A society of migration: Poststructuralist perspectives on the constitution of society and the production of migration

This article addresses the gap in sociological theory concerning the politics of ‘migration’ – even though this area of politics and the debates surrounding it are of social salience and relevance. Both in social theory (the question of what society actually is or how it is constituted) and in the social analysis of modernity, the topic of migration plays a role no more than en passent. Nevertheless, there are sociological theories that allow us to shed light on debates, practices, institutions, and infrastructures of migration. The article focuses on poststructuralist and postcolonial theories in order to think modern society as ‘society of migration’, i.e. as a society which is constituted by the production of migration and migrants, as well as by the migrant subjects themselves.