How to study international migration?

Abstract

In the article it is asserted that in Spain, a characteristic of the incipient research on international migrations is the lack of debate on theoretical and methodological issues. The main theoretical approaches used in research in other countries are then characterized; insistence is made on the multidimensionality of the phenomenon and a descriptive chart of this complexity is presented, finally ending with some considerations on the methodologies commonly used. Rather than give an exhaustive presentation of a closed point of view, the article intends to introduce elements for a debate which is deemed necessary if one wishes research on migrations to go once and for all beyond the sphere of decontextualized descriptions.