Some Conceptual Thoughts on Migration Research

Taxonomy Associations

Migration processes

• Migration drivers

  • Urban/Rural development and living standards
  • Population dynamics
  • Economic and business conditions
  • Labour markets and employment
  • Poverty and inequality
  • Public infrastructure, services and provisions
  • Climate change and environmental conditions
  • Conflict, war and violence
  • International relations and geopolitical transformations
  • Political situation, repression and regime transitions
  • Migration governance and infrastructure
  • Migration policy and other public policies
  • Personal resources and migration experience
  • Migrant aspirations and attitudes
  • Cultural norms and ties
  • Globalisation and (post)colonialism

• Migration forms

  • Family and marriage migration
  • Refugees
  • Asylum seekers
  • Internal displacement
  • Environmental migration
  • Short-term and circular migration
  • Transnational migration
  • Labour migration
  • Internal migration
  • Irregular migration
  • Multiple migration
  • Return migration
  • Student mobility
  • Trafficking

• Migration infrastructures

  • Human smugglers
  • International and intergovernmental organisations in travel & migration
  • Means of travel and transportation
  • Human traffickers
  • Tourism and migration
  • Legal regulations and traveller & migrant protection

Migration consequences (for migrants, sending and receiving countries)

• Socio-cultural consequences

  • Racism, xenophobia and discrimination
  • Cultural identity and belonging
  • Attitudes, migration and migrants
  • Media representations of migration
  • Ethnic, religious and national minorities
  • Diasporas and transnational communities
  • Interethnic contact and conflict
  • Marriage and migration
  • Migrants' language skills

• Socio-economic consequences

  • Brain drain and brain gain
  • Labour market participation
  • Urban development, migration, and diversity
  • Remittances
  • Rural development, migration, and diversity

• Transversal consequences

  • Migrant incorporation / integration
  • Spatial consequences
  • Social cohesion
  • Demographic outcomes of migration

• Legal-political consequences

  • Nationhood and nationalism

Migration governance

• Governance actors

  • Inter-governmental and international organisations
  • National governmental and state institutions
  • Civil society
  • Employers, labour and trade unions

• Immigrant policy and law

  • Antidiscrimination, 'race relations'
  • Integration policies (legal, political, socio-economic, cultural) and access to services
  • Citizenship, naturalisation and statelessness

• Migration policy and law

  • Diaspora engagement policies
  • Immigration admission and control (general)
  • Family reunification policies
  • Policies on irregular migration
  • Border control
  • Policies on mobility
  • Asylum regimes

Cross-cutting topics in migration research

• Migration research and theory

  • Development of migration studies

• Transversal themes

  • Race and ethnicity

Disciplines

• Disciplines

  • Demography
  • Economics
  • Geography
  • History
  • International Relations
  • Law and Legal studies
  • Political Science
  • Sociology

• Subject Areas

  • Ethnic Studies
  • Governance and Public Administration
  • Peace and Conflict studies

Methods

• Either/Mixed

  • Historical
  • Other

• Qualitative research

  • Qualitative text analysis and content analysis and document analysis (incl. policy analysis)

• Quantitative research

  • Descriptive and classification
  • Correlation and causal analysis

• Types of study

  • Comparative
  • Theoretical / Conceptual

Geographies

• Scope

  • Global
  • Continental
  • International
  • National
  • Subnational
  • Urban
  • Rural