Newsletter of ISA (International sociological association) – Research Committee on sociology of migration, Spring 2014.  Time has almost come for me to step down as the President of RC 31 after serving two terms. While I am writing these words, we are in the process of electing the new board and officials of our Research…

Newsletter of ISA (International sociological association) – Research Committee on sociology of migration, Autumn 2013.  October 2013 will be remembered as an exceptionally bad month for migration: about 400 people died in the Mediterranean Sea not far from the Sicilian island of Lampedusa, trying to reach the European continent. Immigration scholars are not surprised that…

Newsletter of ISA (International sociological association) – Research Committee on sociology of migration, Spring 2013.  Nobody outside Belgium knows the small Flemish city of Beveren. Nobody knows or cares that it has a professional football (soccer, for the North Americans) team in the Belgian Premier League. So what? What is the link with international migration?…

Newsletter of ISA (International sociological association) – Research Committee on sociology of migration, Autumn 2012.  Academia in general has become a worldwide market. Migration studies in particular have also become a worldwide market. Markets always imply competition for leadership or at least for an increase in each participant’s share of that market. In nowadays’ competition…

Newsletter of ISA (International sociological association) – Research Committee on sociology of migration, Spring 2012.  John Rex passed away in December 2011. Most of us know his very influential work on race, ethnicity and multiculturalism. With Michael Banton, he was a pioneer in ethnic and racial studies not only in the United Kingdom, but also…

Newsletter of ISA (International sociological association) – Research Committee on sociology of migration, Autumn 2011.  As in other parts of the world, the public debates on immigration and integration of new migrants in European are often fierce, emotional and irrational. In the current financial, economic and social crisis, the old strategy of scapegoating the immigrants…

Newsletter of ISA (International sociological association) – Research Committee on sociology of migration, Spring 2011.    We live in a world of images and sounds. We are all confronted directly in our daily life with lots of images and sounds produced and mediated and distributed by various channels such as the internet, radio, television, cinema,…

Newsletter of ISA (International sociological association) – Research Committee on sociology of migration, Autumn 2010.    Immediately after his election at the World Congress in Gothenburg in July, I approached the new ISA President, Michael Burawoy, to congratulate him. I introduced myself as the President of RC 31 “Sociology of Migration” since we had never…