Mixed Migration Research Articles

Contemporary Migration as a Repercussion of Economic Globalization and Democratic Processes, with Reference to Serbia and the Balkans

The central problem in the present globalization and democratic processes is the constant increase of socio-economic inequalities. This involves modern migrations with overall risks. As a social phenomenon, migration has been presented since ancient times. It occurs in all societies and due to historical, social and cultural differences, the reaction of individuals and communities to migration can be very different. In the contemporary society that emphasizes mobility and information flow, migrations have become an integral part of life and society. Moreover, their scope and patterns become more and more complex. Given the recent increase in irregular migration to Europe, there is growing interest in developing new ways to collect and analyse data on irregular migration. Migration is today more than ever at the centre of global attention. The main goal of internationational organizations in this field is to harness the development potential of migration for individual migrants and societies. The Balkans region has witnessed a sharp increase in the numbers of mixed migration flows arriving in or transiting through its territory, along the so-called Balkan route. My country, i.e. Serbia, is facing a series of political, economic, social and cultural challenges, which this paper examines, explaining why the state still has a high emigration and low immigration potential, as well as to what extent the return to Serbia today is a complex option. In addition to the high numbers, the mixed composition of these flows adds complexity to the task of addressing them effectively and in line with international commitments and standards. This study focuses on the relations between international organizations, migrations and national interests of countries. The author determines that migrations are, to some extent, a challenge for the Balkan region, not only in terms of an increased danger of extremism, but also because of the possible outbreak of regional conflicts.

Triaging Mixed Migration: Trump Card or Achilles Heel of the Common European Asylum System? Insights from Organized Hypocrisy

Abstract With border screening at the core of the ‘New Pact on Migration and Asylum’, the European Commission presents the effective triage of mixed migration as a trump card to finally fix the dysfunctional Common European Asylum System (CEAS). This calls for a closer examination of how triage governmentality relates to dysfunctionality as a trope in the European Union’s (EU) asylum policy. The article shows how, in the last three decades of policymaking, EU actors have consistently represented the CEAS as dysfunctional. One of the core problems put forward is that the EU’s common standards of qualification, procedures, and reception have failed to harmonize how persons in need of protection are identified and treated across the EU. The resulting asylum lottery undermines the legitimacy and efficacy of the EU’s allocation and return systems. Can the effective triage of mixed migration render the CEAS functional? This article argues that, in the design of the CEAS, triage mechanisms are key to reconciling the competing objectives of asylum protection and migration control. As implementation falls short, a gap has emerged between promises and results within triage governmentality.

Vagrancy Occurrences in Sora (Porzana Carolina)

Observations of individuals in unexpected places, often outside their known geographic range or in an unexpected part of their range seasonally, help better understand how individuals move across and use the landscape. Rallids (Family Rallidae) are a globally distributed family of birds which are well known for having vagrant individuals and to undertake mixed migration strategies. In this study, museum specimens and other records of Sora (Porzana carolina) outside of the western hemisphere are examined, along with individuals recovered outside of the breeding geographic range during Sora's typical breeding season (June–July). There were 5 museum specimens found outside the typical breeding range during the typical breeding season, 30 records from outside the typical breeding range during the typical breeding season, and 3 records outside of the Americas. Vagrancy and changes are possible pathways through which bird species may adapt to a changing climates and environments. Therefore, documentation and study of these vagrant movements is important to our overall understanding of rallid biology and will contribute to their conservation in the future.

COVID-19 Crisis as the New-State-of-the-Art in the Crimmigration Milieu

The concept of crimmigration connotes the currently prevailing approach between the different fields of penal, administrative and migration laws. It seems that, progressively, there is an amalgamation of penal law practices with those of civil and administrative law processes in a way creating confusion as to the boundaries of each law discipline and rational. In addition, the protection of public health from COVID-19 interrelates with the above three fields of law while at the same time the measures undertaken for the confrontation of the pandemic are further strengthening the social controls already imposed towards the migrant-refugee populations. Based on the Greek experience, we are particularly interested in mixed migration flows’ status of a ‘prolonged reception’. We have decided to examine the cases of the ‘asylum-seeker’ population and the ‘undocumented’ population who, to a large extent, constitute a large unseen category for the national vaccine program implemented to combat the COVID-19 hygiene crisis. The basic idea supported by our present study is that the health field is used as an additive component to crimmigration as it helps the establishment of a concrete screening intensifying the already imposed migration controls. In addition, the official social controls imposed to combat the COVD-19 health crisis contribute to crimmigration through the intensification of the dangerization of mixed migration flows. Currently, the health field, affected by COVID-19, contributes to the intensification of the crimmigration regime and at the same time to a dangerous cul-de-sac.

