WELCOME to our fourth quarterly newsletter of 2020, keeping you up-to-date on our migration activities, events, and publications at UNU-MERIT and its School of Governance. | ||
ANNOUNCEMENTS |
||
Bartel Van de Walle, new Director at UNU-MERIT On 1 September 2020, Prof. Bartel Van de Walle started as the new director of UNU-MERIT and its School of Governance. In an interview with the United Nations Regional Information Centre in Western Europe for the ‘Faces of the UN’ series, Prof. Van de Walle explained that the shock of the 9-11 attacks changed his research focus from mathematics to decision-making almost overnight. When asked about his plans for UNU-MERIT, he announced that he would start a broad consultation process, from which new priorities for the institute will follow. Prof. Van de Walle commended the institute’s staff on their efforts in adapting to the restrictions imposed by COVID-19. Finally, he said that the institute has started working on projects on the impact of COVID-19 in developing countries and that more will follow. Read the full interview with Prof. Van de Walle here. |
||
NEWS FROM OUR NETWORKS |
||
Maastricht Centre for Citizenship, Migration and Development (MACIMIDE) The Maastricht Centre for Citizenship, Migration and Development (MACIMIDE) is the interdisciplinary research platform of Maastricht University that brings together scholars working in the fields of migration, mobility, citizenship, development and family life. On 1 September 2020, Dr. Karlijn Haagsman joined the MACIMIDE Executive Board. Karlijn is a postdoctoral researcher in the ERC project MO-TRAYL and Assistant Professor at Maastricht University’s Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASoS). Her research focuses on migration sociology and cultural anthropology. She replaces Prof. Maarten Vink, who has been appointed Chair in Citizenship Studies at the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence, Italy, for the coming five years. |
||
Migration Management and the Migration–Development Nexus (MIGNEX) MIGNEX is a five-year research project (2018–2023) with the core ambition of creating new knowledge on migration, development and policy. MIGNEX is the largest-ever European-funded research project on migration, involving researchers from nine institutions in Europe, Africa and Asia. UNU-MERIT and the Faculty of Law at Maastricht University are part of the consortium led by Prof. Jørgen Carling at the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) in Norway. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, data collection for the MIGNEX project is currently on hold but will resume as soon as possible. On 8 October, MIGNEX and IOM's Global Migration Data Analysis Centre (GMDAC) co-hosted a webinar on ‘Sampling respondents in migration surveys: challenges and trade-offs’. A recording of the discussion is available here. Sign up for the MIGNEX newsletter to stay updated with MIGNEX news. |
||
Migration, Transformation, Sustainability (MISTY) The COVID-19 outbreak has compelled MISTY to adapt its data collection plans for a comparative survey across five sites, scheduled for the end of March 2020. MISTY has postponed the comparative survey and designed three additional data collection instruments to test some of the initial hypotheses envisaged. The new instruments will also allow to explore the effect of the COVID-19 crisis in sustainable practices considering two factors. This includes how the global health crisis amplifies social inequality and new opportunities for participation in alternative citizen-led initiatives to face the COVID-19 crisis. Read more about MISTY’s innovative ways to collect data in times of COVID-19 here. |
||
Relaunch of the International Migration Institute at the University of Amsterdam Last year, the International Migration Insititute (IMI) completed its relocation from the University of Oxford to the University of Amsterdam’s Institute for Social Science Research (AISSR). The move allows for the continuation of IMI’s original research agenda to promote new thinking of migration and human mobility as an intrinsic part of global change and development. Through research, generation of new data, and IMI’s working paper series, IMI aims to expand the boundaries of migration research, advance migration theory, promote evidence-based debates on migration and encourage greater engagement beyond academia. Dr. Sonja Fransen is part of IMI and the editor of the IMI working paper series, to which members of UNU-MERIT’s Migration Research Group, including Dr. Elaine Lebon-McGregor, have contributed in the past. For more information, visit IMI’s renewed website, where you can find a full overview of the 168 working papers that IMI has published so far. |
||
NEW PROJECTS |
||
