Transcript The Migration-Asylum Nexus Definition and significance

The Migration-Asylum Nexus
Definition and significance
Notes from a lecture by Stephen Castles and
Nick Van Hear
Oxford University, COMPASS, 27 Jan 2005
http://www.compas.ox.ac.uk/
What is the 'migration-asylum'
nexus
• Growing difficulty in separating between
forced and economic migration
• Closely related causes of forced and
economic migration
• Increasing similarities in the migratory
process for both categories
• Common responses: lack of differentiation
between asylum seekers and irregular
migrants
'Category jumping': Examples
• Portuguese workers in France - 1960s
Refugees from fascism
Use of people smugglers
Regularisation as workers
If workers are needed, employers and
governments don't care if they are refugees
• Burmese in Thailand
• Acehnese in Malaysia
A global problem:
forced migration (2003-4)
Refugees (1951 Convention definition)
9.7 million (recognised by UNHCR)
Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)
25 m (13 m of them in Africa)
Development Induced Displacement
10 million a year (World Bank)
Environmental change and disasters
Numbers unknown
Towards a political economy of
forced migration
• Globalisation: the North-South Gap
• Selective inclusion and exclusion in global
economy: 'disconnection'
• Trade, investment and development
• Trade in small arms, conflict diamonds etc.
• 'Reconnection' of South and North through
”unwanted' flows and networks
• Migration as a form of 'reconnection'
The migration-asylum nexus in
the South: macro-level
• Links between poverty, weak states, human
rights abuse and conflict
• Complex emergencies lead to many types of
displacement
• Internal displacement often means
impoverishment - and further migration
• Conflict prevents development - causes
economic migration
• Many migrants have multiple motivations
Political economy of forced
migration in the South: micro level
Approaches:
Commodity chain analysis
Livelihood studies
Examples:
Conflict diamonds in Sierra Leone
Cobalt mining in DR Congo
Afghanistan: survival in enduring conflict
The role of arms trafficking
The MAN in Countries of first
asylum and transit
Thailand: new industrial country with:
labour emigration and immigration
refugee inflows
Malaysia:
Indonesian and Filipino labour - often really
refugees
Tanzania: less-developed country with:
Long-standing and diverse refugee population
Strains of long-term support
The migration-asylum nexus in
the process of mobility
• Category jumping as a rational strategy
• Policies as 'opportunity structures'
• Migration barriers (visas, carrier sanctions,
safe third countries, buffer zones) - create
demand for the 'migration industry'
• The importance of migration networks
• Irregular movement may lead to long-term
irregularity
The nexus between asylum and irregular
migration in receiving countries - macro
• Deterrent measures create incentives for
irregular employment and residence
• Irregular entry helps create networks for
irregular work and life
• Unmet labour demand for low-skilled workers
encourages informal sector
• Media-driven asylum panic leads to
hypocritical asylum policies
The micro-level: how does
asylum affect local communities?
• Local conflicts about asylum centres
• Fears of 'cheap labour' in areas of social
exclusion
• Welfare challenges (e.g. assisting
unaccompanied minors)
• Destitution as challenge to local authorities
• Dispersal, concentration and potential ethnic
conflicts
Migration from Sri Lanka
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Elite/professionals
Students
Refugees and asylum seekers
Labour migration
Family reunion/foundation
Tamils in the UK
• Post independence 1948: professionals
• From 1960s, discrimination and hardening
ethnic nationalisms: students
• From 198Os: conflict refugees and asylum
seekers
• 199Os: acceleration of asylum migration
• From 2002: decline in asylum migration
• Family reunion
• From 2000: regrouping/relocation/secondary
migration
Consequences of the MigrationAsylum Nexus
• Diversified migrant populations in host countries
• Diversified migrant destinations: diasporisation
• Proliferation and diversification of transnational
linkages
- Households at home have a portfolio of transnational
resources
- Diaspora households have a portfolio of obligations
The future of
the migration-asylum nexus
• Era of asylum migration to affluent countries drawing to close
• Asylum migration to middle income countries?
• Other legal channels will continue: limited labour migration,
family reunion, high skilled, students ...
• Irregular migration will continue
• Regrouping: eg movement from continental Europe to the UK
• Containment of 'mixed migration' in regions of origin
• In- region migration management: sorting migrants in regions
of origin
• Effects on diaspora formation, transnational links, and the
global political economy?