Bridging Borders: Migration and its Vicissitudes

Abstract

This paper considers the phenomenon of migration in terms of the psychological consequences involved in migrant traversing of sociocultural and political borders. The issue of migration is a perennial concern in many countries around the world. This paper locates resistance to migration within evolved socio-cognitive mechanisms that operate at the social psychological level and that bind people in coalitions that compete with other coalitions. In the process, outgroups and outcasts are denigrated, ostracised and excluded. In this reality, the necessity of managing intercultural strife realistically becomes an imperative concern to avoid conflict. The paper elaborates a methodological procedure based on the understanding of social re-presentation processes that further self-interested projects. Whilst this does not offer a panacea for conflict resolution, it serves to identify a path of least resistance for bridging sociocultural borders between distinct groups.