Migration Management Research Articles

Of land and sea. "Interested solidarities" and the migration industry from below

This paper explores economic interactions between displaced people, local societies and spatial dimensions of migration management and border con-trols, most notably camps, focusing on the northeast Aegean islands of Chios and Lesvos. It explores the diverse activities, practices, transactions and rela-tions developing in, around and in relation to migrant camps, the array of eco-nomic actors involved, and the multiple spatialities operating at different scales. These actors intersect in various ways and occasionally interact in overlapping networks, stimulating "developmental" processes in fields of eco-nomic activities within but also beyond the migration industries. Building pri-marily on fieldwork conducted on the two islands in 2020, as well as on sec-ondary data and desk research, the paper argues that reception policies create value and mobilise resources in ways that may deepen existing inequalities or even produce new ones, capitalizing on the presence of the migrants them-selves.

Case report of rare cause of small bowel obstruction: distal migration of metal biliary stent requiring enterotomy

Endoscopic biliary stent placement is a mainstay in the management of biliary strictures both malignant and benign. Distal stent migration is a known complication of metal biliary stents, however small bowel obstruction or perforation are rare. In this report from a tertiary referral centre, we detail a mid-small bowel obstruction caused by covered metal stent migration requiring a laparotomy and enterotomy for definitive management. A 69-year-old male was admitted to the Sunshine Coast University Hospital with obstructive jaundice on a background of previous metal biliary stent placement. On day 3 of his admission, he developed worsening abdominal pain. Cross-sectional imaging demonstrated distal migration of his stent to his mid-jejunum, causing a high-grade small bowel obstruction. He underwent laparotomy to retrieve the stent. He recovered well and underwent a percutaneous transhepatic cholangiogram with stent replacement. In this case, distal biliary stent migration causes a small bowel obstruction. Whilst uncommon, risk factors including previous intra-abdominal operation can be used to identify patients unlikely to achieve successful expectant management of distal migration.

The realities of return migration: Reintegrating women migrant domestic workers in Sri Lanka

This paper critically analyzes the Sri Lankan government’s management of return migration. Adopting an intersectional lens, it examines how exclusionary policies and programs fail to protect the rights and welfare of returnee women migrant domestic workers, resulting in poor reintegration outcomes. The paper focuses on three interconnecting issues that disproportionately impact upon their rights, as revealed by empirical fieldwork carried out in Colombo in 2018. Research findings from interviews and focus group discussions with civil society organizations (9), government agencies (3) and international organizations (3) highlight the need for an inclusive policy approach. Such an approach would involve a holistic response guided by inter-agency coordination and comprehensive data that would better tailor services to the specific skillsets and diverse circumstances of returnee women domestic workers.

Assessing green production efficiency and spatial characteristics of China’s real estate industry based on the undesirable super-SBM model

As China strives to balance rapid urbanization with environmental conservation, increasing attention is being paid to the pursuit of green production efficiency (GPE) in the real estate industry. The undesirable super-SBM model was used to calculate the GPE of China's real estate industry from 2001 to 2020. Additionally, GPE spatial distribution characteristics in China's real estate industry were analyzed using the standard deviation ellipse (SDE), Moran’s index, Theil index, random kernel density estimation (RKDA), and spatial Markov chain (SMC) methods. The GPE exhibited a U-shaped trend, with 2008 as the inflection point, first decreasing and then increasing. It reached a maximum value of 0.747 in 2020. The Theil index increased from 0.043 to 0.121 nationwide, indicating the overall characteristics of low-level slow growth, and imbalance. Discrepancies in input–output scales, the southward shift of economic centers, and population movements contribute significantly to the disparities between the east and west, north and south, and regions divided by the Hu Huanyong Line (Hu Line). The GPE exhibited club convergence characteristics; however, polarization phenomena exist in local areas. Spatial spillover effects were also observed in GPE. Finally, we provide recommendations for promoting green development in the real estate industry, including green building technology, fiscal subsidy investment, and population migration management.

Деякі регіональні особливості вимушеної міграції з України: столиця та інші регіони.

