Transit migration: A blurred and politicised concept

ABSTRACT This article examines first the emergence and construction of the concept of transit migration and the political framework and discourses that brought about this concept. It goes on analysing how this reinforces the EU's efforts to externalise its migration policy and integrate non‐EU countries into a comprehensive migration control policy. Second, it critically surveys the state of the art, analyses causes and conditions of transit migration, identifies its geography and discusses some methodological and analytical pitfalls and difficulties of researching transit migration. Finally, in the conclusions a structuralist approach is taken and it is suggested that a clear‐cut typology could be developed by rigid comparison. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.