Michael Bommes – författare

Immigration and Welfare avoids simplistic and unhelpful notions of the 'threat' of immigration to analyse the effects of immigration on national welfare states in an integrating Europe. It explores new migration challenges, such as asylum seekers and Europe's increasingly restrictive immigration policies, and looks at the implications of such debates for immigrant and immigrant-origin communities across Europe.

The centrality of international migration as a process articulating major transformations of contemporary societies offers an opportunity to make it the shared component of the theoretical and research agendas of the social science disciplines. In this volume a multidisciplinary team of authors presents a stocktaking account of current research on international migration in order to lay the ground for such an interdisciplinary collaboration. The first part of the book scrutinizes the theoretical concepts and interpretative frameworks that inform migration research and their impact on empirical studies in selected disciplines. The next two sections examine the epistemological premises underlying migration research in different fields of the social sciences and the challenges of 'informed translations' between these approaches. The final section considers the interdependency between the academic study of migration and the social and political contexts in which it is embedded. The book invites researchers to address the challenges raised by the empowerment of migration research, offering ways of communicating across different specializations and guiding readers towards a meaningful interdisciplinarity.

One of the most important challenges concerning the future of the European Union is the demographic reproduction of the European population. Decreasing birth-rates and the retirement of the baby boomers will dramatically reduce the labour force in the EU, which will entail not only a lack of manpower but also lower contributions to European social systems. It seems clear that the EU will have to counterbalance this population decrease by immigration in the coming years. Migration Between the Middle East, North Africa and Europe takes this challenge as a point of departure for analysing the MENA region, in particular Morocco, Egypt and Turkey, as a possible source of future migration to the European Union. At the same time, it illustrates the uncertainties implied in such calculations, especially at a time of radical political changes, such as those brought about by the Arab Uprising. A wide and scientific overview on migration potential from the NEMA region to the EU.

The centrality of international migration as a process articulating major transformations of contemporary societies offers an opportunity to make it the shared component of the theoretical and research agendas of the social science disciplines. In this volume a multidisciplinary team of authors presents a stocktaking account of current research on international migration in order to lay the ground for such an interdisciplinary collaboration. The first part of the book scrutinizes the theoretical concepts and interpretative frameworks that inform migration research and their impact on empirical studies in selected disciplines. The next two sections examine the epistemological premises underlying migration research in different fields of the social sciences and the challenges of 'informed translations' between these approaches. The final section considers the interdependency between the academic study of migration and the social and political contexts in which it is embedded. The book invites researchers to address the challenges raised by the empowerment of migration research, offering ways of communicating across different specializations and guiding readers towards a meaningful interdisciplinarity.

Die herkommliche Migrationsforschung untersucht Migration und ihre Folgen in den Wanderungszielregionen oft unter den Gesichtspunkten der "Integration" und der "sozialen Ungleichheit". Das vorliegende Buch wahlt demgegenuber einen differenzierungstheoretischen Zugriff. Es wird gezeigt, dass Migrationsformen abhangig von der primaren Differenzierungsform einer Gesellschaft und den damit verbundenen Inklusions- und Exklusionsformen variieren. Als Versuch der Realisierung von Inklusionschancen ist Migration in der modernen Weltgesellschaft zunachst aufgrund der hier gultigen Inklusionsbedingungen wahrscheinlich und erwartbar. In der Perspektive einer Theorie der funktionalen Differenzierung kann man jedoch sichtbar machen, dass Wanderungen durch die Uberschreitung von Staatsgrenzen zu einem genuin politischen Problem werden, weil Migration die politische Einteilung der Weltbevolkerung in Staatsbevolkerungen in Frage stellt. Diese Uberschreitung bringt Migranten in eine prekare Beziehung zu nationalen Wohlfahrtsstaaten.Der Autor bietet eine theoretische Bestimmung des Verhaltnisses von Migration und nationalem Wohlfahrtsstaat, die in weiteren empirischen Forschungen zu bewahren sein wird.

Netzwerke sind eigentümliche soziale Strukturen. Sie sind ubiquitär und liegen zugleich quer zu den Strukturen der modernen Gesellschaft, ihren Interaktions-, Organisations- und Funktionsverhältnissen. Was bedeutet das im Einzelnen? Ist funktionale Differenzierung historisch und systematisch betrachtet die Voraussetzung für formale Netzwerkbildung und die weltweite Proliferation von Netzwerken? Inwieweit sind Netzwerke auf die Bearbeitung von Folgeproblemen funktionaler Differenzierung bezogen? Bilden sie sich in allen Funktionssystemen – wie Politik, Recht, Wissenschaft, Wirtschaft oder Kunst – in gleicher Weise? Oder dienen sie vorrangig zu deren struktureller Kopplung? Die Beiträge des Bandes tragen dazu bei, diese und weitere Fragen zum Verhältnis von sozialen Netzwerken und funktional differenzierter Gesellschaft zu klären.