It is often forgotten in popular scare-talk that the large majority of the world's refugees end up in the close vicinity of the battre zones of the Third World, and only a trickle reaches the core countries of the West. Proper knowledge of the spatial aspects of contemporary migrations requires a better understanding of the trajectory of migrations. Finally, contemporary migrations have to be seen in a long-term historical perspective. A distinct characteristic of contemporary migrations is that they occur in the context of an established nation-state system. Today's migrants tend to arrive with passports that certify them as card-carrying members of national communities.
All Western societies have more or less elaborate immigration systems that control new entries.
Because immigration policy remains a domain of the nation-state, we need to know more about distinct national responses to such recent challenges. While in the domain of immigration policy the nation-state is still the dominant actor, political authority is increasingly being transferred to emergent transnational arrangements. As the European Unity transforms itself from a common market into a common polity, along with the creation of a new European citizenship, it is forced to build and secure its external borders, and to delimit members from non-members. This is an extraordinarly rich, if protean, field of research. Here we will solicit broad comparative viewpoints, in order to get a clearer view of the specifics of the European case.