WORLD MIGRATIONREPORT 2020

The opinions expressed in the report are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of theInternational Organization for Migration (IOM). The designations employed and the presentation of material
throughout the report do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of IOM concerning thelegal status of any country, territory, city or area, or of its authorities, or concerning its frontiers or boundaries.
IOM is committed to the principle that humane and orderly migration benefits migrants and society. As anintergovernmental organization, IOM acts with its partners in the international community to: assist in meetingthe operational challenges of migration; advance understanding of migration issues; encourage social andeconomic development through migration; and uphold the human dignity and well-being of migrants.
This flagship World Migration Report has been produced in line with IOM’s Environment Policy and is available
online only. Printed hard copies have not been made in order to reduce paper, printing and transportation impacts.
The report is available for free download at www.iom.int/wmr.

Publisher:
International Organization for Migration		
17 route des Morillons
		P.O. Box 17
		1211 Geneva 19
		Switzerland		
Tel.: +41 22 717 9111
		
Fax: +41 22 798 6150
		Email: hq@iom.int
		Website: www.iom.int
ISSN 1561-5502
e-ISBN 978-92-9068-789-4
Cover photos
Top:
Children from Taro island carry lighter items from IOM’s delivery of food aid funded by USAID, with transport
support from the United Nations. © IOM 2013/Joe LOWRY
Middle: Rice fields in Southern Bangladesh. © IOM 2016/Amanda NERO
Bottom: Ferrick Ibet village, Chad. © IOM 2018/Amanda NERO

© 2019 International Organization for Migration (IOM)
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the priorwritten permission of the publisher.

PUB2019/006/L WMR 2020

WORLD MIGRATIONREPORT 2020

ii

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

This volume is the result of a highly collaborative venture involving a multitude of partners and contributors under
the direction of the editors. The World Migration Report 2020 project commenced in May 2018 and culminated in the
launch of the report in November 2019 by the Director General at the 110th session of IOM Council.
The findings, interpretations, conclusions and recommendations expressed herein do not necessarily reflect theviews of IOM or its Member States.
The designations employed and the presentation of material throughout the report do not imply the expression of
any opinion whatsoever on the part of IOM concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area, or of
its authorities, or concerning its frontiers or boundaries.
All reasonable efforts have been made to ensure the accuracy of the data referred to in this report, including
through data verification. We regret, however, any data errors that may remain. Unless otherwise stated, this report
does not refer to data or events after June 2019.
The stories behind the photographs can be found on page v.

iii

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

Editorial, review and production team
Editors

Marie McAuliffe (IOM) and Binod Khadria (Jawaharlal Nehru University)

IOM reviewers

Eva Åkerman Börje, Laura Bartolini, Mariana Beheran, Elizabeth Collett,
Jill Helke, Manuel Hoff, Dina Ionesco, Michele Klein Solomon, Jobst Kœhler,
Laura Lungarotti, Chiara Milano, Daria Mokhnacheva, Mirela Shuteriqi,
Jasper Tjaden, Mariam Traore Chazalnoel and Jacqueline Weekers

Academic reviewers

Maruja Asis, Jørgen Carling, Stephen Castles, Howard Duncan, Gibril Faal,
Elizabeth Ferris, Francois Gemenne, Ian Goldin, Sakiko Kanbara, Susan Martin,
Marco Pedrotti, Martin Ruhs, Nando Sigona, Ronald Skeldon, Felicity Thomas,
Anna Triandafyllidou and Cathy Zimmerman

Production manager		Valerie Hagger
Project administration		Frances Solinap and Aurelie Ben Gavriel
Copyeditor		Michael Gibson
Report layout		Ramir Recinto
IOM research teamMarie McAuliffe, Céline Bauloz, Adrian Kitimbo, Michelle Nguyen (part project),
Adam Sawyer (part project), Sophie Qu (part project)

Translation

Spanish Translation Unit (IOM)
French Translation Unit (IOM)

Acknowledgements
The editors are particularly grateful to the authors of the thematic chapters and to all of the IOM andacademic reviewers who provided constructive feedback on the draft chapters. We are especially grateful to
IOM’s Director General, António Vitorino, and members of IOM’s senior leadership team, who supported thisWorld Migration Report, including Laura Thompson, Eugenio Ambrosi, Jill Helke, Michele Klein Solomon and
Clarissa Azkoul. We also wish to acknowledge the governments of Switzerland and Germany for their financial
contributions toward the completion of the report. Additional funding to support translations has been
received from the Swiss Government, the Canadian Government, USA for IOM, IOM Regional Office for SouthAmerica and IOM Regional Office for Central and North America and the Caribbean.
We wish to thank the following people for their contributions to the report: Idil Atak (International Journalof Migration and Border Studies), Vincent Chetail (Refugee Survey Quarterly), Howard Duncan (International
Migration), Alan Gamlen (Migration Studies), Donald Kerwin (Journal on Migration and Human Security),
Emmanuel Ma Mung and Véronique Petit (Revue Européenne des Migrations Internationales), Anna
Triandafyllidou (Journal of Immigrant and Refugee Studies), Jamie Winders, Pieter Bevelander, Cynthia
Feliciano, Filiz Garip and Matthew Hall (International Migration Review), Ross Chainey (World Economic
Forum), Hannah Caddick and Amy Leach (Overseas Development Institute), Robert McMahon (Council on
Foreign Relations), Jason Naselli and Alan Philips (Chatham House), Homi Kharas, Dany Bahar and Merrell
Tuck-Primdahl (Brookings Institution).

iv

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

Contributors
Chapter 1: Report overview: Providing perspective on migration and mobility in increasingly uncertain times
Authors: Marie McAuliffe and Binod Khadria
Research assistants: Adrian Kitimbo and Berti Olinto
Chapter 2: Migration and migrants: A global overview
Main contributors: Marie McAuliffe, Céline Bauloz, Michelle Nguyen and Sophie Qu
Research assistants and other contributors: Juliane Klatt, Adam Sawyer, Adrian Kitimbo, Reshma Mathews,
Kate Dearden, Tristan O’Shea, Noelle Darbellay, Sarah Knight, Muhammad Rizki and Claire Galez-Davis
Chapter 3: Migration and migrants: Regional dimensions and developments
Main contributors: Marie McAuliffe, Adrian Kitimbo, Guy Abel, Adam Sawyer and Juliane Klatt
Research assistants and other contributors: Berti Olinto, Reshma Mathews, Alexander Doggen, Damien
Jusselme, Alice Kimani, Lisa Lim Ah Ken, Rudolf Maxwald, Kristina Mejo, Lucie Bertille Motuin, Sophie
Nonnenmacher, Sofiane Ouaret, Amr Taha, Ezequiel Texido, Mariko Tomiyama, Laura Nistri, Alina Klehr and
Eva Pons
Chapter 4: Migration research and analysis: Growth, reach and recent contributions
Main contributors: Marie McAuliffe, Céline Bauloz and Michelle Nguyen
Research assistants and other contributors: Marie Mundler, Idil Atak (International Journal of Migration and
Border Studies), Vincent Chetail (Refugee Survey Quarterly), Howard Duncan (International Migration), Alan
Gamlen (Migration Studies), Donald Kerwin (Journal on Migration and Human Security), Emmanuel Ma Mung
and Véronique Petit (Revue Européenne des Migrations Internationales), Anna Triandafyllidou (Journal of
Immigrant and Refugee Studies), Jamie Winders, Pieter Bevelander, Cynthia Feliciano, Filiz Garip and Matthew
Hall (International Migration Review), Ross Chainey (World Economic Forum), Hannah Caddick and Amy Leach(Overseas Development Institute), Robert McMahon (Council on Foreign Relations), Jason Naselli and Alan
Philips (Chatham House), Homi Kharas, Dany Bahar and Merrell Tuck-Primdahl (Brookings Institution)
Chapter 5: Reflections on migrants’ contributions in an era of increasing disruption and disinformation
Authors: Marie McAuliffe, Adrian Kitimbo and Binod Khadria
Research Assistant: Michelle Nguyen
Chapter 6: Migration, inclusion and social cohesion: Challenges, recent developments and opportunities
Authors: Céline Bauloz, Zana Vathi and Diego Acosta
Research Assistant: Michelle Nguyen
Chapter 7: Migration and Health: Key issues, governance and current knowledge gaps
Authors: Jo Vearey, Charles Hui and Kolitha Wickramage
Chapter 8: Children and unsafe migration
Authors: Jacqueline Bhabha and Guy Abel
Chapter 9: Human mobility and adaptation to environmental change
Authors: Robert Oakes, Soumyadeep Banerjee and Koko Warner
Chapter 10: Migrants caught in crises: Contexts, responses and innovation
Authors: Nassim Majidi, Heaven Crawley, Lorenzo Guadagno and Camille Kasavan
Research Assistants: Mélissa Cornet and Thomas Yeboah

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020v

Chapter 11: Recent developments in the global governance of migration: An update to World Migration Report
2018
Authors: Kathleen Newland, Marie McAuliffe and Céline Bauloz

Photographs
Chapter 1
Participatory video team recording their stories and messages of hope in Herat, Afghanistan. A group of 13
young Afghan women and men spent a week together in Herat to exchange experiences, direct and produce afilm about migration. The initiative is part of IOM’s Global Migration Film Festival Participatory Video Projectto engage migrants and host communities in participatory filmmaking that strengthens social cohesion.
© IOM/Amanda NERO
Part I
Many Venezuelans travelling through the continent do so by foot carrying their children and possessions.
Caminantes, or walkers, trek along major highways and through difficult terrain. They must go throughmountainous areas where temperatures drop below zero and through scorching hot areas where water isscarce. Many make this journey with just a light jacket, rubber flip flops and a small backpack with the mostessential items they manage to carry. © IOM/Muse MOHAMMED
Chapter 2
Aerial view of internally displaced persons in Wau protection of civilians site, South Sudan.
© IOM/Rainer GONZALEZ PALAU
Chapter 3
The Kutupalong Refugee camp near Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. © IOM/Muse MOHAMMED
Chapter 4
Abdulai Adum, Mixammete Village, Central African Republic. © IOM/Amanda NERO
Part IIIOM shelters in Bakassi internally displaced persons Camp, Nigeria. © IOM/Muse MOHAMMED
Chapter 5
Robeiro, an ex-combatant from an illegal paramilitary group in Colombia, carries harvested chili peppers.
Robeiro is one of 300 beneficiaries of an income generation project implemented by IOM Colombia.
© IOM/Diego SAMORA
Chapter 6
Burmese migrant worker in Bangkok. © IOM/Benjamin SUOMELA
Chapter 7
IOM Thailand’s Migrant Health Assessment Centre on Silom Road in Bangkok provides health screenings for
migrants who are about to migrate abroad. © IOM/Benjamin SUOMELA
Chapter 8Children play at the playroom at the Processing Centre for Syrian families resettling to Canada.
© IOM/Muse MOHAMMED

viWORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

Chapter 9
Bercy is the principal of an elementary school on Udot Island, Federated States of Micronesia. During thetyphoon, one of their buildings was severely damaged. The new building is used as a library for students.
© IOM/Muse MOHAMMED
Chapter 10
Mass Evacuations in Natural Disasters (MEND) - Quezon City, the Philippines. © IOM/Charissa SORIANO
Chapter 11
The second workshop of the International Dialogue on Migration 2017 offered a global platform to
discuss and analyse migrants’ vulnerabilities and capacities, guide appropriate policy, programmatic andoperational responses to address them, and enhance resilience through protection and assistance services.
© IOM/Muse MOHAMMED
References
Chris’s mother is so happy to find her son after he was separated from his mother and little brother during
their migration. © IOM
Appendices
Ameerah and Anajia spend time practising their drawing skills after class (the Philippines).
© IOM/Julie BATULA

