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Reflecting on Spatiality in European Migration Research: From Methodological Nationalism to Space-Sensitive Observations of Social Transformations

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An Anthology of Migration and Social Transformation

Part of the book series: IMISCOE Research Series ((IMIS))

Abstract

The ongoing struggle in social sciences with methodological nationalism especially within migration research shows that a reflection of spatiality is needed as spatial relations are a product of social inequality and differing power relations. Simultaneously, these spatial relations are producing and reproducing social and economic inequalities. Therefore, this contribution starts by outlining the discourse on methodological nationalism followed by a short introduction on spatially sensible methodologies. On this basis, the situation within Europe is examined. The contribution highlights four key driving processes in which migration and spatiality are interrelated in Europe with consequences for social transformation: First, the processes related to European integration have led to new spaces of potential migration. For EU citizens, possibilities for migration have opened up through, for example, the principle of free movement of persons, while for others access to the EU has been restricted. This restriction is directly linked to the second strategic process by the EU regulating non-EU immigration. The migration-specific relations of the EU with non-EU nation states have led to changes to the European migration regime. The EU enlargement as the third major process has changed the borders of the EU several times, differentiating migratory rights according to the political constraints put in place by some of the EU member states. The fourth major process concerning migrant space-making involves the change of spatialities as a result of the activities of migrants themselves. Transnational migration and the specific pathways of migrant incorporation within the EU borders have led to the creation of new spaces that permit migration.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The concept of spatiality—which will be referred to as ‘space ’, ‘social spaces ’, or ‘socio-spaces’ in the course of this chapter—highlights the understanding that space is a social construct. It implies that geographically defined spaces are always constructed by human action and through social definition processes. While there is also a material side to space (see Löw 2001), geographical space is a social construct as well (for a detailed discussion of spatiality, see Lefebvre 2002).

  2. 2.

    I want to thank the anonymous reviewers of IMISCOE for their valuable work and thoughtful suggestions on a previous version of this text.

  3. 3.

    Recent empirical and theoretical work has provided evidence of the need to constantly perform ethnicity (see Carlson 2013; Moreman 2009).

  4. 4.

    Some scholars have also introduced a constructivist conception of space for the social sciences, one example being Andreas Pott (2002), who regards space as something that is solely enacted through communication.

  5. 5.

    The term was first used in an essay on African migration by the economist Walter Elkan (i.e. Elkan 1967).

  6. 6.

    For a detailed overview and comparison of the EU’s Blue Card legislation and the various national regulations, see Cerna (2013).

  7. 7.

    The term ‘border regime s ’ relates to systems of control that regulate behaviour along borders (Berg and Ehin 2006).

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  1. Department of Sociology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

    Elisabeth Scheibelhofer

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  1. Department of Social Sciences, Goethe-University Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany

    Anna Amelina

  2. University of Education of Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Germany

    Kenneth Horvath

  3. Cosmopolis Centre for Urban Research, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium

    Bruno Meeus

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Scheibelhofer, E. (2016). Reflecting on Spatiality in European Migration Research: From Methodological Nationalism to Space-Sensitive Observations of Social Transformations. In: Amelina, A., Horvath, K., Meeus, B. (eds) An Anthology of Migration and Social Transformation. IMISCOE Research Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23666-7_5

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