Gl~bal Migration and Mobility:
Theoretical Approaches,
Governing Rationalities and Social
Transformations
Migration has long been part of the human
condition and closely linked to important
social, political and economic transforma-
tions (Chanda, 2007). In the contemporary
world, migration represents a key component
of transformative processes associated with
globalization. The growing prominence of
migration in scholarly, policy and popular
accounts of our current global condition
relates, at least in part, to the fact that we
now capture in statistics the scope of popula-
tion movements that in earlier times went
uncategorized and/or unquantified. A recent
World Migration Report, published by the
International Organization for Migration
(IOM), makes the striking observation, for
exa~ple, that almost one billion people, or
one m seven of the world's population are
migrants (IOM, 201 l: 49). This figure repre-
sents _some 2 14 million people who have
in countries other than
. hed themselves
establis
th ~1~ usual place of residence and some 740
m1lhon people who have migrated within
their own countries. Included within these
.
figures are over 12 million trafficked migran ts
Ann e McN ev i n
and over 45 million refugees and others
whose migration is generally considered to
have been forced upon them for reasons
beyond their contro l includ ing conflict,
persecution and, increasingly, natural and
climate-change induce d disaste rs (IOM,
2011: 57; UNHCR, 2013 : 3). Debate con-
. tinues over the relative historical novelty of
contemporary migration flows and over the
definition of different kinds of migrants.
By any measure, howev er, these figures
give pause for thought with respect to their
implications for human rights, political
gov~mance, economic development, social
relations and cultural identities.
This chapter provid es an overview of con-
te~porary global migration and explores the
social and political processes that lie behind
frequently cited statisti cs. It begins with a
summary of different theoretical approaches
·
to the study 0 f migrat •
ion and recent efforts to
.
d
rethmk migra1ton
· .
in terms of a broa er
. .
notion of hu ..
. man mobility. A second sect10n
.
d1scusses the ·
issue of governing migrat10n. It
shows how . .
particular regulatory pract1 c-::s
 AN D M
GLOBAL MIGRATION OBILITY
645

ary migration and In the latter twen•tieth cen tury, the study of
}lave shaped contempor
s that · prevail in migration was donunated by neo-clas . 1
identifies the rationalitie . . . SJCa eco-
s. The final sec- noIDic and quantitati ve sociol ogical approaches
global governance strategie
l transfoITI1ations that represented mi gratt· on as the outco f
tion reflects upon the socia · d" · On thi b . me o
mobilities with m 1v1dual rational choic e
at stake in contemporary . ~ as1s, schol-
self-understandings arship . focused "n thP eco norruc disparities
particular regard to our~ b tw . . ~ V

communities. As tion states and th~

and our social and political ' e een ongin and destina
gages the relation nts to maximize
a whole, the chapter en pu_sh~fa~tors, th~t -~ove migra
d micro experi- tial by moving to
between macro trends an ~e rr ~come earrung_poten
orjas 1989·, GorIru.,
ences. It asks, in other wo
rds, what broad higher-mcodme countries (B
G Crude individualiz-
based trends contribute to
migration and to . erano an Heins, 1991).
re gradually chal-
the identities experienced
by and ascribed to mg cost-benefit analyses we
d work that took
ve? Conversely, lenged by more sophisticate
people who are on the mo migration is used
nts transform the account of the ways in which
how do population moveme ome and manage
litical landscapes as a strategy to diversify inc
social conditions and po community net-
r current historical risk within family units and
that come to represent ou 98). Likewise, the
works (Massey et al., 19
juncture? factors' has been
exclusive emphasis on 'push
tly by analyses of
complemented more recen
n states, namely,
ILITY: 'pull factors' in destinatio
FROM MIGRATION TO MOB demand for migrant labour
and the cumulative
THEORIES AND CONCEPTS effects of ethnic entreprene
urialism and ethnic
Segmented labour
preserve of one enclaves (Light, 2005).
Migration is not the sole two-track nature
line. The field of market theorists identified the
specific academic discip r countries, cater-
the sub-field of oflabour markets in wealthie
Migration Studies, and tive workers with
ing on the one hand for na
incorporate differ- s, and on the other
Forced Migration Studies, . higher paid, more stable job
ches that span the prepared to accept
ent emphases and approa hand, for migrant workers
contributions from rking conditions
social sciences including lower pay and poorer wo
ts, political scien- n, 1989). As global
sociologists, anthropologis (Portes, Castells and Bento
graphers, econo- rbated the divide
tists, geographers, demo economic restructuring exace
onal relations and ledge' work and
mists, historians, internati between professional 'know
relates closely to ist Saskia Sassen
legal scholars. The field unskilled labour, sociolog
ary inquiry such nal divide trans-
other areas of inter-disciplin showed how this occupatio
d border studies ' , as much as rela-
as transnational studies an formed the inside of states
tual , ana- ssen 's pioneering
eac h of which incorporate concep tions between them. Sa
l . l approaches that dies was to show
ytical and methodologica contribution to Migration Stu
sive to migration een the ne ': fin~-
are relevant but not exclu the interdependency betw
k and Faist ' 20·1 O·' cially driven global econ
omy manifest m
(for summaries see Bauboc
Parker and Vaughan-Williams , 2009·, Portes , iliar patterns of
G . global cities and more fam
Sidaway 2011) · nt employm~nt
uamizo and Landolt ' 1999·' ' recruious low-skilled migra
As ~I·th most thematically based fields of bsequent studies
. [sassen, 1998: 2000). Su
· d"1fficult and sometimes unheJp- teways for tr~ na -
inqu1·J,n, I·t IS
. showed how cities act as ga
fu l to draw ng . 1"d b ound an.es around part1cu- development m the
tional labour and uneventuring and called for
Iar the orettc· al approaches when much of the .
• erse traditions and context of global reStroC s~ec1fi_cally urban
scholar8h 'P · draws on div
greater attention to the
.
cannot be neatly pigeon-holed. Nevertheless nugrat10n_(Benton-
d amics of contemporary and
some bro ad d"1st.mc.t10 . ns, drawn for analytical yn and p nc . e Z008·' Glick Shiller
p Short ,
the scope of
t~ ts es , can offer a sens·e of <;aglar, 2008).
1 er tim e.
e iefd and its transition ov
 l Ht )A\JC 11n1• ..... ~ - -
646
.. d . .
Ind1v1 ua11z10g
and micro-analytic
approaches to migration have been s_trong y
resisted by structural analyses, particularly
those associated with dependency tbeory and
1
world systems theory. These Marxist inspired
approaches, emergitfg from the l 97?s, _e~pha-
si2.ed external forces that act on rnd1v1duals
and societies to enable or constrain migration.
Beyond more immediate 'push' and 'pull' fac-
tors, structural approaches drew attention to
the confluence of migration paths, histories
of imperial conquest and modem develop-
ment. Accordingly, it was no mere coinci-
dence that migrants frequently moved from
less developed to more developed countries
and that such moves corresponded to rela-
tionships between former colonies and
metropoles (Africa/Europe, sub-Saharan
Africa/South Africa, Latin America and the
Caribbean/North America). Rather, these
migratory paths were taken as indicative of
the broader structure of global capitalism that
perpetuated a relation of dependency between
developing and developed countries and con- .
centrated wealth and opportunity in the latter
(Cohen, 1987; Wallerstein, 1979). Sassen's
approach would subsequently challenge
world systems theory's central spatial divide
between core (developed) and periphery
(d~v~loping states)_ by showing the 'periph-
enes (such as migrant 'sweatshops') that
were present in the cities of what later
became known as the global 'north' (Sassen
2000). These structural approaches neverthe~
less made. important inroads into the macro-
ana1ys1s of the political-economic d itized allocation of legal financial and
geo-strategic drivers of migration an
A third body of theory attemp~ to b .d
both structural accounts of migration w. th n ge
'agent centred, approaches and i m~re
determinist interpretations with ec~no~c-
ones. From the 1990s a lifi . soc1ological
ship explored the h' ptro_ eration of scholar-
is onco-cultural . .
and contemporary transfo . ongms
networks attending n . :111atton of social
Guamizo and Landoltu~att~n flows (Portes,
New vocabularies ( ~ 99'. Ve~ovec, 1999).