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

vii

Table of contents
Editorial, review and production team..................................................................................... iii
Acknowledgements................................................................................................................ iii
Contributors ........................................................................................................................ iv
Photographs.......................................................................................................................... v
List of figures and tables .................................................................................................... viii
List of appendices .............................................................................................................. xiii
Foreword.............................................................................................................................xv
Chapter 1 – Report overview: Providing perspective on migration and mobility in increasingly
uncertain times.................................................................................................... 1

Part I: Data and information on migration and migrants. . ...............................................16
Chapter 2 – Migration and migrants: A global overview..............................................................19
Chapter 3 – Migration and migrants: Regional dimensions and developments................................53
Chapter 4 – Migration research and analysis: Growth, reach and recent contributions ................. 125

PART II: Complex and Emerging Migration Issues........................................................ 158
Chapter 5 – Reflections on migrants’ contributions in an era of increasing disruption anddisinformation.................................................................................................. 161
Chapter 6 – Migration, inclusion and social cohesion: Challenges, recent developments andopportunities ................................................................................................... 185
Chapter 7 – Migration and health: Current issues, governance and knowledge gaps...................... 209
Chapter 8 – Children and unsafe migration............................................................................. 231
Chapter 9 – Human mobility and adaptation to environmental change....................................... 253
Chapter 10 – Migrants caught in crises: Contexts, responses and innovation............................... 271
Chapter 11 – Recent developments in the global governance of migration: An updateto the World Migration Report 2018..................................................................... 291
Appendices........................................................................................................................ 313
References ........................................................................................................................ 367

viiiWORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

List of figures and tables

Chapter 1
Table 1.

Key facts and figures from the World Migration Reports, 2000 and 2020........................10

Chapter 2
Table 1.

International migrants, 1970–2019...........................................................................21

Figure 1. International migrants, by major region of residence, 2005 to 2019 (millions)................24
Figure 2. Proportional population change by region, 2009–2019................................................25
Figure 3. Top 20 destinations (left) and origins (right)of international migrants in 2019 (millions)..............................................................26
Figure 4. Top 20 countries of emigration in 2019 (proportion)...................................................27
Figure 5. Inflows of foreign nationals into OECD countries, permanent migration,
2000–2016 (millions)..............................................................................................31
Figure 6. Migrant workers by destination country income level, 2013 and 2017...........................33
Table 2.

Migrant workers, by sex and income level of destination countries, 2017.......................34

Figure 7. Geographic distribution of migrant workers by sex, 2017.............................................35
Table 3.

Top countries receiving/sending remittances (2005–2018) (current USD billions)...........36

Figure 8. Number of refugees by top 5 countries of origin as of 2018 (millions)...........................40
Figure 9. Number of refugees by top 5 host countries as of 2018 (millions).................................41
Figure 10. Number of refugees resettled by major resettlement countries
in 2005–2018 (thousands).......................................................................................42
Figure 11. Top 20 countries with the largest stock of internally displaced persons
by conflict and violence at the end of 2018...............................................................44
Figure 12. New internal displacements by conflict and disasters, 2008–2018 (millions)..................46
Figure 13. Major populations of stateless persons by top 10 reporting countries as of 2018.............48

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

ix

Chapter 3 –Figure 1. Migrants to, within and from Africa 1990–2019..........................................................55
Figure 2. Top 20 countries with the largest proportional population change in Africa,
2009–2019 ...........................................................................................................56
Figure 3. Top 20 African migrant countries in 2019..................................................................57
Figure 4. Top 20 migration corridors involving African countries, 2019.......................................58
Figure 5. Top 10 African countries by total refugees and asylum seekers, 2018............................59
Figure 6. Top 20 African countries by new internal displacements(disaster and conflict), 2018...................................................................................60
Figure 7. Migrants to, within and from Asia, 1990–2019...........................................................69
Figure 8. Top 20 countries with the largest proportional population change in Asia, 2009–2019....70
Figure 9. Top 20 Asian migrant countries in 2019....................................................................71
Figure 10. Top 20 migration corridors from Asian countries, 2019................................................72
Figure 11. Top 10 Asian countries by total refugees and asylum seekers, 2018..............................73
Figure 12. Top Asian countries by new internal displacements (disaster and conflict), 2018............74
Figure 13. Migrants to, within and from Europe, 1990–2019.......................................................86
Figure 14. Top 20 countries with the largest proportional population change in Europe,
2009–2019 ...........................................................................................................87
Figure 15. Top 20 European migrant countries in 2019...............................................................88
Figure 16. Top 20 migration corridors involving European countries, 2019....................................89
Figure 17. Top 10 European countries by total refugees and asylum seekers, 2018.........................90
Figure 18. Top 20 European countries by new internal displacements(disaster and conflict), 2018...................................................................................91
Figure 19. Migrants to, within and from Latin America and the Caribbean, 1990–2019...................96
Figure 20. Top 20 countries with the largest proportional population change in Latin America
and the Caribbean, 2009–2019 ................................................................................97
Figure 21. Top 20 Latin America and Caribbean migrant countries in 2019...................................98
Figure 22. Top 10 migration corridors involving Latin America and Caribbean countries, 2019.........99xWORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

Figure 23.		Top 10 Latin America and Caribbean countries by total refugees
and asylum seekers, 2018...................................................................................... 100
Figure 24. Top Latin America and Caribbean countries by new internal displacements(disaster and conflict), 2018................................................................................. 101
Figure 25. Migrants to, within and from Northern America, 1990–2019...................................... 107
Figure 26. Countries with the largest proportional population change
in Northern America, 2009–2019............................................................................ 108
Figure 27. Main migration countries in Northern America in 2019............................................. 108
Figure 28. Top 10 migration corridors involving Northern American countries, 2019.................... 109
Figure 29. Numbers of refugees and asylum seekers in and from Northern Americancountries, 2018.................................................................................................... 110
Figure 30. Top Northern American countries by new internal displacements(disaster and conflict), 2018 ................................................................................ 110
Figure 31. Migrants to, within and from Oceania, 1990–2019.................................................... 114
Figure 32. Countries with the largest proportional population change
in Oceania, 2009–2019.......................................................................................... 115
Figure 33. Oceania migrant countries in 2019......................................................................... 116
Figure 34. Top 10 migration corridors involving Oceania countries, 2019.................................... 117
Figure 35. Numbers of refugees and asylum seekers in and from Oceania countries, 2018............. 118
Figure 36. Top countries in Oceania by new internal displacements(disaster and conflict), 2018................................................................................. 119

Chapter 4 –Figure 1. Number of academic publications on “immigration” OR “emigration”.......................... 127
Table 1.

Examples of government funding of migration research............................................. 129

Figure 2. Number of articles published by selected journals in 2017 and 2018, by region............ 138
Figure 3. Distribution of primary academic affiliations of authors by selected journals
in 2017 and 2018, by region ................................................................................. 140
Figure 4. Impact Factor of selected journals ......................................................................... 142
Table 2.

Top 10 articles with the highest Altmetric Attention Score
for selected journals, 2017 and 2018....................................................................... 143

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

xi

Figure 5. Distribution of numbers of views and downloads of 181 articles from 2017and 2018, selected journals................................................................................... 145
Table 3.

Examples of key global material published in 2017 and 2018..................................... 146

Figure 6. Downloads of World Migration Report 2018 compared with 2015 edition...................... 153
Figure 7. Proportion of IOM research-related downloads by theme............................................ 153
Figure 8. Proportion of IOM research-related downloads by region............................................ 154

Chapter 5
Table 1.

Factors influencing immigrants’ civic–political contributions...................................... 169

Chapter 6
Table 1.

Summary of the main inclusion models................................................................... 189

Chapter 7
Figure 1. The determinants of migrant health throughout the migration cycle........................... 212
Table 1.

Summary of main health concerns of selected migrant groups in vulnerable situations.. 215

Figure 2. Global agendas for advancing migration and health goals.......................................... 224

Chapter 8
Figure 1. Global migrants under 20 years of age..................................................................... 236
Figure 2. Share of global migrants under 20 years of age........................................................ 237
Figure 3. International migrants (millions) under 20 years of age, by region............................. 238
Figure 4. Share of international migrants under 20 years of age, by region................................ 239
Table 1.

IOM/UNHCR/education sector – Rohingya child and youth population in Cox’s Bazar
Refugee camps, Bangladesh, January 2019.............................................................. 240

Figure 5. Demographic breakdown of Myanmar refugees in Bangladesh..................................... 240
Figure 6. Demographic breakdown of Venezuelans in Colombia................................................ 241

xiiWORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

Chapter 9
Table 1.

Three different ways of framing interactions between
environmental change and migration...................................................................... 254

Table 2.

Examples from empirical research........................................................................... 258

Figure 1. Emergence of human migration as a risk management topic
in international climate policy............................................................................... 265

Chapter 10
Table 1.

International data on migrants and crises............................................................... 281

Figure 1. Migrant routes in Mexico, cyclone risk and past earthquakes..................................... 283
Figure 2. Migrant presence and transit through Libya, and occurrence of violence ..................... 284
Table 2.

The OECD guidelines on innovation adapted for responses to migrants
caught in crisis.................................................................................................... 286

Chapter 11
Figure 1. What does “migrant” mean?.................................................................................. 294
Figure 2. Summary of the compacts and United Nations Network process timelines.................... 295
Table 1.

