Introduction

To misname things is to add to the misfortunes of this

world... ". This apocryphal quote attributed to Albert
Camus profoundly reflects the aporia in which we find
ourselves in the study of international migration.
Indeed, international migration is a particularly
complex issue. From an epistemological point of view,
its legitimacy is fragile or even contested (Withol de
Wenden 2016). Huge human flows sweep daily in the
world World; from East to West, from North to South
(CICRED, 1974; Kritz & al, 1992; Simon, 1995;
Bauman, 1998; Withol de Wenden 2012) without it
being possible to apprehend them rigorously (CICRED
1974: 11). The observation is that we have always
strived to unsucceively decipher the social, economic,
political and cultural springs that are the basis of their
genesis, the motivations underlying their triggers, the
dynamics and logics implemented, the residence
strategies, the complete statistical data relating to them
or the reliability of the classifications that some
supporters of "migratology" boast (Domenach 1996)80
who do not all agree on what it is a migrant, a refugee,
an asylum seeker, a stateless person, an internally
displaced person, the diaspora, etc.
In fact, if the migration phenomenon has become a
banal subject because of psychedelic over-
mediatization, it becomes highly twisted and
formidable when you want to identify it scientifically
(Simon, 1981). It is hardly an exaggeration, says
Clairin (1988: 267), that international migration is not
only the most complex and poorly known of human
flows, but also that it is a major disruptive factor in the
measurement and analysis of other demographic
variables, structures and movements (Badie & Withol
de Wenden, 1994). Valin's observation (1995: 42) on
this phenomenon is even more demoralizing: "a
difficult subject", whose study constitutes "a real
challenge" with regard to population science. Because
of this complexity, no definition of international
migration seems sufficient today. No unanimity is made
on the data collection methodology, on the typology,
nor on the theories that try to explain them, or even on
the epistemological prerequisites that are the definition
(United Nations 1997:8; Clairin 1988: 267). According
to the ACP Observatory on Migration, "the definition
of migration is a particularly difficult task, no
consensus on this term currently exists at the
international level... However, "definitions are very
important. A misinterpretation of this phenomenon may
cause a lack of clarity about its characteristics and
thus hinder both the protection of migrants and the
adoption of effective and coherent policies" (ACP/OBS
2014). The complexity of the nature of human
migration and much more, its internationalization has
enriched the lexicons in recent years, making it
possible to think about these processes and
Contemporary phenomena in terms of "mobility",
"traffic",

Of "field

Migratory",

Of "spaces

"Glocalization" etc... (Berthomière & Hily 2006)

which are so many words/expressions, come to the
rescue of a very laborious understanding...

Or migratory territory", "path or project of

"transnationalism", "migration networks", migration",
"migration dynamism",

The first epistemological consequence that emerges is

the definitional torment that these international
migrations cause on a daily basis and the endless
antagonisms of Schools that they arouse in terms of its
understanding within the scientific community. There
is therefore no scientific consensus on what migrating
means, since the first attempts at understanding as
developed by the German-English geographer Ernst
Georg Ravenstein (1889). Those developed and
administered manu militari to the States of
international society by international institutions such
as the International Organization for Migration (IOM),
the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD), the International Labour
Organization (ILO) or the Department of Economic
and Social Affairs, the United Nations Population
Division (UNES-UNE) and the research community
(Domenach 2001), have hardly improved the cognitive
and definitional blur in which we have been entangled
since then.

This article has a dual objective: to show on the one

hand the ontological complexity of international
migration in the light of the historicity of their mode of
construction, and on the other hand, to present the
problem related to their definition (Latifa 2011). It is
fundamentally a question of getting rid of the illusion
of the knowledge they induce and changing the too
simplistic view that some researchers or international
organizations show on the apparent evidence of its
semantic burden. What is
Is suggested in the end, it is the particular
epistemological posture to adopt, given the complexity
of a phenomenon that "far exceeds the simple question
of number" (Barthomière 2009) and "the great diversity
of factors at play, and the plurality of scales of
analysis" that characterize it (Ambroestti & Tattlo
2008). Moreover, Ma Mung (2009) proposes, as part of
the search for a definition and understanding of
international migration, to take into account
cumulatively, the situation and environment in which
migration is carried out as well as external conditions,
the examination, calculation, evaluation of these
conditions carried out by the individual or collective as
well as internal provisions... Given the immensity of
the field to be prospected for Apprehend and properly
define this phenomenon, we understand that it is a real
challenge (De Gourcy 2005).

