1st Edition

People Changing Places New Perspectives on Demography, Migration, Conflict, and the State

    254 Pages 11 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    254 Pages 11 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    While migration and population settlement have always been an important feature of political life throughout the world, the dramatic changes in the pace, direction, and complexity of contemporary migration flows are undoubtedly unique. Despite the economic benefits often associated with global, regional, and internal migration, the arrival of large numbers of migrants can exacerbate tensions and give rise to violent clashes between local populations and recent arrivals. This volume takes stock of these trends by canvassing the globe to generate new conceptual, empirical, and theoretical contributions. The analyses ultimately reveal the critical role of the state as both an actor and arena in the migration-conflict nexus.

    PART I: Introduction: Concepts and Overview

    1. Demography, Migration, Conflict, and the State: The Contentious Politics of Connecting People to Places

    Isabelle Côté and Matthew I. Mitchell

    2. ‘Sons of the Soil’ Conflicts and Autochthony: Bridging the Literatures

    Ragnhild Nordås

    PART II: The State, Migration, and Violent Conflict

    3. This Land is Whose Land?: ‘Sons of the Soil’ Conflicts in Darfur

    Johan Brosché and Ralph Sundberg

    4. Ethnic Census-Taking, Instability, and Armed Conflict

    Håvard Strand, Henrik Urdal, and Isabelle Côté

    5. Internal Migration, Political Liberalization, and Violent Conflict in Authoritarian China

    Isabelle Côté

    PART III: Identity, Territory, and the Politics of Belonging

    6. The Concept of ‘Rootedness’ in the Struggle for Political Power in the Former Soviet Union in the 1990s

    Pål Kolstø

    7. How Homelands Change?: Lessons from the Experience of Two Israeli Nationalist Movements

    Nadav G. Shelef

    8. Sons of the Soviet Soil and the Collapse of the USSR

    Monica Duffy Toft

    PART IV: Migration and Conflict in the Global North?

    9. Migration and Conflict in OECD Countries

    Michael S. Teitelbaum

    10. Ethnic Nationalism or Relaxed Assimilation?: The Response of Dominant Ethnic Groups to Immigration in the Anglo-Saxon World

    Eric Kaufmann

    PART V: Conclusion

    11. Concluding Remarks on the Politics of People Changing Places

    Monica Duffy Toft

    Biography

    Isabelle Côté is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Memorial University of Newfoundland.

    Matthew I. Mitchell is Assistant Professor of Political Studies at the University of Saskatchewan.

    Monica Duffy Toft is Professor of International Politics and Director of the Center for Strategic Studies at Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, and a Global Scholar with the Peace Research Institute, Oslo.

    Praise for People Changing Places

    This book is the first truly global analysis of how migration flows interact with culture, economics, and state authority to create conflict. Migration today is reshaping politics around the world; Côté, Mitchell, and Toft’s volume cuts through the clichés and provides a nuanced understanding of how states can reduce or exacerbate the risks that arise from people on the move.

    Jack A. Goldstone, George Mason University

    This volume makes an important contribution to the literature on ethnic and civil wars. The authors challenge the current classification of domestic conflict by adopting a novel and underutilized theoretical framework that highlights the role of internal migration in triggering violence between the migrants and the "indigenous" inhabitants of a territory. . . . A must-read for anyone interested in both conflict and migration.

    Jeannette Money, University of California-Davis

    International agencies, governments, and NGOs too often miscalculate the long-term political implications of migration and resettlement – both for migrant and receiving communities. It is hardly their fault. Social scientists have yet to meld a body of theory that accounts for origins, identities, particular circumstances, and community relationships. People Changing Places takes up the task and makes important strides toward such a theory.

    Richard Cincotta, PoliticalDemography.org; Woodrow Wilson Center

    People Changing Places is essential reading for all scholars interested in migration and political demography more broadly. By weaving together both qualitative and quantitative research, as well as numerous case studies from the developing and the developed world, the authors add significantly to our knowledge about the often complex relationship between internal and external migration, demographic change, and the outbreak of violent conflict.

    Elliott D. Green, London School of Economics