ABSTRACT
To date, migration scholars have not established a critical perspective that canadequately make sense of two sets of seemingly contradictory globally circulating narratives: in one migrants are excoriated as a threat to global and national security and in the other they are celebrated as transnational actors who through their remittances and knowledge acquired abroad develop their homelands. In this chapter I argue that a global perspective on migration is necessary in order to address the contemporary conditions that simultaneously promote both representations. To develop such a global perspective, I suggest that researchers and those who make and implement public policy must build on, as well as critique, the work that has been done to theorize transnational migration.
