Summary literature & lectures introduction to migration studies uva
Summary of all the literature + lectures of the Introduction into Migration Studies course at the UvA
Nation and migration - All lectures, notes and exam questions
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Culturele Antropologie En Ontwikkelingssociologie
Nation And Migration
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Preparation midterm Nation & migration
Week 1: Where am I local?
- Taiye Selasi
Week 2: Explore social, political, legal and economic factors that shape migration control and
restrictions.
Migration is about crossing borders, and people who cross borders are usually framed as problems
that need to be managed through control measures. However, it is evident that not every migrant is
‘problematic’ and unwanted.
- Who is a migrant?
o CH2: Categories of migration
Argument: examines the main categories and typologies that researchers, the media
and politicians use to describe and analyse migration. It will provide definitions and
familiarize readers with important terms that will appear throughout the text, and it
will highlight the dangers of uncritically adopting categories and discourses of
migration that provide distorted and biased views of migration.
Defining migration and human mobility, internal/international migration/ temporary
and permanent migration/ origin and destination/ migration motives: labour, family,
study, business/forced migration: refugees and asylum seekers/ illegal,
unauthorized, irregular, undocumented/ smuggling and trafficking/ climate refugees:
the construction of a migration threat
o Sarah Kunz – Expatriate, migrant? The social life of migration categories and the
polyvalent mobility of race (2019)
Argument: The article argues that the category ‘migrant’ emerges as polysemic (can
have different meanings) and malleable (easily influenced) as it is constructed with
and against the ‘expatriate’ (a person who lives outside their native country); both
categories are joined by a constitutive but not straightforward relationship that is
deeply politicised and specifically works to reproduce racialised power relations.
This article explores the everyday socio-cultural production of the category ‘migrant’
in its tense relationship with the category ‘expatriate’.
The article argues that the category ‘migrant’ emerges as polysemic (can have
different meanings) and malleable (easily influenced) as it is constructed with and
against the ‘expatriate’ (a person who lives outside their native country); both
categories are joined by a constitutive but not straightforward relationship that is
deeply politicised and specifically works to reproduce racialised power relations.
▪ Intersection of colonial arrangements into post-colonial immigration regimes
in Europe (material link between colonialism, postcolonialism and migration)
▪ migration categories work in processes of racialisation, and vice versa, how
race intervenes in the production of categories.
▪ It specifically addresses how the term ‘expatriate’ is implicated in racialised
and classed postcolonial power relations.
▪ Migrant as charged, unstable and contested term
, ▪ If categories like ‘expatriate’ and ‘migrant’ are central to the racialised
politics of migration and thereby to broader political struggles, this is also
through their conceptual multiplicity and malleability. This conceptual
relationship is by no means neutral, given or automatic but always linked to
shifting social inequities and struggles. Tracing its production is part of the
analytical task
o Lecture 1: nation and migration
Argument: “The categorisation of migration has been recognised as a deeply political
exercise, involved in the ordering of movement, in broader power negotiations and
social (re)arrangements”. (???)
Concept: migration, nation and state.
Nation: community op people whose members are bound together by some sort of
solidarity, common culture or national consciousness (Seton-Watson, 1977)
State: legal and political organization, with power to require obedience and loyalty
from citizens (Seton-Watson 1977).
Nation-state: form of organization (see pp)
Nationalism: idea that people within a nation are connected together (Docu)
Nation states are constituted through construction of borders. Borders
represent the sovereignty of states. Borders are not just boundaries between
territories, they shape our perceptions of the world and other people.
Citizens: people who have rights using political and legal regulations
Migration: movement of people across administrative borders resulting in
change of residence (within-internal, between-international)
Problematising migration: threat idea stable nation-state > migrants thus
political and symbolic threat to the sovereign state
Construction of borders> performed by state in form of restrictions on
people
▪ Link to Sarah Kunz: two types of migration
Migrant: the problematic migration as denoted by the highly controversial
term migrant (migration crisis, securization)
Expats: The privileged migrants, whose migration is not view negative
though it racializes other migrants and locals (global race for talent)
“The ‘expatriate’ is frequently seen to denote an altogether different (and
more valuable) form of mobility than that of the ‘migrant’, or is seen as a
privileged or valuable subtype of migration.”
Undesirable persons/migrants/citizens: overstaying visa > most important
reason for being declared as undesirable and banned
Politics of categorization: insider/outsider, illegal/legal, formal/informal..
Categories are essential to make sense of data, social processes, see pattern and
compare.
“The categorisation of migration has been recognised as a deeply political exercise,
involved in the ordering of movement, in broader power negotiations and social
(re)arrangements”.
The language used in these categories; • historic power structures • current political
agenda • nationalistic insecurity and populism
Categories set boundaries and are relational
, • Identities (individual and collective) as ongoing projects of negotiation • Critical and
reflective use of categories • Migration as a process rather than a singular event
- Nation and migration in political philosophy
o CH1: Introduction
Migration in an age of globalization, the growth and diversity of international
migration, trends and patterns of global migration, the challenges of international
migration, international migration in global governance, aims and arguments book.
Argument book: international migration is a central dynamic in globalization and is
recasting states and societies in distinctive and powerful ways.
▪ We can summarize the main arguments of this book as follows: • Migration
is an intrinsic – and therefore inevitable – part of broader processes of global
change and development; • Labour demand in destination societies is the
main driver of international migration; • While states play a key role in
initiating migration, once set in motion, migration processes tend to gain
their own momentum; • Migration is a partly autonomous process that will
almost inevitably go along with some degree of permanent settlement; •
Migration is neither the cause of, nor a panacea for, structural
socioeconomic problems in destination and origin societies; • While
governments have a legitimate desire to control migration, ill-considered
migration policies often have counterproductive effects.
o Wellman, Immigration and Freedom of Association
Argument: Every state has a right to control immigration over its territorial borders.
Author was pro-migration control so he tried to go in conversation with people.
Sticking to migration control, the main argument was that individuals and
countries(groups) Always have the right to choose to associate and disassociate.
While they do have the obligation to help people (in unequal situations) this does not
necessarily mean they have to open their borders to them. Not everyone has the
rights which means it may be problematic: a lot of inequalities here
o main argument was that individuals and countries(groups) Always have the right to
choose to associate and disassociate. while they do have the obligation to help
people (in unequal situation) this does not necessarily mean they have to open their
borders to them. Not everyone has the rights which means it may be problematic: lot
of inequalities here.
Relating to idea nation state (lecture week 1) > state should be autonomous and
sovereign, other state not allowed to interfere. The same state will interfere in other
countries.
Instead of people coming, we sent them money, who are they accountable to? Other
nation? Issue of power that imbalances. This doesn’t work. Intellectually it make
sense. But real life situation, what are the implications?
Other point he raises: open borders, if we sorting out humans according to
countries> geographical case system. Who is deciding what and what are the
implications?
Summary: standing of the right of association, everyone has a right to association. Eg
individuals, marriage > the point raised is not real, it is not happening like that in real
life
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