ABSTRACT

The current era is marked, despite increased efforts to harden nation-state borders, by an unparalleled level of human migration, which is the consequence of both recent and long-term political, economic, cultural, social, demographic, and technological developments. These include the end of the Cold War; the efforts of corporations, states, social movements, and religious organizations to increase both their access to and control over populations, resources, and finances; the global expansion of production, commerce, consumption, and communications and entertainment media; the need for both inexpensive and highly skilled labor; and the growing availability of low-cost and high-speed modes of transportation. Migration is also initiated by intergroup conflicts, environmental disasters, economic transformations and ethnic cleansing. These occurrences have brought previously isolated peoples and cultures much closer together than ever before. The resulting patterns of contemporary migration are unprecedented in both the sheer

numbers of people involved as well as their diversity. In 2011, the International Organization for Migration estimated that there were a total of 214 million migrants internationally, some 3.1 percent of the world’s population or 1 in every 33 persons (IOM 2011). Such migrants, who remitted approximately $325 billion to their homelands in 2010, represent almost every motive and social category imaginable (Mohapatra et al. 2011). They seek work and economic opportunities, reunification with family members, a more congenial environment or, most poignantly in the case of war-weary refugees, a safe place to live. Adding to the challenges of border crossing, migrants find themselves targeted as marks, consumers, and recruits by merchants, employers, religious proselytizers, criminals, human traffickers, social control apparatuses, and the leaders of a wide variety of social and political movements. While some carry on unscathed, others are scarred en route. Still others, including migrants, non-migrants, and former migrants, engage in occupations ranging from resettlement staff and smugglers to travel agents. In so doing, they find ways to benefit from their ties to the global migration stream (Cohen 1969; Safran 1999). International migration encompasses widely varied forms of population movement, from

both sanctioned and covert labor migrations, to contract labor and “guest-worker” programs, to network-driven chain migrations that link communities across international borders. Flows of highly skilled professionals traverse industrialized and developing countries, low-skilled workers

risk their lives to access better labor opportunities, and displaced asylum seekers struggle to gain legal recognition in both developing and developed countries. The study of international migration explores these many modes of exit, reception, and incorporation which involve varied populations in disparate political, economic, social, and cultural contexts. More than just a demographic shift in population, these movements also facilitate the trans-

mission of ideologies and identities, political and cultural practices, and economic resources. These transformations impact not only those who are migrating, but also those who are left behind, as well as non-migrants who live and work where migrants settle. Reactions to migration and the types of change with which it is associated take many forms.

The political outcomes of migration range from declarations of global human rights, to the extension of dual citizenship to expatriates, to “extraordinary rendition,” selective incarceration and profiling, to internal exile, mass killings, and expulsions of entire populations. Whatever the shape these political reactions to migration have taken, however, migration patterns often resist policies intended to mold them according to plan (Massey 1993; Castles and Miller 2009). Migration and its aftereffects have wide-ranging impacts upon nearly every aspect of social,

economic, political, and cultural life in countries of origin and settlement-altering dietary habits, tastes in clothing and music, economic patterns and religious, racial, ethnic, familial, gender, and political practices, and identities. Many contemporary social problems-including racial, ethnic, national, and religious conflicts, economic inequalities, and the unraveling of political structures and practices-are themselves the product of previous migrations. While sometimes generating problems, migration also provides benefits and solutions. Some

migrant groups record remarkable achievements. They compensate for population decline and contribute inestimable resources to host societies while also remitting prized assets, ranging from economic support to political leadership to their countries of origin (Levitt 2001; Morawska 2001; Portes 2001; Saxenian 2006). The causes and consequences of international migration have long been among the focal

concerns of social scientists, historians, legal scholars, political activists, and social reformers. Hence, there is major precedent and a wide body of available theory, methods, and archival literature through which these topics can be investigated. At the same time, many new forms of contemporary migration defy established categories, models, and methods. Consequently, migration research demands a mastery of both conventional and cutting-edge approaches. According to available evidence, current patterns of migration-and the many critical issues

associated with it for both sending and receiving environments-will become even more prominent in the future, and more consequential both for social policy and scholarship. Given the social, economic, political, and ideological importance of international migration in the contemporary world, this handbook has been devised in such a way as to provide students, scholars, policy makers, and general readers with the basics of what they need to develop a sound, wide ranging, and forward looking understanding of the phenomenon.