Thursday, April 14, 2016
Ormandy East (DoubleTree by Hilton Philadelphia Center City)
Despite the advanced state of migration studies, we lack a contemporary system of regime classification of immigration nations. Current migration typologies focus on the Global North and largely exclude South-South immigration. They also lack objective and universal indicators. Presenting results from a study of 49 immigration countries across the world, we develop a new typology of migration regimes that considers among other factors, democracies and non-democracies, traditional settler states, former colonisers, and emerging immigration regimes. Drawing upon original data collected in a wide range of countries across Europe and around the world, our typology demonstrates the necessity of considering these countries in contemporary analysis of immigration. In doing so, it provides a powerful critique of existing approaches. We also establish the existence of a nexus between admission and settlement approaches; states that are open in their selection of immigrants are also more open to naturalization. In the final section of the paper, we test central explanations for the variation we identify.