The Role of Emerging Predictive IT Tools in Effective Migration Governance

Predicting mass migration is one of the main challenges for policymakers and NGOs working with migrants worldwide. Recently there has been a considerable increase in the use of computational techniques to predict migration flows, and advances have allowed for application of improved algorithms in the field. However, given the rapid pace of technological development facilitating these new predictive tools and methods for migration, it is important to address the extent to which such instruments and techniques engage with and impact migration governance. This study provides an in-depth examination of selected existing predictive tools in the migration field and their impact on the governance of migratory flows. It focuses on a comparative qualitative examination of these tools’ scope, as well as how these characteristics link to their respective underlying migration theory, research question, or objective. It overviews how several organisations have developed tools to predict short- or longer-term migration patterns, or to assess and estimate migration uncertainties. At the same time, it demonstrates how and why these instruments continue to face limitations that in turn affect migration management, especially as it relates to increasing EU institutional and stakeholder efforts to forecast or predict mixed migration. The main predictive migration tools in use today cover different scopes and uses, and as such are equally valid in shaping the requirements for a future, fully comprehensive predictive migration tool. This article provides clarity on the requirements and features for such a tool and draws conclusions as to the risks and opportunities any such tool could present for the future of EU migration governance.

Visitor Visa Policy Changes and Mexico-Canada Migration

Although recent scholarship shows that restrictive visa policies curtail migration, research does not disaggregate policy effects within migration flows. We analyze Mexico-Canada migration when a travel visa was imposed in 2009 and removed in 2016. The imposition coincided with a dramatic decrease in travel and refugee claims. However, the number of Mexican immigrants grew, contrasting expectations of migration policy effectiveness research. We suggest that future research should disaggregate effects of policy changes, consider a state’s broader approach to migration policy, and examine how subnational programs and number of legal migration pathways influence trends of mixed migration flows.

Migration as conflict risk-management: testing the new economics of labour migration as a framework for understanding refugee decision-making

ABSTRACT FitzGerald and Arar (2018. “The Sociology of Refugee Migration.” Annual Review of Sociology 44 (1): 387–406) suggest that adapting the New Economics of Labour Migration Theory (NELM) to include the risk of violence as another risk managed through migration could provide a framework to analyze refugee and ‘mixed migration’ decision-making. I use original data from a case study to evaluate this proposed theoretical extension. Drawing on interviews with 21 middle-class Iraqis who settled in the Greater Toronto area following the 2003 US-led invasion, I find that participants who entered Canada as both refugee and non-refugee migrants self-insured against risks to physical and socio-economic safety through migration. I argue that foregrounding state policies, which delineate the legal statuses available to potential migrants and their associated rights and obligations, improves NELM’s utility for explaining migration from conflict. By sampling on the country of origin, rather than destination country entry category, I show that host-state policies structure the risks of migration and, consequently, family risk-management decisions and mobility patterns. Additionally, those motivated to migrate due to violence can self-insure against these risks by negotiating legal status as a means to safety if they have the resources to meet restrictive policy requirements. Thus, this paper suggests that better-resourced migrants may be at an advantage when fleeing conflict.

Toward an Early Warning System for Monitoring Asylum-Related Migration Flows in Europe

Asylum-related migration is highly complex, uncertain, and volatile, which precludes using standard model-based predictions to inform policy and operational decisions. At the same time, asylum's potentially high societal impacts on receiving countries and the resource implications of asylum processes call for more proactive approaches for assessing current and future migration flows. In this article, we propose an alternative approach to asylum modeling, based on the detection of early warning signals by using models originating from statistical control theory. Our empirical analysis of several asylum flows into Europe in 2010–2016 demonstrates the approach's utility and potential in aiding the management of mixed migration flows, while also shedding more light on the work needed to make better use of the “big data” and scenario-based methods for comprehensive and systematic examination of risk, uncertainty, and emerging trends.

