Migration Studies

How do internally displaced children born during captivity in Uganda navigate post-war life? Drawing on interviews and art-making, @M.Denov and @O.Alexandrakis use the concept of #wayfinding to show how shared memory and imagination shape belonging and agentive future-making.
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What drives host states to adopt inclusive migration policies? Daniel Rojas , Alfredo Trejo, Margaret Peters, and Yang-Yang Zhou show how border pragmatism, economic benefits, and reputational gains drove Colombia’s inclusive response to Venezuelan migration.

#OpenAccess
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We've expanded our Editorial Team: @aalrababah.bsky.social has joined as a new associate editor! Ala is in the Department of Social and Political Sciences at Bocconi University, focusing on migration and political violence using experiments and computational methods. Welcome to the journal!

Spreading the word via @imiscoe.bsky.social @enmisa.bsky.social @migcitizenapsa.bsky.social @ecpr-migration.bsky.social @tsourapas.bsky.social

All topics welcome! Each SI will bring together up to 15 articles, with an introduction that frames key themes, debates, and contributions to migration studies. We particularly encourage initiatives led by or including scholars from the Global South, Global East, and non-anglophone regions.

2025 Call for Special Issue Proposals Deadline: 15 December 2025 Migration Studies is now accepting Special Issue proposals. The journal typically publishes one call for special issues pe

Our call for Special Issues is now live! We welcome collections that advance theoretical debates, offer comparative insight, and push methodological boundaries. Deadline: 15 December 2025. Questions: get in touch with @mkoinova.bsky.social. Details: academic.oup.com/migration/pa...

Why do #subnational units restrict internal migration? Based on fieldwork in Batam, Indonesia, Isabelle Côté proposes the 'IM+IGE' framework to show how institutions, geography, and elites shape local responses to internal migration.

#OpenAccess
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How do social networks shape migrants’ platform work? Studying food couriers in Norway, Maizi Hua introduces “copy-paste paths” to show how migrants replicate strategies through networks, supporting mobility and integration alongside risks like peer pressure and exploitation.
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Is irregular migration really a recent phenomenon? Drawing on colonial archives, Y. Benhadda traces #lhrig, a Maghrebi term for irregular border crossing, back to colonial Morocco, challenging dominant narratives of crisis and unprecedentedness in today’s migration debates.

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About Migration Studies is a peer-reviewed, online-only journal dedicated to advancing the understanding of human mobility in all its forms. We welcome research on th

The report is available on our "About the Journal" page here under "Annual Report": academic.oup.com/migration/pa...

We really couldn’t do this without the tremendous work and support of our current editorial team, advisory board members, and conscientious reviewers. Looking ahead, we have lots on our agenda: Open Science, widening our audiences, exploring new submission formats… Keep an eye out in the future!

Our Impact Factor rose to 2.7, firmly in the top-quartile of Demography-indexed journals. We accepted about 1-in-5 special issue proposals on topics like “living with difference in cities” and “unusual places of sanctuary and refuge.”

A line chart showing a steep rise in monthly submissions from 2024 onwards

A stacked line chart showing the breakdown of submissions in 2024 by world region. Most submissions consistently have come from Europe and Central Asia.

Four charts showing the distribution of days that it took each manuscript to be processed. They show a steep increase in quicker desk rejections in 2024 compared to previous years.

A table of acceptance rates from 2021 to 2024. While the final 2024 rate is pending, it suggests a decrease in acceptance rates to about 10%.

Highlights: Submissions rose by 71% to 478. Provisional 2024 acceptance rate is 9.9%. First decisions took 10 days (median), down from 36 days in 2023, mainly due to more desk rejecting. Submissions came from 80 countries, up from 60 in 2023, though mainly from Europe and Central Asia.

A summary of key points from the first Migration Studies annual report covering calendar year 2024: submissions rise by 71%, with nearly half of them coming from Europe and Central Asia; about 10% acceptance rate; first decisions (whether sent out for external review or not) taking less time; the two-year impact factor rose to 2.7; and special issue topics included 'living with difference in cities' and 'unusual places of sanctuary and refuge'.

