The Postcolonial Migration State in India and Egypt

• In Event: Migration States in Comparative Perspective

Abstract

The development of migration management policies in formerly colonized developing countries is of growing interest in both international and comparative politics. Of particular concern is the question: how does postcolonial state formation shape migration management policies? To address this, the article presents the postcolonial migration state that combines a Migration State framework (Hollifield 2004) with postcolonial institution building history/processes. India and Egypt are used as case studies to identify three features of the postcolonial migration state building: (i) decolonization (ii) co-ethnic regional immigration flows and (iii) bifurcated dual emigration corridors. India and Egypt have developed macro-level similarities that provide exciting comparisons within the range of postcolonial states. The paper shows state regulative capacity to be an iterative process that cannot be assumed a priori to state formation. Further, unlike West European states where immigration-related institution building is driven by labor needs, postcolonial migration management is responding to co-ethnic, regional immigrations. Finally, migration theory in the west assumes an immigration state while the postcolonial migration state is additionally an emigration state that responds to diverse emigration pressures. These finding demonstrate the causes and trajectory of migration driven institution building in postcolonial states beyond India and Egypt.

Authors

• Kamal Sadiq, University of California, Irvine

• Gerasimos Tsourapas, University of Birmingham