Transformations in network governance: the case of migration intermediaries

types: Article"This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies on 3 February 2015 available online: http://wwww.tandfonline.com/10.1080/1369183X.2014.1003803Market liberalisation has fundamentally changed state interventions in the supply of services and supportive infrastructure across a range of public services. While this trend has been relatively well documented, there has been a dearth of research into the changing nature of state interventions in migration and mobility. Indeed the increasing presence of migration intermediaries to service the many and varied needs of migrant workers, particularly skilled migrants, remains significantly under-researched both theoretically and empirically. In providing an analysis of the location, role and changing nature of migration intermediaries, we highlight the implications of commercially-driven governance structures. In particular we suggest that the shift from government to network governance has important implications for skilled migration including: inequities in access to information regarding the process of migration and labour market integration; and, greater dependence on (largely unregulated) private intermediaries. Accordingly, we present empirical examples of migration intermediaries to illustrate their role and the relationship with and implications of their exchange with migrants

Realising the diversity dividend: population diversity and urban economic development.

This paper critically examines the increasing use of population diversity as a source of competitive advantage and distinctiveness within policies promoting urban economic development. Rising levels of population diversity are a characteristic feature of many urban areas and this has led to increased policy attempts to realise a so-called ‘diversity dividend’. Yet much of this policy thinking demonstrates a restricted understanding of the nature of the relationships between diverse populations and urban economic change. Through a comprehensive review of existing theoretical and policy practice in relation to population diversity, this paper identifies an often narrow focus upon higher skilled and income populations and their needs within much urban economic policy thinking. It is argued that a more critical and wide-ranging approach to the complex relationship between population diversity and city development is required if a more just form of urban economic development is to be achieved

Global teacher recruitment as a challenge to the goal of universal primary education

The second of the Millennium Goals agreed to by the United Nations General Assembly in 2000 was universal, high-quality primary education for all children. The inclusion of universal primary education is a recognition that education plays a crucial role in the alleviation of poverty and the promotion of peace and security; however, the UN Millennium Project team estimates that there are more than 100 million primary age children not attending school for a variety of reasons (UN Millennium Project 2005). In most cases their families are too poor to afford the costs involved, in many cases their labour or their income is needed at home, in others there is no school available, but increasingly children are prevented from attaining full primary education because there are insufficient teachers to staff schools adequately (see also Zajda et al. 2008). The implications of the projected shortage are very serious as an inability to provide appropriate education will prevent many of the poorest nations from implementing poverty reduction strategies and exacerbate the gap between the developed and less-developed nations (Zajda 2005). Moreover, as poverty increases social and political instabilities are likely to increase as the most vulnerable citizens of the poorest nations see any hope of a solution to their distress receding

EU Migration and the Economic Crisis: Concepts and Issues

peer reviewedIn this introductory chapter, we discuss the concept of “crisis migration” and its relevance to understanding the transformation of migratory flows within Europe as well as the transformation of migration and integration policies in the European Union. This introduction also presents the main issues discussed in this book and briefly introduces each of the chapters that compose this volume. In this chapter, we also underscore the different economic and political context in which this new Southern European migration is occurring in comparison with previous waves from the same area. In particular, we point out that successive enlargements of the EU and their associated migration waves have eroded the support of political elites for the principle of free movement within Northern EU Member States. This changing socio-political context has triggered different reactions among political elites towards these new flows in both sending and receiving countries