EAMA: Efficient Adaptive Migration Algorithm for Cloud Data Centers (CDCs)

The rapid demand for Cloud services resulted in the establishment of large-scale Cloud Data Centers (CDCs), which ultimately consume a large amount of energy. An enormous amount of energy consumption eventually leads to high operating costs and carbon emissions. To reduce energy consumption with efficient resource utilization, various dynamic Virtual Machine (VM) consolidation approaches (i.e., Predictive Anti-Correlated Placement Algorithm (PACPA), Resource-Utilization-Aware Energy Efficient (RUAEE), Memory-bound Pre-copy Live Migration (MPLM), m Mixed migration strategy, Memory/disk operation aware Live VM Migration (MLLM), etc.) have been considered. Most of these techniques do aggressive VM consolidation that eventually results in performance degradation of CDCs in terms of resource utilization and energy consumption. In this paper, an Efficient Adaptive Migration Algorithm (EAMA) is proposed for effective migration and placement of VMs on the Physical Machines (PMs) dynamically. The proposed approach has two distinct features: first, selection of PM locations with optimum access delay where the VMs are required to be migrated, and second, reduces the number of VM migrations. Extensive simulation experiments have been conducted using the CloudSim toolkit. The results of the proposed approach are compared with the PACPA and RUAEE algorithms in terms of Service-Level Agreement (SLA) violation, resource utilization, number of hosts shut down, and energy consumption. Results show that proposed EAMA approach significantly reduces the number of migrations by 16% and 24%, SLA violation by 20% and 34%, and increases the resource utilization by 8% to 17% with increased number of hosts shut down from 10% to 13% as compared to the PACPA and RUAEE, respectively. Moreover, a 13% improvement in energy consumption has also been observed.

Permeability Coefficient of Unsaturated Loess and Its Gaseous and Liquid Water Migration Modeling

Water migration changes the water distribution of loess and significantly affects the engineering properties of loess. However, because of the characteristics of loess such as water sensitivity and special structure, it is still difficult to understand the water migration trend of loess. The objectives of this study are to investigate the water diffusion coefficient and soil-water characteristic curve (SWCC) of loess, focusing on the effect of temperature and density, and establish a mixed migration equation for gaseous and liquid water to develop a new calculation method of loess water migration. The results show that the density of loess with larger liquid water content has a more significant effect on the diffusion coefficient than that of less liquid water content. Furthermore, the density significantly affects the matric suction of unsaturated loess, while the temperature change at normal temperature has slight effect. Based on the data obtained in this study, the soil water permeability coefficient was obtained. Moreover, considering the characteristics of mixed migration of gas and liquid water in unsaturated loess, an equation was derived for the gas-liquid water transfer in unsaturated loess. The calculation results are consistent with the experimental results of water migration experiment. Based on the calculation results of water migration, the trend of water migration and proportion of gaseous water during migration were analyzed.

Social Cohesion and Transforming Cities: The Housing Experience of Displaced People in Turkey

Karma nitelikli uluslararası göç ile hareket eden kişilerin kentsel alanlarda yaşamayı tercih etmesi, barınma deneyimleri açısından kentlerde farklı sorunların ortaya çıkmasına neden olmaktadır. 2011 yılından itibaren yoğun bir şekilde Suriye’den zorunlu göçle Türkiye’ye gelen kişilerin kentlerdeki varlığı, bu kişilerin barınma deneyimlerinin Türkiye özelinde incelenmesi gerekliliğini belirginleştirmiştir. Özellikle bu deneyimlerinin toplumsal bütünleşme ve sosyal uyum süreçlerine etkisine ilişkin çalışma ve uygulamaların bilimsel olarak değerlendirilmesinin önemi giderek artmıştır. Bu öneme karşın, Türkiye’de bu konuya ilişkin çalışmaların sayısı oldukça azdır. Bu çalışma, Türkiye’ye zorunlu göçle gelenlerin barınma deneyimleri ile toplumsal bütünleşme ve sosyal uyum süreçleri arasındaki ilişkiyi inceleyerek, bilimsel çalışmalardaki söz konusu eksikliği gidermeyi amaçlamaktadır. Bu amaçla, ilgili ulusal ve uluslararası yazın incelenerek birey merkezli bakış açısıyla konutun, toplumsal bütünleşme ve sosyal uyum bağlamında anlamı ve etkisi, özgün bir biçimde fiziksel, sosyo-psikolojik ve mekânsal boyut olmak üzere üç boyutla sınıflandırılmıştır. Türkiye’deki zorunlu göçle gelenlerin barınma deneyimini anlayabilmek ve açıklayabilmek için mekânsal ve sosyopsikolojik boyutlara ilişkin çalışmaların artması gerektiği tespit edilmiştir.

