Political and institutional determinants of migration policies
International migration is an especially important interpretive key through which to understand the long history of globalization. Over the last 20 years, an increasing number of countries have experienced a prolonged transition in the nature of the migration to which they are subject: countries that were historically lands of emigration are becoming lands of immigration. This chapter describes how migration and migration policies have changed over the last two centuries, especially in Europe. Until the French Revolution, Europe had considered immigration a resource and not a scourge, and European imperialism has probably sown the seeds of distrust and racism that continue to pervade the world today. European states have alternated between policies favouring the restriction and promotion of migration, depending on their own perceived economic and geopolitical needs. Paradoxically, periods of restriction, intended to protect the domestic economy, preceded economic crises. It is possible to trace a cause-and-effect relationship between restrictive policies and subsequent economic crises.