Abstract

The author discusses some of the challenges coming from the current development of migration theory and migration studies on the international level. Such « hydraulic » theoretical models as the « push and pull theory » seem to experience a deep crisis when confronted with contemporary global migrations. The role migrants play in the production of new transnational social spaces and in new political, social, and even economic networks is recognized by a growing number of scholars, e.g. by the representatives of the so-called new economics of migration. The aim of the article, which is to be understood as the presentation of a research project, is to outline some of the features of a possible new theoretical framework, trying to link this role with a critical understanding of the transformations of citizenship, labor market, and « class composition » in the global age