- ' transversa1ism)
calism ·
wnationalism, translo-
ulate the spatial spread f e~e engaged to artic-
o rrugrantcommuniti es,
w,
the relations between 'home' and 'h
· · Iy common· e Ost'. set,
tings and the mcreasmg
of 'multiple' belongings to nation(s)XPenenee
and homeland(s) {Ehrkamp and Lei~tate(s),
Smith, 2001; Soguk and Whitehall '/006;
' i
999
The study of transnational netwo;ks ).
global diasporas offered new 'agent--ee and
. . . ntred'
inroads for mquny mto processes of gl b .
.. f . o ah
zation and the po I1hcs o multiculturalis -
Ill and
lent themselves to e1!111ographic methods
drawing on well-establisred techniques fro~
sociology, anthropology and human geogra.
phy. I return to this literature later in this
chapter to reflect upon the social transfonna-
tions at stake in contemporary mobilities.
It is important to note from the outset
however, that the search for new spatial'
frames of reference for the experience of
migration went hand in hand with a critique
of the 'methodological nationalism' prevail-
ing in Migration Studies (Amelina et al.,
2012; Favell, 2008; Glick Shiller, 2010).
Methodological nationalism can be under-
stood as the habit of taking the state ~d
nation as self-evident starting points for con-
ceptualizing and analyzing migration. Its
pervasiveness within the field can be evi-
~enced by the largely unquestioned distinc-
tion between internal and international
~igrants that takes the crossing of an intema-
tiona~ state boundary as the key determinant .
of difference between the two migrant
~roups. This distinction has significant mate-
~i~l consequences, for example, in the prior-
human·t ·
i anan resources to '· refugees (who
have crossed an international border) as
op~o~ed to internally displaced people.
. his unfinished project of critique and
remventio n at the conceptual level 1s . one 0 f
themosts· ifj - -
·th· ign icant theoretical developmen.ts
:ni m c_ontemporary Migration Studies. At
-
Particular edge of critique d·
a me in the fiel 15
ovementa . .
tion itself. way from the concept ofm1gr_a
ity Th' in favour of the concept of mobil-
. is mov tak . th
'new mob ·re· es its cue, in part, from e
Sheller a ~ Ihes Paradigm ' identified b)'
rnobility 1-n ·Urry (2006) where bwnan
s en · '
vi~aged as part of a broader
 Y
GLO BAL MIG RAT ION AND MOBILIT
647

bilities incl udi ng ima ges , idea s, mo bili ty (edu cati on for
bec om e a sign1'fican't exp ort example, has
field of mod the dyn ami c soc ial con stit utio n ·
industry in
rials an d spa ce itse lf (see also Ade y, cou ntri es suc h as Aus trar
Jllate . . and
lace an y, the soc ial sc1- has gen erat ed a host of ~~ nd C~ ada
o f P F She ller and Urr
s in
2oto).h or for too lon g bee. n dom inat ed by edu cati on pro vide rs and studtry spin-off
ces ave I . ·1 serv ices bot h in sendin and ent_P_ lacem ent
en roache5 that uncortsc10us y pnv . 1. ege . g -~- receiving state s
as nor mal and des ir- (Ro ber tson 201 3)) S ervi ce work
apP ·· t rism and stasis · F h . ' •
t· . ers travel
senden aects of soc ial exp erie nce . rom t 1s tran sna tion ally 'ins ide' mut
h , . _ tnahonal com-_
able: asp b . ' ve pam es and a specific bod y 0 f inte .. .
.. · ti·ve they argu e, emg on t e mo .
rnationa l
·
erspec ' por ary reg ulat ion s (Th e General A greemen
~ derstood neg ativ elyd.as. a tem d T • . t on
is un . e 4) has been
er than ong omg con 1tlon anb as an rad e m Ser vice s - OATS mod
th Th' . nt
ra eption rather than a nor m. 1s as1c set dev elo ped to facilitate their moveme
l . ·1 . h'm ric-
excf assumptions, they c aun , preva1 s wit ~cross bor ders outside of regular visa rest
ut
~ig rati on Stu dies in par ticu lar, wh
ich t~ons, (La van e~, 2006). A fly-in/fly-o
ote
remains trap ped not onl y wit hin the
con - ( fifo ) cult ure ts now the norm in rem
-
straints of 'me tho dol ogi cal nati ona lism
' but , loca tion s of Aus tral ia's north where non
led
in addition, by exp lici t or taci t nor mat
ive loca l dom esti c and international skil
ce
injunctions to 'set tle' and 'rec tify ' mig ran
ts' wor ker s con stitu te the bulk of the workfor
ck
mobile (read ano mal ous ) con diti on. sup por ting min ing in those areas. Tru
urce s
ht driv ers and shipping crew transport reso
Critics of the mob iliti es app roa ch mig and
in and con sum er goods across freeways
argue that it risks priv ileg ing mob ility s'
ing sea lane s in circ ular routes both inside citie
place of stasis and sim ply rev erse s pre vail
uin e 24 hou r logistics networks and over interna-
assumptions, rath er tha n offe ring a gen r,
of tion al bou nda ries (Ne ilso n and Rossite
conceptual cou nte rpo int. Reg ard less in
not, 2010). Non e of these mobilities ' fit' with
whether it repr esen ts a par adi gm shif t or they
ntio n pre vail ing notions 9f migration, yet
the mobilities app roa ch has dra wn atte l
ion s imp act upo n the kind s of social and politica
to long -sta ndin g con cep tua l lim itat y
sci- tran sfor mat ions (of subjectivity, econom
within Mig rati on Stu dies and the soc ial li-
an and cult ure) that Mig rati on Studies is trac
ences more gen eral ly. The not ion of hum
us of tion ally con cern ed with.
mobility allo ws us to be mo re con scio Esp ecia lly indicative of mobility in this
and
the axiomatic plac e tha t par ticu lar spa tial tran sito ry and multidirectional sense are
the
and
temporal iden tifie rs (ter rito ry, bor der s vas t num ber s of temporary labour migrant
s
tem -
states on one han d, and pem 1an enc e and circ ulat ing with in and between Asia and
~e
upy
~orariness on the oth er) con tinu e to occ Mid dle East. The oil rich states of the Pers
ian
~ purportedly des crip tive acc oun ts
of mig ra- dle
con - Gu lf and the rapidly expanding mid
t10_n . If mig rati on is con ven tion ally clas ses with in Asi a's growth economie~ hav
e
men t
ceived as a pro ces s of per man ent rese ttle gen erat ed gro win g demand for cheap ID1g
rant
ty is
from one cou ntry to ano ther , the n mo bili labo ur. Inte rnal migration from rural t~ urba
n
ng
suggestive of a pro ces s of com ing and goi area s fills some of this dem ~d. and I~
vol-
between a van·ety of loca les. The not ion of sider~-
• 11es . . um e in countries such as Chma isercon domestic
mobility thus imp gre ater atte ntio n to . • h 0 wev
ble. 1 In man y countnes, '
Popul afion mo vements that are not typ ical ly
labo ur mar kets are quickly exh aus tedf Bi
~~
couh' nted as mig· ·
. rati on, freq uen tly ove rloo ked 980 s hal f ·the active workforcethe . o ~u di
wit m M. tion . 1 Qt and Um te
. . 1gra Stu dies , yet con stit ute a ' . .. .
