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L'Enjeu mondial

Les migrations
First Edition

Christophe Jaffrelot, Christian Lequesne

Global Issues: A New Geopolitical Series on Globalization with a focus on a specific global challenge : Migrations Read More

Global Issues: A New Geopolitical Series on Globalization
An annual volume centered on a specific global challenge, as analyzed by CERI researchers and experts.
Illustrations by The Sciences Po Cartography Studio

Human migration is a phenomenon as old as humanity itself. But how do we reintroduce the migratory question in its historical context considering its current global dimension? After publishing a first volume on emerging nations, the "Global Issues" series devotes its 2009 edition to the migrations which will awaken revolutionary and crucial planetary issues for the 21st century.

The book's five sections, with the work of specialists on each question, promote a detailed comprehension of the big debates:

The Migratory Phenomenon offers and analysis of the latest migratory data, including the relationships between immigration and the demographics of destination countries.

Domestic Migrations emphasizes migration patterns within nations, whose scope and diversity are often misunderstood, whether the result of poverty as with the rural exodus in Mediterranean regions, or of profound changes as with the drifting populations of China, or of the authoritarian displacement of entire populations for the purpose of domestic colonization.

The South, Land of Migrations: the south remains the exemplary migration magnet with net fluxes far outstripping northward migration. Doubtless the south, now and in the future, will be the stage where the most violent dramas will play out as a result of economic migrants, refugees of war, dictatorship, environmental or climatic factors, and victims of illegal trafficking.

The North, Between Rejection and Integration examines the reactions of the northern hemisphere when confronted with migrations from the south, restrictive policies at times putting human rights and dignity in peril, and the successes and challenges of different integration models.

A Tool of Diaspora focuses on migrants who form better interconnected diasporas thanks to the internet. The economic impact of new transnational actors, at the interface of communities of origin and destination societies, has sparked debate from the start. Analyzed here are Chinese, Indian, Moroccan and Filipino cases, as well as the co-development, the "global percolation" of skills.

The work concludes with a word on the necessity of international governance on the migratory phenomenon, as regulation of the flux and harmonization of national policies has arisen as an urgent cause.

KEY WORDS: Globalization - Geopolitics - Migration - Refugees - Demographics - Development - Urbanization - Environmental Refugees - Illegal Immigrants - Integration - Brain Drain - Diasporas - Colonization