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The Age of Migration: International Population Movements in the Modern World
Long established as the leading textbook on migration and used by students and scholars alike all over the world, this fully revised and updated sixth edition continues to offer an authoritative and cutting-edge account of migration flows, why they occur, and their consequences for both origin and destination societies. International migration is one of the most emotive issues of our times, reforging societies around the world and shaping debates on security, national identity and sovereignty in profound ways. The expert authors of this book provide a truly global and interdisciplinary introduction to this perennially important topic, with chapters covering all of the world's regions and spanning the nineteenth century to the present day. Exploring the significance of migration in relation to recent events and emerging trends, from the policies of the European Union to the Great Recession, this text helps to shed light on the often large gap between the rhetoric and realities of migration.
For students of migration studies in disciplines as wide ranging as Politics, Sociology, Geography, Area Studies, Anthropology and History this is an indispensable guide, whether already familiar with the subject matter or approaching the topic for the first time.
The Age of Migration is published by Macmillan Education. In the United States and its dependencies, Canada, Mexico and the Philippines, it is distributed under licence by Guildford Press.
For students of migration studies in disciplines as wide ranging as Politics, Sociology, Geography, Area Studies, Anthropology and History this is an indispensable guide, whether already familiar with the subject matter or approaching the topic for the first time.
The Age of Migration is published by Macmillan Education. In the United States and its dependencies, Canada, Mexico and the Philippines, it is distributed under licence by Guildford Press.
460 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 28, 1993
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
March 17, 2014
(This review appeared on the website of Migrants' Rights Network - http://www.migrantsrights.org.uk/blog...)
Immigration studies has emerged as an important discipline in colleges and universities across the world, with probably scores of research centres being established in the UK along over the last decade or so. Contributions have come from sociologists, anthropologists, geographers, political scientist, economists and philosophers over this time, giving anyone moved to make a systematic review of the literature quite a job in terms of catching up on what is being said and thought about the subject.
That is a good enough reason to welcome the 5th edition of Age of Migration and what has probably become the 101 introductory text to the study of population movements in the modern world. Enough has happened since the publication of the 4th edition in 2009 to justify a considerable revision of the book, and the long-standing authors, Stephen Castles and Mark J. Miller have been joined by Hein de Haas of the International Migration Institute in Oxford.
The book puts as its central proposition the fact that we are once again living in the midst of an age of migration. Some would say that doesn’t mean that much, since migration has been a major activity for human beings since they first moved out of Africa around 500,000 years ago. But if migration can be said to have happened in each and every age of humanity it is of critical importance to note that what drives people to move at any one time is related in large part to the distinct features of the age under consideration.
Global markets
For the Age of Migration considered by Castles and his colleagues, it is the age of global markets. More precisely, global markets that themselves evolve over time as the terms of trade and commerce are shaped by the rise of nation states and their out-flowing into colonialism, the dominance of particular economic and political super-powers, changes to the structures of firms, the proliferation of manufacturing and service-providing sectors, the integration of economic regions, and the new technologies of management and communication.
All of these things provide the factors which allow migration across periods of decades to ebb and flow, at some points allowing politicians to believe that it is no longer an important feature of the systems they govern, but at others revealing hitherto unacknowledged demand which brings millions back into the business of crossing borders.
These layers of complexity mean that no one theory of migration suffices to tell the whole story. The two main branches – functionalist accounts of ‘push-pull’ factors, and historical-structural theories – are further subdivided and contribute insights based on what their approaches have encouraged them to focus on. Dependency and world systems theory looks at the power relations between ‘core’ capitalist states and the nations of the ‘periphery’, showing how migration chains are built up from movements between villages and urban areas in developing areas and transformed into international migration through relationships of dominance and subordination between the developed and developing regions of the world.
Theorists stressing the significance of globalisation stress the importance of the economic component of these relations between the nationals powerful enough to structure markets and the terms of trade, and consequently the importance this had in increasing the movement of people seeking opportunities for wage labour. Economists constructing models of segmented labour markets give us a way of understanding how the demand for migration can persist even when the overall economy is mired in recession. And in the background looms the grimmer story of forced migration, where the movement of people is induced by political instability and terror.