The ontological complexity...

The current demographic configuration of the world

cannot be better understood by ignoring its migratory
component. Indeed, it structures from East to West and
from South to North, its historical, social, cultural,
economic and political field... While the international
community's interest in international migration has
very often been linked to the spectacular and tragic
nature generated by these global demographic flows, it
should be stressed that it is actually due to an old
phenomenon, once considered minor on an
international scale, but whose current changes and their
consequences go far beyond the predictions of
scientists and other politicians in this world.

An ancient phenomenon...

The first difficulty related to understanding the origins

of the migratory phenomenon remains its
identification, identification and dating over time. This
cognitive embarrassment ultimately refers to the thorny
problem of man's advent on earth and the successive
stages by which he gradually occupied land, sea and air
spaces. This congenital difficulty significantly affects
the level of scientificity necessary for a good
understanding and definition of the phenomenon81.

Following the analyses of Hervé Domenach and

Michel Picouet (1995), it will be said that it has been a
few tens of millions of years that the very first
migrations of men resulting from the fracture of the
Rift Valley have been observed. It is believed that the
climate change that disrupted its environment would
have led to the scarcity of vegetation and forced upper
primates to migrate west of the Fracture, while the
Australopitheques remained in the East. The period of
Homo Habilis and Homo Erectus, which would have
migrated 2 million years ago from Africa to Eurasia,
was marked by sustainable settlement because of their
ever-increasing number and needs. About 800,000
years ago, Homo Sapiens still from Africa settled in the
Middle East, then in Papua, Australia (Laréné, NI)...
According to genetic research, the mixtures resulting
from these encounters would explain the appearance of
new breeds that populate the world today (UNESCO
2021). Thus, it was nomadism and pastoral life that
were the first modes of existence and it was rather
sedentarization that constituted the rupture of the
migration process, and not the other way around as has
very often been widespread. Basically, three main
modalities would be distinguished: capillary
migrations, which are formed by a process of spreading
people from one space to another by doses insensitive
to demographic growth. Settlement migrations that are
formed from territories of demographic expansion to
less populated areas, according to a shorter periodicity
than capillary migrations and shorter than invasive
migrations, which correspond to a grabbing of living
spaces, following warlike and annexation logics
(Laréné).
The discovery of the new world and colonial expansion
have led to profound changes in space and time, and
completely changed today's perception of international
migration. To this end, it will be observed that the
transfers of populations, whether voluntary or forced
and that occurred during the colonial period, continue
to have consequences to this day. According to
estimates (UNESCO 1999), between the 16th and 19th
centuries, 15 to 20 million Africans were transported to
serve as slaves in North and South America. It should
be noted later that a very tiny part of this population
returned to Africa and founded the State of Liberia in
1847. But it was above all the strong migration of
Europeans to overseas countries in the 19th and early
20th centuries that left the most traces on the current
structures of migratory movements. This unique
exodus in history covered nearly 50 million inhabitants
and was the result of a very special combination of
circumstances that attracted an overabundant
workforce to the new world (Withol De Wenden
2016:10).

Technological developments in general, the rise of the

means of communication and transport in particular,
have also played an important role in the spread of
these migrations. This will result in a process of
cumulative productivity growth, industrial
diversification and continuous employment expansion,
which will benefit the Both to emigrants and host
countries as well as countries of origin. The United
States of America, Canada, Europe, Australia, South
Africa can be cited as illustrations of this phenomenon
(UNESCO 2021). Careful observation of the world
stage shows that the process was not only
circumscribed in the Americas. As part of the same
approach, many Asian colonies have recruited through
this mechanism of massive displacement of peoples
(UNESCO 2021).