Global Compact for Migration objectives by category ................................................ 298

Table 2.

Thematic areas of focus in CRRF and Programme of Action......................................... 300

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

xiii

List of appendices

Chapter 3
Appendix A. United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs:
Regions and Subregions..................................................................................... 313

Chapter 4
Appendix A. A brief overview of academic publishing ............................................................. 318
Appendix B. Contributions from academic journals.................................................................. 321

Chapter 6
Appendix A. Terms and definitions relating to migrants’ inclusion and social cohesion................. 338
Appendix B. The legal framework of migrants’ inclusion .......................................................... 341
Appendix C. Main findings of the Immigrant Citizens Survey .................................................... 343

Chapter 7
Appendix A. Key priorities and actions for monitoring migrant health anddeveloping migrant-sensitive health systems ....................................................... 345
Appendix B. Lessons learned in advancing a National Migration Health Policy andaction framework in Sri Lanka............................................................................ 347
Appendix C. Health in the implementation of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly
and Regular Migration....................................................................................... 350

Chapter 9
Appendix A. Policy processes of significance for the governance of environmental migration........ 351

xivWORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

Chapter 10
Appendix A. Different crisis situations, different impacts on migrants....................................... 354

Chapter 11
Appendix A. Timeline of main multilateral initiatives, processes, agreements and declarations
devoted or relevant to migration ....................................................................... 356
Appendix B. Convergence and divergence between the Global Compact for Migration andprior global migration initiatives and processes ................................................... 360

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

xv

Foreword
IOM’s responsibility to provide an objective and balanced account of migration globally has never been more
important. Not only is the political salience of migration high, and frequently fevered, but the capacity for
rapidly disseminating disinformation to influence the public discourse has expanded.
Twenty years ago, IOM published the first World Migration Report with the stated aim of providing an
authoritative account of migration trends and issues worldwide. With the initial report published in 2000,
the series has quickly become established as IOM’s flagship publication.
The early World Migration Reports were framed around specific themes. They provided deep dives into topics
such as labour mobility, migrant well-being and communication on migration. But, with time, there was asense that the broader landscape and complexity of migration issues was being neglected.
Times have changed, dramatically so. Migration is now a top-tier political issue interconnected to humanrights, development, and geopolitics at national, regional and international levels. Accordingly, IOM hasenhanced the flagship series to ensure that the World Migration Report is, in fact, a world migration report.
We have revamped the series to offer a more strategic contribution to the public debate. We have strengthened
our collaborative partnerships with scholars and applied researchers in order to benefit from their diverse
expertise and knowledge. We have made content and structural changes to increase the World Migration
Report’s utility to the evidence base on migration globally, in line with IOM’s growing role in data collection
and analysis.
The World Migration Report 2018 is the most downloaded of all IOM publications. It is clearly fulfilling theneed to provide a balanced understanding of migration’s complexities, present the latest global data andinformation in an accessible way, and explore and explain complex and emerging migration issues.
As the United Nations’ migration agency, IOM has an obligation to demystify the complexity and diversityof human mobility. The report also acknowledges IOM’s continuing emphasis on fundamental rights and its
mission to support those migrants who are most in need. This is particularly relevant in the areas in which
IOM works to provide humanitarian assistance to people who have been displaced, including by weather
events, conflict and persecution, or to those who have become stranded during crises.
Likewise, IOM remains committed to supporting Member States as they draw upon various forms of data,
research and analysis during policy formulation and review processes. Indeed, this is reflected in IOM’s
Constitution where the need for migration research is highlighted as an integral part of the Organization’sfunctions. The World Migration Report is a central component of this important function.
In this era of heightened interest and activity towards migration and migrants, we hope this 2020 editionof the World Migration Report becomes a key reference point for you. We hope it helps you to navigate thishigh-profile and dynamic topic during periods of uncertainty, and that it prompts reflection during quieter
moments. But most importantly, we hope that you learn something new from the report that can inform yourown work, be it in studies, research and analysis, policymaking, communication, or migration practice.

António Vitorino
Director Generalxvi

Report overview: Providing perspective on migration and mobility in increasingly uncertain times

MARIE MCAULIFFE
BINOD KHADRIAWORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

1

1

REPORT OVERVIEW: PROVIDING PERSPECTIVE
ON MIGRATION AND MOBILITY IN INCREASINGLYUNCERTAIN TIMES1

Introduction
The long-term and growing body of evidence on migration and mobility shows that migration is in large part
related to the broader global economic, social, political and technological transformations that are affecting
a wide range of high-priority policy issues.2 As the processes of globalization deepen, these transformations
increasingly shape our lives – in our workplaces, in our homes, in our social and spiritual lives – as we go
about our daily routines. Increasing numbers of people are able to access information, goods and services
from around the world because of the ongoing expansion in distance-shrinking technologies.
There is also a sense that we are in the midst of a period of considerable uncertainty. Many commentators havecalled into question the solidity of aspects of the global political order forged in the immediate aftermath of
the two world wars, including as they relate to alliances and common interests.3 Others are calling this timethe “age of anger”, tracing back the current sense of geopolitical uncertainty and discontent to a dominant
and relentless focus on “logic” and “liberal rationalism” at the expense of emotional responsiveness.4
It is within this context that this world migration report focuses on developments in migration over the last
two-year period, with an emphasis on providing analysis that takes into account historical and contemporary
factors. Historical in recognition that migration and displacement occur within broader long-term social,security, political and economic contexts. Contemporary in recognition that we are in the midst of profoundglobal transformations, and that the resultant changes to our daily lives are impacting the current environment
in which migration occurs and is discussed.

What has happened in migration?
A lot has happened in migration in the last two years since the release of the World Migration Report 2018
in late 2017.5 The world has witnessed historic change at the global level with United Nations Member
States coming together to finalize two global compacts on the international manifestations of migrationand displacement: the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, and the Global Compact
on Refugees. The finalization of the compacts is a result of decades-long efforts by States, internationalorganizations, civil society organizations and other actors (such as private sector organizations) to improve
1
2
3
4
5

Marie McAuliffe, Head, Migration Policy Research Division, IOM and Binod Khadria, Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University.
See, for example, Castles, 2010; Goldin, Cameron and Balarajan, 2011; Koser, 2016; Triandafyllidou, 2018.
Ikenberry, 2018; Stone, 2016.
Mishra, 2017.
IOM, 2017.

2

Report overview: Providing perspective on migration and mobility in increasingly uncertain times

how migration is governed at the international level. In the years leading up to States committing to develop
the compacts,6 numerous dialogues, workshops, consultations and side events at international, regional,
national as well as local levels have enabled different migration “realities” to be shared and the many areasof common interest to be expanded through deeper understandings of the benefits of migration as well as thechallenges it may present. The compacts, therefore, build upon many years of engagement on the key issues
underpinning the two compacts.
The unfortunate reality is that there have been major migration and displacement events during the last
two years; events that have caused great hardship and trauma as well as loss of life. Foremost have been
the displacements of millions of people due to conflict (such as within and from the Syrian Arab Republic,
Yemen, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Sudan), extreme
violence (such as inflicted upon Rohingya forced to seek safety in Bangladesh) or severe economic andpolitical instability (such as faced by millions of Venezuelans). There has also been growing recognition of the
impacts of environmental and climate change on human mobility (such as planned migration/relocation anddisplacement), including as part of global efforts and international policy mechanisms to address the broader
impacts of climate change.7 Large-scale displacement triggered by climate and weather-related hazards
occurred in many parts of the world in 2018 and 2019, including in Mozambique, the Philippines, China, India
and the United States of America.8
We have also seen the scale of international migration increase in line with recent trends. The numberof international migrants is estimated to be almost 272 million globally, with nearly two-thirds being labour
migrants.9 This figure remains a very small percentage of the world’s population (at 3.5%), meaning that thevast majority of people globally (96.5%) are estimated to be residing in the country in which they were born.
However, the estimated number and proportion of international migrants already surpasses some projections
made for the year 2050, which were in the order of 2.6 per cent or 230 million.10 That said, it is widely
recognized that the scale and pace of international migration is notoriously difficult to predict with precisionbecause it is closely connected to acute events (such as severe instability, economic crisis or conflict) as
well as long-term trends (such as demographic change, economic development, communications technology
advances and transportation access).11 We also know from long-term data that international migration is not
uniform across the world but is shaped by economic, geographic, demographic and other factors resulting
in distinct migration patterns, such as migration “corridors” developed over many years (see chapter 3 ofthis report for details). The largest corridors tend to be from developing countries to larger economies suchas those of the United States, France, the Russian Federation, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
This pattern is likely to remain the same for many years into the future, especially as populations in somedeveloping subregions and countries are projected to increase in coming decades, placing migration pressure
on future generations.12
Highlights from Part I of the report on data and information on migration and migrants are outlined below.
Further information and discussion are provided in the report.

6
7
8
9
10
11
12

States’ commitment was articulated in the 2016 New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants (UNGA, 2016).
See chapter 9 of this report for detailed discussion.
See chapters 2 and 3 of this report for discussions on global and regional migration data and information.
UN DESA, 2019a; ILO, 2018.
See, for example, IOM 2003.
WEF, 2019; UN DESA, 2003.
UN DESA 2019b.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

Highlights from Part I: Data and information on migration and migrants
The number of international migrants globally in 2019: 272 million (3.5% of the world’s population)•

52 per cent of international migrants were male; 48 per cent were female.

•

74 per cent of all international migrants were of working age (20–64 years).

India continued to be the largest country of origin of international migrants•

India had the largest number of migrants living abroad (17.5 million), followed by Mexico andChina (11.8 million and 10.7 million respectively).

•

The top destination country remained the United States (50.7 million international migrants).

The number of migrant workers declined slightly in high income countries while increasing
elsewhere•

Between 2013 and 2017, high-income countries experienced a slight drop in migrant workers(from 112.3 million to 111.2 million). Upper middle-income countries observed the biggest
increase (from 17.5 million to 30.5 million).

•

Globally, male migrant workers outnumbered female migrant workers by 28 million in 2017.
There were 96 million male migrant workers (58%) and 68 million female migrant workers (42%).

International remittances increased to USD 689 billion in 2018•

The top 3 remittance recipients were India (USD 78.6 billion), China (USD 67.4 billion) andMexico (USD 35.7 billion).

•

The United States remained the top remittance-sending country (USD 68.0 billion) followed by
the United Arab Emirates (USD 44.4 billion) and Saudi Arabia (USD 36.1 billion).

The global refugee population was 25.9 million in 2018•20.4 million refugees were under the mandate of the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR) and 5.5 million were refugees under the mandate of the United Nations
Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in the Near East.

•

52 per cent of the global refugee population was under 18 years of age.

The number of internally displaced persons due to violence and conflict reached 41.3 million•

This was the highest number on record since the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre
began monitoring in 1998.

•

The Syrian Arab Republic had the highest number of people displaced (6.1 million) followed by
Colombia (5.8 million) and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (3.1 million).

The number of stateless persons globally in 2018 was 3.9 million•

Bangladesh had the largest number of stateless persons (around 906,000). It was followed by
Côte d’Ivoire (692,000) and Myanmar (620,000).

For further details, refer to chapter 2 of this report. Sources and dates of estimates above are outlined in the chapter.

3

4

Report overview: Providing perspective on migration and mobility in increasingly uncertain times

Migration patterns vary from region to region•

While most international migrants born in Africa, Asia and Europe reside within their regionsof birth, the majority of migrants from Latin America and the Caribbean and Northern America
reside outside their regions of birth. In Oceania, the number of intraregional migrants and thoseresiding outside the region remained about the same in 2019.

•

More than half of all international migrants (141 million) lived in Europe and Northern America.

Migration has been a key determinant of population change in several countries•

Intraregional migration has been an important contributor to population change in some Africancountries such as Equatorial Guinea.

•

Labour migration has contributed to significant population changes especially in Gulf Cooperation
Council (GCC) States. With the exceptions of Oman and Saudi Arabia, migrants made up the
majority of the populations in GCC countries.

Displacement remained a major feature in some regions•

The Syrian Arab Republic and Turkey were the origin and host of the largest number ofrefugees globally, 6.7 million and 3.7 million, respectively. Canada became the largest refugee
resettlement country, resettling more refugees than the United States in 2018.

•

The Philippines had the largest number of new disaster displacements in 2018 (3.8 million).

•

Around 4 million Venezuelans had left their country by mid-2019. The Bolivarian Republic ofVenezuela was the largest source country of asylum seekers in 2018 (over 340,000).

For further details, refer to chapter 3 of this report. Sources and dates of estimates above are outlined in the chapter.

Migration research and analysis output remained high•There was a continued increase in the number of migration-related academic publications, withthe largest ever academic output produced during the last two years. There was significant
output from international organizations on a wide range of migration issues.

•

Academic output on migration is dominated with perspectives from destination countries,
especially in relation to Europe. A geographic comparison of the primary affiliations of authors
in selected journals shows that most are from institutions in developed countries.

For further details, refer to chapter 4 of this report. Sources and dates of estimates above are outlined in the chapter.

Is migration changing, or are the depictions of migration changing?
As can be seen from the discussion and key highlights above, there have been incremental changes inmigration in recent years, such as in the overall scale of migration and displacement, although these changes
could not be described as “seismic”. Rather, it would appear that there has been a deepening of existing
patterns of migration as opportunities brought about by economic growth and reform, trade liberalizationand long-term stability have been further realized. There is also a growing body of evidence indicating thatwhile the general notion of international migration may seem simple and straightforward – as depicted in5WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

news media, for example – its complexities are becoming more apparent.13 The issue of how we conceptualize
migration and mobility has long been a focus of many scholars and policymakers.14 Recently, some are callingfor a rethink, highlighting the growing anomalies resulting from a fairly fixed view of “migration” – see text
box below on Professor Ronald Skeldon’s recent paper on the topic.

Rethinking international migration, internal migration, mobility and urbanization
That migration is the most problematic of the population variables is taken as given. Unlike the unique
events of birth and death that define an individual’s lifetime, migration can be a multiple event. Its
measurement depends entirely upon how it is defined in time and across space.
…
Despite all the problems inherent in the collection of migration data, significant progress has beenachieved over recent years. The compilation of a world origin-destination database, developed
originally at the University of Sussex and now much extended and maintained by the United Nations
Population Division and the World Bank, has provided the framework for a more precise measurementof global international population movement.a These data showed that about 3 per cent of the world’s
population lived in a State or territory not of their birth and that that proportion had not changed
significantly since the 1990s … As the systems of internal and international migration evolve andchange, so too, does the nature of the linkages between them … other forms of short-term mobility
emerge from essentially urban cultures and economies.
…
The idea that most people do not move or are fixed at a specific location might be appealing but it iswrong. Mobility is an inherent characteristic of all populations unless specific policies or other factors
are in place that limit or control that mobility. Nevertheless, some peoples appear to move morethan others and in different ways from others, which appears to be closely linked with the level ofdevelopment in each country, which, in turn, is linked with the distribution of the population in eachcountry. Despite all the difficulties with the measurement of internal migration as sketched above,
considerable progress has been made towards the construction of analytical models that allow thecomparison of patterns across space.
a Parsons et al., 2007; UN DESA, 2015.
Abridged excerpt of Skeldon, 2018.

We must recognize, however, that the increasing complexity of migration is, in part, also due to more
information on migration and migrants being available than ever before. We know more about who migrates,
why people migrate, where and how they migrate, although perhaps not to the extent we would prefer. But
it is clearer that the bigger issue of “complexity” applies to very many changes occurring globally. Some ofthe specific ones, highlighted in the textbox below, have been intensively explored and analysed by experts
in Part II of this report.
13 Czaika and de Haas, 2014; De Witte, 2018; Hall and Posel, 2019.
14 Faist and Glick-Schiller, 2009; Hochschild and Mollenkopf, 2008; King, 2012.

6

Report overview: Providing perspective on migration and mobility in increasingly uncertain times

Highlights from Part II: Complex and emerging migration issues•

Migrants have made significant sociocultural, civic-political and economic contributions in origin
and destination countries and communities, including by being important agents of change in arange of sectors (chapter 5).

•

Immigrants tend to have higher entrepreneurial activity compared to natives. In countries suchas the United States, migrants have disproportionately contributed to innovation (chapter 5).

•

Migrants’ inclusion in the receiving society relates to diverse societal/policy areas that areclosely interdependent. Inclusion outcomes in one policy area – such as language, education,
labour market inclusion, family reunification, political participation and naturalization – will
likely impact others (chapter 6).

•

There is a dynamic and complex relationship between migration and health that extends wellbeyond crisis events. Migration can lead to greater exposure to health risks but it can also belinked to improved health, especially for those seeking safety from harm (chapter 7).

•

While the majority of children who migrate do so through safe migration processes as part offamily units, many other child migrants lack effective protection from harm and face humanrights violations at all stages of their journeys (chapter 8).

•

The most recent global estimate for the total number of child migrants is approximately
31 million. There are approximately 13 million child refugees, 936,000 asylum-seeking children,and 17 million children who have been forcibly displaced inside their own countries (chapter 8).

•

There is increasing evidence that the magnitude and frequency of extreme weather events
are rising, and this is expected to increasingly affect migration and other forms of movement.
While human mobility resulting from environmental and climate change is often framed alongprotection and security lines, understanding mobility as adaptation allows for migrants’ agency
to be part of the response equation (chapter 9).

•

Migration status can significantly impact on migrants’ ability to deal with crisis. Flexible
immigration and visa policies help make it possible for migrants to keep themselves safe as well
as recover from the impact of a crisis. Return is one, but not necessarily the primary, response
option (chapter 10).

•The last two years have seen substantial change in the global governance of migration,
principally in the formation of the United Nations Network on Migration and the two global
compacts on refugees and migration. Although they are not legally binding, the two global
compacts represent a near-universal consensus on the issues requiring sustained international
cooperation and commitment (chapter 11).

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

7

The unprecedented pace of change in the (geo)political, social, environmental and technological spheres has
led some analysts and commentators to coin or use phrases such as the “age of accelerations”,15 the “fourthindustrial revolution”,16 and the “age of change”.17 There is wide recognition of how quickly the world ischanging, and of how the pace of change seems to be accelerating beyond all expectations and predictions.
There is also a sense that change is resulting in unexpected (and unwanted) impacts:

We are living through an era of intense turbulence, disillusionment and bewilderment.
Deepening geopolitical tensions are transforming international relations, and politicaltribalism is revealing deep fissures within countries. The spread of exponential technologies
is upending long-held assumptions about security, politics, economics and so much more.18
Of particular note have been major shifts in the political realm, particularly in terms of civic engagement
through emerging social media and other online platforms as well as the standards of political leadership.
The “Arab Spring”, for example, heralded a significant development in how voices were heard and activists
organized in political arenas.19 More recently, we have seen a groundswell in analysis and commentary on
the changes that are occurring in democratic systems around the world, and the implications for governance,
geopolitics and international cooperation. We are living in a period in which the core values underpinning
global governance are being challenged. The values of equity, accountability, impartiality, fairness, justice andprobity are being actively undermined as some political leaders disregard common interest in preference for
personal interest – even if it corrodes laws, processes and institutions that have, overall, sought to advancewhole nations and peoples, without excluding or expelling some because of their inherent characteristics or
beliefs.20 Ongoing and systematic corrosion, as we have witnessed throughout history, can extend to attacks
on human rights and ultimately on groups of people within societies.21
As part of current shifts, international migration has increasingly become weaponized. It is being used by someas a political tool, undermining democracy and inclusive civic engagement, by tapping into the understandable
fear in communities that stems from the accelerated pace of change and rising uncertainty of our times.22
Some leaders seek to divide communities on the issue of migration, downplaying the significant benefits
and enrichment migration brings and steadfastly ignoring our migration histories. And we are increasingly
witnessing the harnessing of social media as a means of division and polarization, not just on migration,
but at certain times we have seen the deployment of online “tribal tactics” by activists attempting to depict
migration in a negative and misleading light.23 Underpinning these changing depictions of internationalmigration is the uptake of technological innovation, particularly information and communications technology(ICT). However, we must also recall that the politicization of migration is not new, as the text box below
highlights.

15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23

Friedman, 2016.
Schwab, 2016.
Mauldin, 2018.
Muggah and Goldin, 2019.
AlSayyad and Guvenc, 2015.
Fotaki, 2014.
Rawnsley, 2018.
Ritholtz, 2017.
McAuliffe, 2018.