Unstoppable movement
Age of Migration implies that the balance of all theories on the movement of people tends to agreement that it is so closely entwined with the spirit of our times as to be unamenable to serious reduction in the either the short or medium terms. It certainly provides no example of any contributor to high-level discussion who would support the viewpoint common amongst so many mainstream politicians that, with just one more push, we could reverse the trends of a half century or more and get the system under the firm management of the state authorities.
If migration is determined at its broadest extent by the imbalances between the rich and the poor worlds, then the authors consider whether the volume of people movement would be reduced by the developing regions catching up and become ‘more like us’. The review the literature that has considered this possibility and conclude that the opposite effect is more likely for the foreseeable future, with incremental improvements to the living standards of modest households bringing more people to the point where the investment in at least one of their members becoming mobile across frontier seems to be worthwhile.
If the arguments stack up around the viewpoint that every which way leads to the continuation of migration the authors suggest that gloom and despondency is not the appropriate response. Despite all the furore the economic and social forces that prevail over the lives of humans still favour most of us – at present around 97% - remaining in our home territories. If no more than 3% have attained the footloose and fancy free status of migrant the increase in the global population of the world to its current 7 billion (5 billion in 1987) means that there are more people in this fragment, and most still look for opportunities in the relatively small number of highly developed nations.
But cheer up: this is a pretty smart bunch of people, with higher proportions having had experience of tertiary education that exists in national populations. They are young and ambitious, and having grown up as a part of the global digital generation, they are generally well-informed about they need to do to make a success of their migration projects.
There is another story to be told however, and Age of Migration traces this out in chapters which look at the literature on migrants experiences in the labour force, and the continuing tendency of western societies to generate racisms and other forms of exclusion which turn newcomers into marginalised ethnic minorities over time. All of this suggests, and the authors do more than hint that this is the case, that the real substance of an immigration policy agenda ought to be less about stopping people from coming, and more to do with tackling exploitation and chronic disadvantage.
Age of Migration has a website which aims to supplement the text with more case studies and updates on developments in migration studies. You can view it by CLICKING HERE.
Immigration studies has emerged as an important discipline in colleges and universities across the world, with probably scores of research centres being established in the UK along over the last decade or so. Contributions have come from sociologists, anthropologists, geographers, political scientist, economists and philosophers over this time, giving anyone moved to make a systematic review of the literature quite a job in terms of catching up on what is being said and thought about the subject.
That is a good enough reason to welcome the 5th edition of Age of Migration and what has probably become the 101 introductory text to the study of population movements in the modern world. Enough has happened since the publication of the 4th edition in 2009 to justify a considerable revision of the book, and the long-standing authors, Stephen Castles and Mark J. Miller have been joined by Hein de Haas of the International Migration Institute in Oxford.
The book puts as its central proposition the fact that we are once again living in the midst of an age of migration. Some would say that doesn’t mean that much, since migration has been a major activity for human beings since they first moved out of Africa around 500,000 years ago. But if migration can be said to have happened in each and every age of humanity it is of critical importance to note that what drives people to move at any one time is related in large part to the distinct features of the age under consideration.
Global markets
For the Age of Migration considered by Castles and his colleagues, it is the age of global markets. More precisely, global markets that themselves evolve over time as the terms of trade and commerce are shaped by the rise of nation states and their out-flowing into colonialism, the dominance of particular economic and political super-powers, changes to the structures of firms, the proliferation of manufacturing and service-providing sectors, the integration of economic regions, and the new technologies of management and communication.
All of these things provide the factors which allow migration across periods of decades to ebb and flow, at some points allowing politicians to believe that it is no longer an important feature of the systems they govern, but at others revealing hitherto unacknowledged demand which brings millions back into the business of crossing borders.
These layers of complexity mean that no one theory of migration suffices to tell the whole story. The two main branches – functionalist accounts of ‘push-pull’ factors, and historical-structural theories – are further subdivided and contribute insights based on what their approaches have encouraged them to focus on. Dependency and world systems theory looks at the power relations between ‘core’ capitalist states and the nations of the ‘periphery’, showing how migration chains are built up from movements between villages and urban areas in developing areas and transformed into international migration through relationships of dominance and subordination between the developed and developing regions of the world.
