At the cutting edge of migration and refugee studies: A tribute to Prof Stephen Castles

[Introductory paragraph] We are writing these introductory words for the Festschrift for Prof Stephen Castles at a time when governments and certain sections of the public equate immigration with threats to domestic politics, national identity and ‘social cohesion’. In contrast, emigration continues to be seen as an agent of economic development for origin countries trying to establish a diasporic community that would bring financial and network capital for their so-called homeland. Despite longstanding critical studies, there is an increasing need to understand global structural changes and reactions to them. Castles has attempted to overcome the structure and agency binary through a comprehensive analysis of both the economic and political structures and the discourses on immigration at various levels while focusing on how people, including migrants and non-migrants, respond and resist these structures and discourses.