Legal Migration Research Articles

Sea-Level Rise and Human Mobility: The Legal Implications for Ireland’s Foreign and Domestic Policies

In October 2023, the Irish government’s Report of the Inter-Departmental Group on National Coastal Change Management Strategy concluded it was inevitable that, as a result of rising sea levels, a managed retreat may in time be required along some parts of the Irish coastline. This stark warning highlights Ireland’s vulnerability as an island nation to global climate change and sea-level rise. While adaptive measures can be made to protect coastal communities, there is a need to undertake comprehensive planning to prepare for the foreseeable impacts of climate change. Ireland is not alone in facing such risks—over a third of states in the world are directly affected by sea-level rise. Such scenarios raise complicated legal questions, which prompted the UN International Law Commission (ILC) to commence analysis in 2018 of the legal implications of sea-level rise. This article starts by examining recent developments concerning the legal implications of climate change in general, before specifically analysing the ongoing work of the ILC on sea-level rise and human mobility. Drawing on international legal and policy frameworks, the article then considers Ireland’s obligations arising from sea-level rise and population displacement. In particular, it addresses a) Ireland’s foreign policy, including international development assistance and legal migration routes for persons fleeing the impacts of sea-level rise; and b) domestic policies relating to climate change adaptation and planning for internal climate displacement.

Access to and provision of sexual and reproductive health services in Ekurhuleni, South Africa: Experiences and coping strategies of migrant women and healthcare workers.

The importance of universal access to health services including sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) services by migrant populations and the fundamental role of healthcare workers in providing SRHR services, requires a balanced understanding of the experiences of both migrants and healthcare workers. This study explored the experiences of migrant women in accessing and utilising SRHR services and the experiences of healthcare workers in providing SRHR and HIV services in Ekurhuleni, South Africa. In-depth interviews were conducted with five internal migrants, eight international migrant women aged 18-49 years, and four healthcare workers. Migrant women were selected using snowball sampling while healthcare workers were purposively sampled. Migrant women face multifaceted challenges including but not limited to language barriers, discrimination based on migration status, cultural and religious hurdles when accessing and utilising SRHR and HIV services. Similarly, healthcare workers encounter challenges in providing SRHR and HIV services to migrant women which include language barriers and having migrants who seek services without referral documentation and legal migration documents. Training healthcare workers on cultural sensitivity and integration of migrant friendly services in the health policy may improve migrant women's experiences in accessing and utilising as well as healthcare workers' experiences in providing SRHR services.

The regularisation industry: a qualitative analysis of the legal-administrative intermediation field

The bureaucratic management of the legal and administrative statuses of mi-grants is a pervasive yet scarcely researched aspect of the migratory experi-ence. This article describes the field of intermediation services for migrants, with a particular focus on legal and bureaucratic support. Using the 2020 regu-larization of irregular migrant workers in Italy as a case study, it shows that actors related to this emerging segment of the ‘migration industry' are not only concerned with facilitating migrants' physical border crossings but also that intermediation services increasingly involve the crossing of internal borders, particularly between different (il)legal migration statuses. The article describes the field of legal-administrative status-intermediation, highlighting the different actors involved, who differ widely in their legal competency and the degree to which they marketize their services. The article argues that the com-bination of legal uncertainty and the specific features of the institutional and regulatory framework concerning intermediation services in Italy creates space for the emergence and expansion of for-profit actors. These actors oper-ate on a sliding scale between legal and illegal, formal and informal service-provision, ranging from commercial intermediation to illicit practices and fraud. Additionally, the article shows increasing forms of competition and ten-sion between non-profit and for-profit actors in the field. The analysis is based on 45 interviews with different actors of civil society, employers and migrants involved in the amnesty. The article looks at the migration industry as a field of intermediation in a context marked by the pandemic and on the forms of embeddedness of irregular migrants in local society.

Immigrant legalization and the redistribution of state funds: Evidence from the 1986 IRCA

We study the impact of immigrant legalization on fiscal transfers from state to local governments in the United States, exploiting variation in legal status from the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA). State governments allocate more resources to IRCA counties, an allocation that is responsive to the electoral incentives of the governor. Importantly, the effect emerges prior to the enfranchisement of the IRCA migrants and we argue it is driven by the IRCA’s capacity to politically empower already legal Hispanic migrants in mixed legal status communities. The IRCA increases turnout in large Hispanic communities as well as Hispanic political engagement, without detectably triggering anti-migrant sentiment.

