Vetenskaplig litteratur om internationell migration – en introduktion och diskussion

Abstract

International migration is one of the defining issues of our time. In this introduction to scientific texts on migration it is argued that teaching on migration in teacher training and in secondary and upper secondary school would benefit from the conscious use of the concept of powerful knowledge when texts are selected. Thus, about 30 peer-reviewed texts in English, Swedish and Norwegian on international migration are referred to and discussed from the point of view of powerful knowledge. Five concepts or perspectives are suggested as important and useful. These are push-pull as explanation to migration; levels of analysis; network; the role of women in migration and the role of religion in migration. Further, the tension between the positions of an alleged ‘methodological nationalism’ and the national characteristics of migration are discussed. Among the suggested concepts ‘levels of analysis’ and ‘network’ are proposed as especially important in order to develop powerful knowledge. Both concepts are highly useful in order to give teachers and students some structure and order in the studied issue while the concepts also can be re-contextualized to and used within other issue areas.