The forced migration of Ukrainians within the country and abroad has become a characteristic feature of the era of full-scale invasion. It saved the lives and health of many people, as a decrease in population density in the areas most affected by the hostilities leads to a decrease in human losses. Despite the great research interest in the topic of forced migration, some aspects of it still remain poorly understood, in particular, it is important to study the peculiarities of forced migration at the localities level, at least in large cities. The purpose of this article is to single out the category of forced migrants who lived in Kyiv before the full-scale invasion by the aggressor country and to identify the peculiarities of staying abroad and the attitudes of this group. To achieve this goal, general scientific methods of analysis, synthesis, and induction were used. Empirical data were collected using the method of sample surveys. The method of grouping was used to distinguish Kyiv residents from the general population of respondents, and the method of comparison was used to identify the peculiarities of their forced migration abroad. The study found that Kyiv residents are more likely to settle abroad in the capitals of their destination countries. Among them, there are more unmarried and childless individuals, which creates prerequisites for socio-economic integration outside the country. Also, people from the capital were less likely to have relatives abroad at the time of the full-scale invasion, which is likely due to their low level of participation in external labor migration in the previous period. Migrants from the capital proved to be better integrated in the countries of settlement, which is reflected in their proficiency in the local language, employment in the local labor market, and higher levels of financial well-being. At the same time, they retain stronger ties to Ukraine. Residents of Kyiv region are similar to Kyiv residents in some respects, while in others they are similar to residents of other regions. The study also revealed cases where the population of Kyiv region exhibited characteristics intermediate between Kyiv and other regions. The development of effective strategies for migration management, socio-economic development of the country during the war and post-war revival needs to take into account regional specifics.

Biometric Technology at the Borders of Citizenship: Identifying Technical Standards for Introducer-Based Remote Onboarding in Global Contexts of Statelessness, Nomadism, Displacement, and Refuge

Abstract All throughout the so-called “Global South”, hundreds of millions of individuals from entire communities in the rural, poorer, or most peripheral areas are not officially recorded by the States they are citizens of or they habitually reside in. This is why several of such States are resorting to extensive and purportedly “universal” digital remote onboarding programs, pioneered by India’s Aadhaar, whereby individuals are centrally recorded onto a public database with their identity (and possibly citizenship) confirmed. Whenever paper documents are obsolete, inaccurate, deteriorated, or inexistent, individuals may have their identity confirmed through an “introducer”, who mediates between marginalised communities and central authorities and is entrusted by both with this delicate task. Introducers, however, cannot by themselves grant someone the status as “citizen”: they may at best confirm his or her existence and identity. These onboarding programs are enabled by wide-covering sets of technical standards, ranging from data protection and cybersecurity to interoperability, safety, disaster recovery, and business continuity. Meanwhile, similar technologies, relying on analogous standards, and fundamentally aimed at a similar purpose (that is, registering all those who fall within the prescriptive jurisdiction of a State), are deployed by border officials in the context of migration management – especially in “developed” countries. The “unofficial” and “outside-the-scope-of-the-law” components of said migratory patterns are growing exponentially due to combined effects of climate, insecurity, and geopolitical factors, increasingly originating “borderline” situations whereby identity and citizenship are challenged and contested: statelessness, refuge, nomadism (both traditional and “digital”), and internal displacement. Strikingly enough, discussions around what technical standards to adopt, and who should select them, as well as on what the role of “introducers” could be, towards the digital onboarding of individuals experiencing “borderline” configurations of citizenship are entirely neglected in socio-legal and security scholarship alike. Complemented with concrete policy proposals, the present work accepts the ambition to start bridging this gap.

ETIAS system and new proposals to advance the use of AI in public services

Eu-LISA is launching the European Travel Information and Authorization System (ETIAS), which seems an example of a different, human rights-oriented approach to AI within the law enforcement. However, the reality is quite different: the usual problems of the use of AI—lack of transparency, bias, opacity, just to name a few—are still on board. This paper critically assesses these promises of ETIAS and argues that it has serious issues that have not been properly dealt with. So as to argue the need to address these issues, the paper addresses ETIAS within the wider context of human rights and solidarity-based data governance. In this respect, ETIAS is seen as a tool which uses data for high value purposes, such as EU safety and security, yet it also calls for serious risk mitigation measures. Indeed, the risks related to law enforcement on the borders and in migration management are extremely serious due to the vulnerability of people who escape from poverty, wars, regimes, and other disasters. In the third part of this article, we articulate three proposals of such risk mitigation measures. We argue in favour of strengthening critical general safeguards in ETIAS, then elaborate a principle that should guide AI-based public service development (P4P principle) and end with a few IPR-related requirements for private sector involvement in such services. Adopting these measures could contribute to reduce the risk of building EU AI expertise upon data coming from the most vulnerable social groups of our planet.

Anesthetic Management of Intracardiac Migration of Medical Devices

The use of endovascular, percutaneous interventions for treatment of cardiac, arterial, and venous pathologies is becoming increasingly common in medical practice. While endovascular device placement typically carries low risk, device migration remains a persistent problem with these procedures for which anesthesia providers must have high index of suspicion. Anesthesia providers should be aware of the wide range of indications for such devices, potential migration locations, and hemodynamic consequences of both the inciting pathology as well as from device migration so they can safely care for patients in these settings. This article aims to discuss a case series of five different device migration events, review the literature surrounding migration of each device, and propose unique anesthetic considerations as well as a systematic approach by which to approach these complications.

Aportes del pensamiento crítico latinoamericano contemporáneo para el abordaje de las migraciones internacionales como una problemática mundial de la actualidad

The article examines the significant contribution of contemporary Latin American critical thinking to the understanding of international migrations as a current global issue. It emphasizes the need to approach the migratory phenomenon in a transdisciplinary manner, while analyzing the marked disparities present in the world and the lack of coherent responses in a globally interconnected context driven more by the interests of capital than by human needs. The article highlights the importance of incorporating the perspective of the "other" in a comprehensive approach to migrations, emphasizing the crucial consideration of human rights as an integral component of migration policies. Furthermore, it posits the thesis that the current treatment and management of international migrations have failed, being approached from a securitist model and from the perspective of the nation-state, where preeminence lies in migration control and economic interests. Conversely, it emphasizes the need to address this complex issue from an integral perspective, within the framework of North-South asymmetrical relations, acknowledging that forced migration is one of the manifestations of a civilizational crisis that humanity is undergoing. This theoretical approach is made viable through the foundations of contemporary critical theory and Latin American philosophy, providing a contextualized perspective for understanding the complexity of migratory dynamics.

The missing link: the role of criminal groups in migration governance

ABSTRACT The article investigates the role of transnational criminal groups in migration governance. Although this topic has attracted increasing global attention due to the intersection of migration management and crime, academic research remains limited. Most studies tend to view criminal groups merely as threats to migration governance or as peripheral actors. The article advocates for a significant paradigm shift in conventional debate on transnational governance. Rather than merely viewing criminal groups as global challenges for various actors to tackle, we should acknowledge them as pivotal actors influencing these challenges. Based on empirical research on migrant smuggling and human trafficking in the Greece and Libya, the article sheds more light on the complex relationships between these criminal actors, state actors and other key stakeholders in migration governance. It shows how criminal groups not only disrupt but also actively shape migration governance, and may even play a crucial role in the functioning and reproduction of its legal apparatus. In so doing, the article transcends both mainstream perspectives that view crime as a mere challenge to migration governance and critical studies that frame the role of crime in migration governance solely in terms of a state-driven process of ‘criminalization’.

The Influence of Diplomatic and Foreign Policy Considerations in the Making of Migration and Asylum Policy in Morocco

Abstract Can the management of transnational migration and asylum be used as an instrument of foreign policy? From labour market needs to legal issues, electoral pressure, and financial and commercial interests, the scholarly literature on the drivers of migration policy in both the North and the South has focused primarily on domestic factors. The case of Morocco offers a useful additional perspective. The security-orientated and restrictive policy toward transmigrants applied in the 2000s gave way, in 2013, to a new approach that was much more welcoming and mindful of migrant integration. Since Morocco’s independence in 1956, asylum management has been driven exclusively by security and political objectives. Although it has never had a national asylum system, Morocco has officially taken the initiative to establish a system that complies with its international commitments in asylum. By taking a Moroccan perspective on the situation, this article examines the management of migration and asylum by a country of the Global South with a multifaceted migration profile (as a country that is simultaneously one of emigration, transit, and immigration). It shows that Morocco’s change in migration policy is a reflection of its evolving foreign policy.

Assessment of health perceptions, use of health services and traditional health practices of Afghan immigrants in Türkiye.

Immigration, as a social determinant of health, encompasses several social and economic transformations. Neglecting to adequately address this issue could potentially worsen pre-existing challenges within health systems and in the management of migration. In the present study, we aim to evaluate the health perceptions, traditional health practices and use of health services of Afghan immigrants. We enrolled 1597 Afghan immigrants over 18 years old in the descriptive cross-sectional research. The mean age of the immigrants was 49.19 ± 1.6 years. The smallest number of points that can be achieved on the health perception scale is 15, while the greatest number is 75. We found that the health perception scale average score is 37.61 ± 7.32. Some factors, such as age 65 and over, female gender, postgraduate education level, good social insurance and economic status, being a public officer, not having any infectious diseases, and having a good Turkish level, have positively affected the health perception levels (p < 0.05). Moreover, we observed that cultural differences, expensive health care, a lack of social insurance, fear and anxiety, lack of language skills, waiting times and traditional health practices were the most common barriers to accessing healthcare services. Considering these issues in the health system, identifying the factors that negatively affect the perception of health and related to the use of health services can help immigrants increase their use of health services and improve their health.

