Migration and the Shifting Boundaries of Belonging

Abstract

Boundaries of belonging are not fixed in time and vary substantially in space. The chapters of this volume underline that boundary making and its results — concepts, markers and measures of ‘us and them’ — differ substantially between the countries compared so far and underlie changes during the last decades. (Re)Constructing boundaries of belonging is a social processes in which perceptions and ascriptions of ‘us’ and ‘them’ are shaped. Concerning the categories by which residents and citizens, in general, and labour migrants, in particular, are grouped and distinguished, national societies like the British, the Chinese, the Dutch, the French, and the German follow very different institutionalised traditions. These national patterns of categorising and distinguishing migrants’ and especially labour migrants’ rights and status from those of the majority of society are institutionalised in the sense of being cemented in legal rules and in taken-for-granted perceptions and expectations. Next to substantial national variations in the dominant categories and boundaries of belonging, substantial dynamics of change in these institutional arrangements have also been analysed. In the first section of this chapter, these pathways of national settings and change will be highlighted.