2026/03/06 by Oliver Bakewell · 1 citation
Social Sciences · #Argument (complex analysis) #Development studies #Diaspora, migration, transnational identity #Focus (optics) #Intersection (aeronautics) #Migration and Labor Dynamics #Subject (documents) #Tourism, Volunteerism, and Development
paper · open access · doi:10.1111/imig.70149
published in International Migration 64(2) (Wiley)
openalex publication_date 2026/03/06 · openalex created_date 2026/03/09 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23
ABSTRACT This essay argues that our understanding of the relationship between development and migration is distorted by a focus on areas of greatest policy concern. It calls for more research into broader processes of mobility, which may be of little interest to policy but play a critical role in the lives of poor people. It develops the argument in three points. First, in the last 20 years there has been a marked shift from interest in how migration may contribute to development towards a concern with how development may help deal with the challenges of migration. Second, this discussion assumes that only orderly, safe, regular and responsible migration can make a positive contribution to development, rendering important forms of mobility as problematic and antithetical to development. Third, the analysis of migration and mobility remains too much of a niche subject within development studies, being mainly the domain of migration scholars exploring the ‘migration‐development nexus’. As a result, there is still limited understanding of the complex interlinkages between migration—especially the important but often unseen migration—and development.