Editors' foreword.

• Position: Emigration and immigration - Editorial

Land and migration might seem peripheral topics in the current international climate, ere war, security, terrorism, and U.S. military and political power drive debate in every corner of the world. Yet as the articles in this volume of the Journal of International Affairs attest, land is fundamental to issues of ownership, identity, and rights--the very core of events unfolding today. And while borders--territorial, economic, and cultural--fall away, the age-old phenomenon of migration becomes increasingly influential in relations within and among nation-states, so much so that it is changing our understanding of the nation-state itself. Politics, economics, culture, and human beings themselves are less bound to territory today than perhaps at any time in history, yet territory is still essential. Examining these shifts and the history that informs them can maize for more effective and more humane policy.

These topics are inherently multidisciplinary, and benefit from treatment from multiple angles. Thus we are fortunate that the writers within our pages come from the fields of law, demography, history, literature, and journalism, and have made policy on national and international levels.

A short essay by Michael Doyle lays the groundwork for the discussion of movement across borders with a global overview of migration today. Jonathan Greenberg argues that border drawing is a major cause of conflict in his historical look at postwar partitions. Manuel Orozco addresses the increasingly significant border crossings of Mexicans to the United States with a policy perspective, in his article on the role of migrants' hometown...