Theorists stressing the significance of globalisation stress the importance of the economic component of these relations between the nationals powerful enough to structure markets and the terms of trade, and consequently the importance this had in increasing the movement of people seeking opportunities for wage labour. Economists constructing models of segmented labour markets give us a way of understanding how the demand for migration can persist even when the overall economy is mired in recession. And in the background looms the grimmer story of forced migration, where the movement of people is induced by political instability and terror.
Unstoppable movement
Age of Migration implies that the balance of all theories on the movement of people tends to agreement that it is so closely entwined with the spirit of our times as to be unamenable to serious reduction in the either the short or medium terms. It certainly provides no example of any contributor to high-level discussion who would support the viewpoint common amongst so many mainstream politicians that, with just one more push, we could reverse the trends of a half century or more and get the system under the firm management of the state authorities.
If migration is determined at its broadest extent by the imbalances between the rich and the poor worlds, then the authors consider whether the volume of people movement would be reduced by the developing regions catching up and become ‘more like us’. The review the literature that has considered this possibility and conclude that the opposite effect is more likely for the foreseeable future, with incremental improvements to the living standards of modest households bringing more people to the point where the investment in at least one of their members becoming mobile across frontier seems to be worthwhile.
If the arguments stack up around the viewpoint that every which way leads to the continuation of migration the authors suggest that gloom and despondency is not the appropriate response. Despite all the furore the economic and social forces that prevail over the lives of humans still favour most of us – at present around 97% - remaining in our home territories. If no more than 3% have attained the footloose and fancy free status of migrant the increase in the global population of the world to its current 7 billion (5 billion in 1987) means that there are more people in this fragment, and most still look for opportunities in the relatively small number of highly developed nations.
But cheer up: this is a pretty smart bunch of people, with higher proportions having had experience of tertiary education that exists in national populations. They are young and ambitious, and having grown up as a part of the global digital generation, they are generally well-informed about they need to do to make a success of their migration projects.
There is another story to be told however, and Age of Migration traces this out in chapters which look at the literature on migrants experiences in the labour force, and the continuing tendency of western societies to generate racisms and other forms of exclusion which turn newcomers into marginalised ethnic minorities over time. All of this suggests, and the authors do more than hint that this is the case, that the real substance of an immigration policy agenda ought to be less about stopping people from coming, and more to do with tackling exploitation and chronic disadvantage.
Age of Migration has a website which aims to supplement the text with more case studies and updates on developments in migration studies. You can view it by CLICKING HERE.
Read
November 28, 2018It's my class textbook, so heck no, I didn't read the whole damn thing!
(But it's very good and important stuff and actually written in a pretty accessible way.)
(But it's very good and important stuff and actually written in a pretty accessible way.)
December 15, 2024
Ik weet niet waarom dit puur informatieve boek over migratie mij heeft kunnen raken.
Zout op een wonde.
Zout op een wonde.
August 13, 2020
Reading this book, one gets the sense that scholars of migration in the present world often stumble around dangerously close to gaining insights about the peoples and societies of the contemporary world, only delivered from the threat of enlightenment and wisdom by the power of their misguided assumptions about the inevitability and irreversible nature of what they view as progress. Of course, these scholars, who represent an alliance between the political science and international relations academics of the United States as well as the refugee studies think tank at Oxford, feel the destruction of national borders and national identity in the face of ever increasing migrations of poor and unwanted masses of people is a given fact. Similarly, they only dimly recognize the reality of the hostility of would-be host populations who resent the invasion of their country by self-professed asylum seekers and refugees and whose response to the increased migration of troublesome and unsettled peoples is a reflexive and entirely predictable rise of nationalism and a lack of faith in elite institutions that do not serve their interests as well as supranational institutions that threaten national identity and the security of borders. All of this makes this book a fascinating study of two people whose knowledge of migration and its contexts leads them to the brink of great understanding but not into its realization.