Practical proposals for the development of a system of mutual settlements for medical care for labor migrants between the Russian Federation and labor-exporting countries

The object of the study is the humanitarian aspects of ensuring national security in the context of providing medical care to migrants. The subject is associated with the development of a system of mutual settlements for medical care to labor migrants between the Russian Federation and labor-exporting countries. The authors examine in detail the issues related to financial support for the provision of medical care to labor migrants, taking into account their unification into two groups: legal and illegal. The authors propose modernizing the legislation taking into account the minimization of financial risks and imposing the obligation to pay for medical care on the government bodies of the country from which the corresponding migrant arrived. A conclusion is made about the presence of not only direct, but also indirect effects, which, first of all, are associated with ensuring the achievement of the national development goals of the Russian Federation for the period up to 2030. Мethods: data analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction, graphic tools. Scientific novelty: the author's recommendations on the organization of a system of mutual settlements for medical care to labor migrants between the Russian Federation and labor exporting countries. A conclusion is made on the need to organize it taking into account the existing problems of financial support for the provision of medical care in the context of legal and illegal migrants. The authors propose to form statistics on the amount of expenditures of the budgets of the Russian Federation on the provision of medical care to labor migrants. The presented results will be in demand by the President of the Russian Federation, the Government of Russia and the Ministry of Health of Russia.

5 - Recalibrating the labyrinths of migration and health in West Africa

The discourses and practices surrounding migration and health have taken a dramatic turn since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. Experts are more concerned about the consequences of the pandemic on these factors in Africa, given the continent’s weak economies and poor health sector, which portends a difficult post-pandemic recovery. However, the discussions have not engaged with two key effects of the coronavirus: the health implications not only on the general populace but also along border towns, and the dilemma of a ‘new’ (il)legal migration. Drawing on Ghana’s border policing as a Covid-19 pandemic governance strategy, coupled with existing debates on health, politics, migration and development, we argue that border policing is likely to create two emerging threats. First, it could cause a ‘new’ health dilemma – hindering long-standing cross-border healthcare access by ECOWAS citizens. Second, sustained border restrictions could deepen the intricacies of migration in West Africa, including the promotion of ‘elite migrants’ over migrants who are seeking a basic livelihood, the changing fate of undocumented migrants, new security threats at border town , and a possible redefinition of traditional rural–urban migration in Africa.

Europe and Arab States’ Migration-related Instruments with Africa: Dilemma of Soft Power and Conflictual Interests

The national and regional interests of the European Union, oil-rich Gulf Cooperation Council and Africa are conflictual in addressing international labour migration. This underscores the structure and ineffectiveness of bilateral migration instruments. The European Union canvasses for migrants’ returns, readmission and outsourcing of national border controls; Arab states show reluctance to stop the predominant employer–sponsorship system that curtails labour migrants’ human rights, while African states detest migrants’ return and readmission, and prefer liberalisation of legal migration and flow of remittances. This article is anchored on the hegemonic stability and regime frame of interventionist liberalism theoretical perspectives to highlight Europe’s soft power in migration partnerships or agreements deployed via financial aid and development projects as a way to drive the migration-development-security nexus with African countries. Essentially, African states’ asymmetric economic relationship with Europe has accentuated the carrot-and-stick approach, while Arab states’ slow pace in allowing the mobility of African labour migrants has led to a reduction in remittance flows. It is recommended that the dialogues between the regional blocs and countries leading to labour migration agreements must find a common ground of mutual interests for effective partnerships to emerge.

Проблемы национального законодательства в сфере регулирования миграционных отношений в Российской Федерации

The article discusses some problems of legal regulation of migration problems, as well as ways to solve them. As a result of the conducted research, the author comes to the conclusion that in order to further improve the migration legislation, it is objectively necessary to conduct scientific research on the problems and prospects of its development, including through systematization. At the same time, these studies should be interdisciplinary in nature, which is due to the multidimensional genesis of the current problems. Accordingly, the development of legal migration policy strategies should be strictly scientifically based.

Незаконная миграция: причины, последствия и пути преодоления

There are many people in the world who are looking for a better life and move to other countries in search of work, education or better living conditions. However, not everyone is able to move legally, so there is the phenomenon of illegal migration. In this article we look at the causes, consequences and ways to overcome irregular migration. It also examines the current problems of irregular migration in the modern world. The paper analyses the main reasons for illegal migration, such as economic difficulties, political instability, refugees, etc. The consequences of irregular migration for the receiving countries and for the migrants themselves are discussed. The article also presents ways to overcome the problem of irregular migration, such as tightening the legislation, improving the skills of the services dealing with migration control, creating conditions for legal migration. Overall, the article provides a comprehensive overview of the problem of irregular migration and suggests ways to address it.

