WELCOME to our fourth quarterly newsletter of 2017, 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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Michaella Vanore, new Managing Editor of the Journal of Population Economics On 15 September 2017, Dr. Michaella Vanore followed Dr. Alessio Brown as Managing Editor of the Journal of Population Economics. In this role she supports the Editor-in-Chief, Prof. Klaus F. Zimmermann. The Journal of Population Economics published by Springer Nature is affiliated with the Global Labor Organization (GLO). Announcing the change, Prof. Zimmermann said: “Alessio Brown has done an excellent job as Managing Editor in supporting the publication of this high-quality scientific outlet. We need to express our large gratitude for his effective, competent and friendly collaboration and his great professional spirit. We wish him the best for his further career. At the same time, we are excited to welcome Michaella Vanore as his successor. We are convinced that she brings the talent and spirit to execute this interesting and crucial position and look forward to working with her.” |
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Professor Louis Volante Leads 5-Year SSHRC Insight Grant Funded Study with Colleagues at Queen's University and UNU-MERIT Education policies supporting immigrant students’ transition and integration are increasingly important in an ethnically diverse country such as Canada. Within this context, Prof. Louis Volante has been awarded a five-year $129,000 Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) Insight Grant as the Principal Investigator of a study that examines the relationship between immigrant student achievement and education policies across Canada. Other members of the research team include Co-Investigator Prof. Don Klinger (Associate Dean, Faculty of Education, Queen’s University) and Collaborator Prof. Melissa Siegel (Professor and Head of Migration Studies, UNU-MERIT/MGSoG). The results of this study will have important implications for senior policymakers seeking the most effective means to improve the educational outcomes of immigrant students. |
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Professor Melissa Siegel's Inaugural Lecture Available Online On 2 June 2017, Prof. Melissa Siegel successfully delivered her inaugural lecture ‘Migration &: The Depth and Breadth of Migration Studies’ which is now available online. Prof. Siegel was appointed Professor of Migration Studies at Maastricht University in August 2016. She leads the Migration and Development research theme at UNU-MERIT and its School of Governance. Prof. Siegel is also Co-Director and head of the Migration and Development research theme of the Maastricht Centre for Citizenship, Migration and Development (MACIMIDE), the Coordinator of the UNU Migration Network and a board member of the Hague Process on Refugees and Migration. |
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NEW PROJECTS |
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Regional Development and Protection Programme for the Horn of Africa As part of a consortium with partners from MDF/APE, Samuel Hall and ECDPM, Dr. Craig Loschmann and Prof. Melissa Siegel are involved in a new multi-year assessment of the Regional Development and Protection Programme (RDPP) for the Horn of Africa. The RDPP for the Horn of Africa was launched in 2015 to improve protection and enhance development prospects of refugees, IDPs and local communities, aiming to offer an alternative to risks of irregular migration. Through the programme, partners aim to contribute to durable, comprehensive solutions for long term development challenges posed by protracted forced displacement of refugees in their host communities. The evaluation by the consortium, funded by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, will consist of in-depth case studies including new household surveys in five countries: Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan, Somalia and Uganda. |
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GIZ Project: Mapping and Study of the Jordanian and Palestinian Diasporas in Germany UNU-MERIT and its School of Governance were recently commissioned by the German Development Cooperation Office (GIZ) to quantitatively and qualitatively analyse the Jordanian and. Palestinian diasporas in Germany. Diasporas being heterogeneous and complex, this project recognises that diasporas consist of various groups with different interests, agendas and degrees of organisation. The project aims to provide a comprehensive overview of Jordanian and Palestinian migrant organisations and associations based in Germany. Moreover, the characteristics and activities of these initiatives as well as their development potential will be analysed. The study, conducted by Dr. Zina Nimeh, Nora Ragab and Katharina Koch, informs GIZ’s Migration for Development Programme (PME), which focuses on promoting the capacity of migrants in Germany to engage in knowledge transfer to their origin countries. |
