Migration, Precarization and the Democratic Deficit in Global Governance.

This article attempts to provide a critical understanding of the dual signification of 'precarity'. It explores what 'precarity' as a concept may potentially offer to studies of the changing contemporary political economy of migration. It discusses shifting trends in global migration and point to tendencies for a possible convergence between 'South' and 'North', 'East' and 'West'. Based on a review of current advances in research, it discusses, with reference to the classical work of Karl Polanyi, the potential for a contemporary 'countermovement' which would challenge the precarity of migrants. Bringing forward the issue of the 'space for civil society' the article addresses a still lingering democratic deficit in the global governance of migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]