We would like to say here that contrary to some

widespread images, it is the displacement of
populations that has historically constituted the normal
attitude of men. This means that in the end, we are all
immigrants!... This formula applies to all human beings
if we mean that no one can claim to be a pure native,
according to the Greek word which means: "born from
the ground" (Laréné). Moreover, the quota of
populations with the appearance of the new world
produced by the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, did not
stop this nomadism, which experienced a new
acceleration with technological developments, climate
change, economic crises, the outbreak of wars, etc.
This globalization of migration "disrupts" and "returns"
from top to bottom the international order established
since 1648.

... Become a puzzle in the contemporary era

At the same time a phenomenon, issue and major

challenge of international relations at the beginning of
the 21st century, international migration worries and
disturbs states, questions and embarrasses scientists by
the social, political, economic, cultural or paradigmatic
turbulence it generates (Nkene 2000). What is
fascinating in the current context is that the
phenomenon is increasing and gives the impression of
being inversely proportional to the square of dangers
and other state barriers erected to circumscribe and
limit them. The image today is that of states constantly
lagging behind the migratory phenomenon82. A
synoptic look at this phenomenon shows, on the side of
Central Europe, countries brutally confronted since
March 2022, with the surge of nearly 6 million
Ukrainians fleeing the war unleashed by Russia. In the
same vein, the question Migration was one of the
strong axes of the April 2022 presidential campaign in
France and objectively explains the spectacular rise of
the Right (National Rally) in terms of election results.
Just a few months before, it was Belarus that was
facing the invasion of Afghans, Iranians, Iraqis in
demand for passage for the European Union.
Meanwhile, Great Britain and Rwanda signed a
convention on the transfer of migrants from the first
country to the second, pending the processing of their
asylum applications.

For his part, French President Emmanuel Macron,

under strong migratory pressure from sub-Saharan
Africa, had to urgently organize on August 29, 2017, a
Sahel-European mini-migration summit, whose theme
was "control and controlled management of migratory
flows", followed by the establishment of "Hotspots"; a
kind of extraterritorial "waiting areas" to quota
migratory flows from Africa. Germany, for its part, has
been plagued since 2015 by the massive influx of
Syrian migrants driven out of their country by an
endless war...

On the side of the United States of America, the

question has been raised with the same acuteness since
the historic "rush to the Americas". Just a few days
after taking the oath on Friday, January 20, 2017,
President Donald Trump made "anti-immigration
decrees", restricting access to U.S. territory to nationals
of certain Muslim countries suspected to endorse or
promote terrorism on American soil (Syria, Libya, Iran,
Sudan, Somalia and Yemen), as well as refugees from
around the world. The inclusion of Chad in September
2017 in this list created the indignation of this country,
and made the African Union "perplexed". Similarly,
the first official release of KAMALA Harris,

January 20, 2021

The migration crisis between the United States of

America and the

Mexico. The same file that Barack Obama entrusted to

Joe Biden when he was his Vice-President...

49th Vice-President of the United States,

Started from the

Concerned the management

Diplomatic

In Asia and the Pacific, thousands of people flee their

country every day for economic, security or reasons

Related to climate change

The detention centers in which they are concentrated (

. These migrations are a source of stories

Dramatic on the roads, the boats that exiles use or in

Australia

Indonesia

Thailand

), sometimes in defiance of any respect for the rights of

Man (International Mail, NI). One of the striking

symbols of these

Migration is what was designated by Boat-peoples

around the 1980s, who are migrants fleeing Vietnam
on overloaded and drifting boats. In Burma, has arisen
since August 2017, the Problem of ethnic cleansing of
the Rohingya Muslim community, nearly one million
of whose members have taken refuge in disaster in
neighboring Bangladesh, causing social and political
turmoil in a country whose political stability is
constantly threatened.
In Africa (Pérouse de Montclos 1994), at the beginning
of 2004, there were 4.2 million refugees and about 12.5
million displaced persons, i.e. refugees in their own
country. In West Africa, the Biafra civil war in 1967
forced 2 million people to leave their homes; and
nearly one million people between 2015 and 2022 to
North Cameroon, due to the Islamist terrorist groups of
Boko Haram. The Liberian war in 1989 pushed 2.4
million people on the roads and to neighboring
countries. In the Horn of Africa and East Africa,
internal conflicts have caused considerable migratory
flows for several years. In 1994, Sudan had on its soil
more than 700,000 refugees driven out by conflict in
the Horn of Africa; Tanzania welcomed nearly 900,000
people fleeing the wars in Burundi and Rwanda. In the
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), it was
estimated in 2003 that 3.4 million people had been
displaced by the war since 1997. In Cameroon
meanwhile, a

