CIAO DATE: 10/2013
Volume: 11, Issue: 1
October 2013
Foreward (PDF)
Stephen Castles
In a world of nation-states, a key aspect of sovereignty is the ability to control flows across national borders. Neo-liberal globalization since the late 1970s has mandated the deregulation of cross-border flows of capital and commodities, yet paradoxically, states have clung to regulation of people flows—perhaps as a last vestige of sovereignty. National control of human mobility has become problematic. Increasingly people live across borders, with significant political, economic, social and cultural affiliationsin two ormore countries. Migrants are the forerunnersin this trend towardstransnationalism, but it affects many non-migrantstoo: their lives and relationships no longer fit inside neat national containers. What is the future of national migration models and of international regulation in a globalized and increasingly transnational world? That is the theme of the contributions in this special issue.
The Impact of the Global Financial Crisis on International Migration (PDF)
Khalid Koser
Economic and financial crises never fail to impact international migration patterns, processes, and policies.TheGreatDepression (1929-33)resulted inmassive repatriations of Latin Americans from the United States and the introduction of highly restrictive immigration policies in a number of industrialized countries, including France and Canada. 1,2 The Oil Crisis (1973) resulted in severe restrictions on labor migration, a concomitant growth in asylum applications and irregular migration in Europe, and the emergence of new flows of labor migration to new industrial centersinAsia and LatinAmerica. 3 As a result of theAsian financial crisis (1997-99), several Sotheast Asian countries introduced policies of national preference and sought to expel migrant workers. 4 The Russian financial crisis(1998) accelerated rates of emigration from Russia, in particular of Russian Jews and the highly-skilled. 5 The gravity of the Latin American financial crisis (1998-2002) also resulted in a significant exodus, in particular from Argentina. 6
Managing Migration for Development: Is Circular Migration the Answer? (PDF)
Ronald Skeldon
Migration policy haslong been considered the prerogative of the receiving state, and thatstate alone isresponsible forselectingwho comeswithin its borders. Forthe United States, where immigration has been an integral part of state building, immigration policy fashioned a “nation by design.” 1 Today, a more nuanced approach to migration policy has emerged: the idea that population migration can be managed, not just for the benefit of the destination state, but also for the origin states and the migrants themselves. Such an approach brings immigration and development policy into an uneasy dialogue. Officials from State Departments, Home Offices or Ministries of the Interior find themselves in discussions with representatives from development and aid ministries or departments. Migration no longer remains a unilateral matter but emerges as a matter of foreign policy through bilateral and multilateral negotiation among states.
Burden or Boom: The Impact of Burmese Refugess on Thailand (PDF)
Inge Brees
In the West, refugees are increasingly regarded as a menace, especially in the aftermath of 9/11 which led to heightened securitization of migration and anxieties about ‘the other’. However, this discourse is better justified in developing countries which have to deal with mass influxes of refugees into their territory when the conflict of neighboring countries spills over their borders. In such cases, refugees can pose a security threat to the host country. For example, they can attract attacks from across the border which present a hazard to the local populations or they can be mixed in with the armed forces as in the case of Interahamwe with the Tutsi in the Congo. Relief aid can be used by leaders to control their fellow refugees and finance their own insurgent activities, which can prolong the conflict in a country of origin. Moreover, refugee camps provide a breeding ground for political radicalism, militancy, and recruitment into rebel groups. If a violent act is committed, there is often no adequate law enforcement system to punish the offenders. Since most camps are not entirely closed, the problems of crime, violence, and militarization leach out into the surrounding host community. 1 The presence of refugees can thus pose a security problem, but the host country is usually also affected on a political, economic and environmental level. For example, large numbers of refugees who are in desperate need of cash are in a weak bargaining position. They feel obliged to accept lower wages, which may have a detrimental effect on the wages and employment rates of the native population. This can result in rising tensions, as was the case recently in South Africa, where survival migrants 2 from Zimbabwe were blamed for declining economic conditions. Governments usually try to reduce potential tensions by compelling refugees to stay in camps.