Exploring the Role of the Migration Policy Resolution in Enabling Anticipatory Governance in North Macedonia

Abstract The migration landscape is a dynamic phenomenon shaped by geopolitical shifts, economic transformations, and climate change. North Macedonia, located in the heart of the Balkan Peninsula, serves as a critical transit country for significant migration patterns due to its strategic location and political aspirations towards Europe. Facing internal demographic challenges such as population decline and aging, the country is transitioning towards attracting immigration and becoming a destination for migrants. The Mediterranean Crisis of 2015 highlighted North Macedonia's pivotal role in migration routes, with over 800,000 individuals crossing its borders amid Europe's refugee and migrant influx. Despite containment efforts, the country remains part of mixed-movement routes, with significant border crossings observed in subsequent years. The long-term suspicions of brain drain were confirmed when the demographic census of 2021 revealed a startling 10% population decline over nearly two decades, emphasizing persistent outmigration and aging trends. To address migration challenges, North Macedonia adopted the Resolution on Migration Policy 2021-2025, aiming to establish a robust framework for managing both legal and illegal migrations. Anticipatory governance emerges as a proactive approach to navigating migration complexities, incorporating foresight and policy integration to shape sustainable migration policies in the country. The development of an Anticipatory Migration Governance model that seeks to foster transformative mindset shifts among stakeholders and institutionalize forward-looking planning, ensuring the effectiveness of migration management strategies. Through capacity development, improving of data collection, and decisions based on data, North Macedonia aims to navigate migration dynamics and achieve economic development with future-looking inclusive policies and collaboration.

Flimm: Foreground traffic aware data migration manager for distributed storage system

Currently, decentralized distributed storage system is widely used in various scenarios, because decentralized data placement algorithms observably improve scalability and robustness of distributed storage system. However, storage system applied with decentralized data placement algorithm suffers from uncontrollable data migration during expanding the clusters, which lead to dramatic fluctuation of performance. To maintain reliability and stability of storage system, administrators are under great pressure to migrate data during expansion or contraction. Not only the urgent time constraints to expansion but also low interference to foreground application are required during data migration period. It is a difficult challenge for in-experienced administrators to tackle.To address this challenge, this paper introduces Flimm, a fast and low-interference data migration manager that is aware of storage resource utilization and performs data migration with low interference to foreground applications. Flimm mitigates interference by scheduling a subset of migration tasks with careful consideration. Moreover, Flimm adapts to varying foreground application workloads through adaptive migration speed control, providing administrators with convenient and secure parameters for tuning. In our experiments, Flimm demonstrated a 1.2x acceleration in migration speed and achieved a 20% reduction in interference.

Urban and social resilience—the role of cities and civil society organizations in the Search and Rescue system in the Mediterranean

Search and Rescue (SAR) in the Central Mediterranean has been at the center of the European debate on migration management of the past decade. In response to the challenges posed by maritime rescue operations, European governments have increasingly centralized their efforts through Frontex operations, departing from the previous collaborative framework with SAR NGOs that was established in the aftermath of the Lampedusa shipwreck. The political discourse has predominantly focused on the designation and definition of a Port of Safety, sidelining the imperative need for an effective SAR infrastructure, leading to life-threatening impasses at sea, and also leading to the complete disregard for the agency and will of cities. While the cooperation between governments, cities, and civil society organizations has been at the center of successful decentralized migration management efforts on land, a contrasting trend of centralization and diminished cooperation has emerged at sea in the Central Mediterranean. The article argues that the European Union’s shift from SAR-oriented efforts to border management has resulted in heightened inefficiencies within the Mediterranean SAR infrastructure. This inefficiency is attributed to the diminished collaboration with NGOs and local entities. Utilizing the category of resilience as a theoretical framework of migration management, the article will address the role of cities and NGOs in the creation of a coordinated SAR system in the Mediterranean.

