 4; Gray and Goates, 2010). As Tiong (2006) has aptly argued,

for this part of the world, there is a need to move beyond traditional social work practice and develop new social work approaches [. . .] in dealing with the social, economic and political realities. To be of greater relevance to society, social work needs new links and visions for the massive problems and challenges facing these emerging societies. (p. 278)

In this contribution, we have a specific interest in Mongolia. Like many other countries in Asia, Mongolia has to deal with uneven socio-economic development between urban and rural areas and has witnessed an ongoing internal rural–urban migration and urbanization process during recent decades (United Nations Human Settlements Programme [UN-Habitat], 2010). This development has resulted in a rapidly increasing number of families settling informally in suburban areas of Mongolian cities (Narantulga, 2010) and is consistent with the national Constitution of Mongolia (1992), which enables its citizens to freely choose a temporary or permanent place of residence within the country’s territory. Since 2002, Mongolian citizens have also had the right to own land for family needs and agricultural purposes in the location of their residence (The State Great Hural, 2018). Based on this law on the allocation of land ownership for Mongolian citizens, each citizen is entitled to 0.07 hectares of land in the city for free, after paying minimal procedural costs (The State Great Hural, 2018).

Mongolian citizens who have migrated from rural to urban areas distribute themselves in traditional and mobile Mongolian felt tents (ger) for housing across hillsides and valleys (Narantulga, 2010). This phenomenon is particularly apparent in the capital city of Ulaanbaatar. Approximately 64.2 percent of the total population of Mongolia (3.4 million) reside in Ulaanbaatar, and 56.7 percent of the population in Ulaanbaatar live in these suburban areas (Integrated Statistics Fund, 2018). The official population growth prediction made in 2017 forecast that the number of inhabitants in Ulaanbaatar would reach 1.7 million by 2025, a target that was in fact realized in 2018 (Integrated Statistics Fund, 2018). The Mongolian government refers to these suburban areas in Ulaanbaatar as ger areas, or peri-urban informal settlements.

In research, in policy and in wider Mongolian society there are major concerns about the ger areas in terms of the concentration of social and environmental problems arising from this rapidly increasing urbanization (UN-Habitat, 2010). They include increasing environmental pollution, notably smog and soil contamination, and consequently generate health and life hazards for residents (Lhamsuren et al., 2012). The ger areas are also often framed as deeply problematic in relation to the lack of modern infrastructural services, such as piped water, electricity, sanitation, proper roads, waste management and public transportation, and to the impact of this deficiency on the basic living conditions of ger residents (UN-Habitat, 2010). Furthermore, the lack of employment opportunities and health and education services feeds into high rates of poverty and social inequality in ger areas (World Bank, 2015). A recent United Nations (UN) report argues that this massive internal rural–urban migration is negatively affecting Mongolia’s aim of achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, such as poverty reduction and embracing sustainable cities and communities (Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific [ESCAP], Ministry of Environment and Tourism Mongolia and National Development Agency, 2018). As a measure for dealing with these problems, the Ulaanbaatar City Mayor recently issued a decree discontinuing migration to Ulaanbaatar until January 2018, with a recent extension until 2020 supported by the National Security Council of Mongolia (Ulaanbaatar, 2017). This decree includes an exception for people who need long-term medical treatment in the city and those who have a residential property mortgage.

In this article, we agree with the above-mentioned UN report’s conclusion about the Mongolian government, which has been falling short in realizing the citizenship rights of its ger residents (ESCAP et al., 2018). The majority of newly arrived migrants who settle in ger areas find it difficult to establish a socio-economic position in the city and lack a sense of belonging to Mongolian society (Terbish and Rawsthorne, 2016). The main objective of this contribution is therefore to consider the potential role of social work in supporting ger residents. However, a review of the international literature and of topics being discussed at international research conferences shows that up until now the ger areas have rarely been discussed from a social work perspective (see Adilbish et al., 2018; Tsendsuren, 2017). Social work research in Mongolia has also given relatively little attention to the dynamics of the ger area (Namdaldagva et al., 2010). This article therefore aims to develop a social work research perspective on the ger areas while embracing the strengths and aspirations of ger residents. Indeed, the limited research evidence shows that the expectation of these migrants to own land is not the only motive for moving to the city; they also aspire, for example, to educate their children, to access better services and to find employment in the city (Terbish and Rawsthorne, 2016). In this context, our aim is to contribute to the knowledge of what is considered meaningful by ger residents themselves in shaping their lives and in developing a sense of belonging in the new urban environment.

