Migrants and Citizens - by Rey Koslowski (Hardcover)

About the Book

The Berlin Wall falls as thousands of East Germans move to the West; after the Iron Curtain lifts, West Europeans brace for mass migrations from Eastern Europe; millions of refugees flee Iraq, Bosnia, Haiti, Rwanda, and other strife-torn nations. The...

Book Synopsis

The Berlin Wall falls as thousands of East Germans move to the West; after the Iron Curtain lifts, West Europeans brace for mass migrations from Eastern Europe; millions of refugees flee Iraq, Bosnia, Haiti, Rwanda, and other strife-torn nations. The shifting tides of international migration have had a profound effect on our world, from the transformation of nationality laws and European cooperation on border control to NATO intervention in Kosovo.

In Migrants and Citizens, Rey Koslowski examines the impact of migration on international politics. He focuses on two related avenues of inquiry: the immediate political problems faced by the European Union, and the general issues that confront us as we try to understand the modern international system.

Migration has become politically salient so quickly, Koslowski argues, because the nation-state and the political institutions associated with it developed in the centuries during which Western Europe was a net exporter of people. With the reversal of that trend less than a generation ago, many of these institutions have been ill-suited to deal with the political and policy demands brought on by the arrival of large numbers of foreigners.

Koslowski discusses how restrictive citizenship laws exclude migrants and their children from political participation in some West European states, leading observers to question the legitimacy of those states as democracies. Yet when these states try to increase immigrant participation with local voting rights, European Union citizenship, and dual nationality, the principle of a singular nationality underlying the nation-state is challenged. In this way, the practical policy responses to migration gradually transform the political institutions of states as well as the international system they collectively constitute.

Review Quotes

In a pathbreaking new book, Rutgers University political scientist Rey Koslowski identifies the role of migration in transforming politics in Europe, with important implications for our underastanding of the relationship between citizens and nation-states throughout the international system... For those of us looking for materials to engage our students and to inspire our own scholarship, Migrants and Citizens is required reading.

Koslowski has written a solid book on the role of demographic change in influencing world politics... This book is recommended for libraries keen to maintain a strong focus on demographic and international relations issues within their social science collections.

Rey Koslowski is provocative... underscoring how the context of low fertility rates and increasing migration polarizes European domestic politics and challenges the stability of democracies.

Rey Koslowski's book is a useful contribution to the understanding of migration and the influence of demographic change on international politics... It has both a clear argument and structure and a good bibliography... in addition, experts in migration and citizenship as well as scholars of European intergration will find a useful and interesting approach to the analysis of the current dilemmas of the European polity.

About the Author

Rey Koslowski is Associate Professor of Political Science and Public Policy at University at Albany (SUNY).