Regular Migration Research Articles

Climate change, human mobility, and development

Absftract Elizabeth Ferris’ review of research on environmental change and human mobility in this colloquium points to the important role that development actors play in identifying potential solutions for affected persons. She mentions in particular the work of the World Bank’s Climate Change Group and the Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development (KNOMAD). Such mobility is indeed a critical issue from a development perspective, as reflected in the Sustainable Development Goals. Goals 10.7. and 13 encourage states to ‘facilitate orderly, safe, regular and responsible migration and mobility of people’ and demand ‘urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts’, with a focus on enhancing mitigation, adaptation, and disaster risk reduction practices. The World Bank’s development goals of eradicating extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity further recognize the need to build capacity in these areas.

Dış Politika Olarak Göç Politikası

Immigration policy has taken centre stage in the social sciences over the past 20 years. Despite the proliferation of articles and books in this field, very little attention has been paid to immigration policy as foreign policy. It is domestic policy that prevails in the literature, most notably about the effects of immigration on destination societies. This article distinguishes the domestic and foreign policy aspects of immigration policy, acknowledging as it does so that foreign policy is virtually always an expression of national self-interest. It concludes with observations on the realist and idealist/liberal approaches to international relations theory including with respect to the recently adopted United Nations Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration and the United Nations Global Compact on Refugees. Its purpose is to draw attention to this neglected aspect of immigration policy and to encourage others to explore it in greater detail, from the perspectives of both individual states and the world’s international institutions.

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.

Non-binding and therefore irrelevant? The Global Compact for Migration

One of the most debated and criticized characteristics of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) is its legally non-binding form. This article analyzes the GCM’s legal form, mechanisms of effectiveness, and legitimacy and finds that while the legal form of the GCM is important, the available mechanisms of effectiveness and legitimacy are equally or, perhaps, more important factors to determine the compact’s relevance and future impact. Although non-binding, the GCM does possess the relevance, capacities, and legitimacy to become a normative force in the field of international migration governance. Compliance with its outlined commitments will, however, be strongly dependent on the political will of the participating states. Perhaps its key function will be to fill the existing gaps in hard law in global migration governance by fostering cooperation and consolidating international obligations, standards, and stakeholders of a crosscutting topic into one instrument.

Fleeing from the Global Compact for Migration: A missed opportunity for Italy

This article examines the reasons that in December 2018 led both the Italian Parliament and Government to refrain from the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, which first Italy promoted as a way to revitalize the European Union’s solidarity and coordination, while lessening the uneven burden of migratory inflows into the country. Although it has been argued that ‘the opposition to the Compact has propagandistic objectives, that cannot be negotiated away’ (Gatti, 2018, p. 1) this article aims to demonstrate the wide socio-economic and political benefits that the Global Compact will bring to Italy if adopted, as well as the gains that an instrument of international migration governance will bring to national migration policy. This contribution also highlights the opportunities that the Global Compact offers for a truly common European approach to migration.

Social Media, Populism, and Migration

Several scholars have attributed high hopes to social media regarding their alleged ability to enable a nonhierarchical and freely accessible debate among the citizenship (Loader & Mercea, 2011; Shirky, 2011). Those hopes have culminated in theses such those describing the social web as being a ‘new public sphere’ (Castells, 2009, p. 125) as well as in expectations regarding its revitalizing potential for the ‘Habermas’s public sphere’ (Kruse, Norris, & Flinchum, 2018, p. 62). Yet, these assumptions are not uncontested, particularly in the light of socially mediated populism (Mazzoleni & Bracciale, 2018). Interestingly, research on populism in the social web is still an exception. The same is true for the populist permeation of the social media discourse on migration, as a highly topical issue. This study seeks to elaborate on this research gap by examining to what extent the Twitter debate on the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration (GCM) was permeated by populist content. For this purpose, almost 70,000 tweets on the most important Hashtags referring to the GCM that took place in Marrakesh in December 2018 were collected and the 500 widest-reaching tweets analysed in terms of their populist permeation. Against initial expectations, the empirical findings show that populist narratives did not dominate the Twitter debate on migration. However, the empirical results indicate that ordinary citizens play an important role in the creation and dissemination of populist content. It seems that the social web widens the public sphere, including those actors who do not communicate in accordance with the Habermasian conceptualization of it.

Development aid and international migration to Italy: Does aid reduce irregular flows?

