Migration 2030: Governing migration in a globalising world

Abstract

AbstractInternational migration is arguably an important challenge and opportunity for the world today. In these two first decades of the 21st century, we are witnessing important changes in the direction of flows, the motivations of people on the move and the complex patterns of human migration. In addition, 2020 has brought an extraordinary and unexpected pandemic crisis, that has temporarily brought international migration to a standstill while further exacerbating inequalities and vulnerabilities of migrants and their families. This special issue finds its origins in the inaugural conference of the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Migration and Integration programme at Ryerson University in Toronto which took place in February 2020, while the COVID‐19 epidemic was being felt in China but was still believed to remain a regional and short‐lived challenge. As we developed our writing, COVID‐19 turned into a global pandemic pushing us also to rethink some of our considerations and arguments. The first set of papers aims to unsettle the main migration policy narratives and to critically engage with dominant views of international migration governance. The second set of papers focuses on the new complex realities of temporary migration, investigating critically policies and practices in different world regions, and how they compound vulnerabilities for migrants while failing to offer a sustainable way forward.