Explaining Migration: A Critical View

The article surveys the major contemporary explanations of migration, starting with the neo‐classical theory, and then the array of theories and conceptual frameworks that have flourished in the last quarter of the century. The survey highlights the fact that in its relatively short history, theorising about migration has taken the form of a string of separate, generally unconnected theories, models, conceptual frameworks and empirical generalisations, rather than a cumulative sequence of contributions. As awhole, existing theories of migration can be faulted for focusing almost exclusively on the explanation of the causes of migration, to the detriment of other dimensions; for making ‘grand claims’ out of proportion with effective explanatory power; and for providing explanations ex‐post rather than guiding empirical research and providing testable hypotheses. In addition to the difficulties that all the social sciences experience when trying to explainhuman behaviour, migration theories face special ones: its subject matter is hard to define, difficult to measure, extremely multifaceted and multiform, and thus resistant to theory‐building. Whilst the reservoir of theories, and especially of conceptual frameworks, available nowadays represents a clear improvement over the situation a few decades ago, their contribution toour knowledge of migration is still limited.