Moving beyond refugees and migrants: reconceptualising the rights of people on the move

The two Global Compacts on Migration and on Refugees, adopted in December 2018, reflect public and policy discourse and international legal norms in differentiating between “refugees” and “migrants”. Yet, in a context of mixed migration flows, where migrants and refugees move along the same routes and are, for all but legal purposes, indistinguishable, it can be questioned to what extent distinctions in law are adequate. This essay challenges the dichotomy between “refugees” and “migrants” and instead refers to “people on the move” as an overarching category including a wider range of human mobility for whom there needs to be a basic standard of protection. More specifically, the essay argues we should broaden our analysis to include the rights of people on the move. We thus make an attempt at conceptualizing and delineating the rights of people on the move, anchored in a human rights approach, and pay particular attention to those rights that are the most relevant, namely their mobility rights, safety and dignity rights, and legal protection rights.

Mixed Migration and the vagaries of doctrine formation since 2015

The 2018 Global Compacts on Migration and on Refugees acknowledge mixed migration – both as flow and as motivation – whilst at the same time trying very hard to (re)establish clear boundaries between the two ideal types of people mobility. Mixed migration is deeply problematic. It is the condition of possibility for “illegal migration” to be intelligible in policy terms, but it is also an expression, empirically, of reality. The notion of mixed migration had been a solution in the 1970s and 1980s for doctrine formation in the context of governing international mobility. Today, by insisting on the dubious distinction, the two Global Compacts are turning mixed migration from a solution into a problem, even as they draw on the normative framing of human rights and sustainable development. Does this move shift perspective rather than fundamentally achieving transformation of the doctrine towards a more progressive global approach in governing international mobility? Here, I argue, based on conceptual analysis of the Global Compacts, that they express a transformation rather than either returning to the conceptual past or offering something entirely new. What has not changed, however, is that in the search for solutions to governing international migration there is a reproduction of individuals as gendered and racialized subjects of global politics.

Caught in the Crossfire: Challenges to Migrant Protection in the Yemeni and Libyan Conflicts

In spite of the prevailing security dynamics in Yemen and Libya, both states continue to serve as areas of transit along some of the world’s largest mixed migration routes, leaving migrants caught in the crossfire of the two conflicts. This article examines the legal framework governing the protection of migrants in armed conflict under international humanitarian and human rights law. It also identifies two adverse incentives produced by the conflict situations that impede the exercise of these legal protections: (1) profits derived from migrant smuggling and trafficking, and (2) the use of migrants to support armed groups. In the absence of stable conditions in Yemen and Libya, individuals have little reason to respect international legal protections and discontinue migrant abuse connected with the lucrative businesses of smuggling and trafficking. The intractable nature of the two conflicts has also led to the strategic use of migrants as armed support, and more specifically as combatants, weapons transports, and human shields. Given these realities, the article outlines several recommendations to address the issue of migrant abuse in conflict. It recommends that states, particularly those neighboring Yemen and Libya, strengthen regular migration pathways to help reduce the number of migrants transiting through active conflict zones. It further advises that the international community increase the cost of noncompliance to international humanitarian law through the use of accountability mechanisms and through strategic measures, including grants of reciprocal respect to armed groups that observe protections accorded to migrants in conflict situations.

Immobility and the containment of solutions: Reflections on the Global Compacts, Mixed Migration and the Transformation of Protection

Since negotiations began in 2015 on the two Global Compacts on Migration and Refugees, many within academia have felt uncomfortable engaging with the processes. This reflects a general weariness around new international cooperation agreements, the perceived control over the two processes by key international agencies, and an apparent lack of postcolonial voices in the drafting and consultation stages. However, with both Compacts now adopted, there has been a marked increase in engagement within academia and policy circles. This postscript to the special issue reflects on the discussions presented in the essays and the Compacts more broadly. The focus is on two main themes that emerge when reading this special issue: (1) forms of protection; and (2) the concept of mixed migration. This essay finds that within both these two themes, attention continues to focus on protection and movement between states, rather than between regions. As such, it remains uncertain how the Compacts will be able to shift the dominance of self-serving policies imposed by the Global North. Nevertheless, the essay concludes by attempting to find some glimmers of optimism. Currently, there exists the political space (however slight) for various actors to try and utilize the Compacts to improve protection and opportunities for migrants who adopt mobility strategies – particularly for those who choose to move between global regions in this postcolonial era.