8

Report overview: Providing perspective on migration and mobility in increasingly uncertain times

The enduring issue of politics: Excerpt from the World Migration Report 2003 a
Migration is an eminently political topic. Over the past decade, the politicization of migration has
been evidenced by a series of developments: the fear in Western countries of an influx of masses of
migrants from countries of the former Soviet bloc and in European Union countries of an invasion by
citizens from new member countries with each enlargement of the Union; the questioning of the roleof migrants in the economic and social upheavals triggered by the financial crisis in South-East Asia;
restrictive policies and anti-immigration backlash in the wake of the terrorist attacks of September
11, 2001; renewed outbreaks of xenophobia in several African countries that blame domestic crises
on migrants; and the exploitation of migration issues by some politicians to gain electoral mileage.
All these examples illustrate the close links between economic, political and social issues on the
one hand, and mobility on the other. More than ever therefore, migration is a ready target withpsychological, economic, and public relations connotations.
a IOM, 2003.

Technology as an enabler and a game-changer
Migration is intertwined with technology and innovation and there exists a large body of analysis thathas assessed how international migration acts to support (and sometimes limit) the transfer of technology
and knowledge, often working in tandem with investment and trade flows along historical, geographic andgeopolitical connections between countries and communities.24 Technology is increasingly critical throughout
the migration process, especially newer forms of technology. In recent years, for example, we have witnessed
the use of ICT by migrants to gather information and advice in real time during migration journeys; an issue
that is raising interest and, at times, concern. The use of ICT, such as apps to share the latest information,
including to support clandestine border crossings, together with the consolidation of social media platforms
to connect geographically dispersed groups with common interests, has raised valid questions concerning theextent to which technology has been used to support irregular migration, as well as to enable migrants toavoid abusive and exploitative migrant smugglers and human traffickers.25 Due to the ever-increasing accessto emerging technology at low cost, migrants have also developed applications to support better integrationin receiving countries, while maintaining social links and financial support to their families and societies
back home, including through the increasing prevalence of “mobile money” apps.
Other connections between migration and technology are also emerging in migration debates. As artificial
intelligence is progressively taken up in key sectors, its consequences for migrant worker flows and domestic
labour markets are areas of intense focus for policymakers and businesses in origin and receiving countries.26

24 Burns and Mohapatra, 2008; Kapur, 2001; Khadria, 2004.
25 McAuliffe, 2016; Sanchez, 2018.
26 McAuliffe, 2018.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

9

Recent discussions have also turned to blockchain technology and its consequences for migration, especiallyfor remittances, but also for digital identities and global mobility.27 Social media technology is also increasingly
impacting the politics of migration, with a surge of far-right activism on social media platforms seeking to
influence political debates and ultimately political decisions.28
It is within this current context of great change and increasing uncertainty that the World Migration Report2020 seeks to draw upon the body of available data, research and analysis to contribute to a more nuanced
understanding of some of the most important and pressing global migration issues of our time. By theirvery nature, the complex dynamics of migration can never be fully measured, understood and regulated.
However, as this report shows, we do have a continuously growing and improving body of data and evidence
that can help us make better sense of the basic features of migration and how they are changing – as wellas understanding how the context in which migration is occurring is evolving. This is increasingly importantas public debates, littered with misinformation and untruths, are increasingly able to utilize the ongoing
expansion of open “new media” platforms to achieve distortion and misrepresentation of migration andmigrants.

The World Migration Report series
The first World Migration Report was published 20 years ago, initially as a one-off report designed to increase
the understanding of migration by policymakers and the general public. It was conceived at a time whenthe effects of globalization were being felt in many parts of the world and in a multitude of ways. Indeed,
the first World Migration Report states that part of its genesis was due to the effects of globalization on
migration patterns, and that the report therefore “looks at the increasingly global economy which has led toan unprecedented influx of newcomers in many countries…”.29 The report highlighted the fact that, despite
being an “age-old phenomenon”, migration was accelerating as part of broader globalization transformationsof economic and trade processes, which were enabling greater movement of labour as well as goods andcapital. Table 1 below provides a summary of key statistics reported in the World Migration Report 2000,
as compared to this current edition. It shows that while some aspects have stayed fairly constant – theproportion of female international migrants as well as the overall proportion of the world’s population who
were migrants – other aspects have changed dramatically. International remittances, for example, have grownfrom an estimated 126 billion in 2000 to 689 billion in 2020, underscoring the salience of internationalmigration as a driver of development. This helps to partly explain the emergence of migration as a first-tierglobal issue that has seen United Nations Member States take a series of steps to strengthen global governanceof migration, most notably since 2000 (see chapter 11 of this report for discussion). It is unsurprising thenthat the International Organization for Migration (IOM) itself has grown in size, with a significant increase
in membership over the last two decades up from 76 to its current membership of 173 States. Also of notein table 1 is the rise in international migrants globally (up around 85%) as well as of refugees (up around80%) and internally displaced (up around 97%); all the while remaining very small proportions of the world’s
population.

27 Latonero et al., 2019; Juskalian, 2018.
28 See chapter 5 of this report for discussion of how social media platforms are transforming public debates on migration.
29 IOM, 2000.

10

Report overview: Providing perspective on migration and mobility in increasingly uncertain times

Table 1. Key facts and figures from the World Migration Reports, 2000 and 2020
2000 report2020 report

Estimated number of international migrants

150 million

272 million

Estimated proportion of world population who are migrants

2.8%

3.5%

Estimated proportion of female international migrants

47.5%

47.9%

Estimated proportion of international migrants who are children

16.0%

13.9%

Region with the highest proportion of international migrants

Oceania

Oceania

Country with the highest proportion of international migrants

United ArabEmirates

United ArabEmirates

Number of migrant workers-

164 million

Global international remittances (USD)

126 billion

689 billion

Number of refugees

14 million

25.9 million

Number of internally displaced persons

21 million

41.3 million

Number of stateless persons-

3.9 million

Number of IOM Member States*

76

173

Number of IOM field offices*

120

436+

Sources: See IOM, 2000 and the present edition of the report for sources.
Notes:The dates of the data estimates in the table may be different to the report publishing date (refer to the reports formore detail on dates of estimates); refer to chapter 3 of this report for regional breakdowns;* indicates the data was
not included in the report but is current for that year; + as at 28 October 2019.

The World Migration Report 2000’s contribution to migration policy as well as migration studies was timely,and its success heralded the World Migration Report series. Since 2000, ten World Migration Reports havebeen produced by IOM (see text box below) and it has become the organization’s flagship publication series.
Its continued strong focus is on making a relevant, sound and evidence-based contribution that increases theunderstanding of migration by policymakers, practitioners, researchers and the general public.
In late 2016, IOM made the decision to refine the World Migration Report series in order to ensure it was able
to maximize its contribution to fact-based knowledge on migration globally. Each edition of the series now
has two parts comprising:••Part I: Key information on migration and migrants (including migration-related statistics);
Part II: Balanced, evidence-based analysis of complex and emerging migration issues.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

11

World Migration Report 2000
World Migration Report 2003: Managing Migration – Challenges and Responses for People on the Move
World Migration Report 2005: Costs and Benefits of International Migration
World Migration Report 2008: Managing Labour Mobility in the Evolving Global Economy
World Migration Report 2010: The Future of Migration: Building Capacities for Change
World Migration Report 2011: Communicating Effectively about Migration
World Migration Report 2013: Migrant Well-Being and Development
World Migration Report 2015: Migrants and Cities: New Partnerships to Manage Mobility
World Migration Report 2018
World Migration Report 2020

The move away from single theme editions of the report series to this two-part structure was in recognition of
the significant changes in migration research, analysis and publishing, as well as the different expectations
and needs of readers. For those who want to find out about key migration facts and figures, Part I brings
together the latest information and statistics so that readers are able to better understand migration trends,
changing patterns and processes at the global and regional levels. But for those who may be working on (orstudying) specific areas of migration policy or practice, deeper dives into the complexities are offered inPart II. Refinement of the series was also in recognition that, as the focus on, and complexity of, migration
intensifies, reports limited to a single theme have the potential to understate or miss entirely the broader
changes that are occurring in migration transformations globally.
A further consideration of the revised series was its intended “value-add”. As an intergovernmentalorganization, and a new United Nations related organization, it is critical that IOM ensures the World
Migration Report serves the public in providing information and analysis that is relevant, accessible, sound,accurate and balanced. The need to avoid duplication or significant overlap is a genuine one, especiallyin light of newer contributions on migration governance (such as the Migration Governance Indicators).
In this way, the World Migration Report series was re-framed to offer strategic analysis of complex andemerging issues facing migration policymakers, rather than describe or assess current policy and governanceon migration. The series complements rather than duplicates other work.
Evidence indicates that the revised series has been successful in achieving its intended aims, with positive
responses from readers, including Member States, migration academics and general readers. The significant,sustained increase in downloads during 2018 and (to date) 2019 of the World Migration Report 2018 overprevious editions is another encouraging indicator.30

30 Figure 6 in chapter 4 of this report provides download statistics for the World Migration Reports 2018 and 2015.

12

Report overview: Providing perspective on migration and mobility in increasingly uncertain times

World Migration Report 2020
This edition, heralding the twentieth anniversary of the World Migration Report series, builds on the previous
report, the 2018 edition, by providing updated migration statistics at the global and regional levels as well
as descriptive analysis of complex migration issues.
Part I, on “key data and information on migration and migrants”, includes separate chapters on global migration
trends and patterns; regional dimensions and developments; and a discussion of recent contributions tomigration research and analysis by academia and a wide range of different organizations, including IOM. These
three chapters have been produced institutionally by IOM, drawing primarily on analyses by IOM experts,
practitioners and officials around the world based on data from a wide range of relevant organizations. The
seven chapters in Part II are authored by applied and academic researchers working on migration. They covera range of “complex and emerging migration issues” including:•migrants’ contributions to societies;•

migration, inclusion and social cohesion;•

migration and health;•children and unsafe migration;•

migration and adaptation to environmental change;•

migrants caught in crises; and•recent developments in global migration governance.

While the choice of these topics is necessarily selective and subjective, all the chapters in Part II of thisreport are directly relevant to some of the most prominent and important debates about migration in theworld today. Many of these topics lie at the heart of the conundrums that face policymakers as they seek
to formulate effective, proportionate and constructive responses to complex public policy issues related tomigration. Accordingly, the chapters aim to inform current and future policy deliberations and discussions
by providing a clear identification of the key issues, a critical overview of relevant research and analysis,
and a discussion of the implications for future research and policymaking. The chapters are not meant to beprescriptive, in the sense of advocating particular policy “solutions” – especially as the immediate context is
an important determinant of policy settings – but informative and helpful to what can be highly contested
debates.

