Introduction: Global Politics on Migrants and Refugees

<p>In the age of migration, a large number and various types of people move across borders. Since the 1990s at the earliest, political scientists and scholars of international relations have begun to focus on migration. Migration is a relatively new issue in the academic field of international relations. However, economic migrants and refugees are currently among the hottest issues of global politics. They are regarded as among the non-traditional security threats. The need for control, management, and governance of migration has been recognized more than ever, due to excessive flow of people and the changing global political environment caused by terror attacks.</p><p>This special issue aims to analyze how migration has been managed or governed globally and how economic migrants and refugees are treated as a “problem” or a security issue. The three main discussion points are as follows: global multilayered migration governance, reconsideration of the existing migration and refugee regimes, and securitization of migrants and refugees.</p><p>Sovereign states remain the primary actors for controlling and managing migration. Sending, receiving, and transit countries insist on their own interests respectively. However, several other actors, for example, international organizations, regional organizations, and NGOs, are also involved with managing migration. As the existing studies already pointed out, these actors cooperate bilaterally and multilaterally at plural regional and global levels.</p><p>In this special issue, the current architecture and dynamics of global multilayered migration governance of European and African, Asian, and Oceanian cases are analyzed based on the area studies. The limits and prospects of the existing international refugee regime are also examined from the perspective of both international laws and international relations. As the premise for the orientation towards managing or governing migration, securitization of economic migrants and refugees is noted in several articles. Whether securitization really contributes to the guarantee of security is also questioned.</p><p>Global migration governance is often examined from the perspective of above. However, for whom is such governance conducted? Is it a power game among the strong political actors? Does it really support the lives and work of migrants and refugees? Does it really reflect the opinions of citizens or ordinary people of receiving countries? The perspective from below is also necessary to construct the significant governance of migration. The findings of the area studies and the attention to citizens open our eyes to the importance of understanding local and people-level contexts in this special issue.</p>