· of ' peo ple on the mo ve '.
sigrnfic ant por tion Ara bia Kuw ait, Oman, a ear,fore igne rs with
' . (UA E) wer
i- Indi a Bangladesh and .the
n For exa mpl e, students , tou rist s and bus Ara b Emrratefs
dra wn rom ,
t ess peo ple tran sit for sho rter and lon
ger m8:11.Y . United Nat ions Pop ulat ion
l
enn stays in loca tion s acro• ss the g lob e and P~1I_1~pmes 0(3 · l 6 1). In 201 0, internationa
generate spe . c1·fi1c m •
dus tne s aro und thei r D1v1s10n, 20 · '
 648
. th UAE and Kuwait
· ts
nugran m Qatar' ed per cent of the
accounted for 87, 70 an .69 Within the
total populations respec~v 1 e{ f migrant
Asian region, significandt :u:d :e~ ia, Nepal
workers from Bangla es ' . sia tion as a proc ess lead mg to a borderles IZa-
and the Philippines 'find work m ~ala y '
· and a hom ogem.zat1.on o f socia
and Singapore as domestic , constructwn ano
-
plantation workers whi 1e That·1and. attractsd
neighbouring Cambodians, Laotians an
Bunnese (IOM, 2011: 68, 75). Rather than
building new lives abroad, many of thes_e
workers are funding families and communi-
ties at home with every intention of return-
ing. Many work at the edges of the law,
overstaying visas or without official work
pennits. Over two million such 'irre gula r'
migrants are estimated to be workjng in
Malaysia, for exa111ple, where arrest and
deportation is often perceived as an occupa-
tional hazard or a setback in a circular pro-
cess of frequent migration and return
(McNevin and Palmer, 2012).
In this respect, mobility also captures the
sense of precariousness that characterizes the
experience of those on the move for reasons
beyond their control. At one extreme of pre-
cariousness is the plight of close to 900,000 ·
asylum seekers (in 2012) who face an increas-
ingly hostile reception from states in which
they seek protection. Asylum seekers fre-
quently encounter lengthy administrative pro-
cesses that defer decisions on applications for
refugee status for months and even years .
~~y confirmed refugees find themselves liv-
mg 11.1 w~t ~ureaucrats call 'protracted refu-
gee situations where more than
. 25 ,000
of the same nationality have been liv.peop.1e
'tempo ' ·1 ~ mg
. . ~ eXI e ior five years or more. Over In
six mtlhon people were in tht" "tu .
end of 2012 (UNHCR, 2013 :s s1 ation )
at the
camps have in this wa b 3, 12 . Refugee
fixture . . Y ecome pennanent
s_m the landscapes of countries in . ment, defence of hum an rights and border
and Asia that neighbour . . Afric a
. 01ct zones d
. shoulder the overw helm · con
b an
ing for the world's di l mg urden of provid-
sp aced Th"
temporariness' is ind" . . is pennanent,
confusing but . l~ahve of conceptually
mcreasmgly
ences of mobility that lie betwcommon expe?-
of movement and the b. . ~en. ~~ !1-ecess1ty
u tqu1ty of constraint.
The notion of mobility, then lenct .
' S Its
anal ysis of the gros s unevenne ss 0f elf~
tions unde r whih c peop Ie are mob . coUdi,
anal ytica l emphasts. ks 1
wor at a distan1 e· h•111S'.
the mor e bom bast ic a_ssessments of gl~~a~otu
. s\Vorld
l and p . .
.,
identities and oppo rtum hes (for a sununo1Ihca1
. .
appr oach ~s "•see Scho lte, 2005 : 1
Clearly, mso far as bord er crossings ).
3 ~t
. d. 'd
conc erne d - som e m 1v1 uals are able are
mov e with ease and spee d, while others to
. .
incre asin gly su b~ ect to surve1 11ance, interdare
ic.
tion and cont ainm ent. This is not a case of a
simp le dich otom y betw een those who are
mob ile and ·thos e who are not. Rather, it
makes mor e sens e to spea k of a spectrum of
mobilities in whic h one' s movement is com-
pelle d by vary ing degr ees of force and auton-
omy, subj ect to vary ing degrees of regulation
and control, and expe rien ced with varying
degrees of risk, rewa rd and hardship. The
'mas sific ation ' of migr ation opportunities to
which Fave ll et al. (2007: 17) refer thus
requires atten tion to the extremely varied
conditions that appl y in different cases -
conditions that have prom pted scholars to
refer to 'abje ct cosm opol itans ' (Nyers, 2003:
1071) and 'kine tic unde rclas ses' (Sparke,
2006 : 169) who se mov eme nts shadow those
of tourists and busi ness class elites.
GOVERNING MOBILITY
Wha t .kinds of regu lator y practices have
shaped this spec trum of mobilities? What
challenges do cont emp orar y global mobilit~es
pose for !he varie ty of governing agencJes
tasked Wtth prom otin g economic develop-
~on~ol? In this sect ion I identify three broad
ratio r ·
na Itles' of gove rnan ce that shape gioba I
regu lator y . . ·
. prac tices appl ying to migr ation
an d mob ility . .
tari · toda y: neo- hber ahsm , hum ant·_
amsm and
governan security. By ' rationalit. y ' of
d
projects ~e, I refer not to spec ifi c policies an
~t
framework to i-t.e . •
u 11 over arch mg axioms. 'and
s that prov ide the often unsp okeO
► GLOBAL MIGRATION AND MOBILITY
gov erna nce itse lf - dthath is, .for
t ·onale for
ra1
. literate professionals ~ cross-culturally
h governance is conducted an w at 1t ts
d:;g ned to do. These thre e rationalities often
oduce strategies and prog ram mes for gov-
~~g migration that conflict with each o~e r.
These t~nsio11s go some ~ay towai:ds explarn- _
· g th-e apparent contradictions and intracta-
:ie policy dilemmas that charncteriz~ the _
regulatory environment for mig ratio n today
both on a global level and with respect to
individual states.
Neo -lib era l Go ver nan ce
Neo-liberalism refers to the broa d ideologi-
cal and poli cy direction purs ued first by
Anglo-American states in the late 1970s and
subsequently by influential intergovernmen-
tal organizations such as the International
Monetary Fun d (IM F), who se loan s to
indebted states in the 1980s wer e conditional
on neo-liberal stru ctur al adju stme nts and
crucial to the tran sfer of nee- libe ral ideology
into global dev elop men t strategies. Certain
key assumptions shap ed nee- libe ral agendas
into the twe nty- first cent ury and dist in-
guished them from Key nesi an or 'wel fare
state ' app roac hes. The se assu mpt ions
included a beli ef in the mar ket as the mos t
effective mec han ism for gene ratin g growth
and prosperity, the prio ritiz atio n of growth
over equity, and the indi vidu aliz atio n of
responsibility for mar ket success and failure.
In the cont ext of mig ratio n thes e assump-
tions translated into three crucial 'log ics' of
governance. Firstly, mar ket crite ria beca me
the explicit basis for mak ing deci sion s on
immigration in states with official migration
programmes. Countries such as Aus trali a and
Canada led the way in this respect by aban-
?0ning racial criteria for those seeking to
munigrate, contracting family reunion schemes
~d introducing 'points systems' for potential
migrants which measured each applicant's
value in terms of skills and experience that
matched proj ecte d labo ur mar ket needs .