Part I
Chapter 2 provides an overview of global data and trends on international migrants (stocks) and internationalmigration (flows). It also provides a discussion of particular migrant groups – namely, migrant workers,
refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced persons and stateless persons – as well as of remittances. In
addition, the chapter refers to the existing body of IOM programmatic data, particularly on missing migrants,
assisted voluntary returns and reintegration, resettlement, displacement tracking and human trafficking.
While these data are generally not global or representative, they can provide insights into changes that haveoccurred in relevant IOM programming and operations globally.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 202013

Following the global overview, chapter 3 provides a discussion of key regional dimensions of, and developments
in, migration. The discussion focuses on six world regions as identified by the United Nations Departmentof Economic and Social Affairs: Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, Northern America,and Oceania. For each of these regions, the analysis includes: i) an overview and brief discussion of key
population-related statistics; and ii) succinct descriptions of “key features and developments” in migrationin the region, based on a wide range of data, information and analyses, including from internationalorganizations, researchers and analysts. To account for the diversity of migration patterns, trends and issues
within each of the six regions, descriptive narratives of “key features and recent developments” are presented
at the subregional level.
There is a substantial amount of research and analysis on migration that is being undertaken and publishedby a range of actors such as academics, governments, intergovernmental organizations and think tanks.
Chapter 4 provides a selective overview of such contributions, updating the chapter on the topic as it first
appeared in the World Migration Report 2018. The overview focuses on migration research outputs publishedby academia and intergovernmental organizations in 2017 and 2018, which saw a peak in output fromintergovernmental organizations, some of which was produced to inform States and other actors during
deliberations on the Global Compact for Migration (see chapter 11 of this report for discussion of the compact
processes and outcome).

Part II
The lead chapter in Part II examines the historical and contemporary contributions of migrants to communitiesof destination as well as those back in their place of origin. With this perspective, it focuses on three
central domains of migrants’ contributions: sociocultural, civic-political and economic. In the face of often
negatively skewed discussions on migration and migrants, one can lose sight of the fact that migrants
have made significant contributions in a multitude of ways. This “reality check” chapter 5 highlights anoften overlooked but important topic, placing the analysis in the context of emerging impediments to therecognition of migrants’ contributions globally. The chapter concludes by outlining the implications for policy
deliberations and for further research.
Chapter 6 critically reviews the issue of inclusion of migrants in host societies where they adapt to new
cultures, customs, social values and language. The chapter provides an overview of the historical developmentof the policy approaches and terminology related to the topic. It discusses the roles of different stakeholders
in optimizing the inclusion of migrants, as well as the importance of policy settings that are directly andindirectly related to inclusion. The chapter concludes with a discussion on the implication for policy responses.
Health and migration is often only thought about in crisis terms, but there is much more to the connections
between the two. Chapter 7 provides an overview analysis of key issues related to health and migration,
including in terms of benefits, vulnerabilities and resilience. The chapter then examines health systems’
responses and prevailing approaches, as well as gaps in the governance of migration and health. Lessons fromgood-practice guidelines and the global agendas in migration and health are provided.
Chapter 8 deals with child migration that does not conform to the traditional pattern of the migrant childaccompanying or following the family in a safe environment, but rather migration that is unsafe, for example,
occurring through irregular pathways without family. Following an expository approach, the chapter elaborates
different types of child migration, their drivers, and issues related to the data on child migration. It discusses

14

Report overview: Providing perspective on migration and mobility in increasingly uncertain times

key protection challenges affecting child migrants and addresses the current issues and the evolving policies
to handle them. The chapter explores the main emerging challenges confronting child migrants and concludes
by reflecting on policy and research priorities.
Providing an overview of human mobility and adaptation to cope with environmental and climate change,
chapter 9 explores empirical research from around the world. Diverse examples of adaptive behaviour arepresented from different ecological zones particularly at risk under climate change, namely, mountainous,
dryland and coastal areas, as well as cities. The examples address a variety of strategies that promote one
or several adaptive forms of migration. The chapter also provides a summary of the international policy
frameworks on responses to the mobility aspects of environmental and climate change. The chapter concludes
with focused recommendations for research, policy and practice.
Chapter 10 deals with crises that migrants are caught up in. Presenting examples of such crises like floods,
hurricanes, conflicts, and political and economic crisis, it examines current emergency assistance and urgent
protection responses. The chapter provides an overview of the local, national and international responses
to such needs faced by different types of migrants and their effectiveness. By drawing on the Migrants in
Countries in Crisis Initiative, it examines the varying contexts, responses, gaps, and lessons learned in crisis
preparedness and post-crisis recovery. The chapter provides an overview of existing data on migrants facing
risk and situations of vulnerability in various countries and assesses the gaps. It concludes with policy andpractice implications of responses.
As the title spells out, chapter 11 provides an update on the migration governance chapter in the World
Migration Report 2018, documenting key developments in global migration governance in the two years
since the last report. The chapter provides a descriptive analysis of the development and adoption of thetwo global compacts, a brief analysis of their contents and the areas of convergence and divergence, anassessment of how they affect global migration governance framework, and the future implications as wellas the challenges for implementation. The chapter discusses States’ commitments to implement and review
follow-up and progress of the compacts, and summarizes changes in institutional architecture to support the
Global Compact for Migration. The chapter also considers longer-term issues and implications for the future.
Overall, this world migration report has been produced to help deepen our collective understanding of thevarious manifestations and complexities of migration in the face of growing uncertainties. We hope that all
readers are able to learn something new from this edition, as well as to draw on its contents as they undertake
their work, study or other activities.

PART I
DATA AND INFORMATIONON MIGRATION AND MIGRANTS

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

2

19

MIGRATION AND MIGRANTS: A GLOBAL OVERVIEWIntroduction
In most discussions on migration, the starting point is usually numbers. Understanding changes in scale,emerging trends and shifting demographics related to global social and economic transformations, such as
migration, help us make sense of the changing world we live in and plan for the future. The current global
estimate is that there were around 272 million international migrants in the world in 2019, which equates to
3.5 per cent of the global population.1 A first important point to note is that this is a very small minority of
the world’s population, meaning that staying within one’s country of birth overwhelmingly remains the norm.
The great majority of people do not migrate across borders; much larger numbers migrate within countries(an estimated 740 million internal migrants in 2009).2 That said, the increase in international migrants has
been evident over time – both numerically and proportionally – and at a slightly faster rate than previously
anticipated.3
The overwhelming majority of people migrate internationally for reasons related to work, family and study– involving migration processes that largely occur without fundamentally challenging either migrants or thecountries they enter. In contrast, other people leave their homes and countries for a range of compelling andsometimes tragic reasons, such as conflict, persecution and disaster. While those who have been displaced,such as refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs), comprise a relatively small percentage of all migrants,
they are often the most in need of assistance and support.
This chapter, with its focus on key global migration data and trends, seeks to assist migration policymakers,
practitioners and researchers in making better sense of the bigger picture of migration, by providing an
overview of information on migration and migrants. The chapter draws upon current statistical sourcescompiled by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA), the Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the International Labour Organization (ILO), the World
Bank, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the Internal Displacement Monitoring
Centre (IDMC) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM).4 The chapter provides an overview ofglobal data and trends on international migrants (stocks) and international migration (flows). It also provides
a discussion of particular migrant groups – namely, migrant workers, refugees, asylum seekers, IDPs andmissing migrants – as well as of stateless persons and remittances.
The chapter also refers to the growing body of programmatic IOM data, particularly on assisted voluntary
returns and reintegration, resettlement, displacement tracking and victims of human trafficking. While these123
4UN DESA, 2019a.
UNDP, 2009.
See, for example, IOM’s World Migration Report 2003 (IOM, 2003), which drew upon United Nations population data (UN DESA,
2002) and migration data (IOM, 2000).
In keeping within the scope of this report, statistics utilized in this chapter were current as at 30 June 2019, except for internationalmigrant stock data which were incorporated into the chapter following the release of the 2019 revision by UN DESA on 17 September
2019.

20

Migration and migrants: A global overview

data are generally not global or representative, they can provide insights into changes that have occurredin relevant programming and operations globally. As the United Nations migration agency, with activities
relevant to all the themes discussed in this chapter, IOM data have the capacity to provide further insights
on migration and its various dynamics, including the diverse needs of migrants.
This chapter highlights some of the challenges associated with data collection and definitions that make acomprehensive analysis of migration trends at the global level difficult.5 This also remains an issue for many
States attempting to analyse migration trends within their own countries or regions, as reflected in the
Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, with its emphasis on data collection for evidencebased policy (Objective 1 of the Global Compact – see discussion in chapter 11 of this report). Ongoing efforts
to collect and improve migration statistics have led to an expansion in available data; however, the need forfurther technical capacity is an obstacle that is yet to be overcome as the international community works todevelop a more comprehensive global picture of key aspects of migration. Similarly, defining migration andmigrants is complex, as discussed in the text box below.

Defining migration, migrant and other key terms
Outside of general definitions of migration and migrant, such as those found in dictionaries, there
exist various specific definitions of key migration-related terms, including in legal, administrative,
research and statistical spheres.a There is no universally agreed definition of migration or migrant,
however, several definitions are widely accepted and have been developed in different settings, suchas those set out in UN DESA’s 1998 Recommendations on Statistics of International Migration.b
Technical definitions, concepts and categories of migrants and migration are necessarily informed
by geographic, legal, political, methodological, temporal and other factors. For example, there are
numerous ways in which migration events can be defined, including in relation to place of birth,
citizenship, place of residence and duration of stay.c This is important when it comes to quantifying
and analysing the effects of migration and migrants (however defined). We encourage readers to referto primary sources cited in the chapter for information on specific definitions and categorizations
underlying the data. Readers may also find the IOM Glossary on Migration (2019 edition) to be auseful reference.d
a
b
c
d

5

See, for example, Poulain and Perrin, 2001.
UN DESA, 1998.
See, for example, de Beer et al., 2010.
IOM, 2019b.

In general, explanatory notes, caveats, limitations and methodologies on specific sources of data can be extensive, and are therefore
not included in this chapter. However, sources have been clearly identified so that readers can refer to them.

21WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

International migrants: numbers and trends
UN DESA produces estimates of the number of international migrants globally. The following discussion draws
on its estimates, which are based on data provided by States.6
The United Nations Recommendations on Statistics of International Migration defines an “internationalmigrant” as any person who has changed his or her country of usual residence, distinguishing between“short-term migrants” (those who have changed their countries of usual residence for at least three months,
but less than one year) and “long-term migrants” (those who have done so for at least one year). However,
not all countries use this definition in practice.7 Some countries use different criteria to identify internationalmigrants by, for example, applying different minimum durations of residence. Differences in concepts anddefinitions, as well as data collection methodologies between countries, hinder full comparability of national
statistics on international migrants.
Overall, the estimated number of international migrants has increased over the past five decades. The total
estimated 272 million people living in a country other than their countries of birth in 2019 was 119 million
more than in 1990 (when it was 153 million), and over three times the estimated number in 1970 (84 million;
see table 1). While the proportion of international migrants globally has also increased over this period, it isevident that the vast majority of people continue to live in the countries in which they were born.

