Using theory to inform understandings of occupation in a migration context

Research on global migration has grown substantially in occupational science over the past decade. While literature reviews have focused on the results and recurrent themes emerging in occupation-focused studies, the present article discusses the use of theory in occupational science articles exploring international migration. Theoretically grounding occupational science research on migration can allow the discipline to ensure the depth of the knowledge it develops, as well as the relevance of this knowledge to other disciplines and the outreach of occupational science. This theoretical paper is informed by a review of migration studies in the Journal of Occupational Science. Forty one articles focusing on international migration and presenting the results of empirical research were selected and analyzed. Six non-exclusive groups are presented. The largest group includes articles adopting approaches inspired by grounded theory; therefore, not strongly relying on preexisting theories in the data analysis. Other groups used concepts related to occupational justice or drawn from theories developed by Bourdieu, Goffman, or Ricoeur, as well as transactionalism as developed by occupational scientists based on Dewey's work. However, there are inconsistencies in the application of theory-some articles did not explicitly integrate any theoretical concepts or, among those using grounded theory, did not all develop a novel theory. We propose Lefebvre's theory of "production of space", originally published in English in 1991, as an example of a useful approach for the study of occupation in a migration context.