Successful applicants were those that could
best respond to the globally connected-knowl -
edge economies encouraged by economic
649
strategists: high ly skilled d
(Jupp, 2002 ; Tannock, 2011 ~ntrepreneurs
) ~te r such
schemes were linked to the grow mg edu
• ~~-
tton market by providing pathways to c1h
-hip fior student migrant h -
-zens
th e1r · d egrees m ·
5
w O com plete d
. .grati.on
prospective unrru
·
cou ntne s (Robertson ' 20 I})· Th
., ough not
with.out. controversy, such schemes seek to
1m1ze national income and prod t· .
max
hr · UC IVJty
! ough educatio~al export on one hand, and
Import of professional expertise on the other.
Secondly, while planning for immigration
had always intersected with access to trans-
national labour markets, it now became tied
to the effort to render migrant labour more
'flex ible ' (Entzinger, Martiniello and de
Wenden, 2004; Overbeek, 2002). As a key
plan k of neo-liberal industrial relations
reform, flexibility means being more respon-
sive to the specific and immediate demands
of industry as well as increasing labour pro-
ductivity and reducing labour costs. These
priorities intersected with changes in trans-
port and communications technologies that
made it possible for industry to relocate to
lower-cost countries if the costs of domestic
labour rose too high. In wealthier countries a
niche was renewed for migrant workers pre-
pared to wor k in 'dirty, dangerous, and dif-
ficult' jobs that natives were disinclined to
do, with wages and conditions that kept
indu strie s prof itab le and competitive.
Else whe re, governments created 'special
economic zone s' with concessions in tax and
labour laws that attracted capital investors. In
both cases, subcontracted employment chains
distanced reputable companies from workers
on the ground and allowed illegal employ-
men t (of visa over-stayers, for example~ to
become commonplace in many ~ountnes.
Arguably, and despite much pubhc outcry
ove r 'illegal immigration'' these arrang~-
an~ b~~t-
ments are tolerated by governmentsflex1
imat
Ult · e b1ht y
nesses on accoun t Of the .
derived from migrant workers whose t?se-
cure legal status prevents _t~em from ob3ect-
ing to unfair working cond1t10ns (De Ge~ova,
2005· Friman, 2011 ; McNevin , 2011). Nicola
'
650 THE SAGE HANDBOOK OF GLOBALIZATION
Philips has, in addition, shonm how similar
patterns of flexibilization have contributed to
the structural integration of 'unfree' and fre-
quently trafficked migrant labour into the
global political economy (Phillips, 2013).
Thirdly, migrati()n has become an impor-
tant dimension of global development strate~
gies as formulated in key intergovernmental
development agencies such as the World
Bank and high level intergovernmental dia-
logues such as the Global Forum on Migration
and Development. The s.o called 'migration-
development nexus' proceeds from the basis
that poor countries' development goals can be
achieved more readily by encouraging labour
export on account of both the remittances sent
home by migrant workers abroad and the
productive skills and knowledge that return
with the migrant to his or her home country.
Remittance earnings in developing countdes
topped US$325 billion in 2010 and after
s01ne years of pursuing development strate-
gies hinging on migration, countries such as
Mexico, Morocco, Indonesia, Jamaica and
the Philippines now count remittance earn-
ings amongst the highest sources of national
income, in some cases much higher than
direct foreign investment and contributions
from foreign aid (World Bank, 2011).2
Debate persists as to whether income from
migrant remittances drives productive invest-
ment of the kind that is central to sustainable
and equitable development (for summaries
see Samers, 2010: 80-5; S0renson, Van Hear
and Engberg-Pedersen, 2003). For some com-
mentators, the migration-development nexus
translates into a hidden form of taxation on
the poorest families and communities. For
example, Nicola Phillips argues that Latin
American programmes to fund public infra-
structure in local communities on a par with
remittance earnings masks the inadequacies
of formal tax systems that are heavily skewed
towards rich elites and perpetuate ongoing
and massive social inequalities (Phillips,
2009). Other critics point to the loss of
developing countries' professional classes to
higher income countrie_s ('bra.in dr~in') ~nd
to the transfer of remittance eammgs mto
1 i
I
unproductive and conspicuous cons
which in tum drives inflation and urnPtion,
disparity ,in home countries (Porteeconornic
· h evidence
. 8
Advocates counter wit of 8,tr2007)·
· engt1i
ened diaspora networks that continue t fu •
and support developing communities t~ nd
. ~ brain circulation, ( coming and goingJ OthUgh
ra er
than one-way departures (for a summary
Levatino and Pecoud, 2012). Still oth:~
argue that aggregate ~easures of develop-
ment success or fa1!ure are inadequate
devices for understandmg the long tenn and
geographically uneven effects of the migra-
tion-development nexus (de Haas, 2006;
Skeldon, 2011 ).
An additional and significant trend relat-
ing to the neo-liberal governance of migra-
tion is also important to note: the feminization
of labour migration. Feminist scholars have
shown how traditional notions of migrants
as male breadwinners and women as their
companions are not borne out by the increas-
ing incidence of female migrant labour in
the global political economy. Important
work has shown how the feminization of
labour migration relates specifically to the
. kinds of industries expanding in service ori-
ented economies and special economic
zones, for example (including care work,
domestic work, factory work and sex work -
traditionally 'female' occupations) and the
kinds of workers that employers prefer,
where women are often assumed to be more
'flexible, · (read harder working and less
likely to complain) (Chin, 1998; Lindquist•
2010; Peterson 2003· Phillips, 20ll)-
' , n
Accordingly, gender has emerged as a
·
important analytic for understand'mg. both
contemporary mobilities and their relation to
uneven development. I return to some of ~e
social implications of-gendered mobilities 10
the final section of this chapter.
Humanitarian Governance
Humanitarianism is a tradition of thought
and practice that begins from the basis of th;
equal :Worth of all human beings and a ~har~, f
consciousness as ' humanity, . The notion
 ITY
GLOBAL MIGRATION AND MOBIL
t
f 651

tra l to aro und the world and, more recentl

dignity or mo ral wo rth is cen1· . . ,._ ". . Y, as a
hUD1an 1g10us chara cte nst ic feature of Cvu hi
.tar ian ism and ref lec ts re .
ni·
u1c ts 1D
. w ch
an life. In dis pla cem ent and 'eth
h~ an i of the sac red nes s .of hum c c1eans1n •
notions thi s tra
d' .
1tio n rna
. .
ru- dep loy ed as stra teg ic weapo
ns is.id are
twentieth century, . or,
rig hts , 1999). Co nse que ntl y' the refugee reg(_une has
tbet d in the codification . of hum an . . and
fes e s app 1ym g expl:ln. ded to enc om pas s_ a global remit
under.stood as baseline _ent1~lernent · · --
cre ed, · now mc orp ora tes several regional conven-
ii p~rsons reg ard les s of rac e, sex ,
· f d'f fi A .
vas t num ber s of non-govemm en·ta1
to a tions and
nationality and oth er ~om ts ~
1 ere nce . . .
emergency
law and org.a mz aho ns (NG Os ) providiQg
bstantial bod y of mt em aho nal and resettle-
ins titu tio ns ass ista nce , cam p administration
~uter-govemmental age nci es and rnally dis-
to articu_Ia_te me nt ser vic es to refugc..!s and inte
:merged in the twentieth ce? tur y behalf.
