Flows and Dynamics - Cluster Overview

Global migration flows and the dynamics that drive, facilitate and inhibit migration are of key concern within this cluster of work.

Framed within investigation of the complex relationship between migration and social transformation, research in this cluster takes as a point of departure the need to view migration comprehensively as a process encompassing sending, transit and receiving regions.  Cluster research seeks to understand the factors, networks and institutions that drive, facilitate or constrain migration;  what migration goals, channels and impacts look like from sending country perspectives; and the dimensions of governance  that shape migratory processes. 

This cluster aims to:

  • analyse the relationship between migration processes and social, economic and political change, particularly in the context of global, regional, national and local disparities in human development and security
  • understand how migration dynamics play out at different levels, from individuals and households to regions and states as well as how these levels inter-connect with one another in different settings and locations
  • understand how the economic growth of emergent economies structures – and is structured – by dynamics of migration

Cluster research explores the practices, relationships, institutions and networks that shape experiences of life on the move, the strategies of migrants, and the ways in which transnational and diasporic connections are developed and maintained.  Policies are among the factors shaping these dynamics, and engagement with stakeholders at national and international levels includes the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the UK’s Department for International Development, the European Union and the Vienna-based International Centre for Migration Policy Development. Cluster researchers have strong partnerships with other research institutions, including the Refugee Studies Centre and the International Migration Institute at the University of Oxford, SRAI (CSDS), Delhi University, Universities in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, and the Turkey-based Migration Research Centre, Koc University, Istanbulin the wider global arena.

Core strands of work include:

Migration transitions: Research explores how changes in migration patterns influence broader changes in society, and likewise how policy changes affect global flows. In particular we investigate these changing patterns at different levels – global, regional, national and local – and the interconnecting linkages between them. Work here includes research on forced migration, transit migration and irregular migration and the governance of these.

Diaspora and transnationalism: Cluster research looks at how diaspora and transnational networks have embedded themselves in the global political economy and shape new migration patterns. Work within this cluster investigates the relationship between diasporas and homelands and how this shapes migratory flows and social change. Research focuses on diaspora formation and engagement in conflict settings.

Rising Powers: Cluster research considers how the processes of development and social change in India and China generates new forms of globalisation and extensive flows of people; to the metropolitan centres of economic change, in ‘south south’ flows of culture and information and in reconfigured geometries of trade, influence and migration.