CALL FOR PAPERS

Issue 36 / “Migrations in the current International System: from forced mobility to global capitalism dynamics”

To be published in October 2017

Since their beginnings, migration studies have been closely linked to the International Relations discipline, especially because people’s transnational movements imply a list of dynamics which, because of their nature, transcend national areas.

The most common approaches have ranged from neoclassical economic theories, where migration has been studied as a rational choice of actors in search of an improvement in their living conditions, to theories of dual labour markets that consider the existence of a global division of the labour market where certain occupations would be reserved for migrants. However, since the beginning of the XXIst century a number of critical approaches have burst onto the discipline questioning the classical principles of international migration studies to reflect especially how the evolution of global capitalism is intrinsically linked to mass population movements.

A number of studies have analysed migration from I. Wallerstein’s world-system theoretical tradition even if from different prisms. Thus, we could highlight those approaches that emphasize the center-periphery dynamic of global capitalism (classical world-system), decolonial perspectives (with works such as Abdelmalek Sayad’s), the role of non-state actors in migration management and acting as intermediaries, restricting, facilitating or sustaining migration (Migration Industry, Business migration) and other approaches that combine several of these elements with other theoretical matrices such as the socio-ecological one (Jason W. Moore’s world-ecology).

This issue seeks contributions which, starting from this cluster of perspectives, discuss some of the great migratory movements of our time: from forced migration to labour migration directly driven by the structure of global capitalism. In the latter area, those contributions focused on the study of the agricultural sector and its global chains will be prioritized.

Contributions analysing the following issues will be welcomed:

• 1) labour migration, especially in the field of agriculture, and its different international implications, highlighting the following dynamics: Center / Periphery or North / South divisions, Double Perspectives of Immigration / Emigration; Circular and temporary migration programs; exploitation and precariousness of migrant labor (Migrant precariat, global reserve army condition, subalternity etc.); position of migrants in global agricultural chains, etc.
  
  
• 2) forced migration (covering cases of violent conflict, persecution, natural disasters or development projects) and their connections with the theoretical frameworks targeted above. Some issues of particular interest are: the international protection regime (legal definitions, policies and practices; impacts on flows’ management, ownership and distribution of responsibilities) and states control (borders, citizenship, economic and social rights); the current crisis of European policies on migration and asylum (Schengen, Dublin Convention, Common European Asylum System); and the field of humanitarian action. In any of these areas contributions discussing the conceptualization and treatment of mixed flows (with particular attention to the categories created by states such as economic migrant vs refugee, voluntary vs. forced migration) will be welcomed.

 

While these research lines will be prioritized, the acceptance of contributions will not be exclusively limited to the previous explicit axes.

 

DUE DATE:

ABSTRACTS:
Abstracts (max. 250 words) should be sent via email no later than January 13, 2017 to this e-mail address:

yoan.molinero@cchs.csic.es (Yoan Molinero)

Notification of acceptance or refusal will be sent along the week following this deadline.

 

ARTICLES:
Accepted ARTICLES must be sent and abide by our journal’s Style Guide (in Spanish, Manual de Estilo) for submission to a double blind peer-review no later than April 21st 2017. The articles must be uploaded on the Relaciones Internacionales website https://revistas.uam.es/rrii/user/register, after registering as an author.

For more information, please contact:

yoan.molinero@cchs.csic.es

 

LANGUAGES:

Articles in Spanish or English will be accepted, and will be translated into Spanish for publication.