International migration: recent policy directions

Despite widespread recognition of the potential benefits of managed migration for achieving future economic prosperity and welfare sustainability, migration policies are mostly shaped by short-term labour market objectives and electoral concerns. Nevertheless, new demographic rationales are emerging in migration policies and debates in some of the major immigrant-receiving countries. In the UK, the impact of immigration on population growth has become a ubiquitous issue in political and media debates on immigration policy. As part of the political agenda of the current conservative-led Government coalition, a range of restrictive policy changes to reduce net migration 'from hundreds of thousands to tens of thousands' have been adopted to prevent the UK population from ‘hitting’ 70 million within the next two decades. This paper reviews the role of these emerging ‘neo-Malthusian’ arguments and the key issues and challenges in setting and achieving demographic objectives – with particular reference to managing the size of the population – in migration policy-making. It challenges the notion that an ‘optimum’ population size should play a central role in migration policies and debates and the viability of migration policies inspired by demographic objectives.

The expansion of multiple citizenship (MC) is introducing complex spatialities of national state membership and challenging traditional conceptions of citizenship. Scholarly attention has mainly focused on the naturalisation route to MC, and its implications for political transnationalism and social integration. However, access to MC through ancestry/ethnicity, as well as MC implications for mobility, have been largely overlooked. Based on a review of key datasets and qualitative semi-structured interviews this paper seeks to gain the 'view from below' of how multiple citizens themselves construct life strategies within what Bauböck (2010) terms a 'citizenship constellation', a joint opportunity structure created by intervening States. We focus on the Latin American community in London, a growing collective showing flexible citizenship and migration trajectories beyond the traditional origin-destination-settlement-naturalisation route to integration and MC. We found that because of European Union (EU) unequal hierarchies of access to citizenship, most migrants seek an alternative passport not necessarily to expand their political or social rights but in order to gain much stronger mobility and security status. An EU passport becomes a life asset that leads to personal freedom as well as social mobility.

The paper present an overview of the current trends of international migrations in Spain with the aim to assess the extent and trends of return in the overall migratory context. We will examine return migration from a historical perspective in order to ascertain the relative impact of the current economic crisis. Thanks to micro-data treatment has made ​​an estimate of the return that is registering Spain and and description of its main features

International migration for employment has been prominent in Philippine society in the last 40 years. For many Filipinos, migration is part of their lived experiences as members of transnational households of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs). This paper interrogates international migration in the life aspirations and experiences of young Filipinos (i.e., those in the ages 15-24) by addressing the following questions: (1) what are their migration intentions? (2) what are the scale, profile and patterns of the international migration of young Filipinos? (3) how do the drivers and the migration patterns of young Filipinos compare with those of older Filipinos? and (4) what do the migration intentions and realities of youth migrants imply for policy-making? Data for the paper were drawn from the authors’ previous research on migration, a review of the literature, migration data and migration policies, complemented by additional qualitative data from focus group discussions with selected youth groups. Persistent higher youth unemployment frames the intentions and decisions of young Filipinos to work abroad. The concentration of young Filipino migrants in less skilled and unprotected occupations call for policies and programs to reduce their vulnerabilities in their search for livelihood and a better life.

The crisis started in 2008, in the United States, reaching Europe in 2009, had a direct impact on the labour market in the countries of Southern Europe, especially in sectors that employ immigrant labour, as construction. At the start of a new decade, in 2010, countries that previously had high positive net migration – Portugal and Spain – are experiencing reductions in this amount, until, in early 2011, these balances became negative. Across the Atlantic, the return migration stimulated by the crisis in the countries of Europe, found in Latin America a factor of attraction, due to the reduced impact of the crisis on countries in the region, coupled with the implementation of counter-cyclical policies to maintain employment and income. At the same time, European immigrants, highly qualified, leave in search of better job opportunities and join those who have opted for return, thus forming new flows of people coming to Latin America. Brazil, as an emerging country, becomes an important destination for Europeans, mainly from Spain and Portugal. The proposal of this paper is to study the interaction of these currents and counter-currents, describing the amount of these exchanges, the profile of immigrants, their demands and expectations, and main policy outcomes.

