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22. The 'right' Mobility Partnership between the European Union, Morocco and Tunisia
- Author:
- Anne Sofie Westh Olsen
- Publication Date:
- 12-2011
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- The Mobility Partnerships between the EU and third countries do not primarily focus on migrants' rights. This is an attempt to show what the partnerships with Morocco and Tunisia should look like from a migrant's perspective.
- Topic:
- Foreign Policy, Migration, Treaties and Agreements, Labor Issues, and Immigration
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Arab Countries, North Africa, and Tunisia
23. "Let us Rebuild our Country" Migration-development scenarios in Ghana
- Author:
- Nauja Kleist
- Publication Date:
- 12-2011
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- In recent years, there has been a reconfiguration of the relationship between states and international migrants. From an overall perception of migration as a problem to be solved, a number of international development agencies, policy makers, and academics are taking the position that migration contributes to national development – if well managed. This aspiration indicates the (re-)discovery of non-resident citizens or former citizens as populations to be governed by their states of origin. The implications of this aspiration are examined in this working paper, focusing on migration-development scenarios in Ghana. The paper is inspired by anthropological and critical development studies on statecraft and public policy, approaching migration-development scenarios as a cultural and political object of study. Using the theatrical metaphor of scenario, it analyzes actually implemented policies as well as policy visions and debates, focusing on the underlying narratives and imaginaries of how migration and development are interlinked and can be governed.
- Topic:
- Development, Government, Migration, Sovereignty, and Labor Issues
- Political Geography:
- Africa and Ghana
24. The rise and fall of the "migrant superhero" and the new "deportee trash": Contemporary strain on mobile livelihoods in the Central American region
- Author:
- Ninna Nyberg Sørensen
- Publication Date:
- 10-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- A basic assumption in migration studies is that a search for better livelihood conditions is the main cause for migratory movements. Nevertheless, few studies take in-depth research into specific livelihoods and the contexts in which they unfold as their point of departure. Such an approach would focus on the ways in which making a livelihood links up with larger-scale patterns of population movement, the range and variation in mobility that such movements involve, the social institutions, networks and migration industry actors facilitating and sustaining mobile livelihoods, and the shifting physical/environmental and geopolitical contexts in which migration occurs.
- Topic:
- Migration and Labor Issues
- Political Geography:
- Latin America and Central America
25. Which Diaspora for Whose Development? Some Critical Questions about the Roles of African Diaspora Organizations as Development Actorse
- Author:
- Oliver Bakewell
- Publication Date:
- 05-2009
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- Today there is great interest in diasporas' role in development across Africa and much enthusiasm for identifying policies that can maximise their contribution. In this new DIIS Brief Oliver Bakewell, senior research officer at the International Migration Institute, University of Oxford, raises four questions that challenge uncritical enthusiasm for diasporas' increased involvement in development: 1) Who is in the diaspora? 2) Where is the diaspora? 3) How does diaspora engagement affect accountability? And 4) What ideas of development are being used?
- Topic:
- Democratization, Development, and Migration
- Political Geography:
- Africa
26. African Diaspora Organizations and Homeland Development: The case of Somali and Ghanaian associations in Denmark
- Author:
- Nauja Kleist
- Publication Date:
- 05-2009
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- Diaspora and migrant associations are often praised as new 'agents of change' for their contributions to development in their countries of origin. While much is known about Latin American hometown associations, there has been less focus on African diaspora associations. This DIIS Brief examines Somali and Ghanaian migrant associations in Denmark and their involvement in development. It shows how associations involve themselves on the basis of particular loyalties and emphasizes the importance of local partners and collaboration.
