The effects of integration and transnational ties on international return migration intentions

While return migration is receiving increasing attention, there is still insufficient insight into the factors which determine migrants’ intentions and decisions to return. It is often assumed that integration in receiving countries and the concomitant weakening of transnational ties decreases the likelihood of returning. However, according to alternative theoretical interpretations, return migration can also be the outflow of successful integration in receiving countries. Drawing on a data set of four African immigrant groups in Spain and Italy, this articlereviews these conflicting hypotheses by assessing the effects of integration and transnational ties on return migration intentions. The results of the analysis suggest that socio-cultural integration has a negative effect on return migration intentions, while economic integration and transnational ties have more ambiguous and sometimes positive effects. The results provide mixed support for the different hypotheses but question theoretical perspectives that unequivocally conceptualizereturn migration and transnationalism as causes and/or consequences of "integration failure".Africa, Europe, integration, international migration, return migration, transnationalism

The decline in UK immigration is exaggerated and signals a broader crisis in society and the economy

Hein de Haas examines what is behind the decrease in immigration to the UK and finds that politicians have overstated the impact they have had. A large part of it may be explained by reasons other than the government’s tough rules, such as the poor performance of the UK’s economy, wage levels, and labour demand. Student migration, which explains most of the drop, can also be caused by other factors such as high tuition fees and growing competition from foreign universities. He argues that immigration is a bellwether phenomenon that reflects the more general state of society and the economy

Migration and development: a theoretical perspective ; paper presented at the conference on ‘Transnationalisation and Development(s): Towards a North-South Perspective’, Center for Interdisciplinary Research, Bielefeld, Germany, May 31 - June 01, 2007

"This paper aims to put the debate on migration and development in a broader historical perspective of migration theory in particular and social theory in general. The scholarly debate on migration and development has tended to swing back and forth like a pendulum, from developmentalist optimism in the 1950s and 1960s, to structuralist and neo-Marxist pessimism and scepticism over the 1970s and 1980s, to more nuanced views influenced by the new economics of labour migration, "livelihood" approaches and the transnational turn in migration studies as of the 1990s. Such discursive shifts in the scholarly debate on migration and development should be primarily seen as part of more general paradigm shifts in social theory. The shift that occurred over the 1990s was part of a more general shift away from grand structuralist or functionalist theories towards more pluralist, hybrid and structuralist approaches attempting to reconcile structure and actor perspectives. However, attempts to combine different theoretical perspectives are more problematic than sometimes suggested due to incommensurability issues and associated disciplinary divisions. Since 2000, there has been a remarkable, and rather sudden, renaissance of optimistic views, in particular in the policy debate, as well as a boom in empirical work on migration and development. This has coincided with the rediscovery of remittances as a 'bottom up' source of development finance and the celebration of the transnational engagement of migrants with the development of their origin societies. However, such optimism has tended to go along with a striking level of amnesia of decades of prior research. Migration and development is anything but a new topic. The accumulated empirical and theoretical evidence stress the fundamentally heterogeneous nature of migration-development interactions as well as their contingency on spatial and temporal scales of analysis and more general processes of social and economic change, which should forestall any blanket assertions on migrationdevelopment interactions. Current policy and scholarly discourses naively celebrating migration, remittances and transnational engagement as self-help development 'from below' also shift attention away from the relevance of structural constraints and the important role states and other institutions play in shaping favourable general conditions for social and economic development to occur. This raises the fundamental question whether the recent shift towards optimistic views reflects a veritable change in (increasingly transnationally framed) migration-development interactions, the use of other methodological and analytical tools, or is rather the deductive echo of a general paradigm shift from dependency and state-centrist to neoliberal and neoclassical views in general. The lack of theoretical rootedness and largely descriptive nature of much empirical work has haunted the improvement of theories. As a result of the general lack of a common theoretical thread, most empirical work - especially from outside migration economics - remains isolated, scattered, and theoretically underexplored. Real progress in the understanding of the factors determining the fundamental heterogeneity of migration and development interactions is only possible if more empirical work is designed to test theoretically derived hypotheses and, hence, to improve the generalized understanding of migration-development interactions." (author's abstract)Contents: 1. Introduction; 2. General migration theories; 2.1. The neo-classical equilibrium perspective; 2.2. Historical-structural theory and asymmetric growth; 2.3. Questioning the push-pull framework; 3. Towards a transitional migration theory; 3.1. The mobility transition; 3.2. The migration hump; 4. Internal dynamics and feedbacks: networks and migration systems; 4.1. Social capital, chain migration and network theory; 4.2. Migration systems theory; 5. Migration and development optimists vs. pessimists; 5.1. The dawning of a new era: developmentalist views; 5.2. The migrant syndrome: cumulative causation and structuralist views; 5.3. Towards a pluralist perspective; 6. Pluralist views on migration and development interactions; 6.1. New economics of labour migration (NELM); 6.2. Migration as a household livelihood strategy; 6.3. A transnational perspective on migration and development; 7. New empirical insights into migration and development; 8. Synthesis; 9. Conclusion

