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412. The European Commission’s Mission to Reform EU Migration Policy: Will Member States Play Ball?
- Author:
- Asli Selin Okyay and Luca Barana
- Publication Date:
- 09-2020
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Istituto Affari Internazionali
- Abstract:
- Europe’s institutional landscape and political context have evolved considerably over the past year, with implications spanning numerous policy domains, including migration. The formation of the new European Commission, its commitment to deliver a New Pact on Migration and Asylum and the negotiations for the next Multi-Annual Financial Framework (MFF) have set the stage for much needed reforms in the migration field, a policy area still largely driven by the emergency mindset inherited from the 2015–16 “crisis”.
- Topic:
- Migration, Reform, European Union, Refugees, and Coronavirus
- Political Geography:
- Europe
413. “Irregular” Migration and Divergent Understandings of Security in the Sahel
- Author:
- Kari M. Osland and Henriette U. Erstad
- Publication Date:
- 10-2020
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Istituto Affari Internazionali
- Abstract:
- On 23 September 2020, the EU launched its new Pact on Migration and Asylum. In a refreshingly blunt press-release accompanying the Pact one could read: “The current system no longer works. And for the past five years, the EU has not been able to fix it”. The stated aim of the Pact is a fairer sharing of responsibility and solidarity between member states while providing certainty for individual asylum applicants. This is intended to rebuild trust between EU members as well as improve the capacity to better manage migration. However, whether the Pact will be implemented and have an effect on EU external migration policy in the Sahel remains to be seen.
- Topic:
- Security, Migration, and European Union
- Political Geography:
- Europe, North Africa, and Sahel
414. Learning from COVID-19: Implications for the EU Response to Human Smuggling
- Author:
- Lucia Bird
- Publication Date:
- 12-2020
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Istituto Affari Internazionali
- Abstract:
- The COVID-19 pandemic set the backdrop to the EU’s new framework for addressing irregular migration. Yet, this emergency mindset should not dictate that future responses to human smuggling remain focussed on border control, as they have done during the pandemic. We are at a pivotal moment in EU policy-making, following the release of the New Pact on Migration and Asylum[1] and preceding the publication of additional plans for legal migration and improved responses to human smuggling. This is therefore a key time to take stock of how state responses to the pandemic have impacted human smuggling dynamics, in order to build sustainable and humane response frameworks going forward.
- Topic:
- Migration, European Union, Smuggling, and COVID-19
- Political Geography:
- Europe
415. Expanding Legal Labour Migration Pathways to the EU: Will This Time Be Different?
- Author:
- Martin Ruhs
- Publication Date:
- 12-2020
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Istituto Affari Internazionali
- Abstract:
- The European Commission’s recently published “New Pact on Migration and Asylum” calls on EU member states to increase legal labour migration pathways, including for lower-skilled workers. To help achieve this goal, the Pact proposes greater and more effective cooperation with non-EU countries through so-called “Talent Partnerships”. These proposals are not new. The idea of partnerships with non-EU countries that include expanded labour migration programmes was at the heart of the EU’s “Global Approach to Migration” launched in 2005, and this approach has been further discussed and developed over the past 15 years. These ideas, however, have never led to a significant opening of European labour markets to lower-skilled non-EU workers. An obvious question therefore arises: Will this time be different? Will EU member states (which have primary competence in regulating labour immigration from outside the EU) engage with non-EU countries to develop new policies that expand legal labour migration opportunities in meaningful ways? Will these opportunities be inclusive of low- and medium-skilled workers?
- Topic:
- Migration, Politics, Labor Issues, European Union, Institutions, and Asylum
- Political Geography:
- Europe
416. Driving Migrant Inclusion through Social Innovation: Lessons for Cities in a Pandemic
- Author:
- Liam Patuzzi
- Publication Date:
- 09-2020
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Migration Policy Institute (MPI)
- Abstract:
- The rapid arrival of millions of asylum seekers and migrants in Europe in 2015–16 forced cities both large and small to rethink their approach to immigrant inclusion. Many localities, recognizing the newcomers’ diverse backgrounds and at times complex needs, began to experiment with innovative models of service provision, including by working with nongovernmental actors and involving community members more directly in the design and implementation of projects. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced European cities to confront a whole new set of challenges. Among them, how to support residents—including refugees and other migrants—amid social-distancing orders, all while public services operate at reduced capacity and in the face of likely budget cuts. This MPI Europe-International Organization for Migration (IOM) report explores key lessons cities can draw from the social innovation that accompanied the 2015–16 arrivals to help them weather the challenges brought by the pandemic. The study’s findings come in part from interviews conducted with representatives of municipalities and civil-society organizations in Austria, Greece, Italy, Malta, Poland, Romania, and Spain.
- Topic:
- Migration, Employment, Immigrants, and COVID-19
- Political Geography:
- Europe
417. Managing the Pandemic and Its Aftermath: Economies, Jobs, and International Migration in the Age of COVID-19
- Author:
- Demetrios G. Papademetriou
- Publication Date:
- 11-2020
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Migration Policy Institute (MPI)
- Abstract:
- The COVID-19 pandemic’s immediate costs, measured in lives lost and damaged, have been appalling and continue to rise. In addition, its effects on individuals’ livelihoods and economies around the world have been deep and are likely to be long lasting. While saving lives was the near-exclusive focus during the first phase of the crisis, governments are now trying to strike a delicate balance between preventing further economic damage by reopening parts of their economies, while managing the obvious health risks of doing so. In the international mobility and migration arenas—policy areas enormously affected by the health and economic effects of the pandemic—this reflection considers both how these fields have fared thus far and the challenges that lay ahead. It first examines how measures put in place to stop the spread of the virus have affected family, labor, and humanitarian migration. It then highlights the thorny questions, as well as some opportunities, policymakers will face going forward. Among the critical questions: How will countries protect those most vulnerable to the disease and to economic precariousness? Will this become a moment in which governments seek to recalibrate the global trading system, aiming to increase economic self-reliance without falling into protectionism? And will the pandemic prompt countries to rethink aspects of their immigration systems, including how they screen arrivals, the number and types of foreign workers admitted, and the strategies for helping newcomers integrate into a new society?
