Mapping the Order of New Migration. Undocumented Labor and Autonomy of Migration

Migration studies tend to oscillate between pure descriptivism & strong theory. Until today theories of migration either explicitly or implicitly refer to neoclassical presumptions on labour markets or tend to proliferate functionalist ex-post concepts. So do theories of migration systems overemphasize the primacy of political & economical structures over collective & individual agency of migrants. The paper argues that a shift in theoretical perspectives is linked the settings in the political arena of migration. Epistemological barriers are related to political ones, this relation is condensed in certain figures of migration. One of the leading figures of current migration is the "illegal migrant." The paper tries to grasp how illegal migration is related to changing patterns of work & production & whether the concept of a migration regime would be more appropriate to understand the ongoing processes, since it focuses on agency rather than on systemic logic. Finally the paper aims at exploring if migration can be conceived as a social movement. In this regard, the programmatic concept of the autonomy of migration is significant, because it looks for a political perspective over the questions of exodus & flight that are at stake in global migration today. The paper claims that the comprehension of the relation of flight & immobilization demands both historically & actual a shift of paradigms in migration politics & theory. The concept of migration regime can help here as it puts agency, namely the struggles of migration in the foreground of any understanding of migration. 85 References. Adapted from the source document.