Theoretical Overview: Theories of International Migration and Immigrant Adaptation

Abstract

There is no comprehensive theory of international migration, but in this chapter we review a wide range of theories organized into four major categories: those that seek to explain the determinants of the origins of migration, its continuation and directionality, the uses of migrant labor, and patterns of migrant settlement and adaptation. We aim to show how these theoretical considerations, from classic studies to competing contemporary emphases, apply to the condition of different immigrant minorities and their descendants—and incorporate them in subsequent chapters as we examine their patterns of settlement (and the emergence of “new destinations”), economic and political adaptation, resilient and emergent ethnicities, language and religion, transnationalism and assimilation, intra- and intergenerational change.

Keywords: International migrations, immigrant adaptations, theory, policy, assimilation, acculturation, modes of incorporation, contexts of exit and reception, patterns of immigrant settlement and adaptation, acculturation