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Combating against irregular and illegal migration in the state management of migration of the Republic of Armenia has always been emphasized, focusing heavily on the reduction of irregular migration originating from Armenia, the requirement to execute the issue to study such phenomenon and make suggestions for its prevention was included in the list of priority issues. The inclusion of the issues regarding irregular migration in the list of priority issues hereby proves the importance of combating against this phenomenon for our State and society. In order to implement this problem, a number of measures promoting legal migration were implemented in Armenia, and in 2014 the organization of illegal migration was criminalized which is considered a criminal offense under the Criminal Codes of most States, especially when along with the increase in immigration flows in Armenia, the risks of illegal and irregular influx, residence and work of foreigners have also increased. This article will refer to the legal grounds for traveling to another country, the existing legislative regulations in the Republic of Armenia in this regard, a number of concepts related to illegal migration, the definitions given by the International Organization for Migration, the grounds of the migrant’s criminal responsibility, the legal assessments given to the migrant’s acts in law enforcement practice, the existing measures aimed at achieving the latter’s criminal responsibility and etc. As a result, the author proposed a new solution among the currently implemented ones regarding the legal assessment of the migrant’s act.

Formation and development of the idea of freedom as a principle of law

It is indicated that the extraordinary importance of the researched issue is also confirmed by the content of the Association Agreement between Ukraine, on the one hand, and the European Union, the European Atomic Energy Community and their member states, on the other hand, which enshrines the importance of joint management of freedom of movement (migration flows) between territories and a comprehensive dialogue on all issues in the field of migration, in particular illegal migration, legal migration, illegal transportation of persons across the state border and human trafficking, as well as the inclusion of problematic issues in the field of migration in the national strategies of economic and social development of the regions where migrants come from. The special importance of the problems of freedom of movement within the framework of migration control is also reflected in national legislation by the fact that, in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution of Ukraine, the principles of regulation of demographic and migration processes, as well as the procedure for the formation and functioning of free and other special zones with economic or a migration regime different from the general one.
 The authors note that the formation and development of the ideas of freedom as a principle of law is a constant process that reflects the challenges of different eras. The modern world requires not only the maintenance of these ideas, but also their active improvement in accordance with the new realities and progress of society. Ensuring freedom remains the main task for human rights defenders, legislators and citizens. Paying attention to new challenges, such as global problems, technological progress, socio-cultural transformations, allows improving existing concepts of freedom and adapting them to new conditions.
 Joint efforts, effective international cooperation and mutual respect for human rights are key elements for the development of ideas of freedom. The global community should actively work on creating inclusive and effective human rights protection mechanisms at all levels.
 In the light of the new challenges facing humanity, the preservation and development of the ideas of freedom become not only the task of legislators, but also a matter of public consciousness and the active participation of every member of society. Only a joint effort and a constant willingness to improve our understanding of freedom can ensure the permanence of this important principle of law in the present and future world.

The quiet politics of migration supranationalization – Commission entrepreneurship and the intra-Corporate Transferee Directive

ABSTRACT Migration is widely considered a sensitive and contested area of EU policymaking, with Member States reluctant to cede control. Yet, supranational rules on ‘legal migration’ increasingly reduce Member State discretion to control migration. While Commission entrepreneurship has been proposed as an explanation, its importance for supranational outcomes remains unclear. To understand the role of Commission entrepreneurship in enabling supranational policy outcomes, this study traces the negotiations of on one central labour migration policy, the Intra-Corporate Transferee Directive. I demonstrate how the Commission was able to defuse opposition by proposing a narrow policy instrument and framing it as a matter of business needs, international obligations and competitiveness rather than labour migration. This enabled an environment of ‘quiet politics’ where concerns over sovereignty and control were tuned down to a preference for administrative flexibility. The findings have implications for our understanding of the dynamics of supranationalization in politically sensitive policy areas.

The Trends of Legal Migration: Reasons of Indonesian Legal Migrants Settling in the Netherlands

Indonesia has been one of the contributing countries in sending migrants to the Netherlands. The historical relations along with the large economic opportunities in the Netherlands play a part in the promotion of cross-border movement for Indonesians to the Netherlands. However, those are only one of many underlying reasons why Indonesians are willing to leave their home country to a more developed country. This article questions the reasons behind Indonesian legal migration in the Netherlands and looks into the trend of Indonesian migrants as the result of the fulfilment of human development embedded in education and employment policies and management in the Netherlands. The relationship between the two aspects and the Indonesian migration in the Netherlands is examined through the Theory of Human Development by Amartya Sen, specifically in regard to the improvement of human capabilities and freedom of choice. The authors found that a country that promotes human development is more favourable to live in. Thus, in this case, the education and employment policies and mechanisms of the Netherlands that are focusing on the fulfilment of freedom of choice and the improvement of human capabilities attract international migrants, particularly the Indonesians. Keywords: the Netherlands; Indonesia; Legal Migrants; Migration

Exploring the limitations of language interpretation: A qualitative study on clinicians' experiences at French Office of Immigration and Integration.