This means that from a demographic point of view,

Africa is a continent that also moves in all

The senses (Nkene 2000; 2004),

Therefore, overwhelmed by more and more and ever

more elusive human waves, the states of international
society are laboriously trying to curb the phenomenon.
Individual state attempts, heterogeneous or let's say
disorganized, global or regional mechanisms are
opposed to no more effective than the former. Thus,
"Great Replacement", "Regularization", "Selection",
"Expulsion", "Repatriation", "Great Disturbance" have
become familiar in the vocabulary of foreign public
policies in many countries, and attest to a real problem
that is opposed in most cases to false solutions. Their
production and recurrence in differentiated spaces and
following a rhythm without tempo, reflect the disarray
faced by a world order permanently plagued by the
dizzying and independent mobility of individuals.

131

New declaration calling for better concerted action to

help nearly 1.4 million uprooted Central Africans was
signed on Wednesday, April 27, 2022 at the end of a
key regional conference organized by the Cameroonian
government and UNHCR, the United Nations Agency

For Refugees (UN, NI

The problem even takes on tragic appearances as we

saw a few years ago in Dover, with the tragedy of
nearly 60 Chinese discovered dead asphyxiated in the
hindquarters of a truck in transit for Great Britain. The
images, which have become innocuous and domestic,
of violence based on the construction of the immigrant
threat in the Maghreb or South Africa countries, the
"pateras" and their contents of African emigrants
ballooned and stranded off the Canary Islands in Spain
or Lampedusa in Italy, Mexican "coyotes" found
electrocuted on the barbed wire Premature from a
journey to a dream Europe, America or Persian Gulf.
The moving and dramatic images of a sick and dying
Cameroonian emigrant being abandoned by other
Cameroonians in the Sahara desert, therush of
Cameroonians to Chad in search of refuge following
interethnic clashes between Mousgoum and Arab Choa
in recent days, perfectly illustrate the fact that
alongside the global health crisis related to COVID-19,
there is another, older and permanent, pernic In the
words of the United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi
Annan (2005), a few years ago, this is "a very serious
problem, a very hot subject" that reflects this
embarrassment of States, taken by surprise by the
vitality and pugnacity of these turbulent and
independent demographic flows.

In these psychedelic conditions, their identification,

identification, measurement and understanding become
highly complex, while their definition becomes highly
unlikely.

... The not found definition

The extraordinary intensification of human flows and

their increasing complexity on the international scene
make their understanding difficult, due to an
inextricable tangle of migratory events. At the same
time, they explain the proliferation of definitions as
numerous as they are heuristically insufficient.

Between heterogeneity and inextricable tangle of

facts...

In its 2009 annual report, which remains topical, the

United Nations Development Programme writes: "It is 
Easy for a politician to count the international
movements of shoes or mobile phones as well as those
of nurses or construction workers."

From the outset, their main characteristic is

heterogeneity: in contrast to natural demographic
movements, international migration has a number of
specificities that generate as many theoretical,
methodological, epistemological problems as

Practical. Indeed, diverse in their morphology, they

almost never present a homogeneous shape... In terms
of temporalities, they are repetitive and discontinuous
insofar as an unlimited number of times can be
migrated at your convenience and without it being
possible to predict with certainty how this migratory
route will end. In terms of spatialities, they involve
several places/localities without any predetermined
order and above all of extreme variability in terms of
their volume... (Hily & Ma Mung 2003).

