Unlocking the Potential of the Decolonial Approach in Migration Studies

Abstract

Based on a bibliometric analysis of Scopus‐indexed articles on decolonial research on migration from Social Science disciplines this article outlines the main topics covered by the sampled literature, namely: (1) the academic migration as framed by the internationalization discourse in higher education; (2) migrants' social movements and their transnational dimension; (3) gender and age in decolonial studies of migration; (4) the ways in which intersectionality shapes migrants' experiences through their class, race, gender and sexual orientation; and (5) critique of humanitarian discourse regarding refugees and asylum seekers. The article shows that type of literature first emerged in 2010 and significantly increased after 2020. Likewise, the geographic distribution of the knowledge production in this field highlights the uneven contributions by various countries and regions. Moreover, this picture is further complicated by the biographies of authors who, in many instances, are academic migrants coming from different national backgrounds in the Global South to work in higher education institutions in the Global North. The article ends with suggestions for further developments of the decolonial approach in the study of migration.