The concordance of communication between patients and health professionals is essential to promoting positive health outcomes. However, concordance may be broken where language barriers exist therefore creating a need to use interpretation services. This is the case when rapid diagnostic testing (RDT) of HIV, HBV, and HCV is offered to migrants. The use of interpreters to establish communication with patients having limited French proficiency (LFP) however, is often not used and can be problematic. Despite being offered, interpretation services are frequently underutilised, which makes communication challenging. This problem has not received enough attention in the literature, particularly in a technologically advanced setting where solutions may be found. Our objective was to explore how interpreters are used within the context of medical consultations when RDT for HIV, HBV, and HCV is offered to legal migrants with LFP. A cross-sectional qualitative study was used with a purposive sample that included doctors and nurses who had conducted rapid screening tests with migrants in four centers in France and who had access to interpretive services. Semi-structured interviews explored healthcare providers' (HP) use of interpreters at the OFII. The use of professional or ad hoc interpreters, telephone interpreters, and the equivalence of concepts such as health literacy between the HP and the interpreter were explored. The utility of a new tool to promote communication concordance was evaluated. Twenty interviews were conducted with eleven doctors and nine nurses with a median age of 58 years (25-67 years). All participants had access to interpretive services although many did not solicit them because of 1) unawareness on how to use the services, 2) preconceived notions of the length of time to involve an interpreter and how this would add to consultation times, or 3) the proximity of an ad hoc interpreter. Not using interpreter services could result in RDTs not being offered to immigrants. Subjects such as confidentiality, the embarrassment of a third party's presence, the lack of appropriate training and differing levels of health literacy were also discussed by participants. Insight from HPs allows us to better understand how both telephone and in-person interpretation are used, viewed, and why they are underused to communicate with limited French language skills patients. Our findings will help us develop a conceptual model for a digital communication tool to overcome barriers with migrant patients with limited French language skills.

Challenges of international migration in Georgia

In the era of globalization, international migration has become massive. International labor and education markets allow people to study and work in a country of their choice. The right to move freely between countries is an essential human rights element. However, if migration processes are illegal, it can turn into a severe problem. Evaluating the political, cultural, and socio-economic consequences of international migration processes, promoting legal migration, developing a migration policy tailored to the country's interests, and creating the legal basis for its implementation are significant priorities of the state policy in any country. The paper identifies the main challenges of international migration in Georgia and discusses the legislation regulating migration processes. The dynamics of international migration, its positive and negative aspects, and the socio-economic problems of emigration and immigration are analyzed based on statistical-quantitative research methods. Opinions are expressed to perfect migration policy and overcome its challenges.

Positive and negative contact between Africans and native Italians: Importance for migrants' collective action in support of their and other groups' rights

AbstractThis research investigates the positive and negative contact experiences of African migrants with native Italians and the association between contact and behavioural intentions to reduce social inequalities. Two studies examined the associations between intergroup contact of migrants and their collective action in support of their or other group members, by testing the mediating role of positive and negative emotions towards natives. Hypotheses were tested with two samples of first‐generation, legal African migrants living in Italy for less than 3 years (Ns = 242 [118 males], 251 [154]). Negative contact was positively associated with collective action in support of one's group, especially among respondents with higher positive intergroup experiences, and anger towards native people mediated this association. The association of positive contact with collective action to foster a more egalitarian society in general was mediated by reduced fear towards native people, and the association between positive contact and collective action at large was stronger for migrants with lower negative intergroup contact. Overall, this research provides further evidence on the impact of intergroup contact on migrants, specifically on the role of affective factors in their association with migrants' willingness to engage in collective action to reduce societal inequality at large.

Migration and Manipulation

Abstract Much modern discussion of the morality of migration begins with the concept of coercion, and takes the coercive nature of border enforcement as especially salient in the moral analysis of migration policy. Much migration control, however, begins not with overt coercion, but with what I term manipulations; these are ways of making migration more difficult that do not resemble canonical cases of coercion. Examples include the alteration of the physical pathways between states, attempts to deceive or mislead prospective migrants about what they will discover upon arrival, and the deliberate use of abstract and complex rules to make legal migration difficult or impossible. I argue that these manipulations are worthy of independent moral examination—and that the tradition of classical liberalism has resources with which to undertake this examination.