The inextricable tangle of quantitative and qualitative

data that constitute them and the consubstantial
unpredictability that characterizes them, as seen in
2015 with the massive and uncontrollable influx of tens
of thousands of Syrians into Europe and its procession
of legal, political and social framework problems, lead
to taking this object by nature fluid and evan In more
detail, this IOM (2007) finding makes the problem
more explicit:

There is broad agreement that the extent and pace of

international migration are difficult to accurately
predict, as they are closely linked to critical events
(great instability, economic crisis or conflict), as well
as long-term trends (demographic change, economic
development, advances in communication technologies
and access to means of transport) (IOM 2020).    The
variability and especially the fluctuation of the figures
between 2000 and 2020 are the expression of this
complexity. Indeed, international migration shows
diversity both in terms of its form, sustainability, and
how they invest spaces and that cannot be exhaustively
identified or identified. The mobility underlying this
phenomenon shows through time and space a
variability punctuated by displacements characterized
sometimes by their spontaneity, sometimes by their
organization, sometimes by their form, motivations,
causes, goals, etc.

It can be said that the growth gaps observed in the

world today are partly linked to a past legacy, where
emigration and immigration occupy a prominent place.
Secondly, that this displacement of men tends to
accentuate the imbalance of the world population,
according to its geographical distribution. This is
because industrial labor markets attract migratory
flows to already overcrowded regions, where the
economic situation is conducive to a very rapid
development of the economy. Sometimes, labor
demand tends to involve a certain selective emigration
of migrants as can be observed in Africa or Asia with
the brain drain (brain-drain). In contrast to previous
periods, today's international migration is less
definitive, more dispersed and more dependent on the
skills of emigrants. As before, they no longer turn to
unique centers of attraction such as the industrial
regions of Western Europe, the United States. They
cover South America as well as Australia, Africa, etc.
In addition, country-to-country migration seems to
outweigh transcontinental migration, taking volume
into account. This is also the case in Africa where huge
human flows sweep daily from West to East, from
North to South without, in our opinion, the attention
they deserve (Sindjoun 2002; 2004).

Moreover, migrations are beyond an arithmetic of life

and death83. They certainly include figures, but also
questions of perception, representation, motivation,
business logic or individual logic. At the spatial level,
they integrate the issues of distribution/investment,
networking, territoriality. Temporally, they take into
account issues of periodicity and rhythmicity, etc.
Human mobility will

83 Mr. William L. Swing Director General of IOM will

emphasize not without relevance to this end that we are
living in a time of great tragedy and uncertainty...
IOM's approach to encourage Member States to more
humane and orderly migration for the benefit of all,
where the human beings behind the figures are taken
into account... ”
Increasing and population movements are even more
flexible, while official statistics persist in
underestimating actual data, as they refer to a
restrictive definition of migration based on statistical
traceability. The proliferation of the senses that
international migration holds today is only one
consequence of this.

.... And proliferation of the senses

Most of the reference works on international migration

in recent years do not give a precise definition of the
phenomenon (Lelio, 2002; Appleyard, 1989; 1998;
Adepoju & Hammar, 1996). What is observed is rather
a conglomerate of definitional essays as numerous as
they are diverse, referring more to questions than to
clear and precise framing (German & al. 2004).

First, there is the block of Euro-centered definitions

developed by the specialized agencies of the United
Nations and the OECD, which have as their priority
sampling base the geographical area of Western
countries (Europe, United States) and which are
different from each other, at least it can be said.

According to the International Labour Office (ILO),

migration is considered to be any movement of people
crossing a certain limit in order to establish a new
Population Reference Bureau 1980 residence
elsewhere). This definition does not take into account
the reversibility, i.e. the back and forth (pendulum
movements) observed in the context of modern
mobility, and does not clearly specify the space that
takes migration into account. In addition, the concept
of a new residence, which appears to be one of the
essential dimensions of this definition, shows some
evolution. Until recently, this practice, observe Hervé
Domenach and Michel Picouet (1995), referred to the
notion of residence-cottage, that is, the place where the
individual is used to live. The study of migration with
all its territorial, legal, land, socio-economic, cultural,
etc. implications was based on the criterion of single
residence. Migration was then considered a transfer of
residence from a place of origin or place of departure
to a place of destination or place of arrival. Only one
aspect of mobility was taken into account in this
definition, largely overtaken by contemporary forms of
mobility. This has significantly reduced the importance
of the single residence criterion. From now on, we talk
about primary, secondary, multiple residence,
occasional residence that are induced by professional
mobility. More specifically, in the jargon instituted in
the matter, we talk about space Of life or "life area",
"life cycle" or "density of residence" to reflect the
delimitation of the portion of the space in which an
individual carries out all his activities. Two types of
travel could also be considered: those that take place
within space without modifying it, such as daily or
temporary travel in the different places constituting this
space, and those that modify the usual space through
the investment of it by a radical change in the living
area.

