Worlds in Motion Redux? Expanding Migration Theories and Their Interconnections

Abstract

Migration theorizing has coalesced around sets encompassing several frameworks. Despite many contributions of these collections, contemporary migration theorizing exhibits three important shortcomings, which this paper aims to address. First, sets of theories have traditionally not explicitly and jointly addressed fundamental questions in migration, namely (i) key motivations beyond those related to “labor” (turmoil; environmental strain; family, or self-realization factors); (ii) how important axes of social difference produce distinct motivations and mechanisms (e.g., by gender and sexuality); (iii) the (in)direct roles of the state; (iv) important spatial considerations, that is, immobility, internal versus international movement, step/onward/secondary migrations; and (v) key issues of temporality, that is, return migration, its timing, and intentionality. Engaging with classical and contemporary scholarship, I provide an updated, revised, and broadened set of frameworks and analytical lenses that better incorporate these issues. Second, the most common typology used to categorize frameworks into “initiation” and “continuation” suffers from ambiguity and imprecision. I offer a new classification, typifying mechanisms as more/less endogenous to prior migrations. Third, scholarship has advanced little in systematically examining whether/how theories relate to each other. I provide a basic taxonomy of mechanism “competition,” “coexistence,” co-occurrence, and interrelation. I conclude by proposing a new and expanded set of frameworks and analytical lenses, reflecting on the implications of these modifications.