This book is almost 300 pages long and is divided into twelve chapters. After a list of illustrations and various other matters, and a preface to the third edition and a list of abbreviations, the authors begin with an introduction that provides a discussion of their thematic interests and the aims and structure of the book (1). After this there is a discussion of the migratory process and the formation of ethnic minorities (2), as well as a discussion of international migration before the end of World War II (3) and the migration to highly-developed countries since 1945 (4). This leads to a look at the quest for control of international migration on the part of states (5), and the globalization of international migration (6). New migrations in the Asia-Pacific region (7) are discussed before the authors move on to a look at migrants and minorities in the labor force (8) as well as a comparison of the migratory process for Australia and Germany (9). After this comes a look at the relationship between new ethnic minorities and their host societies (10), the relationship between migrants and politics (11), and a conclusion that looks at migration in the post Cold-War era (12), as well as a bibliography, author index, and subject index.
What is it that makes migration problematic? It is not as if migration is viewed uniformly as a negative or as a positive, and the authors, to their credit, recognize that there are elements of migration that are viewed both positively and negatively. Migrants may be celebrated as energetic people who can help fill an empty land or tame a wilderness, or they can be feared as people who desire to congregate together and preserve a sense of otherness that disrupts cultural unity and national identity and that threatens the safety of people by the encouragement of smuggling and other evils. If migrants are able to disperse and assimilate to the dominant culture they tend to be viewed in a more positive light. If they remain distinctive and restive and other, they tend to be more subject to hostile responses from the majority. And if they become too numerous, they may even swamp an area and change its culture altogether, although long before things reach that point there is likely to be increasing tension, which these authors vaguely sense but sadly do not fully understand.
This book is almost 300 pages long and is divided into twelve chapters. After a list of illustrations and various other matters, and a preface to the third edition and a list of abbreviations, the authors begin with an introduction that provides a discussion of their thematic interests and the aims and structure of the book (1). After this there is a discussion of the migratory process and the formation of ethnic minorities (2), as well as a discussion of international migration before the end of World War II (3) and the migration to highly-developed countries since 1945 (4). This leads to a look at the quest for control of international migration on the part of states (5), and the globalization of international migration (6). New migrations in the Asia-Pacific region (7) are discussed before the authors move on to a look at migrants and minorities in the labor force (8) as well as a comparison of the migratory process for Australia and Germany (9). After this comes a look at the relationship between new ethnic minorities and their host societies (10), the relationship between migrants and politics (11), and a conclusion that looks at migration in the post Cold-War era (12), as well as a bibliography, author index, and subject index.
What is it that makes migration problematic? It is not as if migration is viewed uniformly as a negative or as a positive, and the authors, to their credit, recognize that there are elements of migration that are viewed both positively and negatively. Migrants may be celebrated as energetic people who can help fill an empty land or tame a wilderness, or they can be feared as people who desire to congregate together and preserve a sense of otherness that disrupts cultural unity and national identity and that threatens the safety of people by the encouragement of smuggling and other evils. If migrants are able to disperse and assimilate to the dominant culture they tend to be viewed in a more positive light. If they remain distinctive and restive and other, they tend to be more subject to hostile responses from the majority. And if they become too numerous, they may even swamp an area and change its culture altogether, although long before things reach that point there is likely to be increasing tension, which these authors vaguely sense but sadly do not fully understand.
November 1, 2008
Migration studies 101 text book. The most intelligent and comprehensive summation of what we have to think about when when think about people moving between countries and continents. Plenty of things to disagree with amongst the detail of this book, but in its overall thrust it defines the progressive approach to migration:
"This move towards global cultural pluralism corresponds with the emergence of a global culture, which is fed by travel, mass media and commodification of cultural symbols, as well as by migration. This global culture is anything but homogenuous, but the universe of variations which it permits has a new meaning compared with traditional ethnic cultures: difference need no longer be a marker for strangeness and separation, but rathher an opportunity for informed choice amongt a myriad if possibilities."
"This move towards global cultural pluralism corresponds with the emergence of a global culture, which is fed by travel, mass media and commodification of cultural symbols, as well as by migration. This global culture is anything but homogenuous, but the universe of variations which it permits has a new meaning compared with traditional ethnic cultures: difference need no longer be a marker for strangeness and separation, but rathher an opportunity for informed choice amongt a myriad if possibilities."
October 22, 2024
Really, my rating is 3.5 but I rounded up. This is a great book if you need a simple explanation of migration in the 21st century. Full of theories and patterns and fun stuff like that. It covers plenty on gendering migration, and even a bit on multiculturalism. I read it for a refugee law class, and used it in my dissertation.