International migration occurs when a person who lives

in one country moves to another. However, not every
person who crossed an international border is an
international migrant. It is necessary to set criteria to
differentiate international migrant from the generality
of international travelers. Duration of stay in the
country of destination can be used to make such
distinction, but some tourists may stay longer than
persons admitted to undertake seasonal work or
undergo training, consideration of duration of stay may
not be sufficient (UN 1997: 8).

The definition of the United Nations Department of

Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA 1999)84 is
different: "any person who changes country and
habitual residence is considered an international
migrant". In practice here, it should be noted that a
long-term migrant is a person who travels to a country
other than his habitual residence for a period of at least
one year. A short-term migrant is a person who travels
to a country other than his habitual residence for a
period of at least three months but less than one year,
except in cases where the trip to that country is made
for leisure, holidays, visits to friends or family,
business, medical treatment or religious pilgrimage. If
this definition has the advantage of its pragmatism,
since the one-year threshold usually used to measure
demographic change in developed countries coincides
with this period, it should nevertheless be said that it
suffers from a huge bias. In fact, the difficulty arises
when it comes to pragmatically setting a limit below
which a person will be considered simply "absent" or
"displacement" and non-migrant. Such a limit is
necessarily arbitrary and must be set according to the
socio-economic and cultural specificities of the
environment concerned (Clairin 1988:269).
Undoubtedly at the heart of any migration project,
however, duration is understood in this definition too
strictly, that is to say without taking into account the
variability of rules or measures in different countries. It
gives the impression of a "straitjacket of Force" in
which all countries are supposed to live, even if their
"constitutions" as James Rosenau (1990) could have
said, look at things differently.
However, depending on their history, States have been
led to pay more or less attention to international
migration and their strategies have evolved. The
objectives may have focused on the facilitation or
retention of migratory flows, their intensity or
direction, the incorporation of the migrant into the host
society or its recovery in some form by the society of
origin (Lelio 2002),

In the event that it is the national interest of each State

that guides its migration policy, it becomes risky to set,
through exogenous criteria, the durations of entry, stay,
exit. Georges Lemaître (2005) rightly notes that in the
United Nations design, the nature of the measure
(whether it is the expected length of stay, the period of
validity of the permit granted on entry into the country
or the actual duration of stay in the host country) and
the duration is not specified. In addition, this definition
does not take into account the reasons/motivations that
constitute a necessary element for understanding
international migration. Quite rightly, migration can
take place for the purpose of establishment,
employment, family reunification, or to flee
persecution. This is where an additional criterion
comes in, which is intentionality. The intention, even if
it is controversial (Clairin 1988: 269) cannot be totally
excluded from the definition of migration, which is
above all a project, a desire, an intention that precedes
the act of going elsewhere, staying or returning. The
notion of "root causes" drawn from history makes it
possible to trace the explanatory and determining
causes that are the basis of migration and likely to give
some definition of it.

The subtlety of the definition of the International

Organization for Migration (IOM 2019) provides a
small clarification, despite its evanescent character:
"any movement of people leaving their place of
habitual residence, either within the same country or
beyond an international border... or any person outside
the State of which he has nationality or citizenship or,
in the case of stateless persons, his country of birth or
habitual residence. This term includes people who plan
to migrate on a permanent or temporary basis, those
who migrate regularly or have the required documents,
as well as irregular migrants". Certainly more inclusive
and closer to reality, however, this definition does not
escape the fundamental criticism of the difficulty in
measuring international migration, even if it is
increasingly identified (Badie & al. 2008).