acr oss civil, pla ced peo ple on the UNHCR 's
and better realise hum an ngh ts anitar-
tu; al are- By any me asu re, however, this hum
political, economic,. socia! and cu! of provid-
this hum an ian eff ort is ina deq uat e to the task
nas. An important dimens10n of 'durable
ivid- ing wh at the UN HC R identifies as
rights regime' is its emphasis on the ind of displaced
nity and sol uti ons ' to the tens of millions
ual (rather than the family, commu organization
em pha sis peo ple of con cer n to the
so on) as the bea rer of rig hts - an ettlement is
of liberal (UN HC R, 2011). Per ma nen t res
that finds its origins in the tradition n of the
ava ilab le to onl y a tiny fractio
political philosophy. 3 is continu-
an rights wo rld 's displaced; repatriation
Humanitarian sen tim ent and hum subject to
legal and ally def err ed wh en homelands are
law are at the centre of the global instability;
pon ds to pro lon ged conflicts and endemic
institutional architecture tha t res centrated in
'ref uge e and the num ber s of refugees con
forced migration. Th e origins of this large as to
Na tio ns neighbouring states are often so
regime' lie in the 1951 Un ited itically and
Sta tus of ren der local integration bot h pol
Convention Re lati ng to the and Barkan,
nti on) , the materially impossible (Adelman
Refugees (the Re fug ee Co nve problem lies
Nations 2011; Milner, 2009). Par t of the
establishment in 1950 of the Un ited ereby those
(UNHCR) with the burden of geo gra phy wh
High Commissioner for Refugees of displace-
for the countries closest to the sources
as the primary agency responsible es and are ill
of dis- me nt hos t the ma jor ity qf refuge
care, repatriation and resettlement problem lies
and in its equipped to do so. An additional
placed people in post-war Europe refugee that
s Hig h with the legal definition of the
predecessor, the League of Nation s of politi-
ile exiles rests on individualized experience
Commissioner for Refugees. Wh · does not
fon n or cal persecution. This definition
have long sought refuge in one of forced
nvention extend to numerous oth er causes
another, it was only with the 1951 Co al destruc-
codified in migration including environment
~at the category of 'ref uge e' was general-
Intemational law along wit h the rig
ht of per- tion, lack of material livelihood, and
anization of
ir home ized violence (although the Org
sons subjected to persecution in the Governing
s~tes to seek asylum elsewhere (Go
odwin- Afr ica n Union Co nve nti on
blems in
Gill, 2000; Haddad, 2008). Specific Aspects of Refugee Pro
force Africa does recognize the latter
within the
~he Refugee Convention came into cte r defmi-
agamst the specific background of
the Nazi scope of its definition). The stri
Convention
persecutio ° f E pean Jews. Bo th the
uro tion taken from the UN Refugee
Conv . n support for
~ntion and the lJNHCR we re originally allows ma ny states that express
. . id coming
con
fi
ceiv ed t
as emporary necessities required the human rights ofr efu gee s to avo
the provi-
Eor only as long as it took • to re~olve the good in all but a minimal way on
g asylum
t ·
uropean pos -war re1ugee cnsis. Subsequent
decad
c.
sion of protection for those seekin
ibility for
es however, saw for..ced migrati
on and to defer the question ofrespons
n'.
emerge a a stap le of politic
s al uph eav als a fair er share of the refugee 'burde
 65 2 THE SAGE HA ND BO OK OF
GL OB AL IZA TIO N

Be yo ~d the material limita security Governance

tions of the
ref ug ee reg im e and the mc
· rea5 mg · re luctance
of ma ny states to open the ir rd On e of the mo re dra ma tic ch
~ ~rs to ~o se anges to .
forcibly displaced, the hu ma mt tion go ve rna nc e in rec en t de
an an log•~ at cades halllbigra.
sta ke in ref ug ee protection ha its sec un·ttz
· atl·on , th t · th
a is, e process thr s een
s be en ~ubJect . . .
to mo re fundamental critique wh ich mi gra tio n 1s mc rea sin gly v· ~~
. In an impor- .
tan t ess ay in 199 9, Baiba ra thr ou gh the pn sm of so ve rei. iew
Harreii-B on d gn and ex· ed
ask ed wh eth er the 'l.e lp' pro tial threat (W rev er et al., 19 isten.
vided to refu- 93). Somewh
ge es in the for m of humanit co un ter -in tui tiv ely , the thr
arian assistance ea t commo lat
mi gh t ex ace rba te the rec ipi en
t's exposure to associated wi th m1. grat10 . d
n oes not relateny
tra um a an d pre ve nt their rec t
overy (Harrell- the forces co mp ell ing so ma ny
Bo nd , 1999). Sh e asked, in of the world ':
other words, dis pla ced pe op le . to be on
wh eth er the wa y help wa s the mo ve, but
given might be rat he r to the 'th rea t' po sed
pa rt of the pro ble m, and wh eth by suc h move-
er therefore, it ments to states an d soc iet ies
wa s sen sib le to assume tha to which refu.
t humanitarian gees, asy lum see ke rs an d oth
ass ist an ce wa s the 'go od ' an d ers seek entry.
'ne utr al' assis- Growing nu mb ers of mi gra nts
tan ce it cla im ed to be. Harre wh o lack the
ll-Bond's start- relevant do cu me nta tio n an
ing po int wa s the anthropolo d authorization
gical notion of required for tra ns it an d reside
the gif t an d the po we r dis nce, including
crepancies that asylum seekers, are inc rea sin
en su e wh en the gif t can no t gly perceived as
be reciprocated. flouting sta tes ' so ve rei gn rig
Sh e ap pli ed this framework hts to control
to fieldwork in entry and ex it an d tes tin g the
nu me rou s ref ug ee camps in Af limits of public
rica to analyze toleration for rac ial an d cu
the pa tte rn of exchange involv ltural diversity.
ed in aid deliv- Th e spectre of 'un co ntr oll
ery an d ca mp administration. ed ' mobilities
Sh e provided heightens a sen se of vu lne rab
nu me rou s ex am ple s of the ilit y to 'danger-
indignities of ou s' outsiders an d ch all en ge
ca mp life, the debilitating eff s to the cultural
ects of adminis- sta tus qu o (G uil
tra tio n an d aid an d the ir co d, 20 09 ; Huysmans, 2006;
unterproductive Squire, 2009).
ou tco me s in terms of entrenc
hing patterns of Th e process of sec uri tiz ati on
de pe nd en ce. ca n be traced
Sin ce the late l 990s, humanit to the 1980s an d the en d of
arianism has the Cold War
co me un de r increasing fire bo wh en Europe, in pa rti cu lar ex
th for its pater- pe rie nced ris-
nalistic an d debilitating effect ing numbers of asy lum see
s with respect to kers. Western
migration governance and as Eu rop ean states, alo ng wi th
a foil for geo- oth er traditional
strategic political interests, pa immigration co un tri es ha d by
rticularly with the n curtailed
respect to 'hu ma nit ari an ' cri official im mi gra tio n pro gra mm
sis and armed es on account
interventions (Agier, 2011; of economic do wn tur n. Af ter
Barnett, 20 I I; 1989, the com-
Chimni, 2000; Fassin, 2012; bin ed prospect of 'irr eg ula
Malkki, 1996). r' migrants and
Ma ny of these critiques former Soviet sta te cit ize ns tal
have come from cing advantage
scholars an d practitioners wh of newfound fre ed om s to see
o have them- k work abroad
selves worked in humanitarian raised serious concerns about
capacities in socio-economic
the service of refugees and ha and cultural security. Sp urr ed
ve seen at first by the rise of
ha nd the frequently counterpr ~n ti-i mm igr an t na tional po pu lis m across the
oductive effects
of go od intentions. While thu mdustrialized wo rld , go ve rnm
s sympathetic to en ts finked
a cosmopolitan appeal to pro border policing ag ain st un wa
vide material nte d migrants
support and defend human rig
hts in the con- to the notion of de fen ce and
to the broad er
text of displact;;ment, these cri security functions of the sta
tics have none- te. The nexus
theless highlighted the danger dra wn be tw een mi gra tio n
s and tensions and securitJ
at stake in a field of governan
ce that-rests on- rea~h_e d new heights in the post 9/ 11 envi-
notions of universality and neu ronment, when mi gratio n wa
trality. s seen to rep re-
sent a pathw ay fur n1d ica b and
te rro ri S!S to
 GLOBAL MIGRATION AND MOBILITY
. filtrate states against which they harbou red
~ 1Ient ambitions. If not directly linked to the
\TlO t of terroris m, asylum seekers and
t}u'ea . . d .th
,· gular' migran ts were associa te w1 a
ure ral state of insecur ity that justifie d a
gene 1· . ..
hard~line border- po 1cm 5 respons e
cs·
1go,_
2002). ..