Returnees, Remittances, and Reconstruction: International Politics and Local Consequences in Bosnia (PDF)
Barbara Franz
Refugee emigration from, and return to, Bosnia and Herzegovina is closely tied to the 1992-1995 war, and the wide-reaching consequencesthereof in the post-conflict recovery period. During the conflict, over half of the country’s population of 4.4 million people were forced to leave their homes through systematic methods of violence andwar,which resulted in the death of about 250,000 people.Itwas during this conflict that the term ethnic cleansing was first commonly used. 1 By the end of the war, 1 million people had been internally displaced, and another 1.3 million people had fled abroad. Residences, industry and infrastructure had been destroyed on a massive scale, and 1 million mines were spread throughout the country. 2 In 1995, the Dayton Peace Accords ended the war, but formalized the de facto ethnic division of the previously multi-ethnic republic. Bosnia and Herzegovina was separated into two entities divided along ethnic lines. One body, the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, consists of the areas controlled by the Bosnian Muslims and Croats, and the other entity, Republica Srpska, corresponds with the ethnonationalist fatherland claimed by the Bosnian Serb leadership before the war. Although it brought an end to the hostilities, Dayton failed to effectively addressthe political conflict over the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina that had initially instigated the war. 3
Globalizing the Household in East Asia (PDF)
Michael Douglass
Aquarter of a century ago, Smith, Wallerstein, andEvers putforth the thesisthat the household is not merely a unit of consumption dependent upon a larger economy, but isinstead the foundation of society and economy reaching from local to globalscales. 2 In being chargedwith the physical and daily reproduction of society and economy, the household carries out itstasksthrough pooling of unpaid and paid labor and resources, among its members. It also serves as a base to organize and socialize individuals for the rigors of employment outside of the household. 3 Their thesis goes even furtherto state thatwithout the household playing its assigned roles, “any economy would collapse.” 4
Immigration and National Security: Comparing the US and Europe (PDF)
Terri E. Givens
In the aftermath of the economic crisis of 2008, the United States administration officials emphasized that economic security needed to go hand in hand with national security.Immigration is an often overlooked yet major component of both economic and national security. Much is made of capital flows, trade agreements, treaties, and military action in the broader scheme of international relations. However, the flow of people, particularly people froma variety of ethnic and national backgrounds, has always played a key role in international relations, including on security issues.
Peo Hansen
Since the late 1980s a growing number of scholars, journalists, and NGOs have been employing themetaphorfortressEurope to depictwhat are allegedly disastrous migration policies enacted within the framework of the European Union. Today, fortress Europe has matured into a politically footloose charge, which means that Brussels and member state governments no longer enjoy the luxury of brushing it aside asthe mere cry of the idealistic and hyperbolic do-gooders on the left. Rather, the portrayal of the EU as a fortress, dead set on repelling migrants from the less fortunate places of the world, now also holdssway within much of the global news media’s neoliberal punditry.
British Jobs for British Workers? Understanding Demand for Migrant Workers in a Recession (PDF)
Bridget Anderson
The recent economic downturn has amplified public debate over immigration. What does the global recession mean for international migration? Do migration flows increase or decrease? Do migrants stay put or return to their countries of origin? What should be the policy response to changes? What happens to remittances and investments?Are non-citizens differentially affected by recession?It is difficult to answer such questions when recovery is by no means sustained, and labor markets are still in the doldrums. 1
Migration and the Demographic System in East Central Europe (PDF)
Albert F. Reiterer
Complex modern democratic societies formed in the wake of the Second World Warface the task of securing three public goods—legitimacy, economicwelfare, and a viable sense of collective identity. 1 However, not all people living in such societies are entitled to benefitfrom these public goods or even engage in the national pursuit of happiness. Indeed, not all humans are considered as belonging to the collective identity of a state, and not all people who cross the borders of a state feel obliged to conform to the expectations of the target country. Thus, while migration is a necessity and an unavoidable phenomenon, it may lead to a host of unintended problems.
Managing Population Movements: The Challenge for Diplomacy in Southeast Europe (PDF)
Vladimir Grecec, Slobodan Jankovic
In the last decade of the 20th century, political, economic, and social changes togetherwith conflicts and globalization induced strongerlabor and human mobility in the region of the South East Europe during the first decade of the 21st century. Current financial and economic crises caused a major decline in migration and resulted in significant unemployment among immigrantsin OECD countries. These developments have had positive and negative implications for both origin and destination countries. In order to maximize the positive effects and minimize the negative impact, states need to engage in migration management, negotiating relations between origin and destination countries, even regionally
The Politics of Visas (PDF)
Adam Luedke
In February 2008, the province of Kosovo declared independence from Serbia. In an effort to facilitate Kosovo’s independence and influence the January presidential elections in Serbia, pro-Western and EU policymakers frantically attempted to offer “carrots” to the Serbian leadership. One of these carrots was the prospect of visafree travel to theEU. 1 UnlikeAmericans,Canadians, and citizens of other developed countries, Serbs could not enter the EU without first obtaining a visa at an EU consulate in their home country