Migration and Immigrants

One of the challenges to present Western welfare states is worldwide population mobility as part of the wider globalization process. Despite having reached unprecedented levels of prosperity, Western welfare states are pervaded by a sense of unease, if not crisis. Many observers fear that globalization is undermining the state as an effective agency for ensuring the economic and social security of its inhabitants. An important factor in these fears is the incapacity of modern states to manage international migration. Social scientists have become aware of an increasing discrepancy between policies toward migration and what is really happening. This book resulted from a conference on the subject held in Amsterdam in 2002 at the Institute for Migration and Ethnic Studies in collaboration with the Department of Geography and Planning of the University of Amsterdam. Migration experts from different countries and disciplines contributed to this volume, which is relevant for all social scientists and policy makers in the field of migration.