Its only downfall has to do with economics, and how much it focuses on migration and economies. That's fine though; it's really my downfall for not wanting to focus on that part of migration. Overall, good textbook!
ETA: Reading this back and honestly, I think back about this book a lot. I'm surprised I was only giving it 3.5. Maybe after a spell of really bad books, I'm just a lot more forgiving? I think this is a solid 4, maybe even a 5.
Its only downfall has to do with economics, and how much it focuses on migration and economies. That's fine though; it's really my downfall for not wanting to focus on that part of migration. Overall, good textbook!
ETA: Reading this back and honestly, I think back about this book a lot. I'm surprised I was only giving it 3.5. Maybe after a spell of really bad books, I'm just a lot more forgiving? I think this is a solid 4, maybe even a 5.
August 4, 2016
The book gives an academic overview over the various aspects of migration. Topics include theories of Migration, the effects of migration on labor, politics, and society and an overview of the different regions of the world. It is well researched and comprehensive and provides an extensive bibliography for further research.
Even though it was published in 2014, it is already outdated because it does not include the Syrian civil war and the recent refugee crisis in Europe. For example, the book claims that the number of refugees is still under the level of post world war II. According to the most recent data of the UNHCR there are more refugees right now than ever before.
Even though it was published in 2014, it is already outdated because it does not include the Syrian civil war and the recent refugee crisis in Europe. For example, the book claims that the number of refugees is still under the level of post world war II. According to the most recent data of the UNHCR there are more refugees right now than ever before.
September 18, 2009
The book summarize current trend of international migration on each region --Europe, North America, East and South-east Asia, North Africa, Sub-saharan Africa, Near and Middle East and Latim America etc.-- and discuss some topics --control on migration by states, Labour force, Poliics and Security.
Anyway, it is very useful for grasping so called global trend of migration, national policies and international agreement relating to both immigration and emigration, and some current discussion for migration.
Anyway, it is very useful for grasping so called global trend of migration, national policies and international agreement relating to both immigration and emigration, and some current discussion for migration.
January 3, 2014
A great introduction and attempt to comprehensively explain international migration in the modern world. I read this book a few months ago, during my first semester of International Migration and Ethnic Relations BA program. It was the first required read and it has served as a foundation for understanding the classifications of migrations, concepts and theories in migration, and also development and remittances. If youre interesting in how and why people move in the world this book is a great.
February 15, 2022
I'm principally against the concept of textbooks as something to be 'read'. Useful for ctrl + f, but I think the author should be forced to write a narrative version that integrates what he's trying to say in a colloquial, or at least essayistic, manner. This one is ait though.
April 13, 2020
Liebe Lesefreunde,
wer schon immer mal den theoretischen Hintergrund von Migrationsbewegungen entdecken wollte, dem empfehle ich dieses Buch!
wer schon immer mal den theoretischen Hintergrund von Migrationsbewegungen entdecken wollte, dem empfehle ich dieses Buch!
August 24, 2019
Economic migration often begins with organisations recruiting cheaper, foreign labour (the book was less convincing on refugees/asylum seekers). States formulate migration policy to regulate this process. The guest worker model deters permanent settlement, the assimilationist model makes permanent settlement and political rights conditional on adopting the culture of the host country, and multicultural models accept ethnic communities remaining somewhat culturally distinct. Castles shows that these policies do not change the end result; temporary workers settle permanently and bring family members over regardless of state policy. He suggests that state policy instead determines how marginalised the migrants are.
The book fleshes out the nuance behind this argument, fitting particular countries into each model (Germany/Austria as guest worker, Britain/France as assimiliationist, and USA/Australia as multi-cultural). There are lots of fascinating bits and bobs of migration policy like the politics of Turkish and Algerian political organisations located in Germany and France.
Still a lot of questions remain. He concludes multicultural policies lead to less marginalisation and should therefore be pursued. I wasn't convinced that the experience of ethnic minorities in the contemporary US (multicultural model) are better than those in say Germany (guest-worker model). The US success seems to be the integration of white European's (Irish, Greeks, Italians) who predominantly arrived before WW2. Yet these groups can be (and have been) integrated into French, British and German society. The elephant in the room is the African American experience in the USA or aboriginie experience in Australia. Both arrived long before Turks/Algerians in Germany/France and suffer comparable (if not worse) discrimination despite being in "multicultural societies".
