This concluding chapter first summarizes the findings of the main investigation and suggests that the problem behind the new objective of sustainable migration lies not so much in the effort to align migration with economic and social demands. This has after all been a constant feature of EU law as distilled from the historical investigation. Rather, the problem lies in the way the economic and social objectives of the EU are perceived by different actors. The chapter analyses the limitations that exist in the way EU law has historically aligned migrants’ rights to the economic and social objectives of primary law and reflects on what an EU sustainable migration can and cannot mean for the rights of migrants. Essentially, the analysis highlights that structural features of the EU legal order set very clear limits in attempts to envision an EU sustainable migration law. Finally, the chapter also presents a realistic vision of what an EU sustainable migration law could mean if the way economic and social objectives are considered was redirected and grounded on the current acquis.

Volume 2 of The Cambridge History of Global Migrations presents an authoritative overview of the various continuities and changes in migration and globalization from the 1800s to the present day. Despite revolutionary changes in communication technologies, the growing accessibility of long-distance travel, and globalization across major economies, the rise of nation-states empowered immigration regulation and bureaucratic capacities for enforcement that curtailed migration. One major theme worldwide across the post-1800 centuries was the differentiation between “skilled” and “unskilled” workers, often considered through a racialized lens; it emerged as the primary divide between greater rights of immigration and citizenship for the former, and confinement to temporary or unauthorized migrant status for the latter. Through thirty-one chapters, this volume further evaluates the long global history of migration; and it shows that despite the increased disciplinary systems, the primacy of migration remains and continues to shape political, economic, and social landscapes around the world.