International Migration: A Very Short Introduction

Citation

Koser, K. (2016). International Migration: A Very Short Introduction (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. Very Short Introductions.

Chapter Summary

The second edition has eight chapters and about 110 pages of main text, followed by further reading and an index. The chapters fall into three groups: why migration matters and how migrants are defined (Chapters 1–2); the forces that drive migration and its effects on countries of origin (Chapters 3–4); and the categories that dominate political debate, namely irregular migrants, refugees and settled migrant communities (Chapters 5–7), before a closing look ahead (Chapter 8). The publisher describes the book as drawing on interviews with migrants from around the world alongside the wider evidence, and as aiming at an objective account of both the benefits and the challenges of migration.

Chapter 1: Why migration matters

The opening chapter starts from the observation that about one person in every thirty-five is an international migrant, and that migration affects many more people than those who move. It sketches migration as a very long-run human process, beginning with the movement of early humans out of the Rift Valley, and sets out both the opportunities migrants bring to economic, social and cultural life and the concerns migration raises, asking which of those concerns are legitimate.

Chapter 2: Who is a migrant?

This chapter deals with definition and measurement. It sorts migrants by whether movement is voluntary or forced, economic or political, and by legal status, then shows how these categories blur in practice and how a person's situation can change quickly. It explains why migration is hard to measure and how statistics can be misused, how people stop being migrants through return or citizenship, how national policies balance assimilation and multiculturalism, and how diasporas keep transnational ties.

Chapter 3: Migration and globalization

Migration is presented as a central dimension of globalization. The chapter identifies widening gaps in development, demography and democracy as incentives to move, and segmented labour markets in richer countries as a source of demand for migrant workers. It then turns to what makes movement easier: cheaper communications and transport, migration networks, rights for migrant workers, and a growing migration industry that operates even where migration is not officially permitted.

Chapter 4: Migration and development

The focus moves to countries of origin. Remittances are treated as the main benefit, with the World Bank's estimate of about US$586 billion sent home in 2015, but the chapter also weighs their wider social effects, including a possible culture of migration. Diasporas appear as channels for remittances and for political influence at home, and the "brain drain" of scarce skills is discussed as the main cost.

Chapter 5: Irregular migration

This chapter covers movement outside legal channels. It notes the many routes into irregular status and argues that irregular migrants' motives are much the same as those of other migrants. It discusses how irregular migration is framed as a threat to sovereignty, the stereotyping and xenophobia that follow, the dangers of the journey, especially for women and children, and the large industries of human trafficking and migrant smuggling.

Chapter 6: Refugees and asylum-seekers

The chapter distinguishes refugees from asylum-seekers and places both within the 1951 UN Refugee Convention. It describes the changing geography of refugee movements, the fact that most refugees stay close to home and in poorer countries, often in camps, and the three "durable solutions" of voluntary repatriation, local integration and resettlement in a third country, concluding that none is working well given rising numbers and protracted displacement.

Chapter 7: Migrants in society

Here the view shifts to destination societies: the economic debate over growth, wages and unemployment; the progress of second generations and the disadvantages ethnic minorities still face; voting rights and the revival of far-right politics in Europe; migration as a partial and temporary answer to population ageing; and the cultural enrichment and integration challenges that immigration brings.

Chapter 8: The future of international migration

The final chapter notes that evidence of migration's positive economic effects has strengthened even as anti-immigration politics has grown. It reviews trends likely to shape the coming years: changing migration in Asia, internal migration, climate change, temporary migration schemes, a shift in policy on irregular migration from control to management, reform of the refugee regime, and the continuing need for integration and for respect for migrants.

Key Concepts

Chapters 1–2: Why migration matters and who counts

• International migrant: a person living outside their country of origin; the book's starting statistic is about one person in thirty-five worldwide.
• Categories of migrant: voluntary or forced, economic or political, regular or irregular; useful labels that blur in real lives.
• Assimilation and multiculturalism: two poles of national policy towards settled migrants.
• Diaspora and transnationalism: communities abroad that keep social, economic and political ties to their country of origin.

