The Migration-Displacement Nexus

Koser (Geneva Centre for Security Policy, Switzerland) and Martin (international migration, Georgetown U., US) deploy the concept of the "migration-displacement nexus" as a means of illustrating "the increasing complexities of migration and displacement; the growing difficulties of distinguishing between the two; the misalignment between existing labels, categories and constructions and migration realities; and the consequences of falling into legal, normative, and institutional gaps." They present 14 papers that illustrate these complexities of the migration-displacement nexus around the world, shedding light on the ways that categories of voluntary versus forced and economic versus political migration are too simplistic; protection gaps due to mixed flows of migrants to and from places but with differing motives; the ways that different migrant groups adopt broadly similar survival strategies and how that can lead to the invisibility of victims of forced displacement and resettlement; status and category changes for migrants resulting either through intentional acts (e.g., overstaying a visa) or through arbitrary changes in law and policies; cases where migrants simultaneously fit multiple pre-existing categories; and different levels of vulnerability and need within single categories. Annotation c2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Khalid Koser is Associate Dean and Head of the New Issues in Security Programme at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy. He is also Non-Resident Fellow in Foreign Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution, Research Associate at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, Visiting Fellow at the Lowy Institute in Sydney, and Associate Fellow at Chatham House. Dr Koser is co-editor of the Journal of Refugee Studies and on the editorial board for Global Governance; Ethnic and Racial Studies; Population, Space, and Place; Forced Migration Review; and the Journal of Conflict Transformation and Security.

Susan Martin holds the Donald G. Herzberg Chair in International Migration and serves as the Director of the Institute for the Study of International Migration in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. Dr Martin also directs the university's Program on Refugees and Humanitarian Emergencies. Her publications include A Nation of Immigrants, Women, Migration and Conflict: Breaking a Deadly Cycle; The Uprooted: Improving Humanitarian Responses to Forced Migration; and numerous monographs and articles on immigration and refugee policy.