WELCOME to our third quarterly newsletter of 2016, keeping you up-to-date on our migration activities, events, and publications at UNU-MERIT and its School of Governance. |
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ANNOUNCEMENTS |
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Melissa Siegel appointed Professor of Migration Studies Dr. Melissa Siegel has been appointed Professor of Migration Studies at Maastricht University from August 2016. She has also been appointed Co-Director of the Maastricht Centre for Citizenship, Migration and Development (MACIMIDE) from 1 September 2016 alongside Professors Gerard-René de Groot and Maarten Vink. Dr. Siegel is Head of Migration Studies at the Maastricht Graduate School of Governance and a Senior Researcher and Migration and Development research theme leader for UNU-MERIT. See here for more information about Melissa Siegel’s research and activities. Prof. Siegel has also joined the editorial board of the Journal of Population Economics, an international quarterly that publishes original theoretical and applied research in all areas of population economics. |
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Migration Researcher Wins OECD Fellowship Dr. Özge Bilgili, has been selected for the OECD’s Thomas J. Alexander Fellowship for 2017. During the project period at the Directorate for Education and Skills in Paris, she will focus on migrant children’s educational achievement and socio-cultural integration. Specifically, she will examine the questions of migration by comparing first and second generation immigrant students with their non-immigrant peers in the PISA 2015 database, identifying effective policies and comparing education systems. Read more. |
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Welcome to Jørgen Carling Last month we welcomed Jørgen Carling as a visiting researcher at UNU-MERIT and its School of Governance. Jørgen Carling is Research Professor at the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO). His research addresses a broad range of themes related to migration and transnationalism, including migration theory, migration management, transnational families, remittances, and the links between migration and development. Among his most influential work is the analysis of aspiration and ability in international migration, and the associated phenomenon of ‘involuntary immobility’. |
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UNU Migration Network In the lead up to the summit on large movements of refugees and migrants on 19 September 2016 in New York, the UNU Migration Network published a series of blogs reflecting on the challenges and opportunities of the summit from various critical perspectives: migration governance and policy; forced migration; migration and environment; migration and health; migration and culture; and migration and development. The 9th Coordination Meeting of the UNU Migration Network will be held at UNU-EHS in Bonn on 27 October 2016. |
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NEW PROJECTS |
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Connecting Diasporas for Development On 6 September, Prof. Melissa Siegel, Dr. Katie Kuschminder, Sarah Langley and research intern Charlotte Mueller participated in IOM’s Kick-Off Meeting of its new Connecting Diaspora for Development (CD4D) project in The Hague. UNU-MERIT and its School of Governance will implement an impact evaluation of the CD4D. As a continuation of IOM’s Temporary Return of Qualified Nationals (TRQN) project, the programme links diaspora members with Dutch residency to institutions in their countries of origin. This will be done via physical and online assignments with organisations in Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Ghana, Morocco, Sierra Leone and Somalia. The project is funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. |
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Second Edition of the Movement Report In 2015, Elaine McGregor was commissioned by the MADE Network, coordinated by the International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC), to prepare the first edition of the Movement Report which assessed the progress that had been made on achieving each of the eight goals highlighted in civil society’s 5-year 8-point Plan of Action since the UN High Level Dialogue on International Migration and Development in 2013. The report provided a number of recommendations including a need to focus efforts of measurement. Elaine has now been commissioned to prepare the second edition of the Movement Report which will take forward this recommendation through the development of a set of scorecards to measure civil society progress that can be used by civil society organisations on an annual basis. |
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UPCOMING EVENTS |
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PhD Defence: Craig Loschmann On 14 October, Craig Loschmann will defend his PhD dissertation ‘Essays on Conflict-related Migration and Development in the case of Afghanistan’. Popular and academic interest in the relationship between migration and development has grown considerably over the last two decades. However, there is a gap in the empirical literature when it comes to migration between developing countries, otherwise considered South-South migration, and other less voluntary forms of migration like refugee movements from countries afflicted by conflict. This dissertation is a collection of empirical essays which attempts to fill this gap by exploring the link between conflict-related migration and development in the (post-) conflict environment of Afghanistan. More information. |
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Migration Seminars In conjunction with MACIMIDE, the Migration and Development research group at UNU-MERIT and its School of Governance organises a series of migration-related seminars to provide a platform to discuss the research output of researchers at the School and to invite external speakers to share their work. The 2016/17 series launched on 21 September 2016 with a presentation by MPP alumni Magda Ulceluse (CEU) on ‘Varieties of capitalism, variation in immigrant self-employment’. The next seminars will take place on 20 October when Camilla Spadevecchia will present ‘Well-being, Transnational practices, and Development: the case of Sub–Saharan highly skilled migrant women in Europe and on 16 November with Jørgen Carling. To join our mailing list and receive invitations to future seminars, or to express interest in delivering a seminar, please email Dr. Michaella Vanore. |
