Despite the emotions that the migration of individuals and collectives (and its associated impact on economies and cultures) evokes in those migrating as well as those whose immediate environments are transformed by migration, this phenomenon is framed differently in research and popular culture. For those who are longer-term residents of immigrant countries that are seen as being positively or negatively impacted by economic and humanitarian migration, perceptions are couched in the language of ‘public attitudes’ to immigration and/or multiculturalism. Concurrently, those migrating as part of ‘skilled migration’ programmes are seen as rational actors who do so for better career and/or lifestyle opportunities for themselves and their offspring. Humanitarian migrants are not cast as rational per se but are nonetheless perceived as making logical choices driven by the war-torn conditions in their homelands. None of these framings give due consideration to the role of emotions/affect in decision-making – whether it is deciding to move to or in forming an attitude to migration. This is especially surprising given the role of emotions in eliciting nationalist sentiments and contribution to the recent global upsurge in populist nationalism and xenophobia. Examining migration through the lens of emotions and affect is therefore a critical gap to address, which the book attempts to do through three chosen complex emotions. Beginning to address this gap will (1) lend agency to migrants themselves to self-represent and self-advocate; and (2) enable the public discourse about migrants and refugees to shift and become more conducive to co-habiting with them.

This introductory chapter explains the book’s use of ‘emotion’, ‘affect’, ‘migration’ and ‘mediation’, unpacks the ‘affective turn’ in migration studies, and provides an overview of the work that has been done so far, particularly in immigrant societies in the Global North. It then uses Sara Ahmed’s conceptualisation of feelings that stick to bodies (2004) to lay out the negative affects that are attributed to migrants, how these shift over time for different kinds of migrants, and how they are used to sentimentalise public discourse and justify a global rise in xenophobia and populism.