The article explores the connection between the current reflexive turn in migration studies and what we call the crisis of representation. It is argued that reflexivity is a reaction to a variety of critiques of realist epistemologies and is articulated to multiple paths of post-positivist knowledge production. Abstractly, reflexivity is understood as the recursive epistemic work that is invested in explicating, understanding and explaining tacit implications and effects of social relations and positionalities for the production and application of knowledge. Overall, we distinguish four types of reflexivity, each corresponding to different forms and understandings of social relations: reflexivity about (1) intersectional positionality, (2) positionality within the field of research, (3) positionality within the academic field and (4) positionality in relation to activism and policy-making. Moreover, a closer look at the specifics of migration study debates allows us to identify three waves of reflexivity that have evolved around ‘difficult entanglements’ with broader epistemic, political and ethical issues. The promise of reflexivity is that practices of self-relativisation increase the capacity to deal with the differences and plurality within the field of migration studies. It allows to pragmatically work with and across epistemic and moral limitations rather than condemning them.