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GIZ Project: Study on Migration Routes from West and Central Africa Following the Study on Migration Routes in the East and the Horn of Africa, UNU-MERIT and its School of Governance were commissioned by the German Development Cooperation Office (GIZ) to conduct a similar study for West and Central Africa. The new study covers 13 countries, namely Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Senegal. Since 2015, GIZ has commissioned an increasing number of projects related to (irregular) migration in Africa. Therefore, the aim of this study is to better understand the dynamics of migration and the realities with regards to the migration routes, current and anticipated trends as well as the urgent development needs and the scope for intervention in West and Central Africa. |
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UPCOMING EVENTS |
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UNU -WIDER Conference In collaboration with the UNU Migration Network, researchers from the Migration and Development research group at UNU-MERIT and its School of Governance will present new work in Accra, Ghana at the UNU-WIDER conference titled ‘Migration and Mobility – New Frontiers for Research and Policy’ on 5-6 October 2017. Dr. Craig Loschmann will chair a panel session on the impacts of displacement on host communities in Rwanda and Tanzania, which includes presentations by Prof. Melissa Siegel and Veronika Fajth, as well as Isabel Ruiz from the University of Oxford. PhD fellow Clotilde Mahé will also be in attendance, presenting her work during the poster session. |
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Migration Seminars In conjunction with the Maastricht Centre for Citizenship, Migration and Development (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. On 18 October 2017 Floris Peters, PhD candidate at the Department of Political Science at Maastricht University, will give a seminar on ‘Naturalisation and homeownership: an analysis of the signalling effect of citizenship in the housing market’. The next seminar will be held by Roland Hosner, research officer at ICMPD, and is scheduled to take place on 15 November 2017. To join our mailing list and receive invitations to future seminars, or to express interest in delivering a seminar, please email Veronika Fajth. |
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IMITE Activities The Migration Group regularly participates in activities of the Interaction Of Migrant Integration and Transnationalism Standing Committee (IMITE). From 8-10 November 2017 Erasmus University Rotterdam will organise the IMITE Senior Symposium and PhD Course on the topic ‘Migration routes and transnational networks and institutions’ in Rotterdam. During the event, UNU-MERIT researcher Dr. Katie Kuschminder will give a talk on her recent project, while affiliated researcher Dr. Özge Bilgili will coordinate research sessions with PhD researchers. Earlier this year, Dr. Bilgili organised a workshop in collaboration with Marta Bivand Erdal (PRIO) at the 14th Annual Conference of International Migration, Integration and Social Cohesion in Europe (IMISCOE) in Rotterdam on 28-30 June 2017. During the workshop, experts in the field discussed the state-of-the-art in transnationalism research, pushing forward theoretical discussions on the interactions between migrant integration and transnationalism. Moreover, Dr. Bilgili presented a paper that she’s co-authoring with Dr. Sonja Fransen (UvA) on Attitudinal Transnationalism. |
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PAST EVENTS |
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Research on Determining the Demand for Foreign Labour Force in the Labour Market of Azerbaijan In September 2017, Prof. Melissa Siegel travelled to Baku, Azerbaijan, to give a presentation about the way forward for an improved labour immigration policy and system in Azerbaijan as part of the project ‘Research on determining the demand for foreign labour force in the labour market of Azerbaijan’, jointly implemented by the Azerbaijani Ministry of Labour and Social Protection and the Population and the International Center for the Development of Migration Policy (ICMPD) in collaboration with the International Organization for Migration (IOM). The project plans to develop a new methodology to determine the quota of labour migration with foreign and local experts. The meeting was attended by representatives of the Azerbaijani government, the State Migration Service, the State Oil Company, social partners, and international organisations. More information about the meeting can be found here. |
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Representatives of Kenyan Department of Immigration Services and Kenyan School of Government visit Maastricht On 27-28 September 2017, representatives from the Kenyan Department of Immigration Services and the Kenya School of Government visited UNU-MERIT and its School of Governance to discuss the envisioned Kenyan Migration Training Institute. The Kenyan Government wishes to create a training institute for its immigration officers and for migration practitioners working throughout the region. Given the School’s expertise in running a variety of migration training programmes at the post-graduate, master and PhD levels, topics discussed included best practices, infrastructure, and curriculum. It is hoped that both the Kenyan Government and the School can collaborate on curriculum development throughout the process of establishing the Kenyan Migration Training Institute. |
