Continuum, process, and dyad: three readings of the migration–mobility nexus

Abstract

Abstract This article analyzes the Migration–Mobility Nexus (MMN) and shows how it can be conceived as a tool to make sense of the relationship between migration and mobility. Being polysemic, the term nexus offers three different ways to conceptualize this relationship: as continuum, process, and dyad. The first highlights the connected space between long-term and short-term and between monodirectional and circular movements. The second focuses on the sequential transition from migration to mobility in both history and scholarship. Finally, the third suggests that boundless mobility and restricted migration are not contradictory but constitutive of each other. Taking a closer look at these readings, we find that all three can be helpful points of departure for conceptual investigations into contemporary human movement.