I would also like to see an investigation of the factors determining the (economic/cultural/general assimiliation) success of migrants.
The book fleshes out the nuance behind this argument, fitting particular countries into each model (Germany/Austria as guest worker, Britain/France as assimiliationist, and USA/Australia as multi-cultural). There are lots of fascinating bits and bobs of migration policy like the politics of Turkish and Algerian political organisations located in Germany and France.
Still a lot of questions remain. He concludes multicultural policies lead to less marginalisation and should therefore be pursued. I wasn't convinced that the experience of ethnic minorities in the contemporary US (multicultural model) are better than those in say Germany (guest-worker model). The US success seems to be the integration of white European's (Irish, Greeks, Italians) who predominantly arrived before WW2. Yet these groups can be (and have been) integrated into French, British and German society. The elephant in the room is the African American experience in the USA or aboriginie experience in Australia. Both arrived long before Turks/Algerians in Germany/France and suffer comparable (if not worse) discrimination despite being in "multicultural societies".
I would also like to see an investigation of the factors determining the (economic/cultural/general assimiliation) success of migrants.
March 10, 2020
Have to skim through this for my university essay and I found it to not only expand my view and knowledge but to be quite engaging in how it expresses the challenges and nuances around migration. Its got an effective way of engaging you with the theme of migration. I had expected this book to be more technical.
June 14, 2020
Well written and engaging (not a hard slog like many textbooks). Great perspectives on migrations, and "irregular migration). Definitely a worthwhile add to any Humanitarian or Relief Worker's library. However, please note that this edition (5th) does NOT have a final chapter that was added in the 6th edition.
June 19, 2017
This is the best introductory book on migration.
October 5, 2018
Very few serious books about global human migration. Explains theories, causes, consecuences and the failed solutions. 19 pages of bibliography.
August 17, 2020
Bibliografía obligatoria moralmente.
Read
November 7, 2024had to read for a class. very enlightening, i learned a lot. made me fall asleep more than once though, but overall pretty easy to read
December 17, 2024
belangrijkste conclusie:
regeringen zijn niet te vertrouwen
regeringen zijn niet te vertrouwen
Read
March 23, 2025spennande, håpe eg består eksamen om ei veka 🙏🏻
Read
April 25, 2025Dense
February 12, 2017
If you want everything that (you think) you know about immigration to be wrong, listen to politicians. If you want accurate information, read this book. It covers all the relevant issues -- who is going where and why, what the results are, and what has changed and remained the same over time. The book finds a good balance between brevity and coverage. One important point it makes is that the issue is perpetual, not just a contemporary problem. Another is that policymakers' plans often have consequences opposite of what was intended, for lack of understanding the whole picture. The current trends described in the book will be out of date in a decade; even so, there is still much here of longer relevance.
November 22, 2016
Chapter 7, new migrations in the Asia-Pacific region, talks about migration in Asia, which is increasing recently. Migration in Asia was caused by the change of workplaces from agriculture to industry. High wage in developed countries such as the U.S., Canada, Australia as well as the Gulf, Japan, Korea pulls migrants from poor Asian countries. Not only men but also women tend to migrate for better jobs. Even though importing countries in Asia try not to have migrants, they are already dependent on them. Migrants are working for the 3D jobs, and have poor rights (less paid, cannot settle...). There is a great difference between skilled workers and unskilled workers in terms of working conditions. Refugee movements are a result of economic, environmental, and social transformations. Developed Asian countries need to consider how to deal with the problems of migration.
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September 3, 2022Having de Haas as the lead author is a real improvement — that social demographics lens helps balance out the Massey legacy. One case where getting the most up-to-date edition is genuinely helpful, particularly when it comes to the sections on forced migration and the immigration/citizenship crossover.
February 23, 2011
good and comprehensive handbook on migration - gets a little dull with all the examples detailing the different statuses, legislations and policies in the long run, but great to look up any issue on migration in general. and the further reading tips are very useful.
Want to read
September 18, 2013migration process in india
January 24, 2012
Having to read for a class
August 25, 2016
An eye-opening book - really informative and interesting.
Read
February 18, 2019I'm counting this too because I had to read more than 100 pages of it
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews