Stephen Castles

The University of Sydney · Department of Sociology and Social Policy

Starting from Castles’ argument that contemporary international migration is part of ‘step-change’ transformations brought about by neoliberal globalisation, this article analyses the local impacts of global transformations by undertaking a comparative analysis of the myriad ways migration shapes three urban localities in South Korea, Turkey and Au...

This article examines the development of international migration in the context of broader changes in global economic and political formations since the late 1940s. It also reflects on changing official policies and public attitudes to migration, as well as on the emergence of migration studies as a special interdisciplinary area of the social scie...

Social progress needs to be considered from a grounded historical perspective and through a global rather than Eurocentric optic. We are now probably at the peak of human possibilities in terms of social progress but also facing a possible abyss if negative trends are not countered by society. Whether it is global inequality, uncontrolled climate c...

Social progress needs to be considered from a grounded historical perspective and through a global rather than Eurocentric optic. We are now probably at the peak of human possibilities in terms of social progress but also facing a possible abyss if negative trends are not countered by society. Whether it is global inequality, uncontrolled climate c...

This book examines the current dilemmas of liberal anti-racist policies in European societies, linking two discourses that are normally quite separate in social science: immigration and ethnic relations research on the one hand, and the political economy of the welfare state on the other. Gunnar Myrdal’s questions in An American Dilemma are rephras...

This book examines theories and specific experiences of international migration and social transformation, with special reference to the effects of neoliberal globalization on four societies with vastly different historical and cultural characteristics: South Korea, Australia, Turkey and Mexico. All of these countries have undergone far-reaching...

Migration has been a fact of human life throughout history, yet recent decades have seen the development of new types of migration flow across the globe amid a broader process of neoliberal globalization. In the first chapter of this book, Stephen Castles argued that Karl Polanyi’s study of the ‘Great Transformation’ of European societies, resultin...

The development of the capitalist world market has always been linked to social inequality, differentiation of workers, and the use of migration to create various forms of 'unfree labour': slavery, indentured workers, guestworkers, forced labourers, and undocumented workers. The differential denial of equal rights has been based on gender, race, et...

This book presents some of the key ideas and findings of the Social Transformation and International Migration in the 21st Century (STIM) Project, based at the University of Sydney from 2009 to 2015.1 The project’s main research question is: • In what ways are human mobility and broader processes of social transformation interrelated in the context...

It is important to distinguish between circular migration schemes that allow participants to make free choices about movements between origin and destination countries, and those that are really temporary migration programs under a new label. The term ‘circular migration’ has only been used for international migration since the early 2000s. Its pro...

In the early twenty-first century, the forces generating international migration are more powerful than ever, and human mobility has become a key facet of global integration. Yet public concern about migration also remains powerful. Origin countries fear loss of skills and increased dependency on remittances from destination countries. Many people...

El traslado de las personas es un elemento crucial de la integración global. La mayor parte de los países de destino favorecen la entrada de trabajadores altamente calificados, pero restringen la de aquellos no especializados, o la de los que buscan asilo o refugio. Una causa importante de la migración es la creciente desigualdad de ingresos y de s...

Movements of people are a crucial element in global integration. Most destination countries favour entry of the highly skilled, but restrict entry of lower-skilled workers, asylum seekers and refugees. A major cause of migration is the growing inequality in incomes and human security between more- and less-developed countries. Further driving facto...

The development of the capitalist world market has always been linked to differentiation of workers and the use of migration to create various forms of «unfree labour»: slavery, indentured workers, guest-workers, forced labourers, undocumented workers and so on. The differential denial of equal rights has been based on gender, race, ethnicity, lega...

While policy-makers and scholars concerned with international migration often see it as abnormal and inherently problematic, this paper starts with the assumption that human mobility is a normal part of social life. At times of rapid change, such as the current epoch of neoliberal globalisation, international migration tends to grow in volume and t...

Irregular migration was spotlighted at the Puerto Vallarta Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) as a critical theme for development: it reduces the potential of migration to contribute to development but can also result from the lack of development-friendly policies of country of origin and destination. The main cause of irregular migra...

The 1970s heralded the beginning of a new world order based on the restructuring of the global economy influenced by large multinational corporations, the most powerful governments, and international institutions such as the World Bank (WB), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the World Trade Organization (WTO). Defenders of neoliberalism ar...

El modelo neoliberal de migración y desarrollo Desde la década de los setenta se ha establecido un nuevo orden mundial, basado en una profunda reestructuración de la economía global, influida por las grandes corporaciones multinacionales, así como los gobiernos más pode­ rosos del mundo e instituciones internacionales como el Banco Mundial (bm), el...

Desde la década de los setenta se ha establecido un nuevo orden mundial basado en una pro-funda restructuración de la economía global, influida por las grandes corporaciones multinacionales, así como por los gobiernos más poderosos del mundo e instituciones internacionales como el Banco Mundial (BM), el Fondo Monetario Internacional (FMI) y la Orga...

International migration is a key aspect of global integration, yet migration is characterised by a global governance deficit: unlike such areas as finance and trade, there is a lack of international institutions to set standards and ensure conformity with international legal norms. State migration policies often fail or have unintended consequences...

Castles, S., Arias, M., Koleth, E., Kim, C., Ozkul, D. and Williamson, R. (2011). ‘Karl Polanyi and Understanding Social Transformation’, Social Transformation and International Migration in the 21st Century Working Paper No 1, Sydney: University of Sydney.

The neoliberal ideology of economic efficiency and shared prosperity masks the exploitation of labour on a global scale. The international mobilization of workers and their differentiation on criteria of gender, race, ethnicity, origins, and legal status are a crucial part of the global economic order. The neoliberal dream is dualistic: a cosmopoli...

Indians and Poles are among the most important immigrant groups in the UK. In 2009, with 625 000 persons, Indians are the largest foreign born group, the Poles are now the largest group of foreign nationality (494 000 persons) (ONS 2009). The choice of these two groups was driven by the intent to compare a long standing immigrant population with a...

Stephen Castles has been director of the Centre for Multicultural Studies at the University of Wollongong, Australia, since 1986. Previously he was professor for political economy at the Fachhochschule Frankfurt am Main, Germany. He has been involved in research on migration and multicultural societies for many years, and has written several books,...

This chapter examines the global governance of issue-areas affecting the underlying causes of movement notably in areas such as peace and security and global economic governance. It argues that an understanding of the international institutions that regulate the areas that underlie human mobility is crucial for understanding global migration govern...

Implications of the crisis on international migration movements. New forms of governance of international migration

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The public discourse and decision-making on migration policies is largely shaped by a reductionist perspective that ignores many of the causes and impacts of international migration on sending and receiving countries, overrates the developmental role of remittances, and neglects the cost of migration to the migrants and their fami...

This article aims to examine some of the difficulties of theory formation in international migration studies, and to suggest a response. The starting point is an examination of the dominant perception of ‘migration as a problem’. This is followed by a discussion of some key obstacles to theoretical advancement in migration studies. I argue that a g...

This article aims to examine some of the difficulties of theory formation in international migration studies, and to suggest a response. The starting point is an examination of the dominant perception of �migration as a problem�. This is followed by a discussion of some key obstacles to theoretical advancement in migration studies. I argue that a g...

Around 1974, most Western European countries abandoned migrant labor recruitment, and introduced restrictive entry rules. Today, policymakers are reexamining temporary migrant worker programs. This article examines demographic, economic, and social pressures for labor recruitment, discusses temporary migrant worker programs in Germany and the Unite...

Immigration and asylum are key political issues in Britain and the European Union. Yet the policies of states and supranational bodies seem to have had little success in preventing unwanted flows and effectively managing immigration and integration. This article examines three types of reasons for policy failure: factors arising from the social dyn...

International migration is, by definition, a social phenomenon that crosses national borders and affects two or more nation-states. Its analysis requires theories and methodologies capable of transcending the national gaze. This applies more than ever in the current epoch of global migratory flows and growing South-North mobility. Sociology claims...

The article draws attention to nine fundamental contradictions typical of our time. Categorization into nine is of course rather arbitrary, but nevertheless useful to organize ideas. Each contradiction is illustrated by examining its connections with the rapid growth of international migration, which is both a result of global change and a powerful...

This paper examines the methodological dilemmas that arise at the start of a five-year research project entitled "Social Transformation and International Migration" (henceforth: STIM Project). The project is based at the Department for Sociology and Social Policy of the University of Sydney, and is funded by the Australian Research Council (ARC). T...

Socio-economic change and human mobility are constantly interactive processes, so to ask whether migration or development comes first is nonsensical. Yet in both popular and political discourse it has become the conventional wisdom to argue that promoting economic development in the Global South has the potential to reduce migration to the North. T...

Socio-economic change and human mobility are constantly interactive processes, so to ask whether migration or development comes first is nonsensical. Yet in both popular and political discourse it has become the conventional wisdom to argue that promoting economic development in the Global South has the potential to reduce migration to the North. T...

a bstract . This chapter summarises and compares the findings of the studies of five major emigration countries - India, Mexico, Morocco, the Philippines and Turkey - presented in this issue. It discusses the extent to which the five countries share significant common characteris� tics, so that a comparative analysis may provide useful insights int...

En el último tramo del siglo pasado y en lo que va del presente, la relación entre migración y desarrollo se ha tornado un tema central en el debate acadé- mico y político a escala internacional. Desde distintos miradores y en atención a múltiples intereses, han tomado parte en la discusión los organismos interna -cionales, gobiernos de los paíse...

Attempts to achieve coherent approaches and coordination on migration and development will not succeed if the terms of debate are imposed in advance and without discussion by all con cerned. So far the debate on migration and development has been one -sided: it has been overwhelmingly driven by northern governments and by international agencies. So...

In our book Citizenship and Migration (Castles and Davidson, 2000), Alastair Davidson and I argued that the nation-state and citizenship were becoming global norms. For the first time in history, the great majority of the world’s people lived in countries with the constitutional forms and institutional structures of democratic nation-states. This a...

This book examines the current dilemmas of liberal anti-racist policies in European societies, linking two discourses that are normally quite separate in social science: immigration and ethnic relations research on the one hand, and the political economy of the welfare state on the other. Gunnar Myrdal's questions in An American Dilemma are rephras...

All over the world, millions of people have been forced from their homes by violent conflict, persecution and human rights violations. Those able to cross international borders become refugees or asylum seekers, while others are ‘internally displaced people’ within their home country. Yet others are forced from their homes by development projects,...

IMI does not have a view as an Institute and does not aim to present one. The views expressed in this document are only those of its independent author.

As the social scientific study of international migration has developed over the last half century, it has frequently been marked by a division into two quite separate bodies of social scientific investigation, each with its own researchers, theories, publications, university courses and conferences. One area of research has been concerned with the...

Citizenship in modern democratic states has a dual character. First, it denotes inclusion in a self-governing political community. Second, it means belonging to a specific national community, defined both by territorial boundaries and cultural practices. The democratic state appears in the guise of the nation-state, whose citizen is also a national...

Citizenship in nation-states has always contained tensions between inclusion and exclusion, between the citizen and the national, between the active and the passive citizen and between the citizen as political sovereign and the warrior-citizen. These tensions have been transformed and sharpened by globalization and the emergence of a global order b...

This chapter outlines trends and patterns in movements of asylum seekers to Western, industrialized countries from 1990 to 2001. The receiving countries covered are the United States, Canada, Australia and Western Europe (which here comprises the Member States of the EU in 2002, Norway and Switzerland). Other industrialized states such as Japan and...

