Migration Politics across the World

• Published in: Third World Quarterly 2022, Vol.43 (7)
• Main Authors: Natter, Katharina, Thiollet, Hélène
• Format: Text Resource
• Language: English
• Subjects: Humanities and Social Sciences; Political science
• ISSN: 0143-6597; 1360-2241

This volume stems from the idea that our understanding of migration politics is hampered by a tendency to focus on immigration in certain geographical and political contexts (notably the Global North, advanced economies and democratic polities), leaving dynamics in non-Western or ‘Southern’ contexts under-theorised. We consider geographically limited and regime-bound approaches to migration politics to be problematic for both empirical and analytical reasons. Not only do they obscure the variations and similarities that characterise migration politics in different countries, but they also prevent researchers from capturing changes across time in each political context. We therefore aim to look beyond the dichotomous understandings of political regimes (democracy/autocracy), levels of economic development and political geographies (the so-called Global North/Global South,1 or the West and the rest) that currently shape migration policy analysis. With this broader perspective, we have set out to investigate the relationship between migration policies and political regimes, and to examine the factors and actors that make and unmake the politics of migration across contexts and time.