Introduction

The migration question, which has come to dominate public and political discourse in the twenty-first century, has deep roots in the transformations that took place during the ‘long 1970s,’ spanning from the late 1960s to the early 1980s. The seeds of today’s polarised debates over border controls and refugee crises were sown in an era when the global migration regime underwent profound shifts. This period witnessed the reconfiguration of labour markets, migration flows and policies, and international relations in ways that continue to shape contemporary domestic and international affairs. As developed nations faced rising immigration from the Global South, migration emerged as a focal point of domestic politics, social conflicts, and international diplomacy worldwide – what we call in this volume ‘the global migration turn.’ This volume seeks to capture that crucial moment in history when migration was redefined as a major political issue, positioning the decade as a turning point that reverberates until the present day.