AbstractIn recent years, donors have claimed to tackle the root causes of migration from low‐income countries using aid. While others have studied the effects of aid on regular migration, we test whether aid deters irregular migration to Italy using two innovative dependent variables: asylum applications and apprehensions at border. For asylum applications, the largest significant effect implies we should expect one extra application for an additional $162,000 in bilateral aid. For border crossings, the only significant effect implies the marginal cost in bilateral aid is $1.8 million per deterred migrant. The conclusion that effect sizes are small is robust to different types of aid, measures of migration and various controls. We find robust evidence that irregular migration flows are significantly affected by conflict, poverty and the pre‐existing stocks from that country. Comparing our results to the existing aid–migration literature, we find similar effect sizes. The cost per deterred (regular) migrant is in the range $4–7 million. Statistically significant estimates for the effect of aid on regular migration are only found for sub‐samples or specific specifications. In short, aid does not deter regular or irregular migration and so should be used for other purposes.

The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration: a kaleidoscope of international law

AbstractThe Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration has prompted an intense political debate at both the international and domestic levels. Most controversies focus on its legal stance and highlight the hybrid character of the Compact as a soft-law instrument. While acknowledging the political nature of the Compact, this paper delves into its legal dimensions from the perspective of international law. This inquiry into its normative content discloses three main features: (1) the Compact is not a codification of international legal norms governing migration; it is an instrument of both (2) consolidation and (3) expansion of international law to foster inter-governmental co-operation and promote safe, orderly and regular migration.

The EU shaping the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration: the glass half full or half empty?

AbstractWhile migration is a policy field that is fairly state-centric, the prominent role of the EU in the development of international migration law and policy has been acknowledged, to some extent, by the international community. This paper scrutinises the EU's role and impact during the preparatory and inter-governmental talks leading to the adoption of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM). A central question is the degree to which the EU influenced negotiations and their outcome; and how the international community received the EU's external action in this matter. Next to mapping the EU's substantive input shaping the process, the EU's internal machinery to formulate its position and the challenges faced within the bloc are also explored. The GCM process also illustrates the willingness of the international community – or the lack of it – to elevate European standards to the global level in the highly complex and politicised domain of migration.

The UN Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration: to what extent are human rights and sustainable development mutually compatible in the field of migration?

AbstractIn this contribution, I examine the links between the human rights basis of the UN Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) and its embeddedness in the UN Sustainable Development Agenda 2030. While the GCM grew out of a development framework, it was rapidly incorporated into the UN human rights system. Even during the negotiation of the GCM, human rights took priority over development. The resistance that was manifested against the GCM on its endorsement by the UN General Assembly was directed not against its development links, but rather concerns about its human rights impact. This paper examines the placing of migration in this dual framework and the ways in which outcomes compatible with both are achievable.

The ILO and the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration: labour migration, decent work and implementation of the Compact with specific reference to the Arab states region

AbstractThis paper explores the role played by the International Labour Organization (ILO) in the consultations and stocktaking during 2017 and the negotiations during 2018 leading up to the adoption of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM). It examines selected parts of the text of the GCM, with particular reference to the ILO's mandate of securing social justice and decent work, as well as the protection of migrant workers and governance of labour migration. The final part of the paper looks ahead to the ILO's role in the implementation of the GCM, with specific reference to the Arab states region, where migration for employment is significant and the governance challenges, particularly in relation to the protection of low-wage and low-skilled workers, are especially acute.

Incongruous objectives? Endeavouring to realise women migrant workers’ rights through the global development agenda

AbstractRecent decades have seen improvements in our understanding of the gendered dynamics of migration and how they affect women migrant workers. Whilst characterised by precarity, women's labour migration is recognised as contributing to positive developmental outcomes. The full dimensions of these contributions are not yet well understood, but the need to improve the situation of women migrant workers is. Through analysis of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM), this paper examines the global development agenda to assess the extent to which it recognises the gendered dimensions of migration and seeks to realise the rights of women migrant workers as development actors. Drawing on content analysis of the SDGs and a review of the GCM, the paper finds that, while their content provides potential for states to strengthen their evidence base and establish progressive policy agendas and practice interventions to realise women migrant workers’ rights, the measures for implementation and monitoring of these frameworks reduce the likelihood of this potential being realised.

Multilateralismo, migración y derechos humanos: antes y después del Pacto Mundial para una Migración Segura, Ordenada y Regular

Resumen Durante décadas, Naciones Unidas y los Estados Miembros se abstuvieron de emprender un abordaje multilateral de la migración. Los primeros intentos tuvieron lugar a principios del presente siglo y se volvieron más significativos en los últimos años. El Pacto Mundial para una Migración Segura, Ordenada y Regular representa un hito al respecto. Su implementación será decisiva para consolidar un abordaje multilateral de la migración y fortalecer la protección de los derechos humanos de las personas migrantes.

