Page 46 - IJPS-10-4

International Journal of

Population Studies

PERSPECTIVE ARTICLE
Immigrants, asylum-seekers, and refugees:

Navigating conceptual challenges through
multidimensional migration space-time

Jared Keyel*

Department of Sociology and Anthropology, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Rowan
University, Glassboro, New Jersey, United States of America

Abstract

Migration is a pervasive social, political, and economic experience. Despite its ubiquity,
the complexities of migration present challenges for scholars. Ongoing debates
revolve around defining central categories that describe and understand human
movement. Concepts such as migrant, asylum-seeker, and refugee are fraught with
tensions and overlapping characteristics. Disaggregating these categories is complex
due to the messy and varied nature of individuals’ lived experiences. This complexity
prompts scholars to critically examine how these categories are constructed and
applied. Considering this, I argue that reconceptualizing migration categories
as interconnected positions within a temporally and geographically contingent
multidimensional migration space-time allows scholars to better examine the
complexities of movement. Moreover, the intricate nature of migration necessitates
*Corresponding author: the construction and reconstruction of adaptable concepts to better understand
Jared Keyel highly contextual experiences. Therefore, researchers must design research projects
(keyel@rowan.edu)
that can capture the nuances, tensions, and contradictions inherent in migration
Citation: Keyel J. (2024). experiences, even when these nuances do not align with narrow, instrumentalized
Immigrants, asylum-seekers, definitions used in legal regimes and public policy. While more flexible concepts offer
and refugees: Navigating
conceptual challenges through valuable opportunities for deeper insights, there are also significant risks to consider.
multidimensional migration space-
time. International Journal of
Population Studies, 10(4): 40-44. Keywords: Migration; Immigrants; Asylum-seekers; Refugees; Mobility
https://doi.org/10.36922/ijps.3004
Received: February 24, 2024
Accepted: July 5, 2024
1. Introduction
Published Online: September 20,
2024 Migration is a pervasive social, political, and economic experience. Despite its ubiquity,
the complexities of migration present challenges for researchers. Scholars across
Copyright: © 2024 Author(s).
This is an Open-Access article various disciplines have worked to generate core concepts that capture the essence
distributed under the terms of the of migration (Brettell & Hollifield, 2014). There are ongoing debates around defining
Creative Commons Attribution central categories and concepts to accurately describe and understand the movement of
License, permitting distribution,
and reproduction in any medium, people. Concepts such as migrant, asylum-seeker, and refugee are fraught with tensions
provided the original work is and overlapping characteristics (Crawley & Skleparis, 2018; Tsegay, 2023), making the
properly cited. disaggregation of these categories challenging. Studies of migration often “destabilize
Publisher’s Note: AccScience the rigid division of the world” (Bastia, 2014, p. 238), highlighting the complexity and
Publishing remains neutral with fluidity of individuals’ lived experiences, which underscores the need for scholars to
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional critically examine how migration categories are constructed and used (Crawley &
affiliations. Skleparis, 2018).

Volume 10 Issue 4 (2024) 40 https://doi.org/10.36922/ijps.3004