Against _this ba~kdro_p , many _tr~d1t1onal
igration ··states tighten ed restnch ons on
:gal avenues for migrati on (includ ing ave-
nues for seeking asylum ) and dramati cally
up-scaled their border policin g efforts.
Particularly in the context of Europe , states
sought to harmon ize their legal and regula-
tory frameworks for asylum and border con-
trol. The Europe an border manage ment
4
agency, Frontex, was establis hed to systema -
tize and militarize control of the externa l
border. In other regions , intergo vernme ntal
consultations and collabo rations were initi-
ated such as the (Asia-P acific) Bali Process
on People Smuggling, Traffick ing in Persons
and Related Transna tional Crime, the Puebla
Process for the Americ as and Caribbe an, the
Mediterranean Transit Migrati on Dialogu e
and Migration Dialogu es for West and
Southern Africa. Depend ing on regiona l pri-
orities, these process es have differen t empha-
ses on conflict, develop ment or security
dimensions of migration. The Bali Process ,
for example, was framed from the outset in
tenns of transnational crime prevent ion and
focused its energies on counter -smugg ling
and counter-trafficking measur es, despite
ref~rence to refugee rights within the scope
of its mission. These initiatives fall within
the prevailing global orientat ion for policy
de_velopment and practice in relation to
migration, known as 'Migrat ion Manage ment'
:at attempts to balance increase d mobilit y
0
~ certain kinds of capital and labour flows
W1th in .
. creased contamment of those posing
se;nty ris~ (IOM, 2005).
he considerable financial and human
resourc d.
es Iverted to border control have
borne ·
the U~xed results. In some cases, such as
h ruted States, extraordinary measures
I
thave been taken to seal and militarize borders
I
at act as entry points for ' irregula r' rrigrant
i
653
worker s, under the banner f 'h
securit y'. Among st othe
.
o omeland
r measures th
structlo n of a ten foot steel wall al' e con-
of the length of the US-M . bong much
ex1co order has
corresp onded with the red uc t·10n of the
,.
populat ion from..its_ peak at 12
. . ·. r'
uregula ·
m1 1110n m 2007 to 11 million in 20t l (Pas~~I
and Cohn, 2012). For some comment ators
howeve r, such figures may reflect the effect;
of the global financial crisis as much as bor-
uer enforce ment which has the perverse
effect of driving migrant workers further
underg round and generat ing a profitable
industr y in smuggl ing (Alden, 2012; Massey,
2013). Restric tions . on legal avenues for
migrati on have also had counterproductive
effects. Withou t realistic prospects for pro-
tection as refugee s, many asylum seekers
prefer to take their chances as 'irregul ar'
migran ts, taking grave risks in transit and
exacerb ating popula r concern s about 'illegal-
ity' and 'out of control ' borders (Dauvergne,
2008). Agains t this backgro und and in a con-
text in which both radical jihadist s and reac-
tionary conserv atives represe nt the world in
terms of a civiliza tional divide, many migrant
commu nities residen t in Western _countries
have been margin alized and scapegoated,
generat ing in tum, incentiv es for radicaliza-
tion and further security concerns (Castles
and Miller, 2009). While these are not the
only impacts of border policing strategies,
they are illustrat ive of the circular nature of
the securiti zation of migrati on.
Beyond more immedi ate policy successes
and failures, the intensif ication of security
practic es with respect to human mobility
contrib utes to the disaggr egation of borders
for differen t types of traffic and differe~t
people. The particu lar technologies associ-
ated with contem porary border control
(biome trics, electron ic and drone surveil-
lance, offshor e or extra-territorial policing,
interdic tion and detentio n) have developed
alongsi de related technologies to hasten and
·simplif y approve d border crossings. These
technologies are applied not only at the edges
of state· territory but. within and externa I to it
in ways that challen ge prevailing notio ns of
 THE SAGE HANLJtjUV" ...,. -- .
654
overeign jurisdic-
territoria l state space and s h Diaspor a studies tend to empha ~, 2008))
hip explores t e
tion. A range of schOIars ur
implications of these develop men~ for o d
understa nding of the very borderhnes ?11 ,
sovereig n identitie s suppose dly 'at nsk_
from uncontro lled 1nobilities (Perera, 2007'
Rygiel. 20 IO; Vignesw aran and Laod.au,
2011).
GLOBAL MOBILITY AND SOCIAL
TRANSFORMATION
The recent histories of global mobilities have
enormou sly significa nt implications for soci-
ality, or how we understa nd ourselves in rela-
tion to others. In the early 1.990s, and in
contrast to the paradigm of permanent reset-
tlement, Glick Schiller and others made the
observat ion that 'a new kind of migrating
populati on is emergin g, compose d of those
whose network s, activities and patterns of
life encompa ss both their host and home
societies ' (cited in Van Hear, 2010: 37).
Vvlrile such populati ons may not have been
entirely novel, these authors' broader point
was that new analytics were necessary in
order to engage with the growing normality
of transnat ional belongin gs, hybridized iden-
tities and diaspori c commun ities to which
contemp orary mobilities gave ·rise and to
·think through the ways in which mobile iden-
tities and social formations transformed soci-
eties and polities.
Diaspora s, for example, were traditionally
associate d with exiled communities (Jewish, .
Armenia n) and the dispersal ofAfrican slaves.
Today, we might speak of very different dias-
poras: mobile - even nomadic - professionals
and humanitarians identifying more strongly
with their global occupational fellows than
with national or ethnic ties and harking back
to an era of guilds and wanderi ng artisans or
'journey men' (Isin, 2012). In the context of
the migration-development nexus, national
and cultural diasporas are often cultivate d for
their income earning potential and frequently
play a promine nt role -in politics and conflicts
at home ( the Sri Lankan diaspora is a good
example in recent times (Orjuel
1
.
size d •
seated connect. tons to cultural identi· . eep.
· . s. As Thomas Faist ( hes
local temtone
.· 20 10· at!d
points out, the po1ttlcs that emerge in. ISJ
through diaspora s al~rt us the fact that h atld
mobiliti es 'may remforce and recr urnan
. i:. d ,.
kinds of be11e1s an isms , , mcludino. eate all
..
. hi . . b nation
alism, patnarc sm, sexism, sectarianis ·
.
ethno-n attona1·ism ,. 0·taspora studiesmahnd
• t~
provide an unporta nt counter to liberal
. . h .
homoge ruzmg t eones o f gl obalization and.
favour of a more d ta . Iecttca
. l emphasis on ' Ill
'th
co-prese nce of universa lising and particular~
ising process es' (Faist, 2010: 16).
The very notions of universa l and particu-
lar, home and abroad, foreign and domestic,
·are challeng ed by example s of cultural
hybridity, that while not necessarily a new
phenom enon, are neverthe less the focus of
much attention on account of contemporary
mobiliti es. On one level, hybridity refers to
various example s of cultural mixing, adapta•
tion and appropr iation from music Gazz, hip-
hop, bhangra ), food ('fusion ' cuisines),
languag e (creole, pidgin, patois), philosophy
and religion (Ju-bus) . On a more abstract .
level, hybridit y has emerged as an analytic
tool that adds conside rable complexity to .
interpret ations of the colonial-cultural inter·
face, in particula r. Hybridi ty has been theo-
rized as a creative respons e that occurs at the
moment of cultural exchang e and that add~ to
the possibil ities for resistanc e and civil diso-
bedienc e in the context of (neo)colonial
impositi on (Bhabha , 1994). For other~,
hybridit y reflects the potentia l for syncretIC
and cosmopo litan tradition s to be re-engaged
.
tn and through mobility and cultural exchange
(Soguk, 2011).
.
The creative potentia l of hybn•d'tyi
not·
withstanding, mobiliti es continue to genera~e
~o~plex social challeng es as traditional 'sen :
mg
. and ' rece1vm
· · g' states are now m · creas.
mgly h d
, _s aped by both comings an gomgs. · of
Coming s' take place against the backdrop_ h
treme d . • d wit
n ous social change associate
the opening
of local and domestic markets :~
global com · •
Petition . In this context, rni11r::in
c:-
•
 GLOBAL MIGRATION AND MOBILITY
are often scap egoa ts for anxi etie s abo ut the
ce and nature of chan ge and the unev en-
. . s. Thus
pass of acce ss to ' g Ioba I' opp ortu mtle
oe . d I .
the simu ltan eous o ~ g an c osm g of
borders to diffe rent kinds of peo ple can be
_
_l!e.~ ds than
_ 'fl 'bl
understq_o d le~~- as__ c~p_trc_1di~t ~ry
phen ome non . Sim ilarl y,
s part of the sam e
~e resurgence of excl usiv e and nati onal
identities fuel ling conf licts and pop ulis t poli -
tics are not so muc h thro wba cks to an earl ier
--
age of solid bord erlin es and bou ~ded com - . mg to both circumvent and
munities but thor oug hly con tem pora ry
aspects of a glob al soci al cond ition .
'Goi ngs' also have soci al imp licat ions for
those who 'go' and for thos e they leav e
behind. Man y migrants, incl udin g thos e who
live and wor k und er the mos t prec ario us con-
ditions are able to supp ort a fam ily or com -
munity in thei r plac e of orig in in way s that
offer pathways out of pove rty. The se eco-
nomic advantages are won alon gsid e cons id-
erable social transition. In som e regi ons of
Mexico, for exam ple, cult ures of mig ratio n
leave many towns and villa ges depl eted of
their working-age popu latio n, with implica-
tions for sust ainin g local indu strie s and tradi-
tional way s of life (Por tes, 2010 ). The
feminization of mig ratio n chal leng es gen-
dered 'pro vide r' roles. This may repr esen t
newfound freedoms for som e wom en, eco-
nomic burdens for others and diffi cult iden-
tity transitions for man y men (Ho ang and
Yeoh, 2011). For those on the mov e, aspira-
tions for the social mob ility and freedom that
migration may afford, are som etim es met by
~undane and exploitative wor king condi-
tions in factory assembly lines, in plantations
and abattoirs, and in the laun drie s and.kitch-
aspiring) new mid dle classes.
ens of the (also
In . .
an ms1ghtful ethnographic account of
Indonesian migrants on the island of Bata m'
Johan L"mdquist shows, for example, how
many become trapped in circular migration
Patterns and dead-end jobs in development
zones that fuel Indonesia's globalized econ-
~my but exclude low-end workers from the
enefits of growth (Lindquist, 2010 ).
~~ntemporary mobilities -also transform
POiiticai corrum:nities and raise new questions
655
not only abou t gove man
mor e fundamentally aboc:t anthd reguJ~tio_n bu~
·t· 1 , econstttutio f
I
po I tea mem bers hip itsel f. Aihwa no
r-mob·1· Ong
argu es that the hVnP J .r• t tty of certaj
kinds o f global elites constitut . n
, es a roam1 11g or
e of polit ical mem b h.
.ex1 e mod .. ers Ip that
. t . f
cts with prev a1bn g ratio nalit '
m erse . . 1es o gov-
erna n_ce ~d e1:1erges m d~stinctly neo-liberal
forms. She pom ts to the example of 'mobile
~an ager s, technocrats and professionals-seek-
benefit from dif-
f~rent na_tion-state regimes by selecting
different sites for investments, work and fam-
ily relocation' (Ong, 1999: 22). For Ong, the
Chin ese business diaspora dispersed through-
out the economies of the Asia-Pacific and
within Nor th American high-tech develop-
men t zones represents an example of this kind
of 'flex ible ' citizenship where eligible 'citi-
zens ' are rewarded for their entrepreneurial
and cross-cultural value with transferable
mem bers hip rights.
. By contrast, som e of the most radical chal-
lenges to curr ent norms of citizenship come
from those mos t excl uded from its benefits,
namely, 'irre gula r' migrants who express a
sens e of entitlement to the places in which
they live and wor k with out formal authoriza-
tion. In rece nt years, such migrants have
take n to the streets of North America, Europe
and Sou th Africa; they have gone on strike
and occupied places of wor k to draw atten-
tion to local and global economies dependent
on their labour; they have questioned the
legitimacy of refugee status determination
proc edur es, argu ing that contemporary
migration flows are deri ved from histories _of
colonization and dispossession (McNevm,
2011, 2013; Moulin and Nyers, 2007; Nyers
and Rygiel, 2012). In the short term, such
mobilizations may have limited impact on
the hardships faced by those at the sharp end
of the global mobility spectrum. In the !on~er
term however, they may represent a s1gmfi-
cant challenge to the normative orders that
sustain contemporary hierarchies of mobility.
While citizenship (of certain kinds) contin-
ues to represent the entry point for access_ to
rights and opportunities associated with
 65 6 THE SAGE HA ND BO OK
OF GL OB AL IZA TIO N

mo bi lit y, it is also subj

ec t to co ns id ~~ ~l e FUTURE DIRECTIONS
va ria tio n on account of
global mob1ht1es.
Al re ad y in the early 1990
s in the context of Th is ch ap te r be ga n ·:with
th e Eu ro pe an Un io n's di
ssolution of internal the re
bo rd er s, scholars raised th wh at we kn ow ab ou t contempCOgnjhon ·
e prospect of post- tio n an d m ob ili ty de pe nd that
na tional citizenship. Ya se s very ;rary tnigr _
min Soysal argued we co nc eiv e ?f a~d co un 4
th at the in teg rat io n of
gu estworkers into ' pl ate fu tu re t it.
d1rectlons for Migrati con
As ::h n0
ho11,.
