Migration States in Comparative Perspective

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

This panel aims to employ the notion of the "migration state" (Hollifield 2004) in order to understand the central role that international migration management plays in the strategies and policies of contemporary states outside the Global North. While the "migration state" has been a fruitful concept in understanding the contradictory interests facing Western states managing migration flows, the field of migration studies lacks an adequate comparative framework for understanding the emergence of migration management regimes in the Global South. The panelists examine how the concept travels beyond Europe and North America and helps shed light on variations in state approaches across time and space. Hollifield examines whether a tradeoff between markets and rights exists in non-democracies, by focusing on the extent to which regime type matters in the workings of the “liberal paradox” notion. Adamson argues for the need to examine post-imperial migration states, building on the continuities between migration management in the Ottoman Empire and modern Turkey. For Sadiq and Tsourapas, a structured, focused comparison of Egypt and India demonstrates commonalities in terms of postcolonial migration states’ political processes. Finally, Thiollet returns to the question of regime type by highlighting the interplay between illiberal political structures and migration governance practices in the Arab Gulf.

Sub Unit

• DIVISION 52: Migration and Citizenship

Cosponsor

• DIVISION 43: International History and Politics

Individual Presentations

• The ‘Liberal Paradox’ and the Migration State - James F. Hollifield, Southern Methodist University

• The Post-Imperial Migration State: Turkey’s Evolving Migration Regime - Fiona B. Adamson, University of London, SOAS

• The Postcolonial Migration State in India and Egypt - Kamal Sadiq, University of California, Irvine; Gerasimos Tsourapas, University of Birmingham

• Migrants, Markets, Brokers and States: lliberal Migration Governance in the Gulf - Helene C. Thiollet, Sciences Po

Chair

• James F. Hollifield Southern Methodist University

Discussant

• Susan F. Martin Georgetown University