We are excited to release our first annual editorial report, covering 2024! Publishing data on submissions and decisions, as well as explaining policy changes, is part of our commitment to transparency. Link: static.primary.prod.gcms.the-infra.com/static/migra... #migcitsky #polisky #econsky #socsky

How do states balance open markets with pressure to control migration? Studying Switzerland, S. Lavenex, P. Hoffmeyer-Zlotnik, M. Alvarado, and P. Lutz show how business migration as a high-skilled market model offers an escape from the liberal paradox.

#OpenAccess

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How do migrant caravans challenge state control by manipulating time? Drawing on fieldwork and geography, Margath Walker introduces the “time of pilgrimage” to show how delays and fragmented movement disrupt migration governance and subvert state-centric temporalities.

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What drives public attitudes toward refugees? T. Hillenbrand, B. Martorano, L. Metzger, and M. Siegel show that humanitarian messaging boosts concern and support for aid, while highlighting young male refugees increases threat perceptions and reduces support for admissions.

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What shapes refugee liminality in rural settings? Based on fieldwork in Estonia, R. Nugin shows how legal uncertainties, ambiguous state bureaucracy, and an unstable rural economy create overlapping liminalities for Ukrainian refugees, offering new insights into their experiences.

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Why do we see varying levels of immigrant mobilization across time and place? Amy Skoll and Jeannette Money present the “Immigrant Political Choice Nexus” to show how precarity, comparative advantage, and local context shape strategic decision-making.

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How do communities decide to stay amid conflict and adversity? @Ezenwa E. Olumba introduces the resilience–accessibility framework, centring collective immobility in Nigeria and expanding (im)mobility beyond Western-centric and individualistic perspectives.

#OpenAccess
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Refugees and preppers: Anticipatory practices in the face of uncertain futures Abstract. In this paper we suggest that attention to the social practice of prepping, with its particular focus on how people navigate uncertain and potent

Very excited to see our new article out in @migrationjrnl.bsky.social!
With @simonturneranthro.bsky.social:
"Refugees and preppers: Anticipatory practices in the face of uncertain futures"

What kinds of policies support climate (im)mobilities? Drawing on examples across Oceania, L. Moore and H. McNeill propose 12 overlapping clusters, like nets, that overlap and that people navigate based on their own decisions, challenging exclusionary refugee narratives.

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How do forced migrants mobilize their capital abroad? Studying Ukrainian women in Poland, @D. Winogrodzka, @I. Kyliushyk, and @E. Chról identify three critical stages: suspended, contingent, and emerging, shaped by various factors in context-specific ways.

#OpenAccess
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Remote biopower: Constructing the system of immigrant health controls Abstract. The selection of migrants based on judgments about their health was a fundamental driver of state migration controls. The USA was a global leader

How did judgements about health shape US migration controls? David S.FitzGerald traces how a system originally aimed at shifting costs to private firms and neighbouring developed into 'remote biopower', paving the way for group-based restrictions under Trump.

#OpenAccess

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How did Brexit affect #Roma EU citizens in the UK? @Owen Parker, @Mihai Călin Bica, and @Olga Fuseini show that many faced major barriers navigating the digital EU Settlement Scheme, risking loss of rights and raising fears of a new scandal similar to #Windrush.

#OpenAccess
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How does sexuality shape immigrant economic outcomes? Using Canadian tax and immigration data, S.Waite, T.Paul, N.Denier, and M.Haan show queer immigrants out-earn their straight peers and experience faster wage growth, highlighting the role of ethnic and LGBT communities.

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Who was granted entry during the COVID-19 pandemic, and on what basis? Drawing from new data, Lorenzo Piccoli and Timothy Jacob-Owens show that in times of crisis, states prioritized pre-existing ties over international protection, revealing the resilience of nationality.

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Do Poland’s migration policies match their rhetoric? W. Janicki and A. Świętek reveal a clear contradiction: official discourse focuses on the Polish-Belarusian border and opposes migrants from Africa and Asia, yet permits for foreigners from these regions are on the rise.

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While metrics are only one of several imperfect ways of measuring a journal’s success and impact, we wanted to use this moment to thank our reviewers and readers who continue to support Migration Studies in various ways. Thank you!

For comparison to other fields where the journal isn’t indexed, our 2024 score would be well within the top-quartile in Politics & IR (91st percentile), Sociology & Political Science (89th percentile), and Economics (78th percentile).