Eu ro pe an po lit ies in th . . tel\\.
e post-World War 1t ts wo rt b ea h , . . on
Tw. o er a .wa s th rm g m mi Stuc
nd that h t·1e1,
. e clearest indication of a shift remains dr iv
in political membership aw en to a large extent ~ e field
ay from a basis in
ten ito ria l, cultural and eth
to wa rd s a universal fra
nic constitution and
ce nt ric an d fix ed -ti me me
tio n, un de rs to od as movement migra.
asures ol s~ate.
mework ba se d on .
mt ernat1. 0na 1 b ord ers for
' de ter rit or ial ize d notions
of pe rso ns ' rights' . d d. long-tenn acrt oss
(S oy sa l, 1994: 2) . In th T h 1s un .
er s tan m g contmues to sha says
e context of more pe po :
re ce nt de pi ct io ns of lar de ba tes an d po lic y options
'fo rtr es s Eu ro pe ', that reac~u
So ys al 's re ad in g appear legal an d eth ica l im pa ss e
s misdirected. Yet between the sove:
So ys al an d others ma de im eig n rig ht s of sta tes an
portant challenges d communities to
to th e taken-for-granted co control en try an d ex it an
ntainer-concept of d the human rights
th e te ni to ria l sta te an d of persons to fre ed om of
opened the field to movement and free-
co ns id er ati on of alternativ do m fro m abuse. Th er e are
e spatial frames for thus good reasons
cit ize ns hi p an d political be to co ns id er ne w starting
longing. po ints for thinking
So m e of th is sc ho lar sh ip ab ou t m ob ility. Th e co
is focused on the nv en tional under-
gl ob al sc al e an d im ag in standing als o pe rv ad es
es a cosmopolitan sc ho larly debates
ci tiz en sh ip in lin e wi th about gr ow th , de ve lo pm en
global legal and t and power with
in sti tu tio na l re fo rm (H eld respect to m ig ra tio n in wh
, 2004 ; Linklater, ich arguments are
19 98 ; Parekh, 20 03 ). Ot established on th e basis
he rs have mapped of patterns and
m ov em en ts to wa rd s 'tr an trends th at re fle ct sta nd
sn ati on al constel- ar d measures of
lat io ns fo rm ed by in de pe migrant an d migrati~n. Im
nd en t states wi th portant work has
no n- ov er la pp in g ter rit or certainly id en tif ied th e fla
ies bu t pa rti all y ws and limitatio_ns
ov er la pp in g m em be rs hi of this 'm eth od ol og ica l na
ps ' (fo r ex am pl e, tio na lism'. As with
Ita lia n- ex pa tri at es vo tin any in no va tio n, ho we ve
g in bo th Ita lia n r, the weight -~
elections an d th os e of their scholarly co nv en tio n and
resident or citizen- the leap of fat
ship state) an d 'federal str required to im ag in e ot he r
uctures in which the concepts and me~-
territories an d members of ods ma ke s th e tas k of mo .
several polities are vmg to altemanve
ne ste d wi th in a larger en frames of re fe re nc e ev er · New
compassing polity' . . challengin g.
(the Eu ro pe an union, fo wa ys of co nc e1 vm . .
g proxumty an . . tan d dis ce
r example, where , are
'po lit ies ' include municipa ac ro ss transversal an d othe • tiahttes
lities as well as
states) (Baubock, 2010: 30 good starting po in ts bu t are r spa nd b oad·
2) . Still others have yet to fi r
challenged the tendency ba se d re so na nce an d institutional _fon;:~
to privilege nested vell's
and hierarchical scales (lo At this juncture, therefore,
cal < national < Ad
global) as the spatial starti provocation to ' reboot' rru. •riantheo,r'\/; is
ng points for polity . lly gra tto n . n' to
an d identity an d theorized es pe cia . bl ' on
transurban, translo- ap t an d a su1 ta e c clu,s10bether
cal an d transversal ties tha thi s ch ap ter . Fa ve ll (2008: 2~0) asks ~ef
t wo rk on affective JJled
as we ll as political lev mi gr ati on is in fact sometlung only tas
els (Leitner and sifY
Eh rk am p, 2006; Smith, 20 and derived from the state'
01 ; Soguk, 2008). s need to c ertain
Th es e ap pr oa ch es ch all and carve up spati al m ob
enge prevailing ility in a c mt1st
assumptions about proxim
ity and distance and way ' . lf · so , then mi.grati.on scholars
eivi
op en th e do or to spatially rec
onfigured notions remam . a1
ert to the ways m . w h1'ch cone .Jlg
of citizenship and politica an d me as ur reva1·1·
l community. . ing m igr ation according to ptitutio11
mg no rms contributes to the .
vc rv cons
r GLOBAL MIGRATION AND MOBILITY
f the state as the central fram e of reference
~ough whic h the possi biliti es for hwna n
bility and its gove rnanc e are conferred.
~at might happen', asks Fave ll:
if we shut down the disaiplinary canons for a
. ornent and reboot ·our computer? ... Nothing
;ppears natural any_more: cert_ainly r Jt our defini-
a migra nt or an event/
tiP~:<>t wh~t co_nst,~utes
action of m1gratIon in the world. We would have
to draw new lines and new conve ntions ...
Biologists studying pollination or meteorologists
studying the patterns of hurricane formation
would never think that the phenomena they
describe were in any way defined by the given
nation-state borders and definitions of the every-
day political world. Should we continue to
describe and file human spatial mobility in the
same way? (Favell, 2008: 270)
SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER
READING
Introductions and Ove rvie ws
Castles S and Mille r MJ (2009 ) The Age of
Migration (4th edn, New York and Lond on:
· The Guildford Press ) rema ins an excel lent
introduction and overv iew of the field while
Samers M (2010 ) Migr ation (Lon don and
New York: Rout ledge ) is an adva nced but
highly approachable intro ducti on with a par-
ticular conceptual and theor etica l focus on
the spatial dime nsion of mobi lities . Brett ell
CB and Hollifield JF (eds) (2008 ) Migration
Theory: Talking Across Disci pline s (2nd edn,
New York: Routledge) is a usefu l volum e in
which contributors outli ne the study of
migration and mobi lity from the persp ectiv e
of each of the relevant disci pline s. The con-
cl~ding chapter by Adria n Fave ll, 'Rebo oting
nu~a tion theory: Inter disci plina rity, glo-
·y m
· 1·mant
hahty, and postd'1sc1p · migr ·
· ation
s~dies' is an excellent accou nt of the neces -
Slty for new approaches that is right at the
edge of contemporary migr ation studies.
Advanced and Specific Readings
~~i~ips N (ed.) (2011) Migration in the
0 US$21.3 billion 1n remittance earnings, US$1 .4
al Political Economy (Boulder, Colorado,
L~e ~einn er) provides good coverage of the
657
maJor issues relati
.
ng to neo-liberal govern-
ance and t!te migration-development nexus .
!ssue s relatmg to forced migration are covered
m Betts ~ and Loescher G (eds) (2011)
Refu~ees zn l~ternational Relations (Oxford:
Oxfo rd . U~ve rsity Press). Fas.sin D · c2012 j·
Humamtarzan Reason: A Moral History ofthe
Present (Berkeley: University of California
Press ) is a brilliant advanced critique of
huma nitari an gove rnanc e. Guild E (2009)
Security and Migration in the 21st Century
(Cambridge: Polity Press) is a good introduc-
tion to the security dimensions of migration.
Knot t K and McL ough lin S (eds) (2010)
Diasporas: Concepts, Intersections, Identities
(London: Zed Book s) provides useful short
contributions covering most of the key iden-
tity and sociality issues while Baub ock R
and Faist T (eds) (2010) Diaspora and Trans-
nationalism: Concepts, Theories and Methods
(Ams terda m: Amst erdam University Press)
provides more advanced perspectives and cri-
tique. Nyers P and Rygiel K (eds) (2012)
Citizenship, Migrant Activism and the Politics
of Move ment (New York: Routledge) is a
fascinating collection of essays on migr ant
activ ism and the transformation of citize nship
throu gh migrant-led social move ment s.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
What are the pros and cons of a conceptual shift
from migration to mobility?
2 What tensions and contradictions exist between
neo-liberal, humanitarian and security rationali-
ties when it comes to governing migration?
3 How can the study of diasporas and trans-
nationalism shed light on both universalizing
and particularizing processes of globalization?
NOTES
Some 200 million people are estimated to
constitute a •floating population ' between
China's rural and urban centres (The Globe and
Mail, 2010).
2 For example, in 20 10 the- Pl:lilippines ·re'Geived