Contemporary migration seen from the perspective of political economy: Theoretical and methodological elements

Abstract

Contemporary migration studies tend to consider this phenomenon as an independent variable excised from the context of global capitalism. Research approaches are mostly descriptive and schematic and often split by disciplines, all of which limits the understanding of migration and any opportunities we might have to influence it. Political economy provides an analytical alternative with which to engage this subject, addressing it from the historical, structural and strategic viewpoints. This approach constitutes a source of critical thinking through which the complex reality of contemporary capitalism and the role of international migration can be understood and transformed. This chapter proposes political economy as an alternative theoretical and methodological tool with which to uncover the nature and elements of contemporary migration.