- Topic:
- Migration, Border Control, Refugees, Economy, and COVID-19
- Political Geography:
- Europe and United States of America
418. Building a New Regional Migration System: Redefining U.S. Cooperation with Mexico and Central America
- Author:
- Andrew Selee and Ariel G. Ruiz Soto
- Publication Date:
- 11-2020
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Migration Policy Institute (MPI)
- Abstract:
- Migration between the United States and neighboring countries to the south is an enduring if ever-shifting phenomenon. While the COVID-19 pandemic and measures put in place to stop the spread of the virus have severely limited mobility, longer-standing questions about how best to manage regional migration remain as important as ever. These include how to address the mixed movement of unauthorized economic migrants and those fleeing persecution, with many families and unaccompanied children among them, and how to facilitate the legal movement of workers to meet labor demand and make the most of the region’s human capital. The Trump administration has largely focused on enhancing border controls and sharply narrowing access to asylum at the border, with the aim of deterring migration and turning back those who arrive without authorization to enter. Yet this heavily enforcement-focused strategy is unlikely to be sustainable in the long run. This report puts forward another approach, one that reflect the many faces of migration through the region and that is rooted in closer cooperation with Mexico and Central American countries. Its key element are: expanding opportunities for legal movement by extending seasonal work visas to nationals of countries in Central America that have the greatest migration pressures; re-establishing asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border, but streamlining processes to ensure fair and timely decisions; professionalizing border enforcement in Mexico and the United States to make it both more effective and more humane; and investing in economic and institutional development in Central America to address the forces driving people to leave their homes. While a transition from one approach to another cannot happen overnight—and indeed careful sequencing of policy changes will be essential to avoid triggering a surge in migration throughout the region—it is essential if the United States and its partners are to move the needle towards safer, more orderly, and legal migration.
- Topic:
- Development, Migration, Regional Cooperation, Border Control, Refugees, and Economy
- Political Geography:
- Central America, North America, Mexico, and United States of America
419. New Approaches to Climate Change and Migration: Building the Adaptive Capacity of Mobile Populations
- Author:
- Carol Farbotko
- Publication Date:
- 12-2020
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Migration Policy Institute (MPI)
- Abstract:
- It is often assumed that there is a direct link between climate change and human mobility, and that mobility is evidence of a failure to adapt to changing conditions. The reality is much more complex. Worsening climate conditions can lead to a variety of mobility outcomes: some individuals or communities may be trapped in place, while others may choose to stay and develop local adaptation strategies; some may choose to move to mitigate risks or diversify household incomes, while others may be forced to leave. And all of this is occurring against a backdrop of globalization and urbanization, in which mobility and translocal networks are already significant parts of many people’s lives. This report examines the concept of “adaptive capacity” and how it can be useful in understand the relationship between climate change and migration, as well as the ways mobility can be a strategic choice—or a source of greater vulnerability. Drawing on examples from the Pacific Islands, Asia, and other regions, the report analyzes the limitations of existing responses to climate change and outlines an alternative, adaptation pathways model that is flexible and emphasizes the involvement of affected communities. Adopting an adaptation pathways approach, the author writes, could help avoid a common pitfall of climate change adaptation measures: that they are often top down and do not integrate local knowledge, cultures, and other important contextual factors. Failure to consult local communities can lead measures to backfire or create greater vulnerabilities elsewhere, while a more participatory, flexible approach can bring to light important local insights and yield stronger solutions that are able to respond to future developments.
- Topic:
- Climate Change, International Cooperation, Migration, Governance, and Economy
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus
420. How Will International Migration Policy and Sustainable Development Affect Future Climate-Related Migration?
- Author:
- Robert McLeman
- Publication Date:
- 12-2020
- Content Type:
- Special Report
- Institution:
- Migration Policy Institute (MPI)
- Abstract:
- Extreme-weather events, such as tropical cyclones, floods, droughts, and intense heat, are shaping migration and displacement in countries around the world, and climate change is likely to make events like these more intense and more frequent. The effects of such conditions vary across regions and can spark a range of migration outcomes—both increases and decrease in movement along existing routes, the creation of new routes, and growth in the number of people who may want or need to move but who are unable to do so. But while the potential of climate change to affect human mobility is widely recognized, estimating future climate-related migration and displacement is made difficult by uncertainty surrounding the future of efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and of sustainable development and migration policies. This Transatlantic Council on Migration report describes the findings of a first-of-its-kind exercise to explore how future climatic conditions under standardized greenhouse gas concentration scenarios may affect climate-related drivers of migration and displacement, and how international development and migration policies may mediate (or exacerbate) migration outcomes. It considers how this may play out in two periods (2020–50 and 2050–2100), and in top source regions for international migration: East and Southeast Asia, South and Central Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East and North Africa, and sub-Saharan Africa.
- Topic:
- Climate Change, Development, Migration, Law, Refugees, and Sustainable Development Goals
- Political Geography:
- Global Focus