During last twenty years, increasing proportion of non-nationals to total population in Gulf nations is considered as growing dependency on foreign labor force as well as one of the root causes behind unemployment. Countries like Saudi Arabia, Oman, U.A.E., Baharain have come up with policy of reserving jobs for their own nationals known as the localization of labor. The present paper attempts to analyze the phenomenon of localization of labor in the context of international migration in Oman. Oman’s development policy includes ‘Omanisation Program’ as an attempt to reduce local unemployment and dependence on foreign labor through various strategies like enhancing socio-economic standards of national population through educational and vocational training and reservation of jobs for nationals. Current localization policies in Gulf countries play a key role in deciding future international migration trend. Due to the new labour policy, expatriates will be welcome in selective areas from selective countries.

Recently, scholars have noted the increasing similarities of immigration policies in industrialized Western democracies but until lately, the scope of analysis has typically excluded South Korea. With its late development, image of ethnic and cultural homogeneity, history of isolation, very low number of foreign residents, and resistance to immigration, there were few indications that South Korea would be a migrant destination country. By the mid-1990s however, its economic rise was accompanied by a rapid increase in the number of both short and long-term migrants and in a span of only two decades, it has become a migrant receiving country. This gave rise to various economic, political, and socio-cultural issues and compelled the government to adopt various policies to control and manage immigration. For a time, it has borrowed similar labor importation policies as neighboring Japan but in the last decade, has increasingly adopted policies that are both similar and different to those adopted in classical countries of immigration in North America and Europe. This paper surveys immigration trends and policies in South Korea and assesses in what ways they are converging and/or diverging with those of immigrant receiving industrialized Western democracies and why.

This paper is based on findings of a study on migration, agriculture and food security in Kenya. The objective was to carry out a detailed analysis of existing policies and laws and institutional arrangements that support or hinder investment of remittances in Kenya and identify policy and legal reforms and capacity-building needs required in order to promote investment of remittances in the country’s agricultural sector. The methodology involved a comprehensive literature review followed by collection of relevant statistics from selected institutions, discussion with key stakeholders and senior staff of the institutions.
The study observes that there exists many investment regulations; however, they are general in nature. The existing laws, policies and legal frameworks are also not concrete and succinct in focusing on emigration and remittances investment. The study concludes that although remittances play an important role in Kenya’s economy, the current institutional and policy frameworks do not provide a conducive environment for investment of remittances resources. It recommends, among other things, that more policy research, capacity building and institutional initiatives are required if remittances are to have the desired impact on Kenya’s economic development, especially among smallholder farmers.

The paper is devoted to timely questions concerning to contemporary situation on new trends, threats and perspectives of Migrations in the Central Asian region, their problems and ways of solution. As a part of the Global Migration system, Migrations from through and in Region are significant for the development of the World, because have influences on all spheres of life, stability, national and regional security, as well as, to growing integration of Central Asia to the World society.
During the last 20 years the Central Asian states were faced to different external and internal, voluntary and forced migratory waves, which have both objective and negative moments there.
Contemporary Kazakhstan, as well Central Asia is actively involved in the World economic, political, labor relations and this likely enhance the problem of migration on its territory. The economic integration on the post-Soviet space, geopolitical factors of great powers neighbors – China and Russia, closeness to the conflict zones (Afghanistan and Pakistan) – all this could be a challenge to Kazakhstan, as well as to whole Region’s status-quo. It is very important to understand the problems concerning migrations in occurring from East to West.

International migration has become commercialized in both control and facilitation functions. This significantly shapes current migration flows and should prompt governments to reassess migration policies. From the rapid growth of specialized transportation and labour migration companies, to multinational companies managing detention centres or establishing border security, to the organized criminal networks profiting from human smuggling and trafficking, we are currently witnessing a growing commercialization of international migration. The paper addresses the questions prompted by these developments and offers new concepts and theory for their further study.