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PAST EVENTS |
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Sustainable Integration of Asylum applicants in Regions and Municipalities On 26 September Prof. Melissa Siegel delivered a keynote speech at the 12th Conference of European Regions and Cities in Salzburg. The annual Conference of European Regions and Cities brings together about 300 representatives of politics and business from the various European regions. Her presentation, entitled ‘Sustainable Integration of Asylum applicants in Regions and Municipalities’ was part of a panel on ‘Migration instead of Rural Exodus – Integration as a Chance for Regions’ and contributed to the focus of the conference on the sustainable integration of immigrants in Europe |
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Myths and realities in Migration On 8 September 2016, Prof. Melissa Siegel delivered a public lecture as part of Maastricht’s Parcours of Art and Science (PAS Maastricht) a free festival organised by Maastricht University and Studium Generale. Intended to provide an opportunity to learn more about the realities of migration, the lecture focused on dispelling common myths about migration. Most people think they are familiar with the realities and nuances of migration. However, migration (including forced migration) has many nuances that are unclear to a lot of people. Watch the lecture here. |
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Human Development and Capability Association Annual Conference Between 1-3 September, several researchers from UNU-MERIT and its School of Governance attended the annual conference of the Human Development and Capability Association in Japan. Several members of the migration research group presented their work in a thematic panel entitled ‘Multidimensional well-being and capability expansion in forced migration contexts”. The panel featured papers by PhD fellows Katrin Marchand and Craig Loschmann, researcher, Inez Roosen and Prof. Melissa Siegel, Dr. Zina Nimeh, and Dr. Michaella Vanore and Dr. Katie Kuschminder. |
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International Summer School on Migration Between 26 June and 2 July, Prof. Melissa Siegel and Prof. Ronald Skeldon travelled to Qakh, Azerbaijan, to participate in the ‘International Summer School on Migration’ organised within the framework of the EU-funded ENIGMMA and MOBILAZE projects, implemented by the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) in cooperation with the migration-related stakeholders in Azerbaijan and Georgia. In total, 50 students from Georgia and Azerbaijan took part in the Summer School. As part of the ENIGMMA project Prof. Melissa Siegel, PhD fellow, Jennifer Waidler and Dr. Michaella Vanore will also participate in two Migration Studies Weekends in Georgia on 23-25 September (Introduction to Migration Studies) and 21-23 October (Migration and Development). |
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TRAINING PROGRAMMES |
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Migration Management Diploma Programme: Applications Open We have opened applications for our fifth cohort the Migration Management Diploma Programme (MMDP). Students follow three months of intensive training on different aspects of migration policymaking. The MMDP trains government officials working on migration management issues and is supported by the Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC), the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD), and the Dutch Repatriation and Departure Service (DTenV). If you are interested in receiving further information about the programme, please email or visit our website. |
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Online Courses For those who are interested but do not have the time to take a full-time course in migration studies, UNU-MERIT and its School of Governance offer a number of specially designed online courses to suit the needs of busy professionals. We currently offer three courses that can be started at any time: 1) Introduction to Migration Studies; 2) Migration and Remittance Effects; and 3) Comparative Migration Policy. Keep an eye on our website for the launch of a new online course in 2016 on Internal Migration by Prof. Ronald Skeldon and on Forced Migration later in the year. Watch introduction videos for the course on our YouTube channel (internal migration/ forced migration). For further information please contact Katrin Marchand. |
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NEW PUBLICATIONS |
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Cebotari, Victor, Melissa Siegel & Valentina Mazzucato, 2016, Migration and the education of children who stay behind in Moldova and Georgia, International Journal of Educational Development, 51 (November), 96-107, DOI: 10.1016/j.ijedudev.2016.09.002, More information Kuschminder, Katherine & Sarah Langley , 2016, Migrants in countries in crisis: Supporting an evidence-based approach for effective and cooperative state action, Regional Discussion Paper, Focus on the East and Southern African Experience, International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD), More information McGregor, Elaine & Nora Jasmin Ragab, Feb 2016, The Role of Culture and the Arts in the Integration of Refugees and Migrants, European Expert Network on Culture and Audiovisual (EENCA), More information McGregor, Elaine & Nora Jasmin Ragab, June 2016, The Role of Culture and the Arts in the Integration of Refugees and Migrants: Member State Questionnaires, European Expert Network on Culture and Audiovisual (EENCA), More information Cebotari, Victor, Valentina Mazzucato & Melissa Siegel, 2016, Gendered perceptions of migration among Ghanaian children in transnational care, Child Indicators Research, DOI: 10.1007/s12187-016-9407-x, More information |
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Photo Credits: H. Pijpers, S. Brodin, [5] IOM Netherlands [6] MADE Network [12] ICMPD in Georgia, [15] Flickr: Albertogp123 |
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