This Handbook offers a comprehensive collection of essays that cover essential features of geographical mobility, from internal migration, to international migration, to urbanization, to the adaptation of migrants in their destinations. Part I of the collection introduces the range of theoretical perspectives offered by several social science disciplines, while also examining the crucial relationship between internal and international migration. Part II takes up methods, ranging from how migration data are best collected to contemporary techniques for analyzing such data. Part III of the handbook contains summaries of present trends across all world regions. Part IV rounds out the volume with several contributions assessing pressing issues in contemporary policy areas. The volume’s editor Michael J. White has spent a career studying the pattern and process of internal and international migration, urbanization and population distribution in a wide variety of settings, from developing societies to advanced economies. In this Handbook he brings together contributors from all parts of the world, gathering in this one volume both geographical and substantive expertise of the first rank. The Handbook will be a key reference source for established scholars, as well as an invaluable high-level introduction to the most relevant topics in the field for emerging scholars.

Migration is considered one of the defining global issues of the early twenty-first century, as more and more people are on the move today than at any other point in human history. There are now about 192 million people living outside their place of birth, which is about three per cent of the world's population.

This handbook will be the first to bring together both internal and international migration in the same publication. The first part on improving available theory will include interdisciplinary perspectives. Internal and international migratory movements have much in common, yet "theory" (or conceptual treatments) has proceeded on separate tracks for the most part. Therefore the first part of this handbook will attempt to bring these together. The second part will include data and methods for migration study. Part three will include regional perspectives of migration, whereby internal migration, international migration, and immigration will be described with balance as appropriate for the region. The last part will describe emerging policy topics in population redistribution and a conclusion will bring all of these topics together.

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Introduction: Contemporary Contributions to Understanding Migration and Population Distribution: Michael J. White.- Part I: Perspectives on Theory for Internal and International Migration: 1:Perspectives on Migration Theory - Geography: Richard Wright and Mark Ellis.- 2: Perspectives on Migration Theory- Economics: Michael J. Greenwood.- 3: Perspectives on Migration Theory-Anthropology: Caroline B. Brettell.- 4: Perspectives on Migration Theory -- Sociology & Political Science: Michael J. White and Colin Johnson .- 5: Conceptualizing Migration: From Internal/International to Kinds of Membership: Susan K. Brown and Frank D. Bean .- Part II: Data and Methods for Migration Study: 6: Concepts, Definitions and Data Collection Approaches: Richard E. Bilsborrow.- 7: Data Prospects: IPUMS-International: Matthew Sobek.- 8: Micro Methods: Longitudinal Surveys and Analyses: Cris Beauchemin and Bruno Schoumaker.- 9: Migration Analysis using Demographic Surveys and Surveillance Systems: Philippe Bocquier.- 10: Migration flows: measurement, analysis and modeling: Frans Willekens.- Part III: Regional Perspectives: 11: African Migration and Population Distribution: Recent Trends, Methodological Challenges and Policy Issues: Blessing Uchenna Mberu.- 12: Migration in Asia: Elin Charles-Edwards, Salut Muhidin, Martin Bell, Yu Zhu.- 13: Migration in China: Zai Liang and Qian Song.- 14: Changing Patterns of Migration in India: A Perspective on Urban Exclusion: Amitabh Kundu and Lopamudra Ray Saraswati.- 15: Migration in Australia and New Zealand : Graeme Hugo, Janet Wall and Margaret Young.- 16: Migration in Europe: James Raymer.- 17: Migration in the Americas: Adriana Lopez-Ramirez and Gabriela Sanchez-Soto.- 18: Moving For Opportunities? Changing Patterns of Migration in North America: Amy Spring, Stewart E. Tolnay, and Kyle Crowder.- Part IV: Emerging Policy Topics in Population Redistribution: 19: Migration, Urbanization, and Health: Elizabeth Nauman, Mark VanLandingham, and Philip Anglewicz.- 20: Migration and the Environment: Lori M. Hunter and Raphael Nawrotzki.- 21: Population Distribution and Poverty: Rachel E. Dwyer and Daniel Sanchez.- 22: Migration, Assimilation and Social Welfare: Jennifer E. Glick and Julie Park.- 23: Economic Impacts of Migrant Remittances: J. Edward Taylor and Michael Castelhano.- 24: International migration, gender and family: a miroir from Latin America: Silvia E. Giorguli and Adela Angoa.- 25: Urban Migration of Adolescent Girls: Quantitative Results from Developing Countries: Mark R. Montgomery, Deborah Balk, Zhen Liu, Siddharth Agarwal, Eleri Jones, and Susana Adamo.- 26: Forced Migration: Holly E. Reed, Bernadette Ludwig, and Laura Braslow.- Index.