Migration across humanly constructed boundaries is not new. International migration— whether voluntary or forced, wanted or unwanted, temporary or permanent, or brain drain or brain gain— is also reshaping the terrain of politics in the twenty-first century.  Although migration patterns, including different categories of migrants, or shifting casual circumstances, have been variable throughout history, migration needs to be approached as a permanent not temporary phenomenon.  Indeed, today migration is a structural feature of the international political economy and a key component of contemporary globalization.  Political scientists in particular have much to say and to add to the ongoing and evolving study of migration, and relatedly, citizenship.   

Since the 1990s there has been a steady growth in the number of political scientists engaged in research, publication and teaching on themes relating to both migration and citizenship.  In this same period, professional associations devoted to political science have reflected these developments in their organizational structures, and political scientists are regularly contributing scholarly work on themes of migration and citizenship to both disciplinary and multidisciplinary journals.

However, while work in the area of migration and citizenship has moved to being ever-more systematically comparative, the dominant focus of extant work has been on the policies and experiences of countries of the global North. This is problematic because all world regions and the vast majority of countries have been impacted in some way by migration, as well as by issues relating to political membership and non-membership. Indeed, in 2017 the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees noted that 65.6 million people have been forcibly displaced—a number higher than at any time in its seven-decade history— and most are located in countries of the global South.

To directly address this problem requires that we grapple with the issue of connectivity: how can the discipline of political science better connect with a diverse group of scholars from across the globe to facilitate a more internationally balanced political study of migration and citizenship? The International Political Science Association (IPSA) and Research Committee (RC) 46 offer a unique solution to this problem, because of the global character its members.  Following a successful general session call for the 2018 IPSA World Congress in Brisbane on “The Politics of Migration:  Borders, Citizens and Marginalized Others” (overseen by Yasmeen Abu-Laban) the RC on Migration and Citizenship was launched when junior and senior scholars from all world regions came together to request that the study of migration and citizenship be more permanently formalized in IPSA’s organizational structure.  RC 46 received official status with the unanimous approval of the IPSA Executive Committee at their meeting held in Lisbon, Portugal in April 2018.

 

Purpose

 

Today, due to many interacting factors, such as climate change, economic turmoil, and political instability, both migration patterns and the responses of states to migration are in flux.  It is more important than ever for there to be a disciplinary conversation that is international.

While the study of both migration and citizenship have been multidisciplinary (and sometimes interdisciplinary) ventures, the coupling of a focus on migration and citizenship carries special resonance in the discipline of political science. Political scientists have been interested in citizenship laws, citizenship rights, citizenship statuses and citizenship belonging/multiculturalism as well as unbelonging/foreignness. Political scientists have addressed political parties and public attitudes towards immigration and immigrants. As well, political scientists have focused on the role of the state (and state borders) in relation to the structural and international conditions which foster migration and implicate citizens and non-citizens in often racialized ways. Not least, political scientists have also been concerned with normative considerations pertaining to migration and the question of ethical responses. However, the discipline of political science has yet to vigorously bridge voices and experiences across the global North and global South.

Owing to the unique structure and representation of the International Political Science Association (IPSA) and its biannual World Congress, RC 46 aims to bridge gaps and further build more global understanding. By creating a clear international meeting ground for faculty and graduate students interested in the areas of migration and citizenship to come together, discuss, and share research, RC 46 seeks to open space for a diverse range of voices, in both the global South and the global North, to more easily connect. This can potentiate a new type of disciplinary conversation that is even more attuned to the multidimensional impact of migration at international, national and local levels, as well as to the comparative implications and responses to migration when it comes to citizenship, citizenship statuses and stateless peoples in diverse polities.

RC 46 necessarily reflects on the methodological, epistemological and ontological diversity of the discipline of political science as a whole. Just as “the state” plays a role as a major orienting concept for much work in the discipline as a whole, the research committee is premised on further building on the common ground that the focus on migration and citizenship has already provided the discipline.

By also vigorously addressing disciplinary gaps, RC 46 seeks to facilitate a more balanced international discussion amongst political scientists about historic and contemporary migration patterns, responses of state and non-state actors, and their implications for citizenship in global and comparative terms.

 

RC46 - Migration and Citizenship

Chair

Dr Yasmeen Abu-Labanyasmeen@ualberta.ca                  

Professor
Department of Political Science
10-16 HM Tory Building
The University of Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta
Canada
T6G 2H4

 

Vice-Chairs

Dr  Muktikanta Mohantymohanty.mukti@rediffmail.com
Utkal University, Orissa

Dr Tanya Herringsop660@bangor.ac.uk
Bangor University

Treasurer

Dr Isabel Estrada Carvalhaisisabelestrada@eeg.uminho.pt
University of Minho

Secretary

Samuel Okunadesamuel_okunade@yahoo.co
University of KwaZulu-Natal

 

Officers

Caitlin Corrigon-Orosco, Earlham College, USA, ccorri15@earlham.edu

Dr Silvia Lozeva, Curtin University and University of Western Australia, Australia, silvia.lozeva@curtin.edu.au

Dr Willem Maas, York University, Canada, maas@yorku.ca

Dr Marta Pachocka, SGH Warsaw School of Economics; University of Warsaw, Poland, marta.pachocka@gmail.com

Dr Samah Rafiq, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India, s.saddiki@gmail.com

Dr Said Saddiki, Al-Ain University of Science and Technology, United Arab Emirates, said.saddiki@usmba.ac.ma

Tapang Hongie Pelekeh, Pan African University Institute of Governance, Cameroon, pelekeh@gmail.com