The language currently used in migration studies creates an illusion of separate universes of migration, where different rules apply in different contexts. The terminology used to describe certain migrant groups has taken on social and structural meaning beyond the specific phrases themselves. This is especially evident in the case of North-North migrants. They are more often characterised as ‘expatriates,’ ‘lifestyle migrants’, ‘cosmopolitans’, intra-EU mobile individuals or as elite migrants, but not as what they really are: migrants.  The pervasive use of these terms to refer to migrants from the Global North, even those who are long-term migrants, and who may be struggling economically versus the inevitable term ‘migrant’ to refer to those from the Global South – including the highly skilled – is indicative. These assumptions have not declined with time, but merely resulted in a division, roughly, into “wanted” and “un-wanted” migrants, both terms with fluid borders. The re-aggregation of these groups into one straightforward category of ‘migrants’ is long overdue.

The panel will engage with this topic both theoretically and empirically, challenging stereotypes through drawing on both secondary literature and data-driven research. While examining the case of North-North migrations, we will tackle questions of ‘problematic integration’ and ‘vulnerability’, along with such terms as ‘self-exclusion’ and ‘elite’.  We also will argue that the near-total exclusion of an entire body of migrants from consideration within mainstream migration theory has undermined the widespread applicability of those theories to all migrants and internationally mobile individuals.