ABSTRACT
The international movement of persons makes visible the contours of the state – and state power – in the context of the international system. This is why questions around migration, borders, refugees and citizenship can be central for the study of international relations. As a subject which is always close to questions of identity and power, migration has the capacity to break open debates over the role of the state, and its future local, regional and global transformations. This chapter will clarify key terms and explore contemporary migration controls as internal security practice by examining some of the key material and ideational impacts of changing patterns of human mobility in the twenty-first century. It is organized into four main sections.
The chapter begins by asking why we as IR scholars should be interested in these topics, and exploring the ways in which migration and citizenship is relevant to studying the changing power of the state in the international system. The second section offers some context by providing a brief history of the development of migration controls, finding that with some exceptions most states only developed migration controls at the beginning of the twentieth century. Historiographical issues and dominant narratives around migration are examined, and these are linked to the development of the discipline of International Relations. The third section then goes on to analyse contemporary international relations in this area through an examination of three case studies.
The first of these, on border controls, explores changing patterns of border governance and how migration is a topic that is often central to critical security studies. The second looks at the refugee system and how it provides some hope of a liberal regime, although the difficulties in protecting human rights for migrants symbolizes the inherent problems of IR. The third case is that of international labour migration where, despite obvious economic benefits for states, there has been little progress in developing international systems of governance. However, there are signs of convergence in the ways in which states deal with economic migration. The final section then moves on to consider the next steps in terms of the future options for border and migration controls, including discussion of global governance, the possibilities for a border-free world and resurgent national sovereignty. It concludes, even in the context of radical transformations of the state – some of them attributable to migration and its effects – resurgent nationalism will always tend to trump regional and international efforts that aim to remove control of borders and migration from the hands of states.
