The aim of this special issue is to critically assess the potential of regime theory for migration research. Against the background of contemporary political dynamics, regime terminology has become rather popular in migration studies. There has, however, been little debate on the foundations and implications of the very notion of 'regime'. Although regime is anything but a unified concept, in this article we argue that there are commonalities in analytical perspectives useful for migration research. Current usages in migration research are informed by at least four different strands of theory building that differ in their epistemological, ontological, and methodological foundations: (i) international relations-notions of regimes as international regulatory frameworks, (ii) conceptualizations informed by welfare regime theories, (iii) regime notions that stem from the French regulation school, and (iv) regime theories inspired by governmentality studies. The collection of articles in this special issue mirrors this constellation. The contributions come from different disciplinary and methodological backgrounds, employ different regime notions, and focus on a wide range of aspects of contemporary European migration politics. While it seems crucial to acknowledge this conceptual variety, we argue that there are also important points of convergence between these strands of theory building: attention to the complexities and contradictions of regulatory practices, a focus on normative and discursive orders, and consideration of relations of power and inequality. This specific simultaneity of variety and convergence may open spaces for academic debates that move beyond established conceptual and methodological boundaries.

中文翻译：

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重新思考移民政治。制度视角在移民研究中的应用和挑战

本期特刊的目的是批判性地评估制度理论在移民研究中的潜力。在当代政治动态的背景下，政权术语在移民研究中变得相当流行。然而，关于“政权”这个概念的基础和含义几乎没有争论。尽管制度不是一个统一的概念，但在本文中，我们认为对移民研究有用的分析观点存在共性。移民研究中的当前用法至少由四种不同的理论构建分支提供信息，它们在认识论、本体论和方法论基础上有所不同：(i) 国际关系——作为国际监管框架的制度概念，(ii) 福利制度的概念化理论，(iii) 源自法国监管学派的政权概念，以及 (iv) 受政府研究启发的政权理论。本期特刊中的文章集反映了这个星座。这些贡献来自不同的学科和方法论背景，采用不同的政权概念，并关注当代欧洲移民政治的广泛方面。虽然承认这种概念多样性似乎很重要，但我们认为，这些理论构建链之间也存在重要的汇合点：关注监管实践的复杂性和矛盾，关注规范和话语秩序，以及考虑权力和不平等。