Workshop 5 - Internal Migration: Trends, Tensions, and Policy Responses (Presented by the Provincial And Territorial Politics Section)

W501 - Internal Migration: Trends, Tensions and Policy Responses in the Global North

Date: Jun 3 | Time: 08:30am to 10:00am | Location: SJA-454E | Refreshments! Rafraîchissements!

Chair/Président/Présidente : Isabelle Côté (Memorial University)

Discussant/Commentateur/Commentatrice : Catherine Xhardez (Universite de Montreal)

Discussant/Commentateur/Commentatrice : Matthew Mitchell (University of Saskatchewan)

Refreshments will be served, join us!
Des rafraîchissements seront servis, rejoignez-nous !

Exploring Nativism in Canada and India: A Comparative Media Analysis: Isabelle Côté (Memorial University of Newfoundland), Rubiat Saimum (Memorial University of Newfoundland)
Abstract: The paper presents a comparative analysis of nativism in two federal states: Canada and India. It employs a content analysis approach with a specific focus on English language print media to produce a comparative analysis of nativist tendencies in both countries. The study assesses the political rhetoric, and media framing to trace the patterns of nativist movements and its impact on federal and regional politics in both countries. It analyzes 954 English-language newspaper articles from both countries, collected over the period from 2000 to 2023 using the Factiva database to map the characteristics of nativism, the regions (states/provinces) where nativist politics is dominant, the political parties and groups responsible for proliferating nativist sentiments and the policy prescriptions they offer to address the nativist grievances towards internal and international migrants. The study contributes to the nativist and comparative politics scholarship in two significant ways: firstly, it locates the convergences and divergences of nativist politics in two federal states from global north and global south; secondly, it provides several theoretical insights on how two federal states with different socio-economic realities dominated by two types of migrations (internal vs. international) have addressed the nativist dynamics through different policy tools.

The Long Battle for Freedom of Movement to Obtain the Necessities of Life in the United States: Edward Mohr (University of Tübingen)
Abstract: Laws which excluded the internally migrating poor from social assistance in the US were brought down after a full century of conflict in the 1900s, yet struggles surrounding freedom of movement for the necessities of life in the country continue to this day. In combating laws which denied internal migrants in the 20th century US from accessing public benefits, a diverse coalition of welfare administrators, politicians, academics, non-profits, lawyers and migrants worked together to successfully end the practice. With barriers to movement for the reception of pre-natal care again emerging in the US in 2024, this chapter helps provide a blueprint for how individuals can provide the leadership to defend the right of citizens to move. Findings highlight that freedom of movement is achieved not from a single law or court case, but is a long-term struggle with the inclusion of internal migrants remaining contested for centuries. Yet as problems associated with barriers to internal movement grow with increases in migration, so do the coalitions of actors who aim to tear the laws down. The involvement of each actor in helping abolish exclusionary eligibility requirements surrounding internal migration is not inevitable however, but is dependent on leaders who help different groups reinterpret their interests in fighting for freedom of movement, help actors build off each other’s strengths, and channel coalitions towards a single window of opportunity.

Challenges of Internal Migration in the European Union: Willem Maas (York University)
Abstract: The right of European Union (EU) citizens to travel, work, study, or simply live anywhere in the EU deepens an economic project into a political one to build a supranational community of people. In this way, EU citizenship invokes and translates the political debates about internal migration from national contexts to that of the European Union. This paper engages with others in the workshop to consider new ways of analyzing internal migration, particularly the workshop’s questions about how insights from policies and attitudes governing international migration can help us understand internal migration and whether there is value in adopting a continuum approach that considers the similarities and overlaps between internal and international migration dynamics – with the EU considered as somewhere between the ‘internal’ and ‘international’ distinction.

Internal Migration and Nativism in Federal States: Isabelle Côté (Memorial University of Newfoundland), Matthew I. Mitchell (University of Saskatchewan), Catherine Xhardez (University of Montreal)
Abstract: Considering the ubiquity of internal migration, backlashes against domestic population movements often come as a surprise. Yet they are now new. Why are some individuals opposed to the internal relocation of fellow citizens to their home regions? Under what conditions can internal migration fuel intergroup conflict? These questions remain largely unanswered, as research on attitudes and responses towardsinternal migration has been overshadowed by work on international migration. This paper proposes to examine the diverse factors that shape attitudes and responses towards internal migration in multinational federal states in both the Global North and Global South. We argue that the rich literature on nativism serves as a unique conceptual lens to investigate these questions in the context of federal states since what is deemed ‘foreign’ can only be one internal border away. While the paper provides more of an exploratory and conceptual rather than empirical analysis of the aforementioned issue, we consider whether there may be unique features characteristic of federal states in terms of their ethnic, religious, and/or linguistic diversity that might make internal migration flows more likely to engender nativist sentiments.

Participants:
Didier Ruedin (Universite de Neuchatel)
Chinmay Tumbe (Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad)