Untying and retying family migration in the new Europe

This special issue comes at a time when political debates on the future of a 'United Europe' are raging. As more countries are gradually being introduced into the EU super-state, old questions take on new importance. The focus of this issue is on migration and, in particular, family migration. We suggest that this is a critical topic in the European research agenda. We consider both how family-related migration affects the social, demographic, and economic contours of the emerging European superstate, and also how the superstate and its political functioning itself influences family migration. We argue that the transformation of Europe into a single market represents a significant conceptual challenge for those accounts of family migration that wish to inform social policy. However, to date, research on family migration in Europe lacks the coherent theoretical focus exhibited by case-study research from North America. Also, despite the recent recognition that most geographic mobility implicitly and explicitly involves families, the role of the household in migration continues to be poorly understood, particularly in the European context.