Alejandro Portes, Josh DeWind, eds. Rethinking Migration: New Theoretical and Empirical Perspectives. New York: Berghahn Books, 2007. 453 pp. $89.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-1-84545-347-3.

Reviewed by Andreas Fahrmeir (Department of History, Universität Frankfurt)
Published on H-German (January, 2008)

Migration and Migration Policies in an Era of Globalization

The volume under review begins with a riddle: "The Princeton conference sought to review and update the principal concepts, lines of research, and methodological concepts discussed in the Handbook, and, in this manner, gauge what progress the field has been making and in what directions. In contrast to the earlier and more encompassing event, the Princeton conference was thematically selective, targeting only a few strategic topics" (p. 3). As neither handbooks nor conferences at Princeton are particularly rare, this seems like an odd introduction, or a hint that the book is directed at a group of insiders who are immediately aware of what is being referred to. The puzzle, which is perhaps due to expectations about a page of acknowledgements, forms the unconventional beginning of an otherwise lucid introduction to recent trends in migration studies, and one's patience is rewarded (and one's confidence in being part of the intended audience increases) when it is resolved at the beginning of the second chapter. The Handbook is Charles Hirshman's, Philip Kasinitz's and Josh DeWind's Handbook of International Migration: The American Experience (1999), and the conference at which the papers in this volume were originally presented took place at Princeton in 2003. Its aim was to provide a forum for comparing and contrasting American and European experiences of migration (studies).

The published volume retains some of this spirit of a new departure in its mix of case studies and theoretical reflections. What binds the individual contributions together is the question of how migration studies can incorporate the dilution of dichotomies that appear to be a feature of globalization: the demise of clear distinctions between migrants and non-migrants, citizens and aliens, and cultural insiders and outsiders. These categories remain prominent in the scholarly literature and in popular perceptions, but hardly correspond to the present situation (and, one might add, the past) of shifting and multiple identities, interdependent political and economic trajectories in the country of origin and the country of destination, and the possible demise, or, at least, the rapidly shifting nature of the nation state.

The volume is divided into four major sections. The first deals with the relationship between migrants and states with articles on the determinants of migration policies (Stephen Castles), the "migration state" (James Hollifeld), dual citizenship and path dependency (Thomas Faist, Jürgen Gerdes, and Beate Rieple), and immigrants' political rights in western democracies (Gary Freeman). The second section shifts the focus to immigrants' experiences of transnational communities and the consequences these experiences may have for immigrants' place in the economy. Two articles employ a theoretical perspective and propose ways in which scholarship could more adequately capture transnational lifestyles and perspectives. Steven Vertovec places the focus on concrete aspects of transnationalism (bifocality, economic relations between migrants and their places of origin, and the changing role of the state in setting and policing political, economic, and cultural boundaries), whereas Peggy Levitt and Nina Glick Schiller propose (transnational) social fields as a key research concept. Min Zhou combines general remarks on the study of ethnic entrepreneurs with more detailed insights on the roles and aspirations of Korean and Latino businessmen in the United States.

The third part is entitled, "Unauthorized Immigration and the Second Generation." It contains two articles that I personally consider the volume's most interesting contributions. Both deal with the vexed problem of whether (and how) it is possible to actually measure undocumented immigration. Douglas Massey and Chiara Capoferro present results from the Mexican Migration Project, while Friedrich Heckmann puts forward various proposals for deducing information on undocumented migrants from Germany's official statistics. Hartmut Esser presents a highly theoretical perspective on intergenerational integration, and Rubén G. Rubaut successfully deconstructs generational cohorts as useful categories for measuring and comparing integration. The book's two final essays make up the volume's second explicitly comparative section. They engage with the role of religion for immigrants' integration in the United States (Charles Hirshman), Germany, and France (Riva Kastoryano).

Overall, the volume presents a broad range of excellent articles with thought-provoking concepts and suggestions for further research agendas. Sometimes, these proposals are not entirely novel; they echo debates which have been conducted in history or anthropology for some years. However, the essays always contain original suggestions for ways in which general questions can be translated into empirical research agendas. The volume is less successful in adopting a comparative American/European or American/non-American perspective. Most articles remain focused on U.S. experiences and case studies, and Europe appears largely reduced to Germany and France. Perhaps another conference could explore this topic more fully, possibly in the light of new handbooks that make international comparisons easier.[1]

Note

[1]. Such as Klaus J. Bade, Pieter C. Emmer, Leo Lucassen, and Jochen Oltmer, eds., Enzyklopädie Migration in Europa. Vom 17. Jahrhundert bis zur Gegenwart (Paderborn: Schöningh, 2007); an English edition is in preparation.

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Citation: Andreas Fahrmeir. Review of Portes, Alejandro; DeWind, Josh, eds., Rethinking Migration: New Theoretical and Empirical Perspectives. H-German, H-Net Reviews. January, 2008.
URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=14097

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