Another important level of the definitional torment of

international migration is related to the introduction of
what is being called transnational migration (Glick-
Schiller & al. 1994; Colonomos & al. 1995; Constantin
1994; Faist 2000). Obviously, we are witnessing in
filigree the emergence and pugnacity of new networks
of migrants or diasporas that increase and significantly
determine the relevance of mobility in the world
(Tarrius 1989; Bruneau 2004). This category of
demographic flows not yet well defined, but indicative
of the impotence of states, are characterized as
"transnational" (Faret, 2003). In their vocations they
could have the effect of:

Connect places and people all over the world by

promoting the emergence of a "transnational migratory
space". This goes beyond the geographical space
within which migrants go back and forth between
places that have become familiar to them. In addition
to physical movements, the flow of information,
transfers of skills and repatriations of funds complete
the picture of this "transnational migratory area". Thus,
the distinction between "geographical area" and
"migration area" is gradually disappearing, with the
consequences in the definition of international
migration (Tarrius 1993: 50-60).

This transnationalist perspective on international

migration (Vertovec 2001), (Rosenau 1990), (Portes &
al. 2001), (Glick & al. 1992), (Portes 1999a; 1999b;
Peter 1994; Levitt & Glick 2003), is reflected in the
emergence of new migratory forms discovered during
the 1980s in Europe, characterized by the constitution
of underground international economies of products of
lawful and illicit use, and which have further
complicated attempts to define international migration
(Gildas 2006). In fact, the historical territorial form of
the nation-state, entirely meshed by major political,
economic and social institutions, is renegotiated by
collectives of migrants designated as ethnic; they
develop, from a distance, codes, laws and regulations
of international economic exchanges, large-scale
collective trade initiatives. The strong solidarities that
precede and allow these deployments reverse the
problems of globalization and suggest the existence of
another globalization process where strong social ties
are not second (Tarrius 2001; Granovetter 1993; Nkene
2004).

Moreover, the globalization of the global space and the

end of the internal-external divide in the international
field induces from an epistemological point of view
another mortgage on the definition of migration
International. In their dynamics, they would result from
social and economic relations, complex policies that
continuously or discontinuously radiate the
international scene without taking into account state
borders (Knafou & al. 1998; Adepoju 1988: 38; Stern
1988: 30; Constantin 1994). If indeed there is no longer
a distinction between internal and international as
hammered by the transnationalist perspective of
international relations, how can we continue to talk
about internal migration or international migration?
The reflection initiated by these authors is not
unfounded in a global context of weakening states and
a continuum of flows of all kinds (Rosenau 1990;
Glick-Schiller Nina et al, 1994). But, it cannot be fully
valid for the simple reason that its premise, i.e. the
collapse of states (Zartman 1995) cannot itself be
validated without caution, the state continuing to resist
in several cases, despite all the threats it faces (Rétaillé
1996: 21-40; Flory 1996: 251-265; Merle: 289-309;
Cohen 2005 The general lack of information, the
inaccuracy of data on this type of migration, the series
of synonymic terms to translate a reality "with fluid
contours" and ultimately elusive is very evocative of
the difficulties encountered85.

Conclusion

The difficulty in making international migration more

understandable and developing a more precise corpus
for its definition is therefore real. Moreover, the panic
of international organizations and the wave of chain
protests of the international community in the face of
these human surgers or the erratic measures to limit the
freedom to come and go enshrined in the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, constitute, if necessary,
irrefutable proof that human migration is a disruptive
phenomenon of the order of states in the world, and
undoubtedly It necessarily follows that they lend
themselves very badly to the use of models. This also
explains in large part why demography researchers and
decision-makers have deserted this sector to take
refuge on more obvious and reassuring issues such as
birth rate, mortality, stocks, etc... This attitude has been
largely Counterproductive for the control of this
phenomenon; since on a daily basis migration
problems arise with the same acuteness throughout the
world (Tarrius 2001), causing here and there
"turbulence" and "returning" here and there the world,
following expressions instituted in the field of new
international relations (Badie and Smouts 1999). We
would like to say, following Bertrand Badie and Marie-
Claude Smouts (1996), that the migration process
disturbs and becomes a source of anomie from the
moment it bypasses the state, contributes to undoing
citizen allegiances, creating spaces beyond political
control, sometimes erecting the individual or networks
of individuals into micro social actors... "An important
elements of transnational flows, migration is probably
the most rebellious part because it is the least reducible
to collective choices, therefore the most prone to
unpredictability and hazards... (Badie & Smouts 1992;
Badie & Withol de Wenden 1994; Badie & Smouts
1999; Badie & al. 2008). Complexity and
unpredictability are inscribed in their DNA... The
suddenness of their modes of constitution and the
disparities in their modes of construction combined
with the unexpected consequences they generate
require great caution, as regards their understanding
and definition.

