Migration Over Cultural Boundaries: A Rejoinder

Migration, and its cultural and economic impact on societies and labour markets, is currently one of the most hotly debated topics in social and economic history, but theorizing its impact on both leaving and receiving societies still has far to go. Notwithstanding the huge literature on the negative and positive aspects of human movements, from assimilation to diaspora studies, most approaches are limited to specific historical or contemporary cases. Scholars who venture beyond description and whose aims are more ambitious have developed very interesting ideas, but the reach of their theories is also limited, as most are restricted to the modern period and the Western world. This holds as much for models that focus on the migration process itself as for studies primarily engaged in the ensuing settlement process. The lack of theory at a more general level is understandable because migration and mobility depend largely on the specific historical and institutional context. However, insights at a more abstract and general level are useful if we want to understand human developments over time, and more specifically the role of migrants as workers, both forced and free.