Table 1. International migrants, 1970–2019
Year

Number of migrants

Migrants as a %of the world’s population

1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
2005
2010
2015
2019

84,460,125
90,368,010
101,983,149
113,206,691
153,011,473
161,316,895
173,588,441
191,615,574
220,781,909
248,861,296
271,642,105

2.3%
2.2%
2.3%
2.3%
2.9%
2.8%
2.8%
2.9%
3.2%
3.4%
3.5%

Source: UN DESA, 2008, 2019a, 2019b.
Note:

The number of entities (such as States, territories and administrative regions) for which data were made available
in the 2019 UN DESA Revision of International Migrant Stock was 232. In 1970, the number of entities was 135.

In 2019, most international migrants (around 74%) were of working age (20 to 64 years of age), with a slightdecrease in migrants younger than 20 years old from 2000 to 2019 (from 16.4% to 14%), and a constant share(around 12%) of international migrants 65 years of age and older since 2000.

6
7

Data are also provided to UN DESA by territories and administrative units. For a summary on UN DESA stock data sources, methodology
and caveats, please see UN DESA, 2019b.
UN DESA, 1998.

22

Migration and migrants: A global overview

Snapshot of international migrants
The international migrant population globally has increased in size but remained
relatively stable as a proportion of the world’s population

3.4%

3.5%

MillionMillionMillion

192

221

249

258

MillionMillionMillion

1995

2000

2005

2010

2015

2019

2.8%

174

2.9%

3.2%

3.4%

272

52% of international migrants are male, 48% are female
2.7%
3.6%
4.8%
5.5%
7.5%
8.8%
10.0%
11.0%
11.2%
10.1%
7.1%
4.3%
3.4%
3.3%
2.8%

70–74
65–69
60–64
55–59
50–54
45–49
40–44
35–39
30–24
25–29
20–24
15–19
10–14
5–9
0–4

3.4%
4.3%
5.3%
5.6%
7.2%
8.2%
9.2%
10.1%
10.4%
9.6%
6.9%
4.4%
3.5%
3.3%
2.8%

Most international migrants (74%) are of working age (20–64 years)*Age groups above 75 years were omitted (male 4%, female 6%).

23

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

The proportion of international migrants varies significantly around the world
Sweden 20.0%

Canada 21.3%

Qatar 78.7%

South Africa 7.2%

Singapore 37.1%

Note: This map is for illustration purposes only. The boundaries and names shown and the designations used on this map
do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by the International Organization for Migration.

272 million international migrants in 2019 out of a global population of 7.7 billion:
1 in every 30 people

Note:

Infographics based on UN DESA, 2019a and UN DESA, 2019c.

24

Migration and migrants: A global overview

In 2019, Europe and Asia each hosted around 82 million and 84 million international migrants, respectively– comprising 61 per cent of the total global international migrant stock combined (see figure 1). These
regions were followed by North America, with almost 59 million international migrants in 2019 or 22 per centof the global migrant stock, Africa at 10 per cent, Latin America and the Caribbean at 4 per cent, and Oceania
at 3 per cent. When compared with the size of the population in each region, shares of international migrants
in 2019 were highest in Oceania, North America and Europe, where international migrants represented,
respectively, 21 per cent, 16 per cent and 11 per cent of the total population.8 In comparison, the share ofinternational migrants is relatively small in Asia and Africa (1.8% and 2%, respectively) and Latin America
and the Caribbean (1.8%). However, Asia experienced the most remarkable growth from 2000 to 2019, at
69 per cent (around 34 million people in absolute terms).9 Europe experienced the second largest growthduring this period, with an increase of 25 million international migrants, followed by an increase of 18 million
international migrants in North America and 11 million in Africa.10

Figure 1. International migrants, by major region of residence, 2005 to 2019 (millions)
AfricaAsia
Europe2019
2015

Latin America and the Caribbean

2010
2005

Northern America
Oceania
0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Source: UN DESA, 2019a. Datasets available at www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/migration/data/estimates2/
estimates19.asp (accessed 18 September 2019).
Note:

Categorization based on UN DESA geographic regions (see chapter 3, appendix A for details), not implying official
endorsement or acceptance by IOM.

The increase in international migration in some regions over time has had an impact on population change.
Figure 2 shows the proportional population change for each of the world’s six regions from 2009 to 2019. While
Europe has traditionally been one of the major destination regions for international migrants, it has had theslowest rate of proportional population change over this period, at slightly over 1 per cent. However, the ratewould arguably be much lower without international migrants who have mitigated decreasing populations
8 UN DESA, 2019a.
9 Ibid.
10 Ibid.

25

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

in some European countries due, for example, to declining birth rates.11 By comparison, Africa underwent
the most significant change, with its population growing by nearly 30 per cent over this period, due to highfertility rates and increasing lifespans.12 This growth has nevertheless been softened by emigration fromAfrica to other regions (namely Europe and Asia – see chapter 3 of this report for discussion).

Figure 2. Proportional population change by region, 2009–2019
AfricaOceania
Latin America and the Caribbean
Asia
Northern America
Europe0246Per cent change 2009–2014

8

10

12

14

Per cent change 2014–2019

Source: UN DESA, 2019c.
Note:

Categorization based on UN DESA geographic regions (see chapter 3, appendix A for details), not implying official
endorsement or acceptance by IOM.

While population growth over the decade may be most pronounced for Africa, in 2019 more than half theworld’s total population resided in just one region: Asia (4.6 billion people). From 2009 to 2019, the populationin Asia grew by nearly 440 million (from 4.16 billion to 4.6 billion), compared with just under 300 million
in Africa (from 1.01 billion to 1.31 billion).13 Five of the world’s top 10 most populous countries are in Asia
(China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan and Bangladesh).14
The United States of America has been the main country of destination for international migrants since1970.15 Since then, the number of foreign-born people residing in the country has more than quadrupled –from less than 12 million in 1970, to close to 51 million in 2019. Germany, the second top destination for
migrants, has also observed an increase over the years, from 8.9 million in 2000 to 13.1 million in 2019. A
list of the top 20 destination countries of international migrants is provided in the left column of figure 3.

11 UN DESA, 2019c. See chapter 3 of this report (figure 14) showing countries with the largest proportional population change inEurope.
12 UN DESA, 2019c. See chapter 3 of this report (figure 2) showing countries with the largest proportional population change in Africa.
13 UN DESA, 2019c.
14 Ibid.
15 UN DESA, 2008, 2019a.

26

Migration and migrants: A global overview

The list of largest migrant origin countries and territories is shown on the right in figure 3. More than
40 per cent of all international migrants worldwide in 2019 (112 million) were born in Asia,16 primarily
originating from India (the largest country of origin), China, and South Asian countries such as Bangladesh,Pakistan and Afghanistan. Mexico was the second largest country of origin, and the Russian Federation was
fourth. Several other European countries have sizable populations of emigrants, including Ukraine, Poland,
the United Kingdom and Germany.

Figure 3. Top 20 destinations (left) and origins (right) of international migrants in 2019(millions)
Resident Migrants

Migrants Abroad

United States of America

India

Germany

MexicoSaudi Arabia

China

Russian Federation

Russian Federation

United Kingdom

Syrian Arab Republic

United Arab Emirates

Bangladesh

FrancePakistan

CanadaUkraineAustralia

Philippines

Italy

Afghanistan

Spain

Indonesia

TurkeyPolandIndia

United Kingdom

UkraineGermanySouth Africa

Kazakhstan

Kazakhstan

Palestinian Territories

ThailandMyanmar

Malaysia

Romania

JordanEgypt

Pakistan

Turkey
0

20

40

60

0

5

10

15

20

Source: UN DESA, 2019a (accessed 18 September 2019).

In regard to the distribution of international migrants by countries’ income group,17 nearly two thirds ofinternational migrants resided in high-income countries in 2019 – around 176 million.18 This compares with82 million foreign-born who resided in middle-income countries (about one third of the total migrant stock)and 13 million in low-income countries in the same year. Income levels of destination countries for migrant
workers are further discussed in the section on migrant workers below.

16 UN DESA, 2019a.
17 Per World Bank country income group classifications, in World Bank Country and Lending Groups (World Bank, n.d.a).
18 UN DESA, 2017a.

27WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

While international migrants may tend to gravitate toward high-income countries, their origins globally
can be diverse. Some origin countries have high proportions of their nationals living abroad for economic,
political, security, trade or cultural reasons that may be contemporary or historical in nature. For example,
the Syrian Arab Republic has a higher rate of emigration than most other countries due to displacement caused
by long-term conflict (see discussion below on refugees for more detail). Figure 4 highlights countries withhigh proportions of emigrants in 2019. Importantly, the emigration proportion of a country represents anaccumulation of migration (and displacement) over time, sometimes many decades. Of note is the geographic
diversity of the countries in figure 4 (countries from all regions except Northern America are included) as wellas the high number of countries from Latin America and the Caribbean (10 of the 20 countries).

Figure 4. Top 20 countries of emigration in 2019 (proportion)

Proportion of combined population who are emigrants

80%

70%

60%

50%

40%

30%

20%

ad
a
Gu
y
a
Sa
na
An
int
tig
Vi
Sa
ua
nc
m
en
an
ta
d B oa
nd
ar
bu
th
Bo
eG
da
sn
re
ia
na
an
din
dH
es
Sy
er
ze
ria
go
nA
vi
ra
b R na
ep
ub
lic
Al
ba
nia
Ba
rb
ad
os
Ja
m
aic
a
Se
yc
he
lle
Sa
s
int
Lu
cia
Ca
bo
Ve
rd
e
Ar
No
m
rth
en
ia
M
ac
ed
on
ia
Po
rtu
ga
l

Gr
en

am
e
To
ng
a

ca
ini

rin

Su

Do
m

Sa
int

Kitt

sa

nd

Ne
vis

10%

Source: UN DESA, 2019a.
Notes: The population size used to calculate the percentage of emigrants is based on the UN DESA resident population of thecountry, which includes foreign-born, and UN DESA international migrants originally from that country.  Only countries
with a combined population of more than 100,000 residents and emigrants were included in the analysis.

