Beyond the Apocalypse: Reframing Migration History

Abstract

Current public debates on migration and integration in Western Europe are fraught with misunderstandings, selective perceptions, and deliberate misrepresentations. Whether it regards the Brexit discussion or the so-called ‘refugee crisis’, the tone is often outright apocalyptical. Migration scholars, often unintentionally, contribute to this alarmist atmosphere by too uncritically reproducing the idea that migrants constitute a problem that should be solved. This framing reflects a myopic view of what migration as a human phenomenon constitutes. This chapter proposes a much broader definition and focuses on human mobility over cultural boundaries and the relation with social change. The cross-cultural migration (CCM) methodology highlights much broader societal changes, both in Europe and in the regions where migrants came from and partly returned to.