How to ensure access to critical medicines? What are the links between migration and corruption? How do European agencies innovate? Just three of the questions tackled by UNU-MERIT and its School of Governance in May 2015. Our most recent publications are detailed below, including one book chapter, four journal articles, one working paper, and one country report. Click here for the full list. Book Chapter Promoting circular international migration of the highly skilled. This chapter in Global Mi...
In a seminar on 26 May 2015, Ewen MacLeod, Head of the Policy Development and Evaluation Service (PDES) of the UN Refugee Agency, focused on the impact of emerging global trends – population growth, climate change, urbanisation, and migration – on current arrangements for the management of forced displacement. MacLeod highlighted the changing nature of war, conflict and violence since the end of the Cold War as an explanation for the growth in internal displacement and protracted refugee situati...
Twenty-five years of European border restrictions have not only failed to curb immigration but have actually had counterproductive results — through an increase in irregular migration and an increasing dependence of migrants on smugglers, argues Prof. Hein de Haas. In recent months, a record number of refugees and migrants have drowned in their attempts to cross the Mediterranean Sea. According to recent UN estimates, in 2014 almost 220,000 migrants crossed the Mediterranean, and at least ...
“We need to be more transparent and clear about what development money is used for and that it actually goes into development work.” Dr. Melissa Siegel Gender, inequalities, security and migration are the guiding themes of the EU ‘Brainstorming on Challenges for International Cooperation and Development’, a conference held in Brussels on 13 March 2015. Part of the European Year for Development, the conference was opened by Neven Mimica, EU Commissioner for International C...
Dr. Khalid Koser has been appointed Executive Director of the Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund (GCERF), the first global effort to support local, community-level initiatives aimed at strengthening resilience against violent extremist agendas. Dr. Koser, also extraordinary Professor in Conflict, Peace and Security at Maastricht University, said in Davos in early 2015: “There are lots of communities affected by violence and extremism that don’t have access to money to fi...
Assisted Voluntary Return (AVR) is a key component of migration management in many host countries and high on the agenda of EU policymakers. AVR is offered by host governments to migrants without a legal right to stay, such as rejected asylum seekers or irregular migrants, enabling them to return in dignity and often with a reintegration package to re-establish themselves in their country of origin. In 2013, over 46,000 people from more than 70 host countries took part in International Organizat...
The head of our Migration and Development group, Dr. Melissa Siegel, today joined a briefing for government officials at UN Headquarters in New York. She spoke about “migration as a development enabler”, giving particular attention to destination countries. In her presentation Dr. Siegel highlighted: 1) How fragile and developing States can harness migration for development; 2) The importance of policy coherence in linking migration with development; and 3) The need for better and mo...
Dr. Khalid Koser was appointed Extraordinary Professor in Conflict, Peace and Security at the Faculty of Humanities and Sciences of Maastricht University on 18 September 2014. “When is Migration a Security Issue?” was the title of his inaugural lecture. About the speaker Beside his position at Maastricht University, Khalid Koser is the Deputy Director and Academic Dean at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy. He is also a non-resident Senior Fellow in Foreign Policy Studies at the Brookings Ins...
Refugees are set to make up a third of Lebanon’s population by late 2014. But the UN’s Refugee Agency (UNHCR) is massively underfunded in the country, forcing it to do more with less. In this blog post, MPP Master’s student Alessandro Pezzano shares his first experiences from the field and gives an early insight into his research theme: the use of technology to improve aid effectiveness. Stuck at Istanbul airport, waiting for my transfer to Beirut, I receive an alarming text: t...
In our third blog post for World Refugee Day, we learn why higher education is important to refugees and why this kind of provision deserves greater political and academic attention. World Refugee Day marks a global recognition of those who have been forced to leave their homes to find sanctuary abroad; a day when individual citizens and the international community reaffirm their support for resolving protracted conflicts and advancing the situation of refugees. Yet, it is only in the last decad...