The Challenges of Protecting Refugees in Mixed Migration, vis-à-vis the Application of Articles 1f and 31 of the Refugee Convention

This article embarks on a critical analysis of the application of articles 1F and 31 of the Refugee Convention in a mixed migration setting in Africa. It exposes the problem of mixed migration and how it affects refugees and offers a brief history and scope and purpose of these articles. This study argues that article 1F(b) is ambiguous and inadequate, and that it provides room for adjudicators to exclude certain migrants from refugee status. On the other hand, owing to vagueness in these articles, refugees can be penalised, criminalised and detained for possible extradition and repatriation. Additionally, refugees who enter countries of refuge amidst other migrants may find it difficult to report to an appropriate centre to apply for refugee status. Thus, they are not able to comply with article 31 of the Refugee Convention. Therefore, the author recommends the amendment of both articles 1F and 31 of the Refugee Convention to eliminate problematic ambiguities.

Migration, trapping, and venting of gas in a soft granular material

Gas migration through a soft granular material involves a strong coupling between the motion of the gas and the deformation of the material. This process is relevant to a variety of natural phenomena, such as gas venting from sediments and gas exsolution from magma. Here, we study this process experimentally by injecting air into a quasi-2D packing of soft particles and measuring the morphology of the air as it invades and then rises due to buoyancy. We systematically increase the confining pre-stress in the packing by compressing it with a fluid-permeable piston, leading to a gradual transition in migration regime from fluidization to pathway opening to pore invasion. We find that mixed migration regimes emerge at intermediate confinement due to the spontaneous formation of a compaction layer at the top of the flow cell. By connecting these migration mechanisms with macroscopic invasion, trapping, and venting, we show that mixed regimes enable a sharp increase in the average amount of gas trapped within the packing, as well as much larger venting events. Our results suggest that the relationship between invasion, trapping, and venting could be controlled by modulating the confining stress.

Looking Back and Moving Forward: The Research Agenda on the Global Governance of Mixed Migration

AbstractThere is no international regime to comprehensively govern transnational migration in all of its facets. But scholars and policymakers acknowledge and study the existence of the global governance of migration. Though most have focused on disaggregating the global governance of migration into its separate regimes (refugees, labour, travel, etc.), I argue here that much of this architecture addresses the phenomenon of mixed migration. I define the global governance of mixed migration as involving a range of legal regimes impinging on actors simultaneously; shared understandings about the nature of mixed migration, including motivations and drivers; and the existence of different bilateral, regional and global arrangements for addressing the phenomenon. I critically review the interdisciplinary research agenda on the global governance of mixed migration, covering its emergence over the last twenty years, its broad empirical and conceptual dimensions, the major debates and promising directions for future research.

‘Vulnerable Refugees’ and ‘Voluntary Deportations’: Performing the Hotspot, Embodying Its Violence

ABSTRACT In this paper, we intervene in naturalised distinctions based on problematic assumptions about agency and choice that underpin the global regime of migration management: namely, that categories of human mobility can be ontologically and juridically distinguished from one another in terms of the degrees or forms of freedom they embody, and that different rights legitimately adhere to each. Focussing on the ‘hotspots’ instituted on 5 islands in the Aegean Sea to manage ‘mixed migration flows’ during the declared ‘refugee crisis,’ we show that the ideological justification for the process of differentiation involves variable attributions of agency, choice, and freedom, or their lack thereof, all of which silence the actual subjects transformed into objects of ‘migration management.’ We argue that the figure of the refugee is divested of agency through the ascription of vulnerability, while the migrant is invested with economic rationality. However, the forms of vulnerability that internment within the camp produces are excluded by design from vulnerability assessments. By tracing the various paths out of the hotspot – including the IOM’s Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration Programme – we show that the hotspot is, in essence, a deportation mechanism. This analysis is based on an ethnographic encounter, which illustrates the psychic and physical violence through which the will is bent and shaped, leading some illegalised subjects to ‘self-deportation.’

How to govern mixed migration in Europe: transnational expert networks and knowledge creation in international organizations

AbstractMixed migration is an international regime in the making. The migration and refugee crisis put the topic high on the global agenda and multilateral initiatives like the Global Compacts for Migration and Refugees have started to address it. However, it is a contested policy issue and agreement on legally binding instruments is difficult to achieve. While formal global mixed migration governance is thus only emerging, in this article I argue that international organizations shape how mixed migration is governed through informal means. Mixed migration experts in intergovernmental organizations, regional agencies and non‐governmental organizations form networks that cut across organizational levels and boundaries to create practical knowledge and to train fieldworkers. Based on interviews and the analysis of training material, this article shows that they have considerable influence over policy implementation because they control the content of training tools and devise scripts for best practices that guide how mixed migration is governed on the ground.