Power and proliferation: Explaining the fragmentation of global migration governance

Abstract Fragmentation is widely recognised as one of the defining characteristics of global migration governance. However, there has been little academic analysis of fragmentation, either as a dependent or independent variable in the international politics of migration. We aim to explain why it is that global migration governance has historically emerged as a patchwork of international institutions. In order to do so, we outline an original theoretical framework based on the proposition that power asymmetries between predominantly ‘sending’ and ‘receiving’ countries create a dynamic in which relatively weak states seek multilateralism and relatively strong states veto multilateralism, leading to institutional proliferation as a means to address immediate functional challenges. We apply this framework to four key historical turning points in the recent history of global migration governance: first, the impasse at the United Nations and the expansion of Regional Consultative Processes (1985–2001); second, the surge of new mandate creations and the first High-Level Dialogue on Migration and Development (1999–2006); third, the establishment of the Global Forum on Migration and Development and the Global Migration Group (2006–8); and finally, the New York Declaration and the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (2016–18).

COVID-19 as a global challenge: towards an inclusive and sustainable future

COVID-19 is a global challenge that demands researchers, policy makers, and governments address multiple dimensions which go far beyond the implications of this pandemic for health and wellbeing. Just as the UN Sustainable Development Goals call for focus on the connections between development policy sectors, the pandemic has exposed the complex global interdependencies that underpin economies and highlighted fault lines in societal structures that perpetuate ethnic, economic, social, and gender inequalities.Here,wehighlightthepandemic’semerging potential consequences for achieving sustainable development with respect to the six global challenge areas we collectively address at the UK Research and Innovation’s Global Challenges Research Fund:1 food systems; education; cities and sustainable infrastructure; security, protracted conflict, refugee crises, and forced displacement; environmental resilience; and global health. As the immediate health consequences of the pandemic unfold and begin to be superseded by the impact of public health containment measures, we call for a refocusing of research and action not only to mitigate these impacts but to build sustainability and strengthened resilience into future recovery.

Identification of overloaded migration concept in migration theory

The study examines the effects of regular and irregular migration on the Schengen external borders of Hungary, following the principles of classical and modern migration theories, using their analysis, applying the theory of science theory (Hautzinger, 2018, 11-21). From the data analysis evaluation it becomes possible to identify a feature that has not previously appeared in the European context, nor has it touched the nations of other continents in such a complexity as it has Hungary in 2014 and 2015, as well as with the requirements of the existing national Schengen regulatory frameworks. From the evaluation of the relationship between data analysis and the related elements, a new, previously unexplored and unpublished approach to the effects of migration has been identified, its description and the creation of a new concept. The results of the methodological research on the overload characteristic of regular and irregular migration may be the subject of independent studies.

Narrating an ideal migration world? An analysis of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration

ABSTRACT The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) was adopted in 2018 under the auspices of the United Nations. In a context in which the global governance of international migration remains weak, and in which states regularly confront migration/refugee crises, the GCM provides an internationally agreed-upon assessment of the political issues raised by international migration and identifies non-binding policy recommendations regarding how governments should address them. This article analyses the content of the GCM in light of the migration-related discussions at the international level since the 1990s. It critically examines its core arguments and argues that, because of the diverging worldviews and interests among governments and other stakeholders, the GCM is marked by major internal contradictions. This results in a depoliticised document and in a political language that hides the dilemmas raised by migration politics. There is therefore little consensus among states regarding the nature of migration and the political responses to govern the transnational mobility of people.