Migration systems, pioneers and the role of agency

The notion of a migration system is often invoked but it is rarely clearly defined or conceptualized. De Haas has recently provided a powerful critique of the current literature highlighting some important flaws that recur through it. In particular, migration systems tend to be identified as fully formed entities, and there is no theorization as to how they come into being. Moreover, there is no explanation of how they change in time, in particular how they come to decline. The inner workings – the mechanics – which drive such changes are not examined. Such critiques of migration systems relate to wider critiques of the concept of systems in the broader social science literature, where they are often presented as black boxes in which human agency is largely excluded. The challenge is how to theorize the mechanics by which the actions of people at one time contribute to the emergence of systemic linkages at a later time. This paper focuses on the genesis of migration systems and the notion of pioneer migration. It draws attention both to the role of particular individuals, the pioneers, and also the more general activity of pioneering which is undertaken by many migrants. By disentangling different aspects of agency, it is possible to develop hypotheses about how the emergence of migrations systems is related to the nature of the agency exercised by different pioneers or pioneering activities in different contexts.migration systems, agency, emergence, pioneer migrants, migrant networks, social capital

Mobility and Human Development

This paper argues that mobility and migration have always been an intrinsic part of human development. Migration can be considered as a fundamental capabilities-enhancing freedom itself. However, any meaningful understanding of migration needs to simultaneously analyse agency and structure. Rather than applying dichotomous classifications such as between forced and voluntary migration, it is more appropriate to conceive of a continuum running from low to high constraints under which migration occurs, in which all migrants deal with structural constraints, although to highly varying degrees. Besides being an integral part of human development, mobility also tends to affect the same structural processes of which it is part. Simplistic positive-versus-negative debates on migration and development can be overcome by integrating agency-structure dialectics in the analysis of migration impacts. This paper argues that (i) the degree to which migrants are able to affect structural change is real but limited; (ii) the nature of change in sending and receiving is not pre-determined; and (iii) that in order to enable a more focused and rigorous debate, there is a need to better distinguish and specify different levels and dimensions at which the reciprocal relationship between human mobility and development can be analysed. A critical reading of the empirical literature leads to the conclusion that it would be naïve to think that despite their often considerable benefits for individuals and communities, migration and remittances alone can remove more structural development constraints. Despite their development potential, migrants and remittances can neither be blamed for a lack of development nor be expected to trigger take-off development in generally unattractive investment environments. By increasing selectivity and suffering among migrants, current immigration restrictions have a negative impact on migrants’ wellbeing as well as the poverty and inequality reducing potential of migration.human development, human mobility, migration, poverty

European Migrations: Dynamics, drivers, and the role of policies

Effective migration management needs to be underpinned by a realistic understanding of the drivers and dynamics of migration and should incorporate lessons learnt about the effects and effectiveness of past migration policies. This study draws policy implications from the analysis of the evolution of European post-war migrations. It examines the effects of internal border opening combined with the ongoing convergence of immigration rules and visa requirements in Europe. Based on the insight that migration is driven by structural factors that often lie beyond the reach of migration policies, the second part of the study looks closely at structural factors that shape migration in both origin and destination countries and assesses the extent to which polices are able to address these factors. Two key areas are analysed in more detail: the level of development in countries of origin and the structure of labour demand in destination countries. The study concludes by outlining areas for future research: the links between socioeconomic and labour market policies and migration patterns and the impacts of non-migration policies on migration patterns and trends. Understanding of the latter is particularly important as migration agendas continue to expand into policy areas such as foreign and security policy, trade, development aid, agriculture or fisheries.JRC.I.2-Foresight, Behavioural Insights and Design for Polic

Youth and Rural Development: Evidence from 25 School-to-Work Transition Surveys

In June 2012, the International Labour Conference of the ILO resolved to take urgent action to tackle the unprecedented youth employment crisis through a multi-pronged approach geared towards pro-employment growth and decent job creation. The resolution "The youth employment crisis: A call for action" contains a set of conclusions that constitute a blueprint for shaping national strategies for youth employment. It calls for increased coherence of policies and action on youth employment across the multilateral system. In parallel, the UN Secretary-General highlighted youth as one of the five generational imperatives to be addressed through the mobilization of all the human, financial and political resources available to the United Nations (UN). As part of this agenda, the UN has developed a System-wide Action Plan on Youth, with youth employment as one of the main priorities, to strengthen youth programmes across the UN system