This article therefore first describes the existing gap between government policies and social work interventions. We argue that existing social policy and social work are mainly deficit-oriented and that therefore Mongolia would benefit from indigenization and culturally sensitive social work interventions. Second, we discuss how we address the contested concept of ‘a sense of belonging’ based on the international body of research in citizenship studies. Third, through a contextual literature review (see Van Hove and Claes, 2011), we identify how meanings and mechanisms of solidarity evolve in ger residents’ internal migration pathways so as to gain an in-depth understanding of how this affects ger residents’ sense of belonging when they live in ger areas in the capital city. Finally, we address implications for future social work research.

Towards indigenization and culturally sensitive social policy and social work

With a more in-depth understanding of what is considered meaningful for ger residents themselves in shaping their lives, we argue that social work would be in a stronger position to develop more socially just responsive strategies and policies. The global definition of social work has nonetheless provoked a debate in social work research, based on the argument that social work should promote indigenization, with reference to a call for the profession ‘to engage more broadly within global discourse, while increasingly acknowledging and integrating the values, knowledge and contributions of indigenous peoples in each region, country or area’ (Ornellas et al., 2018: 225). Along the lines of the debate about the relationship between the global and the local, this definition implies that social work knowledge should address historically, politically and socio-culturally relevant and context-specific problems while taking into account indigenous knowledge (Gray and Coates, 2010). In the most recent revision of the global definition, the core principles of social work refer to pursuing social justice and human rights and are combined with the aspiration to take into account local indigenous knowledge to address life challenges (see International Federation of Social Workers [IFSW], 2014; Ornellas et al., 2018). This in-depth understanding of what is considered meaningful by ger residents themselves in shaping their lives and in developing a sense of belonging to the new urban environment is therefore vital for social work.

Sense of belonging: A contested concept in citizenship studies

In the existing body of research in citizenship studies, citizens’ sense of belonging broadly refers to the opportunity to experience recognition in social interactions and the social world (Wright, 2015). In the dominant European discourse on rights and responsibilities, for example, the discrepancy between political citizenship (embodied as an entitlement and status in a particular society, often based on nationality) and social citizenship (constructed through the experience of being a member of a particular community and society) is widely discussed (Lietaert et al., 2015; Roets et al., 2013). Rooted in Western discourse, theories and discourse about citizenship still predominantly reflect formal rights and responsibilities and complexities in relation to constructions of ‘us and others’ (with reference to the distinction between so-called deserving and undeserving citizens) according to a legal framework of nation states, in which informal dimensions of state–citizen interaction have sometimes been located (Anderson and Hughes, 2015). Nonetheless, the concept of a ‘sense of belonging’ and its connection to citizenship are contested, as has been discussed in a global context in cases of disadvantaged and indigenous groups in diverse societies in which no formal state intervention secures citizenship rights (Kabeer, 2005). To conceptualize citizenship issues holistically, researchers in citizenship studies have argued that it is critical to pay attention to how a sense of belonging is experienced in informal grass-roots relations, practices and interactions in addition to, or irrespective of, formal understandings of citizenship of nation states (Berenschot and van Klinken, 2018). In a study of nomadic communities in Rajasthan, India, for example, Pant (2005) discussed how violations of citizenship entitlements are normalized due to the caste system, with nomads being actively excluded from common services and discriminated against. Wheeler (2005) studied ways in which family, group and community interactions can play an important role for low-income communities in favelas to realize their citizenship rights in Brazil through their social relations. In a swathe of neoliberal reforms under which state attention is increasingly based on market mechanisms, territorial segregation is more distinct between privileged neighbourhoods and poorer suburbs, communities, villages and informal settlements. Finding manoeuvrability in poorer neighbourhoods, Brazilian people in favelas approached the formal employment market and other social services as a family instead of applying individually, while other people took steps within their community to start small income-generating activities as a way of practising their citizenship and better belonging to their lived environment (Wheeler, 2005). By accessing the market and services as such, people in favelas experienced feelings of belonging as citizens.

Furthermore, researchers have argued that social affiliations and the quality of personal connections matter in the realization of citizenship and one’s belonging to the social world (Berenschot and van Klinken, 2018). According to Wright (2015), the meaning of individual and social connections, relations and affiliations needs to be respected in order to gain a proper understanding of a sense of belonging. Consequently, belonging can be constructed positively or negatively in consistency with an individual’s role in the market, job or property ownership, irrespective of state intervention (Brace, 2015). In summary, a sense of belonging in a global sense is conceived as one’s location in the social world and as an interactive and relational experience in everyday practice (Warming and Fahnoe, 2017; Yuval-Davis et al., 2005). The sense of belonging is therefore conceptualized as the intimate feeling of being ‘in place’ in a particular geographical, social and temporal space and, as such, is a feeling that is always bound to a geographical place (Antonsich, 2010). A sense of belonging also refers to experiences and mechanisms of solidarity, which evolve based on relations such as larger social and informal networks, structures and contexts (Kabeer, 2005). In the second part of this article, we therefore rely on a contextual literature review (see Van Hove and Claes, 2011) to identify how meanings and mechanisms of solidarity evolve in ger residents’ internal migration pathways, and offer an in-depth understanding of how this affects ger residents’ sense of belonging when they start living in ger areas in the capital city.