Judicial Review of the EU's Informal Migration Tools - Admissibility in Cases of Tunisia and Türkiye Deals

Accountability of the EU in external migration management has become increasingly challenging due to the widespread use of informal tools. Since the Amsterdam Treaty, the EU has exercised this competence primarily through readmission agreements. However, following the urgency of the migration crisis post-2015, coupled with the procedural and legal constraints of readmission agreements and the necessity for flexibility, informal tools like the EU-Turkey Statement (2016) have gained preference over hard law sources. Judicial review of these instruments has only been tested in the case of Türkiye, where the CJEU rejected the case during the admissibility stage. This article evaluates the judicial review of informal migration tools within this context. It does so by examining the potential for annulment against the EU-Tunisia Memorandum of Understanding (2023) from a procedural perspective, drawing upon criteria derived from the Türkiye case and relevant CJEU jurisprudence. It is concluded that the current criteria regarding the status of applicants are insufficient to bring the EU before the CJEU. Therefore, given the ongoing increase in the use of informal tools, there is a pressing need to reform the procedural rules concerning actions for annulment.

REGULATION OF LABOR MIGRATION IN ENSURING THE WELFARE OF SOCIETY

In research on migration processes in the world, including migration humanization and regulation of processes, migration three-way approach to organization of management and development of migration policy cooperation in exit, development of multilateral bases of labor migration exit, improving human rights-based management of international migration, various negative effects of social factors on labor migration prevention of consequences and their elimination, migrants by the state promotes the need to improve the protection system.

(Dis)embedding humanitarianism: Trajectories of subordination and subversion within migrant-serving NGOs

A broad body of scholarship has examined how states and intergovernmental organizations like UNHCR and the IOM mobilize discourses of humanitarianism and political neutrality to legitimize and depoliticize “migration management,” which is imagined as an orderly, economically productive, and humane endeavor that is in line with state security interests, prevailing growth and development objectives, and human rights norms. The article contributes to more recent work that has tended to frame smaller grassroots humanitarian organizations as either subversive or subordinated to migration management. We engage with long-standing conversations in economic geography and related social science disciplines to consider embeddedness as a conceptual framework that highlights the spatial and temporal nuances of how migrant-serving NGOs negotiate intersecting moral, legal, and political interests. We suggest that conceptualizing embeddedness as a spatio-temporal process nuances recent conversations regarding the ambiguous role of NGOs as either subordinated or subversive relative to migration management. Approaching (dis)embeddeding as a dynamic relational process, we argue, provides a framework for understanding how NGOs simultaneously align with and contest the interests of migration management amid shifting social, economic, and political conditions.

Situated belonging as everyday practice in a semi-public Youth Living Room for undocumented young city dwellers

ABSTRACT This article discusses how everyday practices in a day shelter for undocumented youth interfere with binary narratives of belonging versus non-belonging. Tapping into scholarship on a home in the face of displacement and marginalization, this article draws on ethnographic fieldwork in the so-called ‘Youth Living Room’ in Amsterdam. Caught up in migration management, the undocumented young people present here experience structural exclusion and are cut off from welfare arrangements in the Netherlands. But while their precarious situation was reinforced even further under COVID-19 measures, in the Youth Living Room, undocumented youths engaged in mundane practices that incited feelings of belonging. In the absence of a house and faced with the closure of public space, the Youth Living Room as a semi-public place accommodated ‘homemaking practices’. These homemaking practices, I argue, attest to the complexities of belonging and rather suggest alternative orderings to a dichotomized politics of belonging; this paper shows that homemaking practices in this semi-public shelter alert us to the inherent situatedness of being at home in society. Situated belonging then challenges our political imagination to ask what collective practices of homemaking we want to engage in.

Externalisation of Migration Controls: A Taxonomy of Practices and Their Implications in International and European Law

The externalisation of migration and border controls refers to a series of practices whereby States attempt to manage migration flows and enforce immigration policies beyond their borders, often by collaborating with other countries or non-state actors. Externalisation can involve various measures such as outsourcing border control functions, implementing agreements with neighbouring or transit countries to intercept migrants before they reach the State’s territory, and providing aid or incentives for other countries to prevent or reduce migration flows. Externalisation practices are employed to shift the burden of migration management away from the receiving state and onto other actors or territories, often to limit responsibilities and on the assumption that human rights obligations only apply territorially. In an attempt to challenge such an assumption and to frame the nature of human rights obligations in the context of externalisation practices, this article develops a taxonomy of externalisation measures and provides an overview of the jurisdictional approaches to the extraterritorial scope of human rights obligations.