Migration

Migration is a topic that is characterized by an interdisciplinary approach, both theoretically and empirically. It crosses several disciplines, including demography, geography, sociology, anthropology, economy, history, and political science. Social scientists do not study migration from a shared paradigm but from a variety of competing theoretical viewpoints that are fragmented across disciplines. Migration emerged as a field of research in political science in the mid-20th century, and in the 1980s to 1990s, it had already become a major research topic. It is now one of the major political issues facing the 21st century. It has taken time for migration to acquire legitimacy as a research topic in the discipline. Several factors contributed to create this delay, among which are the absence of a political theory of international migration, a lack of cohesion between macro- and microanalysis, and the fact that the problematics raised by migrations are constantly evolving.

The term migration refers to human mobility: A migrant is someone who has left his or her country of birth and who is living in another country. A migrant differs from a foreigner, the latter being defined juridically as a “nonnational.” There are internal and external migrations. Most international migrants are foreigners, and most foreigners are migrants, but not automatically so. Today, we are facing the second wave of world migration since the mid-19th century, when millions of Europeans left Europe for the New World to find work (United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Latin America), to colonize and conquer (Asia and Africa), for trade, or as missionaries. The number of migrants (200 million, 3% of the world population) has tripled since 1970, and globalization, the transnationalization of networks, and push-and-pull factors have made individuals mobile internationally. Together, these factors challenge national borders, the sovereignty of states, and the notion of citizenship, which in turn affects international relations (IR) and political identities.

Most political science research that focuses on migration tends to deal with either the role of the nation-state in controlling its borders, the making of immigration policy, the impact of migration on sovereignty (including foreign and national security), or issues of citizenship (dissociation between nationality and citizenship, identity, allegiances, and political inclusion). Such research draws on several disciplines, including IR, public policies, and the sociology of political behavior. Research conducted within the field of migration studies takes two main directions: on the one hand, the study of flows (migration policies and comparative and international analysis), which focuses on macrolevel issues, and on the other hand, the study of stocks (on living together and political incorporation), which focuses mainly on micro-level issues. Placing emphasis on the existence/the study of social ties, some political scientists have proposed a “mesolevel” of analysis. Some problematics remain unexplored, and gaps in the [Page 1568]research include topics such as emigration policies (rules of exit), the “diplomacy of migration” led by emigration countries, or the root causes of the establishment of regional or world migration systems. Many political scientists have studied the respective impact of political decision making and of other competing factors, such as economic liberalization and securitization, on the opening and closing of borders. Others have focused on the relation between citizenship and the political inclusion of migrants. However, only a few have analyzed the link between immigration flows, incorporation (integration) policies, and political behavior.

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