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International Journal of
Population Studies Conceptual challenges in migration

decades at each destination. These journeys may also be universal or meta-theory of migration (Cameron, 2014;
multidirectional, involving leaving, arriving, returning, Nail, 2015). Therefore, if we understand migration positions
or staying. Within migration categories, experiences as shifting and contextual within multidimensional
include not only mobility within and across borders but space-time, we must (re)construct adaptable concepts to
also periods of immobility or “stuckness.” For example, explore this space. We should continuously examine how
an individual may leave their home country and apply for the boundaries between flexible migration positions blur
asylum in the US. During this process, they must stay in within specific contexts.
the US until a decision is made, placing them in a liminal If scholars define migration categories and concepts
space with no permanent resolution about their ability to too narrowly, they limit the possibilities for research
stay. Moreover, an individual may occupy roles such as participants to explore the complexities, tensions, and
immigrant, asylum-seeker, and/or international student contradictions within their own experiences. This
at various times and/or simultaneously. It is complex to restriction might inadvertently constrain how individuals
determine whether migration qualifies as “voluntary” or perceive and describe their own migratory experiences.
“involuntary,” as experiences may entail elements of both If researchers, typically in positions of relatively greater
compulsion and choice. interpretive power, are predetermining set (and narrow,
Some scholars propose viewing different types of rigid, and/or binary) migration categories that participants
migration as a spectrum of experiences (Nail, 2015), while must fit their experiences into, then we may pre-empt or
others use two-dimensional, four-quadrant typologies prevent those who migrate from using and/or developing
and taxonomies to map a more interconnected field of critical concepts to interpret and describe their own
migration possibilities beyond discreet categories (Delli experiences. Therefore, adaptable concepts should ideally
Paoli and Maddaloni, 2021). Such approaches allow more be co-created with those who migrate (Dahinden et al.,
complex explorations of the conceptual space of migration. 2021) and always open to reconsideration and revision.
As a heuristic approach for the research process, I propose Moreover, the power to define individuals and groups
further expanding this spatial metaphor by adding matters (Raghuram, 2021). The way we categorize people
additional dimensions to that conceptual space. and their experiences is important and carries material
Thus, rather than relying on strictly delimited categories implications for their lives. For example, it is important
and concepts of migration, we may consider migration as a to disentangle legal definitions and regimes that govern
multidimensional space-time in which socially, politically, migration statuses (immigrant, asylum-seeker, refugee,
temporally, and geographically specific migration positions etc.) and the conceptual contours of those same categories.
are located. Each position has fuzzy edges, bleeding into and Legal definitions cannot capture the full nuance of lived
overlapping with other locations in varied combinations. experiences. As such definitions are operationalized by
For example, individuals may shift from being refugees border and immigration authorities, they can impose
to immigrants to citizens and then back to immigrants as assumptions on those who migrate and either fulfill or
they move along geographic and time axes. Moreover, the deny rights and protections. Therefore, it is important to
definitions and characteristics of asylum, for example, will remember that policy relevance and conformity are not the
likely change over time as political regimes create new laws ultimate tests of research significance or empirical clarity
and members of societies advocate for alternatively more open (Bakewell, 2008).
or more restrictive responses to newcomers. Understanding Migration scholars must carefully design research
migration in this way is an exercise in stretching our analytic projects to capture the nuances, tensions, and contradictions
imaginations. We should work to identify how migration in migration experiences. For instance, when enrolling
positions are entangled with other concepts and experiences participants for research, it is important to pay close
in complex ways (Raghuram, 2021). The migration space attention to how we create and communicate recruitment
runs parallel to, intersects with, and collides with class, race, materials. There may be situations wherein parsing closely
sex/gender, states, borders, technology, governance, and which migration category an individual “fits into” is useful
many other concepts, each of which also operates within its to understand an aspect of migration; however, this may
own multidimensional space-time. not be productive or necessary in all cases. There is a risk of

4. Flexible, adaptable, and contingent narrowly defining or communicating participation criteria
that force participants to choose an either/or answer to
concepts what category they belong to (importantly, at the time of
The contingent circumstances and fluidity of positions the study). Such situations may exclude those who have
such as migrant and refugee make it difficult to create a complex migration stories and who initially conceive of

Volume 10 Issue 4 (2024) 42 https://doi.org/10.36922/ijps.3004