How do we speak about migration and labour? The vocabulary which articulate migration and work in a critical perspective of analyses of migration in the context of globalization and resurgence of racial boundaries

Interests in migration issues have increased considerably over the last decade with three impetuses. The first is linked to the economic and labour market globalization of the last few years and to the intensification of the circulation of people. The second is linked to the transnational circulation of knowledge on these issues, to the confrontation between various national traditions and approaches, and to the disciplinary and transdisciplinary institutionalization of migration research. And the third is the involvement of researchers in the area of migrations or of minorities, who provide critical insight into the theories of intersectionality. This lead to a fragmentation of the field of study of migrations. It is sometimes difficult to link together different disciplinary approaches. The demanding connections between language issues, concepts, and methods may be at the risk of emptying them of their primary contents. This communication focuses on how a seminar participates to scientific knowledge circulation about the language issues that arise while researching migration and labour. We deal with two imbricated levels: the language used to delimit the research object; and how language helps scholars to share and rearrange their way to analyse the link between migration and work. By re-examining the links between migration and work, we favoured the study at the related interstices and intersectional logics, that characterize them and their inclusion in multi-location and multi-level contexts. This contributes to the acceptance of the fact that migration is characterized by its own logic, which cannot be limited to the effect of constraints and / or economic utilitarianism. This encounter cannot be analysed without thinking about the forms of globalization of labour and of workers, and of the tensions they raise in terms of the reactivation of geographical, racial, economic, and social boundaries, and while enriching the language to describe this complexity.