Migration, Identity and Belonging

The study of migration within geography takes a variety of forms. While geographers traditionally studied push and pull factors in migration, this approach was challenged for its reliance on quantitative methods and its emphasis on economic factors. New approaches to the study of migration in geography have thus incorporated qualitative techniques and focused on migrant identities and migrant subjectivities. They have also provided new theorizations of the relationship between mobility and belonging, particularly through the concepts of transnationalism and translocalism, and through scales of belonging that range from citizenship to the home. Despite claims of the demise of the nation-state under globalization, the role of the nation-state in regulating migration and migrants, and in managing and policing borders, highlights its ongoing importance. Similarly, the potential centrality of place to the ongoing study of migration is highlighted by recent research on cities and regions. This foregrounds the negotiated and mutable nature of place in the context of transformations at a variety of interconnected scales