Imperial migration states

In the past decade, theorising about migration policy has rapidly included more states beyond Western Europe or North America. Expanding the temporal and geographical range of conventional cases destabilises reification of the nation-state and challenges Eurocentric conceptions of sovereignty. By reexamining British settler colonies, alongside the United States, I develop an Imperial Migration State concept to characterise macro-historical shifts as built upon a scaffolding of race and racism. Analysing transitions from imperial to postcolonial polities, furthermore, sheds light on how countries continue to use ostensibly non-racist yet discriminatory restrictions in their exclusionary immigration policies. Efforts to excise racist underpinnings in immigration policies require a more subtle understanding of where and when innovations emerged, and then whether or why such policies diffuse.

Automated summary

In the past decade, theorizing about migration policy has expanded beyond Western Europe or North America. This expansion challenges Eurocentric conceptions of sovereignty and reification of the nation-state. By examining the transition of countries from imperial to postcolonial polities, we can see how ostensibly non-racist immigration policies still contain discriminatory restrictions.