International Migration and Work: Charting an Ethical Approach to the Future

Executive Summary This research was conducted at the request of the International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC) as part of a two-year special initiative entitled “The Future of Work, Labour After Laudato Sì.” 1 This article explores the future of work, international migration, and the intersection of the two at a time of rapid change, uncertainty, and disruption for migrants, laborers, and their families and communities. It draws on human rights principles, international law, and religious values, particularly from the Catholic tradition, to chart an ethical approach to the governance of these timeless phenomena. What does the future hold? Under one dystopian scenario, the future of work will be characterized by massive job loss due to automation, robotics, and artificial intelligence. Politicians and business leaders will characterize the resulting human displacement as an unavoidable “disruption” and byproduct of change. Euphemisms, however, will poorly mask the loss of livelihood, self-esteem, and a central marker of identity for countless persons, particularly the poor and vulnerable. Technological advances will decimate families, communities, and entire ways of life. For many, stable work will become a thing of the past, and technology an instrument of marginalization and discrimination. Algorithms will be used to “perpetuate gender bias” ( ILO 2019a , 35), pit workers against each other, and squeeze the maximum productivity from them for the minimum compensation. The “inappropriate use” and “weak governance” of algorithms will lead to “biases, errors and malicious acts” ( Albinson, Krishna, and Chu 2018 ). Large swaths of the world’s citizens will become (at best) the unhappy dependents of states and global elites. The future of migration seems equally daunting. Current trends suggest that the number of international migrants will continue to rise due to job displacement, violence, natural disaster, and states that cannot or will not meet their fundamental responsibilities. If the past is prologue, unscrupulous politicians and media sources will also continue to blame migrants for the economic and cultural displacement of their constituents, xenophobia will increase, and migrants will encounter hostility in host communities. Natives will criticize their governments and institutions for failing to protect their interests and needs, and migrant laborers will be caught in the middle. This article does not minimize the urgency of the challenges presented by migration and work. It documents the unacceptable living, working, and migration conditions of immense numbers of the world’s citizens. It offers, however, a more optimistic vision of the future than the dystopian view, a vision characterized by international cooperation and solidarity. It recognizes the potential of technology “to render labour superfluous, ultimately alienating workers and stunting their development,” but also its potential to “free workers from arduous labour; from dirt, drudgery, danger and deprivation” and “to reduce work-related stress and potential injuries” ( ILO 2019 , 43). It recognizes the way in which fear of displacement can lead to exclusionary nationalism and xenophobia, but also the possibility of unity based on the shared values embedded in the cultures of diverse persons. It recognizes the costs of migration, but also its immense contributions to host communities. The article argues for person-centered systems and policies that promote the freedom, rights, and dignity of workers, migrants, and migrant workers, and that strengthen migrant host communities. It begins by examining the challenges facing low-income and vulnerable migrants who struggle for decent work, are the most likely to lose their jobs, and are “the least equipped to seize new job opportunities” ( ILO 2019 , 18). 2 It then presents an ethical, person-centered vision of migration and work, rooted in human rights principles, international law, and Catholic social teaching. The article also draws on principles articulated in the Global Compact on Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM); the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR); and the Holy See’s Twenty Action Points for the Global Compacts. It ends with a series of recommendations that seek to bring this vision to fruition.

The alleged tension between the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration and state sovereignty: ‘Much Ado about Nothing’?

AbstractIn a landmark effort to finally acknowledge the necessity to jointly respond to the global phenomenon of large movements of refugees and migrants, the process initiated in 2016 with the approval of the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants eventually led to the adoption of two UN Global Compacts, respectively the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) and the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR). Despite the enthusiastic support shown at first by the international community, the GCM negotiations have been more controversial and ultimately shaken by the clamorous withdrawals of several states. The main argument used by the withdrawing governments to justify the sudden refusal to adopt the GCM was based on the claim that the document − although non-binding − undermines the ‘sovereign right’ of the state. Such a claim, given the centrality that the principle of state sovereignty has acquired since the Peace of Westphalia, deserves to be further analysed from an international law perspective by resorting to the ‘sovereignty test’ developed by Schrijver. The present work, after briefly introducing the main tenets of the GCM, applies the ‘sovereignty test’ to the GCM to dissect the alleged tension between state sovereignty on the one hand and the shared approach to international migration envisaged by the pact on the other. This article’s ultimate goal is to prove that the GCM does not aim to restrain state sovereignty; rather, it strives to remind states of existing international commitments already undertaken at the regional and global level.

Contemporary migrants and media capabilities – understanding communication rights in international migration policies

ABSTRACT This study highlights how policy makers address issues of communication rights of migrants. In order to do so we conducted a qualitative content analysis of recent international migration policy papers – the UN ‘Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration’ (2018) and the ‘European Agenda on Migration’ (2015) published by the European Commission. Our analysis was informed by the model of ‘media capabilities’ – which are the opportunities the media enable people to do or be – that helped us analyze which media capabilities were promoted by policy makers and what roles they attributed to Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in the realization of migrants’ capabilities. Our study reveals that out of seven media capabilities only two were fully addressed – ‘to be informed’ and ‘to be secure’ – other capabilities were either only partly addressed (‘identity and belonging’) or completely ignored (‘voicing’, ‘identification and imitation’, ‘civil participation’, ‘pleasure and entertainment’). The policies, as such, disregarded most of the media capabilities for migrants and ignored the role of ICTs as media capabilities enablers. We conclude that policy makers negated migrants’ ability to realize capabilities, thus hindering their ‘right to communicate.’