Shifting meanings, dynamics of solidarity and belonging among migrant ger residents

Conclusion for social work

Ger localities in Mongolia are currently regarded as highly problematic areas that are delaying the sustainable development of cities and communities in Mongolia (ESCAP et al., 2018). Individuals who migrate from rural areas and settle in the fringes of Ulaanbaatar are expected to change their attitudes and behaviours and adapt to an urban lifestyle, and are therefore targets of numerous stereotypical labels in the social and cultural realm. This phenomenon in relation to people involved in internal migration occurs not only in Mongolia (see Sanghera et al., 2012), yet the concentration of social, economic and environmental problems in the capital city of Ulaanbaatar creates a challenging situation. Policy responses have focused on economic and environmental strategies, including the provision of infrastructure within the geographically bound ger areas. However, the local resources, relationships and life worlds of ger residents have not been considered in the development of such measures. Along the same lines, professional social work practices in Mongolia are employed as a response to social problems (Adilbish, 2017), yet continue to be deficit-oriented and have not brought progressive changes in ger areas until recently.

We therefore argue that social work in Mongolia needs to renew its current strategies, shaping social work as a form of ‘policy-in-the-making’ (see Rawsthorne and Howard, 2011: 54). We are convinced that such a critical reconsideration of the identity of social work in the Asia-Pacific region, and more specifically in Mongolia, requires further research that captures ‘local wisdom’ (Tsui and Yan, 2010: 308). In the global realm, social work knowledge is indeed encouraged to take into account historical, political, socio-economic, cultural, context-specific and indigenous local knowledge in the development of a socially just agenda and identity (Jones and Truell, 2012). Our contribution shows the vital necessity of grappling with the sense of belonging of ger residents, seeking indigenous knowledge from ger residents themselves while being embedded in the grassroots social relations and formal and informal practices and interactions of ger residents (Brace, 2015). The sense of belonging of ger residents in their pre-migration period has a spatial connotation, when they have a strong connection with their birth territory and rely on a collectivist mutual support tradition. Research shows that the pastoralist lifestyle of Mongolian herders requires migratory moves from one location to another (Castrillon et al., 2016). However, the herding community has developed strong ties of solidarity, and herders still continue to camp together for mutual assistance when necessary, perpetuating their unofficial mutual support system. This sense of belonging erodes and shifts into mixed feelings of belonging, with former herders experiencing an ‘in-between’ sense of belonging after moving to Ulaanbaatar, where the attitude of city residents is hostile and makes migrant households feel discriminated against and stereotyped by negative labels. Once migrant individuals integrate into city life, they develop their own strategies in an attempt to belong. This is expressed through material gains, such as owning and fencing land based on family and kin connections, even as they experience complexity in the development of new relationships and social networks (Plueckhahn, 2017). For those who have lived in the ger areas in Ulaanbaatar for more than 5 years, the resources and support to sustain their livelihoods socially and economically are still insufficient, and they experience limited support from the local administrations. Except for some administrative welfare services, social work support is not clearly available for ger residents who have a mixed sense of belonging, as professional social support services are still underdeveloped.

The demarcation between citizens and minority groups of so-called ‘orcs’ who have adapted to an urban lifestyle negatively affects societal solidarity and social justice mechanisms overall. In the vein of the global definition of social work that focuses on social justice (IFSW, 2014), this article thus makes a call for gaining an in-depth understanding of the sense of belonging of newly arrived populations in the city as a critical prerequisite for the development of locally meaningful social work practice. Scenarios for future social work research, therefore, include in-depth empirical and qualitative fieldwork to investigate the strategies of meaning-making and agency of ger residents, which may reveal different strategies for coping and survival that evolve over years of living in a new location. In this effort, we need to develop social work research and knowledge so as to explore the meaning of the capability of ger residents to have aspirations and to do justice to indigenous knowledge and the experiences of migrants who have recently arrived in the ger areas (Appadurai, 2004; Carling and Collins, 2017). The capability to have aspirations refers not only to ger residents’ hopes, plans, ambitions and dreams that they aim to achieve through migration, but also to how these aspirations are developed in relation to historical, socio-cultural and systemic forces after settlement in ger areas (Roets et al., 2013).