Katie Kuschminder wins ERC grant Dr. Katie Kuschminder has won a ‘Starting Grant’ from the European Research Council (ERC), which is awarded to researchers with two to seven years of experience since completion of their PhD. This 1.5-million-euro grant will enable Katie to form a research team for her project ‘Reintegrate’, which will study the reintegration governance for migrants by combining the existing fields of migration governance and return migration studies. The research project will zoom in on the increasing number of people returning to their origin countries, either voluntarily or by force, and their experiences with the reintegration process and its governance. To do so, the team will develop a database of reintegration governance in states globally, as well as a theoretical framework for understanding reintegration governance. The framework will be tested in Ethiopia, Morocco, Nepal and Serbia. Read more about Katie’s research grant and the ‘Reintegrate’ project here. |
||
WFP project: Urban response to COVID-19 in Kenya The World Food Programme (WFP) has asked the migration team at UNU-MERIT and its School of Governance to evaluate an urban response intervention in Nairobi. The intervention aims to provide life-saving humanitarian support to poor households residing in informal settlements who are unable to meet their basic food and nutrition requirements due to compromised access to income-earning opportunities resulting from COVID-19 related government restrictions. The programme will be evaluated using remote data collection methods, both quantitive and qualitative. The team from UNU-MERIT is headed by Dr. Sonja Fransen. |
||
IOM project: Reintegration Dr. Sonja Fransen will lead a new, six-month project for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), combining two recently awarded projects on ‘Comparative Reintegration Outcomes in Forced and Voluntary Returns’ and ‘Understanding and Implementing Gender-Sensitive Sustainable Reintegration’. The combined project will focus on six country case studies and will make use of both existing data and newly collected data among returnees. The objective of the project is to determine factors that affect reintegration outcomes at the individual, community and structural level, and to identify good practices and recommendations for gender-sensitive reintegration programmes. |
||
ICMPD short-term consultancy: Policy on Engagement with Iraqis Abroad The International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) has been supporting the government of Iraq in the development of a diaspora engagement strategy with the assistance of Dr. Michaella Vanore and Prof. Melissa Siegel. Dr. Vanore will work with ICMPD in finalising the ‘Policy on Engagement with Iraqis Abroad’ framework designed to support the long-term engagement of Iraqis residing abroad in the further development of their country of (ancestral) origin. As part of this work, Michaella will participate in workshops with representatives of the Government of Iraq and will further revise the policy in line with their comments. ICMPD's work in this policy is part of the project 'Improving Migration Management in the Silk Routes Countries.' |
||
UPCOMING EVENTS |
||
Online Symposium on Health, Migration, and Integration On 26 November 2020, the first symposium of the Health and Migration Collaborative Community will take place online. The symposium, organised by UNU-MERIT and its School of Governance in collaboration with the Maastricht Centre for Global Health and the Maastricht Centre for Citizenship, Migration and Development, will highlight the complex intersections between migration and health through discussions around both research and practice. The symposium will bring together academics, including students and early career researchers, health professionals, policymakers and representatives of civil society to discuss issues related to migrant health. The event will also mark the official launch of the Health and Migration Collaborative Community website. This growing resource portal provides short analytical reviews and other support materials for academics, practitioners, policymakers, and other stakeholders interested in issues related to migration and health. |
||
Maastricht Migration Lecture Series With this lecture series, UNU-MERIT, the European Law Student Association, Refugee Project Maastricht, the Maastricht Young Academy (MYA), and the Maastricht Centre for Citizenship, Migration and Development (MACIMIDE) aim to provide an objective picture and offer new insights on the topic of migration. In a series of lectures, experts will talk about topics such as myths and misconceptions in the area of migration. The upcoming lecture by Prof. Maarten Vink, which will be live-streamed online on 28 October 2020, from 19:00-20:30, will discuss the question ‘Does citizenship matter?’ During the talk, Maarten will explain the controversial and complex relationship between immigrant naturalisation and life experiences within the host society. Watch Katie Kuschminder’s previous lecture ‘Migration in Libya: From transit route to containment’ online on UNU-MERIT’s YouTube channel. |
||
PAST EVENTS |
||
