The colonial migration state
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 5720342 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Fiona B Adamson (0000-0003-3137-1325, SOAS University of London, corresponding author), Hélène Thiollet (0000-0002-4151-007X, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 120 |
| Pages | 103270 |
| Publication date | 2025-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Political Geography (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0962-6298 • E-ISSN: 1873-5096 |
| Publisher | Elsevier BV (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.polgeo.2025.103270 |
| OpenAlex | W4410842004 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 82 |
This article sheds new light on the historical roots of contemporary migration politics by introducing the notion of the colonial migration state . Bringing together research on colonial population politics and the political science literature on the ‘migration state,’ we compare modes of migration management in three distinct cases of colonialism – settler colonialism in Algeria, protectorate colonialism in Egypt, and corporate colonialism in Saudi Arabia. We show that migration management in these three colonial spaces operated according to similar hierarchically-structured logics of economic extraction and legal-political differentiation . At the same time, these produced different local migration regimes based on variations in modalities of colonial rule, imperial economic interests, and pre-existing local institutions. Through a careful empirical exploration of migration and mobility practices in colonial peripheries, we contribute both to the global history of colonialism and empires, and to more recent work that rethinks the ‘migration state’ concept and its application to contexts across the Global South. We draw attention to the relationship between historical and contemporary forms of hierarchically structured regimes of mobility management, including the enduring importance of racial and religious categories as significant markers of differentiation in global migration, and suggest ways in which contemporary mobility regimes intersect with larger structures of economic extraction and socio-legal differentiation
Colonialism · Economic geography · Economics · Geography · Political economy · Political science · Computer Science · Diaspora, migration, transnational identity · Law · Migration and Labor Dynamics
Immigrants, markets, and states
Cairo
Border as Method, or, the Multiplication of Labor
Urban planning as a tool of power and social control in colonial Africa
Controlling immigration
Egypt in the Reign of Muhammad Ali
Rabat
IV. Vigne et colonisation en Algérie (1880-1947)
Globality and Entangled Security
Indian Migration and Empire
The Postcolonial Age of Migration
Asylum after Empire
Europe after Empire
Migration and National Identity in South Africa, 1860–2010
Labour Migration in Malaysia and Spain
The new helots
Laborers, Migrants, Refugees
The Licit Life of Capitalism
Immigration et "pensée d'État"
Policing Paris. The Origins of Modern Immigration Control between the Wars
Rethinking immigration policy theory beyond ‘Western liberal democracies’
The coloniality of migration and integration
Cosmopolitanism in exclusionary contexts
Migration Diplomacy in World Politics
Japan as an ‘Emerging Migration State’
Postcolonial challenges to migration control
Producing transnational space
A Savage War of Peace
Foreign Workforce in the Arab Gulf States (1930–1950)
The Emerging Migration State
The Dispersion of Egyptian Jewry
The Migration State in the Global South
Migration and Popular Protest in the Arabian Peninsula and the Gulf in the 1950s and 1960s
Migration as Diplomacy
The Production of Diaspora
A Nation by Design
Labour Migration in the Arab Gulf States
Re‐spatialising migration governance
Egypt in Revolution. An Economic Analysis
Algeria
State, Society and Economy in Saudi Arabia
Precolonial Elites and Colonial Redistribution of Political Power
Foreign Worker Dependence in the Gulf, and the International Oil Companies
Policing labour in empire
Citizenship between Empire and Nation
Empires in World History
Contesting colonial rule
Cotton and the Egyptian Economy, 1820-1914. A Study in Trade and Development
Manufacturing displacement. Externalization and postcoloniality in European migration control
Migration and Race in Europe
Beyond Empire and Nation; The Decolonization of African and Asian societies, 1930s-1960s
Algeria in France
Subjects, aliens, and undesirables
The postcolonial migration state
Remapping the Boundaries of `State' and `National Identity
Desert Kingdom
Incarceration, classification and control
Deportation as a neo-colonial act
Geography, Empire, and Environmental Determinism
Building Walls, Bounding Nations
Colonial Legitimization-Legibility Linkages and the Politics of Identity in Algeria and Morocco
Who Abolished Corvee Labour in Egypt and Why
Colonialism and Development in the Contemporary World
Understanding Global Migration
Deal-making, diplomacy and transactional forced migration
Imperial migration states
Immigration rentier states
Rethinking the migration state
Labour coercion and commodification
Entangled migration states
How do post-colonial ties and migration regimes shape travel visa requirements? The case of Caribbean nationals
The Global Mobility Divide
Migration et (contre)révolution dans le Golfe
La kafala
Les fascismes francais, 1923-1963
Citizen and Subject
Workers' Self-Management in Algeria
The Integration Nation
Brigands and State Building
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |