Nowadays, migration seems never far from the top of the political agenda. Whether as a consequence of civil and ethnic unrest, or as one response to the widening gulf between the wealthy and poor zones of the world, international population movement for sanctuary or settlement has become as prevalent as increased capital flows. (Indeed, for many commentators, there is a clear connection between the fluidity of population movements and the economic and technological changes that have generated 'globalization'.)

According to UN estimates, the global stock of migrants has doubled in the past forty years and now amounts to around 200 million souls living outside their places of birth. For receiving countries, migration-at once perceived as a social challenge and an economic necessity-prompts difficult debates and questions.

Perhaps rather belatedly, the social sciences have recognized the importance of these issues and a significant body of new literature has accumulated in recent decades. The field is, however, intrinsically multidisciplinary with contributions stemming from economics, demography, human geography, law, sociology, political science, and social anthropology. Migration also interweaves with other important multidisciplinary fields such as gender studies, labour-market studies, and cultural studies.

The sheer scale of the growth in migration research output - and the breadth and complexity of the discipline - makes this new Major Work from Routledge especially timely, and answers the urgent need for a wide-ranging collection which provides easy access to the key items of scholarly literature, material that is often inaccessible or scattered throughout a variety of specialist journals and books. In five volumes, Migration brings together the best and most influential foundational and cutting-edge research on: theories of migration; patterns of migration; the politics of migration; and the dynamics of migration.

The collection is supplemented with a full index, and includes a comprehensive introduction, newly written by the editor, which places the collected material in its historical and intellectual context. Migration is destined to be valued by scholars, students, and researchers as a vital research resource.