Migration policies often fail to achieve their declared objectives or have unintended consequences. This article discusses three sets of reasons for this: factors arising from the social dynamics of the migratory process; factors linked to globalization and transnationalism; and factors within political systems. Effective policies are often hampere...

At the beginning of the new millennium, migration has become highly politicized and is now a pivotal issue in both national and international politics. Although the political potency of fears of immigration is nothing new, it seems that population movements are taking on increased significance in the context of current global social transformations...

Forced migration - including refugee flows, asylum seekers, internal displacement and development-induced displacement - has increased considerably in volume and political significance since the end of the Cold War. It has become an integral part of North-South relationships and is closely linked to current processes of global social transformation...

The root causes of most violent conflicts lie in economic and political factors, often horizontal inequalities of various types. Yet people are organised, united and mobilised by identities, in particular ethnic or religious ones. Most conflict analyses treat religion as a subset of ethnicity. This paper explores differences between these two ident...

The global refugee population in 2003 is more than 12 million. Over the last 15 years, Europe has seen the arrival of millions of individuals who have sought asylum within individual Member States. Despite the fact that the top ten nationalities arriving in European countries are from countries which have seen high levels of violence, oppression an...

A rapid increase in international migration is a central aspect of the social transformations currently taking place in the Asia-Pacific region. Population movements take many forms, including permanent migration, temporary labour migration, mobility of highly skilled personnel, refugee movements and family reunion. Destinations include North Ameri...

This article sets out to rethink the dynamics of the migratory process under conditions of globalization. Two main models of migration and incorporation dominated academic and policy approaches in the late twentieth century: first, the settler model, according to which immigrants gradually integrated into economic and social relations, re-united or...

Global change and the increasing importance of transformational flows and networks in all areas of social life creates new challenges for the social sciences. However, their underlying assumptions are linked to their origins in western models of industrialization and nation-state formation. There still subsist considerable national specificity in m...

Democratic citizenship, as it exists in countries like Australia, is premised on a nation-state that has sovereignty over a specific territory demarcated by internationally agreed boundaries. According to this model, citizens are supposed to control the state through democratic processes, and the state is supposed to control what happens on its ter...

That may seem rather unnecessary: social transformation is a commonly used expression and not particularly new. Generally it implies an underlying notion of the way society and culture change in response to such factors as economic growth, war or political upheavals. We may have in mind the 'great transformation' (Polanyi 1944) in western societies...

Global change and the increasing importance of transnational flows and networks in all areas of social life create new challenges for the social sciences. However, their underlying assumptions are linked to their origins in Western models of industrialization and nation-state formation. There is still considerable national specificity in modes of o...

Globalisation leads to increases in all kinds of cross-border flows, including movements of people. In recent years international migrationhas grown in volume, and is now an important factor of social transformation in all regions of the world. States classify migrants into certain categories, and seek to encourage certain types of mobility while r...

Abstract International migration is an important factor in social, cultural and political change in East Asian. The paper discusses both emigration and immigration countries, using the Philippines as an example for the former, and Japan and Malaysia for the latter. It is argued that population mobility is an important element of the cross-border fl...

PIP This article reviews the nature of discussions at the 1998 UN Technical Symposium on International Migration and Development. The Symposium reviewed the literature linking migration and development and successful policy approaches. Several themes emerged. A research framework is needed for accounting for all types of population mobility at all...

Of the world’s estimated 120 million recent migrants, perhaps a quarter are legally admitted workers, another quarter illegally resident aliens, one-quarter spouses and children and the remainder refugees and asylum-seekers (Falchi, 1995: 5; Widgren, 1987: 4). In Western Europe, foreign labour employment generally stagnated or declined between 1975...

This chapter presents comparative case studies of the migratory process in two countries with very different traditions and institutional frameworks. As will become apparent, there are significant parallels in the development of migration and ethnic diversity. This leads to the conjecture that the dynamics of the migratory process (as discussed the...