Chapters 3–4: Drivers and development

• Development, demographic and democratic disparities: gaps between countries that create incentives to move.
• Migration networks and the migration industry: the social ties and commercial services that make migration easier and keep it going.
• Remittances: money sent home by migrants, the main benefit of migration for origin countries.
• Brain drain: the loss of scarce skills from origin countries through emigration.

Chapters 5–8: Irregular migration, refugees and integration

• Trafficking and smuggling: two distinct forms of the business built around movement despite legal restrictions.
• 1951 Refugee Convention: the legal basis of refugee status and of asylum claims.
• Durable solutions: voluntary repatriation, local integration and third-country resettlement.
• Integration: the economic, political, social and cultural incorporation of migrants into destination societies.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• Clear conceptual groundwork. Chapter 2 tackles definitions and measurement before the policy debates begin, and stresses that the standard categories overlap. Students who later meet contested statistics in the media or in longer texts are prepared to ask how the numbers were produced.
• Balanced framing. The publisher presents the book as offering an objective stance and as debunking common myths, and the chapter abstracts consistently set opportunities against challenges: remittances against brain drain, economic gains against concerns about wages and unemployment, enrichment against integration problems.
• Coverage of both ends of the journey. Chapter 4 looks at origin countries and Chapter 7 at destination societies, so the book does not reduce migration to a question of border control in rich countries.
• A human dimension. According to the publisher, interviews with migrants are used to present asylum, trafficking, smuggling and labour migration from the migrant's side, which suits readers new to the subject.

Limitations

• Very brief on theory. Explanations of why people move are compressed into the discussion of globalization in Chapter 3; no chapter is given to the competing theoretical traditions of migration research, and measurement is raised in Chapter 2 mainly as a set of cautions.
• Time-bound figures. The second edition dates from 2016 and its figures, such as the World Bank remittance estimate for 2015, belong to that moment. Refugee numbers, policy responses and the politics of migration have changed since, and the figures should be updated from current sources.
• Breadth over depth. Each of the major categories, irregular migrants, refugees and integration, receives a single chapter of fifteen to seventeen pages, enough to frame the issues but not to examine any one case in detail.

Where It Fits in the Course

In the population and migration list this is the shortest entry point and the natural first reading for the migration side of the course. It introduces the vocabulary, the categories and the policy debates in a single sitting or two, before the longer works. De Haas, Castles and Miller's The Age of Migration is the substantial survey that follows: it combines migration theory with regional and historical accounts and examines state regulation and the consequences of migration in far more depth. Massey and colleagues' Worlds in Motion is a research synthesis that sets out the main theories of international migration and tests them against the evidence for each major migration system, the place to go for the theory Koser only touches on.

For the population side, Newbold's Population Geography: Tools and Issues and Weeks and López-Carr's Population: An Introduction to Concepts and Issues are textbooks that place migration alongside fertility, mortality and population change; Newbold's separate chapters on internal migration and on refugees and internally displaced persons extend two topics Koser treats briefly. Preston, Heuveline and Guillot's Demography is a methods text on measuring and modelling population processes, suited to students who want the formal techniques behind the statistics Koser warns readers to treat carefully.

How to Use This Book

The book suits first-year students in geography, sociology, politics or development, and anyone who wants a quick and even-handed orientation before a course or a longer text. No background in demography, economics or law is assumed.

A suggested plan:

• Read Chapters 1–2 first and carefully. The definitions and caveats about measurement in Chapter 2 underpin everything else; note the categories and how they blur.
• Chapters 3–4 as the explanatory core. Read them together as the case for why migration happens and what it does to origin countries. A useful exercise is to list the drivers in Chapter 3 and look for which of them a longer text such as The Age of Migration treats as theory.
• Chapters 5–7 by interest or by course week. They can be read in any order and pair well with seminar topics on irregular migration, refugees and integration.
• Chapter 8 last, as a checklist of trends to follow up.

Because the edition dates from 2016, check its figures against current data from the UN, the International Organization for Migration, UNHCR and the World Bank, and note where events since then confirm or complicate its account. The further-reading list at the end of the book is a starting point for moving on to the course's longer texts.