The Ties That Bind by David Leblang & Benjamin Helms offers a fresh take on the longstanding academic debate about the drivers of migration. Looking beyond the well-established perspectives of economic and sociological explanations, the authors explore migration in today’s globalized world through a political lens. The analyses span from exploring how the political landscape in migrants’ country of origin and host countries shape migration decisions, how diaspora populations facilitate foreign direct investment and other transnational bonds, to how both migrant sending and receiving countries craft migration policies to benefit from human mobility. The quest for capturing the more indirect effects of globalization and migration sparks curiosity in this reader through novel use of data. Furthermore, the attention to migrant agency and acknowledging the multifaceted rationale behind migration decisions brings important nuance to the debate on migration drivers. However, while Leblang & Helms offer a comprehensive approach to exploring the political aspects of migration, the weakest point of the book is the lack of attention to South-South migration dynamics. Questions of whether the findings apply to the context of the Global South are largely left unanswered. Overall, however, The Ties That Bind provides innovative and data-rich insights on migration, advocating for migration policies that consider the broader political and economic connections that migrants maintain with their countries of origin. This work is a significant contribution to understanding the global impacts of migration beyond economic remittances alone, making it valuable for both scholars and policymakers interested in the intersections of immigration, politics, and development.