Have you ever wished you could predict 'the next big thing' in your research field? Doing the regular rounds of conferences and working paper series can provide glimpses of the cutting edge – but it's a lot of air miles. Sadly, we have no crystal ball, but there is an easy way to look a few months ahead. Migration Studies has a backlog of advanced articles like most academic journals dealing with popular topics. Despite recently increasing from 3 volumes per year to 4, we have around 80 such pieces, including 50 full-length research articles and 30 Reviews. They have all passed through the gauntlet of peer review but remain under the radar and provide a sneak peek of what will make waves in the coming months. Here are five highlights from this emerging body of research.
How public opinion steers national immigration policies, Tobias Böhmelt
The rise of anti-immigrant political leaders is often interpreted as a significant shift in public opinion about migration. But the relationship between immigration policy, politics, and public opinion is complex, especially in today's diverse media landscape. We're receiving a new crop of articles on public opinion concerning migration, which seeks to better understand the reassertions of national sovereignty over migration. Böhmelt's is a great example, especially as it probes and builds on prominent previous theories that focused on client politics and what was thought to be the inevitable liberalisation of migration policies.
Immigration detention: An Anglo model, Cetta Mainwaring, Maria Lorena Cook
Rather than increasing openness, the big trend in migration politics and policies is currently one of rapid closure. Border walls are rising, offshore jurisdictions are becoming routine in asylum processing, and deportation is a growing global industry. Politicians claim they are pushing back "negative globalism", "taking back control", and making migration policies for "the people" as opposed to unaccountable experts. But ironically, they often copy or buy policy models off the shelf from these same global experts. As a result, migration policies are starting to look the same everywhere. Mainwaring and Cook's fascinating piece looks at the 'Anglo model' of deportation, which seems to be catching. Look out for Mainwaring's recent book, At Europe's Edge).
Communicating borders—Governments deterring asylum seekers through social media campaigns, Jan-Paul Brekke, Kjersti Thorbjørnsrud
A fascinating and entirely new way borders and sovereignty are being reasserted is through social life's increasingly dominant digital domain. This is an area that migration scholars have been far too slow to take seriously. We now realise relatively late that we need far more attention to how sites like Facebook are used to monitor and manipulate migration. Brekke and Thorbjørnsrud's article outlines the intriguing example of the Norwegian Facebook campaign called 'Stricter Asylum Regulations in Norway', designed to deter migrants by disrupting and dominating the information about opportunities that now sustains a great deal of cross-border movement.
On the way from misery to happiness? A longitudinal perspective on economic migration and well-being, Fabian Kratz
It is not merely because of my part-Scottish heritage that I appreciate this article, which takes its title from the 1989 hit by Scottish duo The Proclaimers. It also provides a welcome focus on the things that matter in life – in place of the eternal dreary focus of economists on alpha, beta, or whatever other obscure parameter we are supposed to be building society around. Does migration make people happier? Now, there's a question that anyone considering crossing seas can easily comprehend. Kratz's excellent piece builds on a series of articles on migration and well-being in this journal. He finds that migration often seems to make people feel happier. However, the effect is inconsistent: for example, it is short-lasting for women and delayed for those who move long distances or return 'home'.
Mapping migration studies: An empirical analysis of the coming of age of a research field, Asya Pisarevskaya, Nathan Levy, Peter Scholten, Joost Jansen
In the seven years this journal has been in print, migration studies has developed from a substantial interdisciplinary niche into a large discipline-like field with its own international Master's and Doctoral programs and tenured professorships at top universities. This intriguing new article by Pisarevskaya, Levy, Scholten, and Jansen performs what seems to be the first rigorous analysis of this trend using computer-based topic modelling. It's sure to become essential reading for aficionados of migration. We couldn't agree more with its contention about the 'conceptual coming of age' of migration studies – but then again, we could be a bit biased.
Alan Gamlen is a COMPAS affiliate and Founding Editor-in-Chief of Migration Studies.
