Migration and Enslavement: A Medieval Model

Abstract

At the beginning of the third millennium sociologist Stephen Castles has called for “a sociological argument that points to the significance of forced migration in contemporary society and in current processes of change”.1 Castles’ words have since become a landmark for scholars and activists interested in and working on migration and forced migration.2 Five years prior to the publication of Castles’ article, the Refugee Participation Network – rpn – newsletter changed its name and format and became the Forced Migration Review. Published since 1998 by the Refugee Studies Centre in the Oxford Department of International Development, University of Oxford, it was launched in order to “contribute to improving policy and practice for people affected by forced migration; provide a forum for the voices of displaced people; be a bridge between research and practice; raise awareness of lesser-known (or little covered) displacement crises; and promote knowledge of, and respect for, legal and quasi-legal instruments relating to refugees, idps and stateless people”.3 Although the fmr preceded Castles article’s publication by five years, its foundation can be considered as a response to the same need for a conceptual framework in the study of what has become over the last two decades the largest movement of people today. This is evident in particular in view of the premises that Castles has laid out in connecting forms of forced migration to the new economic system of globalization as well as to the socio-political framework of transnationalism. The large movement of people around the world today, and in particular from South to North, is therefore linked to, and is perceived as a product of the radical socioeconomic and political changes of our time.