Globalisation, Governance and Migration: an introduction

Migration exposes a central inconsistency in neoliberal globalisation because, if capital, money, information and knowledge should all flow freely across the globe, then why not people? This broad introductory survey begins with a critical review of perspectives that pose migration as a global governance problem and the migrant as a potential terrorist. It then moves on to interrogate the sometimes facile declarations that we are living in the age of migration without setting this in either historical or geographical context. It explores the gender, race and class dimensions of migration, which is in reality a far from homogenous flow. Then, after opening up the migration/development problematic to move it beyond a zero-sum game, it ends with a review of the limitations of the dominant migration management paradigm. It advocates throughout a Southern perspective on migration in contrast to the Northern bias of the dominant discourses. This is a necessary step, I would argue, for moving towards a holistic critical analysis of migration on a global scale.