However, efforts to decomplex the understanding and

mature the definitions of international migration, both
within the scientific community and within the
international organizations concerned, should continue,
due to the importance of this global phenomenon and
the daily disruptions they induce, as can be observed
these days with the Russian-Ukrainian crisis86.

Taking into account the heuristic limits identified here

and there, we could with great modesty risk a
definition of this phenomenon, very on the edge of that
proposed by IOM. International migration could then
mean a displacement of the living space of individuals
who have left their country to live or settle in another,
and for a minimum period of time. It would include, in
addition to voluntary or forced migration, organized
migration and transnational migration despite the
immigration restrictions that have emerged in many
countries. Crossing an international border, with a
change of habitual residence, differentiates
international migration from internal migration that
takes place within a state's borders. The concept of
migrant (emigrant, immigrant) would also be based on
a geographical criterion (Space travel) and should not
be confused with that of a foreigner, based on a legal
criterion (Gildas, 2002: 4). It is an event that is not
always linear in the sense that it can be sometimes
renewable or irreversible, sometimes of a subjective
nature linked to each individual's own perception. It is
also the product of collective action as can be observed
in organized migration or forced displacement or
sometimes marked by cultural elements. Arjun
Appaduraï describes this type of flow as "ethnoscape".
This neologism is part of a transnational
sociology/anthropology and refers to "groups that
migrate, gather in new places, rebuild their history and
reconfigure their ethnic project" (Appaduraï 2001). The
ever-increasing migratory flows would thus respond to
an evolution of social imaginations and multifaceted
identities, a new order of instability in the creation of
modern subjectivities constituting the existence of new
figures of migrants locked in their little bubble (Girard
1994; Appaduraï 1996). In this perspective, it could be
said that the emigrant is any individual who has left his
country of origin and is on his way to another,
regardless of the reasons for his departure: political,
economic, cultural or environmental reasons, etc.
When this route is in accordance with laws and
regulations, we would speak of regular emigration. On
the other hand, when this route is carried out on the
margins of legislation/regulation, we would speak of
illegal emigration or irregular emigration. This
individual becomes an immigrant when he settles
permanently in a third country. To this end, two types
will be distinguished: internal migration that takes
place within the same country and which is agreed to
be referred to as "displacement", and international
migration that refers to the movement of people from
one country to another. From the installation, a
plethora of types of migration will be available, either
according to the activities carried out or according to
the specific motivations and objectives of individuals.
We could thus find ourselves faced with labor
migration, permanent migration, pendulum migration,
circular migration, tourism or student migration,
related terms such as mobility or diaspora; indicating
that these migrations can very well combine or
alternate without predetermined or definitive spatiality
and temporality...

Obviously, the sedimentation of contributions relating

to their definitions has not really made it possible to
devote anything since Ravenstein. These difficulties in
accurately measuring and identifying international
migration have led scientists and international
organizations to more epistemological compromises
than to understanding and Consensus definition of this
phenomenon. Therefore, the current usual meanings
and definitions are ultimately only a worst-case
scenario, paradigmatic constructions that soothe more
by their pragmatism more than they convince.

And even if we have come out of this skein, we should

also actively and seriously prepare for the landing on
the thorny and throbbing problem of international
migration theories (Piguet 2013; Piché 2001), which is
no less matter. From Charybde to Scylla?