The Politics of International Migration

This course examines the legal and political dimensions of the phenomenon of international migration: when migrants cross territorial borders and enter a state to whose citizenry they do not belong. During the first half of the course, we will ask why and how migrants move - studying theoretical explanations for population flows - and why and how receiving states try either to attract them or to keep them out. We will reflect on the intersection of inequality and migration by critically examining how different groups of people on the move are categorized in different ways (e.g., as high or low-skilled workers, refugees, "illegal" immigrants, asylum-seekers) and, as a consequence, are granted different levels of territorial access and rights. We will also reflect on the human costs of policies of migration control and engage with normative debates on the ethics of borders. During the second half of the course, we will examine what happens to immigrants once they have arrived in the country of reception. Focusing on the cases of undocumented immigrants, asylum-seekers, unaccompanied children, humanitarian claimants, and families, we will ask how different groups claim rights and legal status in the host country and what challenges they encounter in the process. The class readings and lectures will mainly focus on migration to the US and Europe, but we will also briefly touch on immigration to developing countries in the Global South, which host 85% of the world's refugees.