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TRAINING PROGRAMMES |
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New Programme: Beyond the Refugee Crisis - Towards sustainable socio-economic development for host societies and refugee communities This five-day course is jointly organised by UNU-MERIT and its School of Governance, Maastricht University, the Maastricht School of Management (MSM), and Caritas Jordan and offers policymakers and societal leaders evidence-based handles for improving their organisations’ refugee-related policies and projects. Based on lectures by academics, workshops by practitioners and trainings from experts the programme aims to help participants to gain the in-depth knowledge and concrete skills needed to develop conflict-sensitive and sustainable socio-economic policies that will lead to constructive long-term engagement with refugee and host communities. The application deadline is 2 January 2018. More information about the programme can be found here. |
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Migration Management Diploma Programme: Applications open We have opened applications for our sixth cohort of the Migration Management Diploma Programme (MMDP). In this programme, 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) and the Dutch Ministry of Security and Justice. 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 2017 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 Volante, L., Klinger D., Bilgili, Ö. & Siegel, M. (2017), The Immigrant (Dis)advantage Addressing student achievement gaps. Canadian Journal of Education, 40(3) 330-361. Bilgili, Ö. (2017), “The “CHARM” Policy Analysis Framework: Evaluation of Policies to Promote Immigrant Students’ Resilience”, OECD Education Working Papers, No. 158, OECD Publishing, Paris. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/164a7643-en (http://www.oecd.org/edu/school/Ozge-WKP.pdf) Bilgili, Ö. (2016). Houd rekening met de realiteit van migranten; Pleidooi voor een coherent en complementair integratie- en ontwikkelingsbeleid. Sociologie. 12(30), p.351-364. (Published in September 2017) Constant, Amelie, 2017, The healthy immigrant paradox and health convergence, UNU-MERIT Working Paper 2017-044 Kuschminder, Katherine, 2017, Libya is Not Turkey: why the EU plan to stop Mediterranean migration is a human rights concern, The Conversation Global, More information Kuschminder, Katherine, Jun 2017, Taking stock of Assisted Voluntary Return from Europe: decision making, reintegration and sustainable return : time for a paradigm shift. Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies , 2017/31, More information Kuschminder, Katherine, 2017, Interrogating the Relationship between Remigration and Sustainable Return, International Migration, More information Kuschminder, Katherine, Aug 2017, Reintegration Strategies: Conceptualizing How Return Migrants Reintegrate, Springer, London, More information Mahé, Clotilde, 2017, Occupational choice of return migrants: Is there a 'Jack-of-all-trades' effect?, UNU-MERIT Working Paper 2017-039 Merkle, Ortrun, Julia Reinold & Melissa Siegel, Sep 2017, A Gender Perspective on Corruption Encountered during Forced and Irregular Migration, comissioned by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), More information Vanore, Michaella, Melissa Siegel, Franziska Gassmann & Jennifer Waidler, 2017, Adult Child Migration and Elderly Multidimensional Well-Being: Comparative Analysis Between Moldova and Georgia, Research on Aging Bilgili, Özge, Katherine Kuschminder & Melissa Siegel, 2017, Return migrants’ perceptions of living conditions in Ethiopia: A gendered analysis, Migration Studies, More information Mahé, Clotilde, 2017, Husbands' return migration and wives' occupational choices, UNU-MERIT Working Paper 2017-031 Vezzoli, Simona, Ayla Bonfiglio & Hein de Haas, Apr 2017, Global migration futures: Exploring the future of international migration with a scenario methodology. This paper presents the Global Migration Futures (GMF) Scenario Methodology developed at the University of Oxford’s International Migration Institute (IMI). The GMF Scenario Methodology integrates insights from migration theory with techniques from the Intuitive Logics School of scenario planning to enable the simultaneous and systematic examination of relatively certain and uncertain migration determinants, their future evolution as well as their implications for population mobility. In addition, this paper discusses the key insights gained through the application of the GMF Scenario Methodology in different world regions as well as its main limitations, More information Hooijen, Inge, Christoph Meng, Julia Reinold & Melissa Siegel, 2017, Competition for talent: retaining graduates in the Euregio Meuse-Rhine, European Planning Studies, More information Koser, Khalid & R. Omidvar, Jan 2017, World Economic Forum blog, More information Koser, Khalid , Jan 2017, World Economic Forum blog, More information Koser, Khalid & R. Omidvar, Jan 2017, World Economic Forum blog, More information Koser, Khalid , 2017, World Economic Forum blog, More information |
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Photo Credits: H. Pijpers, S. Brodin, E. McGregor, M. Siegel, [10] MLSPP , [15] Flickr: Albertogp123 |
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