Response to Age of Migration Chapter 2

Main points:

1. Migrations cannot be accurately estimated or analyzed in a specific, prescribed way such as the neo-classical (focus on individual, reasoned choices based on an immigration market) or the historical-structural approaches (focus on capital and the prolonged difference between developed and undeveloped).

2. An interdisciplinary approach incorporating any and all ways of looking at migration is most effective and given a relatively neutral name: migratory systems theory.

3. Ethnic minorities are not necessarily a result of migration but are rather a result of the receiving country's social, political, and economic interactions with those who are immigrating.

4. Migrants have traditionally been looked at through a "class" lens, but ethnicity, gender, and age are also insightful ways to understand a migrant population.

5. Citizenship and nation-states may need to be reconsidered as a transnational lifestyle becomes more common and globalization continues.

Discussion Questions:
- What are the pros and cons of a nation-state having its own identity? Does one outweigh the other?
- What will allow a uniform citizen status in Europe?
- How best is it to look at ethnicity? Is it a unifying force, a dividing force, or something in between?

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