Ethics & exclusions: Reflections on the passing of Stephen Castles
| Published date | 01 February 2023 |
| Author | Loren B. Landau |
| Date | 01 February 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/imig.13104 |
COMMENTARY
Ethics & exclusions: Reflections on the passing of
Stephen Castles
Loren B. Landau1,2
1Oxford University, Oxford, UK
2University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa
Correspondence
Loren B. Landau, Oxford University, Oxford, UK.
Email: loren.landau@qeh.ox.ac.uk
DOI: 10.1111/imig.13104
Received: 17 November 2022 Accepted: 27 November 2022
304
Stephen Castles' passing presents a bittersweet opportunity for reflection. A diminutive man but towering scholarly
figure, his personal generosity and extraordinary scope of research will have a lasting impact on many of us. That
impact extends beyond the content of his publications, teaching and collegiality to ‘migration studies’, a field he
pioneered more than perhaps any other single scholar. Through his own work, as a supervisor, and as an institution
builder, he has shaped a generation. Perhaps two. With more to come.
As someone who has long collaborated with (and who now works within) the somewhat bewildering migration
studies universe he helped forge at the University of Oxford, I daily feel and hear echoes of his work. Castles' substan-
tial efforts to locate studies of displacement and migration on sound conceptual and methodological foundations
have provided a blueprint for similar initiatives around the world. His influence on the Centre for Migration Policy and
Society (COMPAS) and the International Migration Institute – both at Oxford – manifested his commitment to social
scientific research on migration and mobility that corrodes popular myths and political misconceptions. Even while his
work was expansive in its ambition and scope, it rarely failed to centre the implications for those who moved, those
unable to do so, or the communities transformed by human mobility.
His dedication to building spaces for and inspiring methodologically sound, morally grounded, university-based
research is more important than ever. Immigration and displacement are now at the centre of political debates across
the world. In response, migration research institutes and researchers have blossomed like desert flowers after heavy
rains. Many are nourished with funding dedicated to ‘managing’ migration in ways ‘safe and orderly.’ While migrant
safety and welfare is often a stated goal, these bodies form part of a political economy of knowledge potentially
undermining the kind of critical scholarly enterprise Castles envisioned. Instead, ‘migration studies’ may follow the
course of Victorian anthropology, legitimized (or at least funded) by state and non-state actors with neo-imperial
ambitions. The field already rewards those proving useful to powerful states and state supported agencies. Academic
metrics privileging ‘impact’ only exacerbates these trends. In this space, Castles' perennial efforts to highlight the
human consequences of migration, drawing attention to multiple forms of labour exploitation, resource extraction,
ethnic reformulation, and racial discrimination were important counter measures to these tendencies. Many of us
remain inspired by his efforts to denaturalize the technocratic language of economics and bureaucrats who seek to
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits
use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or
adaptations are made.
© 2022 The Authors. International Migration published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of International Organization for Migration.
Int Migr. 2023;61:304–306.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/imig
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