Historical Approach in Sociology of Immigration: Some Lessons Sinking In?

My participation in “a dialogue among disciplines” in  the field of  migration studies  has thus far consisted of appeals to sociologists to recognize as epistemologically sound and incorporate into their investigations the features characteristic of historical analyses. Here I reverse this entreaty and suggest three areas wherein the historians might profit from the conceptualizations and research practices used by sociologists: (i) the interpretative frameworks which are sensitive to the processual and, thus, inherently underdetermined nature and directions of social life, such as the revised morphogenesis and structuration theories; (ii) the multidimensional “dynamic” concepts which reflect the polychromous and contradictory nature of social life, such as  the notion of the glocal/glocalization; and (iii) a flexible methodology which allows (re)combinations of different goals of research —constructing/testing historical (i.e., time- and space-bound) generalizations; testing/refining theories/concepts; interpreting historically significant phenomena; exploring diversity; and/or generating new research questions — depending on the evolving outcomes of the investigation. Examples of historical analyses of international migration drawn from my recent research/publications illustrate these propositions.