Conceptualizing migration beyond the “West”: a view from Asia

Abstract

This critical reflection essay responds to John Mollenkopf’s review of the book “Contested Concepts in Migration Studies” (Routledge 2022). Rather than take a comprehensive overview of individual chapters within the edited collection, this essay suggests that occupying an ontological and epistemological perspective that is rooted in and starting from Asia produces alternative understandings of concepts typically used to study international migration and mobility. It calls attention to demographic, historical and temporal structures that characterize the region and argues that to fully interrogate the contested nature of key conceptions used to study contemporary migration, it is imperative to take Asian migrations as both an empirical site of inquiry, as well as a basis for the formation of theory and ideas. In doing so, it may lead to the productive questioning and rethinking of established notions that have long been taken-for-granted in centres of knowledge production in Europe and North America.