National Paradigms of Migration Research

The different traditions of migration research in different countries are closely related to national political patterns and the self-image of the respective nation-state -- either affirmatively reinforcing or critically questioning. If you place them side by side, much becomes questionable and debatable that previously seemed self-evident. This volume presents the migration research traditions in twelve countries: the traditional immigration countries Canada and Australia, four European countries with decades of immigration experience (Great Britain, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands), the new immigration countries Italy, Poland and Japan and the postcolonial countries India, Malaysia and Nigeria. In this way, from a comparative perspective, the volume opens the way to a better understanding of different research traditions, beyond the traditional Western context of discussion. We can better understand and put into perspective the different patterns of inclusion and exclusion of immigrants and intellectual discourses if we confront them with other solutions and traditions of thought. Since the key disciplines of migration research are not the same in different countries, the volume also contains a pluralism of subject approaches: sociologists, political scientists, ethnologists, economists and philosophers define migration, integration and their relationships to social structures. In doing so, you question assumptions that are taken for granted in the respective context.