Melissa Siegel and Katrin Marchand invited to GIZ webinar On 9 July 2020, Prof. Melissa Siegel and Dr. Katrin Marchand were invited to provide input in a webinar for the staff of the German Development Cooperation Office (GIZ) on ‘Remittances, their role for economic development and how they are affected by the corona crisis’. Dr. Marchand presented an 'Introduction to understanding remittances' and Prof. Siegel spoke on the 'Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on remittances in countries of origin'. These contributions were complemented by input from GIZ staff on the organisation's activities in the area of remittances and a discussion with the members of the GIZ Working Group ‘Employment and Migration’. |
||
Online PhD defence: Elaine Lebon-McGregor On 5 October 2020, Elaine Lebon-McGregor successfully defended her PhD dissertation entitled ‘International Organizations and Global Migration Governance’. Rapid population growth, the advancement of technologies, war and conflicts, decolonisation, economic crises and other significant events have had implications for the patterns and governability of population movements. Dr. Lebon-McGregor’s dissertation tells the story of how migration has evolved as a global policy issue since 1919. Drawing on interviews with key actors involved in global-level discussions on migration and the United Nations (UN) archives, the dissertation investigates how migration became a global governance issue and the role played by the UN in this process. It also offers a methodological toolkit that could be applied to other global policy issues. |
||
OCHR Webinar: ‘Migrants, Displaced People and the COVID Crisis’ On 4 September 2020, Prof. Melissa Siegel contributed to a live webinar organised by the Oxford Consortium for Human Rights (OCHR) entitled ‘Migrants, Displaced People and the COVID Crisis’. Prof. Siegel said that remittances are estimated to decrease by almost 20 percent as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. She also addressed the effects of this reduction for development. The other experts on the panel discussed how COVID-19 impacts internally displaced persons (IDPs) in North-West Syria, migrants in the Gulf states and mobility in the Schengen zone. Watch a recording of the webinar here. |
||
The IMISCOE Migration Podcast: Melissa Siegel on misconceptions of migration and development Prof. Melissa Siegel was interviewed for the Migration Podcast published by the International Migration, Integration and Social Cohesion in Europe research network (IMISCOE). In the episode, she speaks about the aspirations that drive people’s decisions to live elsewhere and debunks a common misconception about migrants, which is that people only migrate to flee poverty, war or persecution. Prof. Siegel explains that if these were the only reasons for people to migrate, people from certain countries, such as the US or the Netherlands, would never move anywhere. For this reason, among others, the research at UNU-MERIT and its School of Governance focuses on involuntary migration as well as, for example, highly-skilled migration. Additionally, Prof. Siegel states that most people have a preference for staying in their country of origin, where they grew up and are close to their family. Finally, she emphasises that this information needs to be shared with the general public to decrease misconceptions about migrants. Listen to the full podcast here. |
||
Arjen Leerkes on Belgian radio After the news broke out that migrants are trying to flee from Spain to countries such as Morocco and Algeria due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Belgian Radio 1 channel asked Prof. Arjen Leerkes to comment on this phenomenon. He explained that this was a one-time incident of Moroccan migrants who were trying to return from the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, which are very close to Morocco. He said that it is ‘very unlikely’ that the COVID-19 pandemic was the reason behind the migrants’ decision to flee.. The migrants were probably either workers in the enclaves, or, more likely, irregular migrants who realised that they could not enter Europe due to the closure of the external borders. He also stated that usually, these migrants would return to their origin countries on regular flights and urged anyone who wants to return to their origin country to contact the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Finally, he advised governments to keep facilitating a safe return for migrants. Listen to the full (Dutch) interview on Radio 1’s website. |
||
TRAINING PROGRAMMES |
||
Master of Science in Public Policy and Human Development The Master of Science in Public Policy and Human Development programme is a double-degree programme of University Nations University institute UNU-MERIT and Maastricht University. The programme provides students with a variety of skills, tools and knowledge which enables them to work as policy designers and policy analysts in public and private institutions. The programme offers seven different specialisations including Migration Studies. You can find a portrait of our former student Soha Youssef and her experiences specialising in Migration Studies here. You can find more information on our webpage. This short video film will give you a glimpse into what it is like to study at UNU-MERIT and Maastricht University from a student’s perspective. |
