This course seeks to critically explore societal and conceptual challenges linking migration to other forms of mobility, to globalisation and to notions of development. It does so by exploring several key concerns, including: Why is migration still so often perceived, in essence, as a failing of local governance and developmental programmes? Beyond this, should international mobility be seen as a stratifying process intensifying inequality at local and global levels? In times of political turmoil that interconnects with economic stress and social conflict, can a distinction still be made between categories of migrants such as political refugees and economic migrants?
When relating migration to economic development, much attention is devoted to migrants as change makers, as bringers of financial and social remittances. The volume of remittances has indeed been given ample attention from various actors engaged with developmental activities, such as international development institutes and NGOs, for instance through links made with the Sustainable Development Goals. This assumes a singular goal, whereas this is not always the case, not least because remittances are, in essence, private funds. Yet migrants are often willing to contribute to their regions of origin, notably to improve the livelihoods of their families, hometowns, etc.
At the same time migration is also looked upon as largely problematic, notably in countries that are largely recipients of migrants, although similar perspectives can also be found in the so-called transit countries, and even in countries that have balanced inflows and outflows of migrants (e.g. high mobility of labour with neighbouring countries, as is the case in ECOWAS and SADC regions of Africa). As primary recipients of migrants, skilled and unskilled, the European Union and the United States of America have taken increasingly firm steps in the past decade to stem the inflow of migrants into their territories, partially in response to public fear of migrants and the 'alien' cultures they import. Restrictive immigration measures then seem to be a logical response. However, beyond the ethical issues raised by such measures (along the lines of the Geneva Convention for Human Rights), does such a stance actually make sense from an economic point of view? In other words, does it actually work?
Understanding and situating migration within larger globalisation processes, also with attention for their developmental impact, is therefore the main focus of this course. We start off the course this year by focusing on the phenomenon of migration, to thereafter steadily 'scale up' to the level of globalisation processes. This especially helps to develop a solid understanding of various forms of migration as exponents of globalization, with particular theoretical attachments. To that end we explore how these migration processes fit within larger processes of globalisation. To that end we rely on theoretical debates such as those on on transnationalism and mobilities.
More specifically, this course will devote various sessions to the status quo on migration, macro-structural components of international migration, the manner in which international migration takes place, etc. The discussion on these aspects will be largely based on the book by Castles, de Haas & Miller (2014), with additional reading from papers on specific topics, both contemporary and historical. In the various lectures we expressly examine migration through different conceptual and methodological approaches, testing our insights on empirical case studies. Thus we focus on issues relating to the impact of remittances at individual and collective levels, the role of knowledge transfer and the consequences of return migration on economic development and citizenship in countries of origin.
In our gradual shift in attention to globalisation, we draw attention to the current status quo in governance of globalisation, more specifically in terms of the impact this has had on the so-called Global South through the 'Washington consensus' and the power structures this has produced. We conclude this course by providing insight into the relationship between migration as a phenomenon (also as enacted through its multi-various impacts) and globalisation.
|