- Topic:
- Migration, Poverty, and Diaspora
- Political Geography:
- Africa, Europe, Denmark, and Latin America
27. Skilled Migration: Boon or Bane? The Role of Policy Intervention
- Author:
- Ronald Skeldon
- Publication Date:
- 10-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- Often highly skilled migration from developing to Western countries is conceptualized as “brain drain” and as detrimental for development. However, recent research and policy development challenges mainstream assumptions of brain drain, insisting that skilled migration is a more complex phenomenon. In this paper, the evidence for the migration of the skilled either to prejudice or to promote development will be examined. The terms “brain drain” and “brain gain” immediately introduce into the debate value judgements, which are either negative, that migration is bad for countries of origin, or positive, that migration is good and can be used to promote development. The evidence for each is conflicting and the adoption of such judgemental terms obscures factual analyses. The paper argues that rather than focussing on the consequences of the migration, policy should focus more on the causes and particularly on training and education policies.
- Topic:
- Development, Markets, Migration, and Labor Issues
28. The refugee, the sovereign and the sea : EU interdiction policies in the Mediterranean
- Author:
- Thomas Gammeltoft-Hansen
- Publication Date:
- 03-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- This paper starts from the encounter between a European navy vessel and a dinghy carrying boat refugees and other desperate migrants across the Mediterranean or West African Sea towards Europe. It explores the growing trend in the EU of enacting migration control at the high seas or international waters – so-called interdiction. It is argued that these forms of extraterritorial migration control aim at reconquering the efficiency of the sovereign function to control migration, by trying to either deconstruct or shift correlate obligations vis-à-vis refugees and other persecuted persons to third States. In both instances, European States are entering into a sovereignty game, in which creative strategies are developed in order to reassert sovereign power unconstrained by national and international obligations.
- Topic:
- Human Welfare, International Law, Migration, and Sovereignty
- Political Geography:
- Europe and West Africa
29. Climate of Displacement, Climate for Protection?
- Author:
- Vikram Kolmannskog
- Publication Date:
- 12-2008
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- This article looks at existing categories of forced migrants in the context of climate change to analyse protection possibilities. Climate change impacts include an increase in the frequency and severity of weather hazards. Disasters and degradation can serve as a direct cause of displacement, or as an indirect cause of displacement through conflicts. Much climate change-related forced migration is likely to remain internal and regional in the foreseeable future. As internally displaced persons the forced migrants are protected according to the 1998 Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement. For those who cross borders and enter other counties, there seems to be a serious protection gap. They are not considered refugees unless they are fleeing persecution on certain grounds. The human rights approach differs from general forced migration law by focusing on needs rather than cause. If return is neither possible nor reasonable due to circumstances in the place of origin and personal conditions including particular vulnerabilities, a person should receive protection regardless of the initial cause of movement. Some countries grant complementary or temporary protection. An important rationale for international protection is that some of the most exposed and vulnerable states to climate change impacts may be unwilling or unable to protect the forced migrants. Other countries may also have a responsibility since climate change is mostly the fault of the rich and developed countries. Since most of the affected and displaced will never reach the rich countries, this responsibility must also manifest itself through investments in adaptation in developing countries and other support for the most affected, including humanitarian response.
- Topic:
- Climate Change, Environment, and Migration
30. South Africa's Medical Brain Drain: Myths, Facts and What (not) to do
- Author:
- Jon Mortensen
- Publication Date:
- 07-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Danish Institute for International Studies
- Abstract:
- A global shortage of health professionals makes it relatively easy for doctors and nurses from poor countries to emigrate to rich countries. This has raised fears of a medical brain drain from poor to rich countries and has been the subject of much – impassioned – debate. This paper questions the underlying rational behind South Africa's current policies toward the medical brain drain. In doing so, it also challenges the dominating view on the medical brain drain: that out-migration of health workers from developing countries has damaging consequences and curbing that migration is pivotal in safeguarding developing countries' health systems. A view which is rooted in a perhaps intuitively convincing assumption that out-migration and low levels of health workers are tightly correlated – that outward migration causes low levels of health workers in South Africa and elsewhere.
- Topic:
- Health and Migration
- Political Geography:
- Africa and South Africa