||
Kenya Post Graduate Diploma Programme in Migration Studies Following the success of the first cohort of the Kenya Post Graduate Diploma Programme in Migration Studies (PGDPMS) which took place in Kenya in 2019, the Migration and Development group launched the second cohort in September 2020. The PGDPMS is organised in collaboration with the Kenya Institute of Migration Studies (KIMS) and is funded by the German Development Cooperation Office (GIZ) through the Better Migration Management programme (BMM II) in conjunction with the University of Nairobi. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the programme for 2020 has been customised entirely to online teaching methods and training. Over the coming months, Dr. Katrin Marchand, Dr. Lisa Andersson, Dr. Elaine Lebon-McGregor, and Dr. Sonja Fransen will teach in this programme. |
||
Strengthening Migration Management Authorities in Kosovo The third phase of the project “Strengthening Migration Management Authorities in Kosovo” (MIMAK II) was launched in July and was commissioned by the Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC). As part of the project, the Migration Group of UNU-MERIT and its School of Governance has organised a series of training courses for high-level civil servants from the State of Kosovo and is working on implementing the courses in collaboration with the International Centre for Migration Policy (ICMPD). The training courses cover themes including migration policies, migration governance, policy coherence, labour migration, and diaspora engagement. The training will continue into 2020 and early 2021. |
||
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. Watch introduction videos for the course on our YouTube channel (internal migration/ forced migration). For further information, please contact Dr. Katrin Marchand. |
||
NEW PUBLICATIONS Mack, Miriam, Sarah Roeder, Katrin Marchand & Melissa Siegel, 2020, Intra-EU migration: Shedding light on drivers, corridors and the relative importance of migrant characteristics, UNU-MERIT Working Paper 2020-042 Lebon-McGregor, Elaine, Sep 2020, A History of Global Migration Governance: Challenging Linearity, More information Lebon-McGregor, Elaine, 2020, International Organizations and Global Migration Governance, PhD Dissertation Maastricht University / United Nations University Marchand, Katrin, Glenn Rayp & Ilse Ruyssen, 2020, Conclusion: Migration in the Global South: Indications for the Global Compact?, in: Glenn Rayp, Ilse Ruyssen & Katrin Marchand (eds), Regional Integration and Migration Governance in the Global South, Springer, Dordrecht, More information Andersson, Lisa & Melissa Siegel, 2020, The Impact of Migration on Development in Developing Countries: A Review of the Empirical Literature, in: Glenn Rayp, Ilse Ruyssen & Katrin Marchand (eds), Regional Integration and Migration Governance in the Global South, Springer, Dordrecht, More information Loschmann, Craig, 2020, Taking Stock of the Evidence on the Consequences of Hosting Refugees in the Global South, in: Glenn Rayp, Ilse Ruyssen & Katrin Marchand (eds), Regional Integration and Migration Governance in the Global South, Springer, Dordrecht, More information Kuschminder, Katherine, 2020, Once a Destination for Migrants, Post-Gaddafi Libya Has Gone from Transit Route to Containment, Migration Information Source, More information Kuschminder, Katherine, Zoe Ogahara & Iman Rajabzadeh, 2020, Evaluations of Return Within A Mass Deportation: Ethiopians’ Experiences of Return After Expulsion From Saudi Arabia, International Migration, More information Kuschminder, Katherine, 2020, Before disembarkation: Eritrean and Nigerian migrants journeys within Africa, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, More information Janssen, Chiara & Katrin Marchand, 2020, Contemporary Labor Migration in West and Central Africa: The Main Patterns, Drivers and Routes, in: Glenn Rayp, Ilse Ruyssen & Katrin Marchand (eds), Regional Integration and Migration Governance in the Global South, Springer, Dordrecht, More information Rayp, Glenn, Ilse Ruyssen & Katrin Marchand (eds.), 2020, Regional Integration and Migration Governance in the Global South, Springer, Dordrecht, More information Lebon-McGregor, Elaine, Feb 2020, Migration, the MDGs, and SDGs, in: Tanja Bastia and Ronald Skeldon, Routledge Handbook of Migration and Development, Routledge, London, More information Naujoks, Daniel & Elaine Lebon-McGregor, Jul 2020, Measuring Policy Coherence for Migration and Development - A new set of tested tools, More information Dubow, Talitha, Katrin Marchand & Melissa Siegel, 2020, International student mobility decision-making in a European context, UNU-MERIT Working Paper 2020-031 |
||
Photo Credits: H. Pijpers, S. Brodin, [21] Flickr: Albertogp123 | ||
Pingback: UNU Newsletter on Migration – April 2015