Clients of a HIV-service NPO: structure, typology, behavioral features

Every year the number of registered HIV-infected people is increasing, which by the end of 2021 made 851.8 thousand people. In this connection the organization of work on prevention and treatment of HIV infection is relevant. The survey of 6313 representatives of the key group, i.e. clients of HIV servicing NPOs — Russians (4793 people) and citizens of other countries (1520 people) identified the main risk groups, for which it is necessary to work out the principal activity strategies connected with treatment and prevention. Every tenth client of the Charitable Foundation is HIV-infected and hepatitis C positive, every fourth has had or is having sexually transmitted infection (STI), and 4.6% of men and 1.4% of women have syphilis. The group is characterized by risky behavior in terms of HIV infection, STIs (and other dangerous diseases), including: drug use (17.8% of men — injecting and/or 46.1% of women — non-injecting), prostitution (13.6% of men and 15.4% of women), consume sex services (16.6% of men and 5.0% of women). Based on analytical and mathematical methods, eight basic conditional groups of patients of the Foundation were identified that will allow us to develop work strategies depending on a number of basic socio-demographic characteristics (age, sexual orientation), attainability of clients, morbidity, risk behavior and attitudes regarding morbidity, treatment and prevention. In particular, the most difficult groups of clients to work with at the Foundation have been identified: legal and illegal migrants and men involved in prostitution. What all of these groups have in common is that they depend on their employer and their priority is to keep their jobs, for the sake of which they are willing to sacrifice their health and lead deviant lifestyles.

From Iran to the Netherlands, and everywhere in between

AbstractA migrant's journey is no linear trajectory from A to B. It is a fragmented and complex move over different regions with alternating periods of mobility and immobility. This article researches the complex dynamics of irregular migration from Iran to the Netherlands, and everywhere in between. Through a historical comparison of the life stories of Iranian asylum seekers in the Netherlands in two time periods (1988–1989 and 2009–2010), it studies the routes they took, their relations with human smugglers, and their interactions with immigration policies and border managements along the way. It shows migrants' and smugglers’ flexibility and capacity to adapt to ever-changing circumstances. Migration politics and border controls, along with their increasing limitations on legal migration channels, are indeed crucial in the understanding of irregular migration practices and the ever-growing involvement of facilitating services. Through a combination of this migration policy research and the migration trajectory research, the paper explores these dynamics and the interactions between migrants, smugglers, and state policies in every phase of their journey from Iran to the Netherlands, and everywhere in between.

A Behavioural-Theory-Based Qualitative Study of the Beliefs and Perceptions of Marginalised Populations towards Community Volunteering to Increase Measles Immunisation Coverage in Sabah, Malaysia.

The development of the measles-containing vaccine (MCV) has rendered measles a largely preventable disease. In the state of Sabah in Malaysia, a complete course of measles immunisation for infants involves vaccinations at the ages of six, nine, and twelve months. However, it is difficult for marginalised populations to receive a complete course of measles immunisation. This present study used behavioural theory (BT) to examine the beliefs and perceptions of a marginalised population towards community volunteering as a method of increasing the immunisation coverage of measles. Marginalised populations living in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, more specifically, Malaysian citizens living in urban slums and squatter areas, as well as legal and illegal migrants, were extensively interviewed in person for this qualitative study. The 40 respondents were either the parents or primary caregivers of at least one child under the age of five. The components of the Health Belief Model were then used to examine the collected data. The respondents had poor awareness of the measles disease and perceived the disease as not severe, with some even refusing immunisation. The perceived barriers to receiving vaccinations included a nomadic lifestyle; issues with finances, citizenship status, language, and weather; failing to remember immunisation schedules; a fear of health care personnel; having too many children; and a lack of female autonomy in vaccine decision-making. However, the respondents were receptive towards community-based programmes and many welcomed a recall or reminder system, especially when the volunteers were family members or neighbours who spoke the same language and knew their village well. A few, however, found it awkward to have volunteers assisting them. Evidence-based decision making may increase measles immunisation coverage in marginalised populations. The components of the Health Belief Model validated that the respondents lacked awareness of the measles disease and viewed it and its effects as not severe. Therefore, future volunteer programmes should prioritise increasing the receptivity and self-control of marginalised populations to overcome barriers that hinder community involvement. A community-based volunteer programme is highly recommended to increase measles immunisation coverage.