Defining Migration

Global Migration I: Theories and Processes

In this course, Dr Tahir Zaman (University of Sussex) explores definitions, characteristics and theories of global migration. In the first module, we think about some challenges around conceptualising and measuring migration, and how this leads to popular misperceptions regarding who and what migrants are. The second module then looks at contemporary patterns of global migration, noting particularly the growing trend of movement to and within the Global South. We turn in the third and fourth modules to theoretical explanations of migration, focusing on the two dominant paradigms – functionalism and historical-structuralism – examining their arguments, weaknesses, and how they have influenced policy. We conclude with a fifth module which outlines a key failing of these paradigms, that they neglect human agency, and proposes human-centred approaches to understanding migration.

Defining Migration

In this module, we think about how migration is defined and conceptualised, focusing on: (i) differences between scholarship on the subject and public discourse, and some characteristics of migration studies as an academic discipline; (ii) the migrant as an ambiguous concept which lacks a legal definition, and how this leads to popular misperceptions regarding what migrants are; (iii) the UN’s definition of the long-term international migrant as someone who moves to a country other than their usual residence for at least a year; (iv) the difficulties in using this definition to measure migration, owing to limitations in the available data.