28

Migration and migrants: A global overview

UN DESA estimates of foreign-born populations do not reflect immigration status or policy categories (such as
students, highly skilled migrants, or refugees). Capturing such attributes is inherently difficult for several key
reasons. First, a person’s immigration status can be fluid and change quickly, arising from circumstances andlegal/policy settings. For example, many international migrants who may be described as ‘‘undocumented”
or “irregular” enter countries on valid visas and then stay in contravention of one or more visa conditions.
In fact, there are many paths to irregularity, such as crossing borders without authorization, unlawfully
overstaying a visa period, working in contravention of visa conditions, being born into irregularity, or
remaining after a negative decision on an asylum application has been made.19
Second, countries have different immigration policy settings and different ways of collecting data on migrants,
which makes it difficult to establish a harmonized approach to capturing irregular migrant stocks globally.
The pace of change in the migration policy arena also poses an extra dimension of complexity, as people
may slip into and out of “irregularity”. Notably, there have been very few global estimates of the numberof irregular migrants because of this complexity. However, this has not prevented some organizations fromcoming up with inflated and incorrect global estimates—see text box below on “what not to do”.

What not to do: estimating the global population of irregular migrants
In an August 2019 report on irregular migration, the authors come up with a global estimate of thenumber of irregular migrants that is based on a lack of understanding of migration and displacement
policy, practice and normative settings.a In arriving at an erroneous figure of 106.9 million people, theauthors include groups of people who would not be considered irregular, such as internally displaced
persons, stateless persons, and Venezuelan migrants, including refugees and asylum seekers.b
The important lessons in this example include:•that categories of migrants (even while overlapping at times) and limitations on definitions must
be well understood before analysis commences;•

ensuring qualified and experienced analysts with an understanding of the topic lead such work;•seeking the advice and feedback of knowledgeable specialists in the field prior to publication(commonly referred to as “peer review”).

a CSIS, 2019:5–6.
b Many Venezuelans were authorized to cross international borders by receiving countries following the economic andpolitical crisis causing displacement, and have been offered some form of status by the receiving country, even if temporary
in nature.

Third, as noted in the text box earlier on the chapter on “defining migration, migrant and other key terms”,
there necessarily exist different definitions, depending on the circumstances in which they are applied. In
some legal/policy situations, as well as in general discussions, for example, a “migrant” can include a person
who has never migrated. See the discussion of the common problem of conflating “migration” and “migrant”
in the text box below.
19 Gordon et al., 2009.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 202029

Conflating “migration” and “migrant”
In a general sense, migration is the process of moving from one place to another. To migrate is to
move, whether from a rural area to a city, from one district or province in a given country to anotherin that same country, or from one country to a new country. It involves action.
In contrast, a migrant is a person described as such for one or more reasons, depending on the context(see the text box on “Defining migration, migrant and other key terms” earlier on the chapter). Whilein many cases, “migrants” do undertake some form of migration, this is not always the case. In somesituations, people who have never undertaken migration may be referred to as migrants – children of
people born overseas, for example, are commonly called second or third-generation migrants.a This
may even extend to situations involving statelessness, whereby whole groups of people are not able
to access citizenship despite being born and raised in a country.b On the other hand, for example,
returning citizens who have undertaken significant and/or long-term international migration are
generally not classified as “migrants” upon or after their arrival to their country of birth, despite theirmigration journeys and experiences.ca See, for example, Neto, 1995; Fertig and Schmidt, 2001.
b Kyaw, 2017.
c Skeldon, 2018.

International migration flows: definitions, numbers and gaps
While data on migrant stocks are widely available, data on global migration movements (flows) are much more
limited. Available UN DESA estimates on global migrant stocks are extensive and global in scope; however, thedatabase of migration flows only encompasses 45 countries.20 Capturing data on migration flows is extremely
challenging for several reasons. First, while international migration flows are generally accepted as covering
inflows and outflows into and from countries, there has been a greater focus on recording inflows. For
example, while countries such as Australia and the United States count cross-border movements, many others
only count entries and not departures.21 Additionally, migration flow data in some countries are derived fromadministrative events related to immigration status (for example, issuance/renewal/withdrawal of a residence
permit) and are thus used as a proxy for migration flows. Furthermore, migratory movements are often hard
to separate from non-migratory travel, such as tourism or business.22 Tracking migratory movements also
requires considerable resources, infrastructure and IT/knowledge systems. This poses particular challenges fordeveloping countries, where the ability to collect, administer, analyse and report data on mobility, migrationand other areas is often limited. Finally, many countries’ physical geographies pose tremendous challenges
for collecting data on migration flows. Entry and border management, for example, is particularly challenging
in some regions, because of archipelagic and isolated borders, and it is further complicated by traditions of
informal migration for work.23
20
21
22
23

Laczko, 2017.
Koser, 2010.
Skeldon, 2018.
Gallagher and McAuliffe, 2016.

30

Migration and migrants: A global overview

IOM’s Global Migration Data Portal
The Global Migration Data Portal was launched in December 2017 as a one-stop access point for
timely, comprehensive migration statistics and reliable information about migration data globally.
The site is designed to pull together, in one place, key global data sources on migration from acrossdifferent organizations, agencies and reports. The portal serves users in the field of migration bymaking international migration data more accessible and visible, and easier to understand.
The world map features more than 70 migration data indicators from more than 20 different
international data sources, broken down by country, region, subregion and IOM region. Most data
displayed are publicly available and provided by numerous international agencies. Migration dataon the portal can be accessed for all United Nations countries and are complemented by contextual
information, including demographic and employment data. Key additional resources, including
written reports and alternative data sources, are made available for all countries, regions andsubregions, where available. A regional section provides regional profile pages covering migration
data and available sources within different United Nations regions.  
In the thematic section, the portal offers reviews of available data in various fields of migration,
provides explanations of concepts and definitions, and describes key strengths and weaknesses of
the available data sources. The thematic pages review the data for around 30 topics of migration.
The portal also features a collection of more than 100 handbooks and guidance reports on how tomeasure migration and collect data in various fields. Numerous blogs discussing recent data andinnovations authored by leading experts in the field of migration, and video interviews with leading
data experts from around the world, are also included on the portal.
The portal also includes migration governance country profiles and a dedicated section on data on
migration governance. A specific section shows how data can support United Nations Member Statesin achieving the migration-relevant Sustainable Development Goals and in implementing the Global
Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration.  
The portal is available in English, and translations of key sections are available in French, Spanish andGerman. For more information see: http://migrationdataportal.org.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 202031

Migration flows
There are currently two main international datasets on international migration flows, both of which arederived from national statistics: UN DESA’s International Migration Flows dataset and OECD’s International
Migration Database. Since 2005, UN DESA has compiled data on the flows of international migrants to andfrom selected countries, based on nationally available statistics. At the time of writing (August 2019), there
had been no update to the UN DESA flows dataset, with the most current being the 2015 version. The 2015
migration flows dataset comprises data from 45 countries (only 43 on emigration flows), up from 29 countries
in 2008 and 15 countries in 2005.24
The OECD data on migration flows have been collected since 2000, which allows for limited trend analysis,
as shown in figure 5 (though data are not standardized, as explained in the note under the figure).25 The
estimates suggest that permanent migration inflows to OECD countries increased from 3.85 million in 2000 to
7.06 million in 2016, with a temporary lull occurring around the time of the global financial crisis (figure 5).
Germany remained the main OECD destination country in 2016, with over 1.7 million new internationalmigrants (more than double the levels registered in 2000, but with a decrease compared with more than
2 million in 2015) arriving that year, followed by the United States (nearly 1.2 million) and the United
Kingdom (about 450,000 new migrants).26

Figure 5. Inflows of foreign nationals into OECD countries, permanent migration,
2000–2016 (millions)
8
7

millions

6
5
4
3
2
1
0

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016

Source: OECD, n.d.a.
Notes: Data are not standardized and therefore differ from statistics on permanent migration inflows into selected countries
contained in OECD’s International Migration Outlook 2018 (OECD, 2018).
The 35 countries typically included in OECD statistics are the following: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile,
Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Republicof Korea, Latvia, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia,
Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States. In some years, data for particularcountries are not made available: data were made available for 31 countries in 2000 and 33 countries in 2016.
Notably, data for Greece have not been reported since 2012 and data for Turkey have not been reported since 2010.

24 For UN DESA migrant flow data, as well as for the specific countries included, please see UN DESA, 2015.
25 This subsection is based on data from the OECD International Migration Database. For additional data on migrant flows and othermigrant data in OECD countries, please see OECD, n.d.a.
26 These are the top OECD countries for permanent inflows of foreign nationals for which data were made available in 2017.

32

Migration and migrants: A global overview

Migrant fatalities and IOM’s Missing Migrants ProjectIn the wake of the tragic events of October 2013, in which an estimated 368 migrants died in the sinkingof two boats near the Italian island of Lampedusa, IOM began collecting and compiling information
on migrants who perish or go missing on migratory routes worldwide, within its Missing Migrants
Project (MMP). Information on migrant fatalities is collected daily and made available on the Missing
Migrants Project’s online database, managed by IOM’s Global Migration Data Analysis Centre. MMP
also provides analysis of the data and issues related to deaths during migration, in briefings and its“Fatal Journeys” reports (volume 4 published in 2019). Data sources include official records of coast
guards and medical examiners, media stories, reports from non-governmental organizations andUnited Nations agencies, and interviews with migrants. Data collection challenges are significant. For
instance, the vast majority of recorded deaths are of people travelling via clandestine routes, which
are often at sea or in remote areas (chosen with the aim of evading detection), meaning remains are
not found. Few official sources collect and make data on migrant deaths publicly available. Relying
on testimonies of fellow migrants and media sources can be problematic, due to inaccuracies andincomplete coverage.
In the five years (2014–2018) of systematically recording deaths during migration, MMP has
documented over 30,900 women, men and children who lost their lives while trying to reach othercountries. During that time, the Mediterranean Sea has seen the highest number of deaths, claiming
the lives of at least 17,919 people, 64 per cent of whose bodies have not been recovered from thesea. In 2018, the Mediterranean continued to be the place with the highest known number of deaths
during migration, but compared with the previous four years, there was a much higher proportion
who died on the “Western Mediterranean route”. A total of 813 deaths were recorded on this sea
crossing from the coast of Northern Africa to Spain in 2018, compared with 272 in 2017. Nearly 570
deaths during migration were recorded in North Africa in 2018, mostly due to the harsh naturalenvironment, violence and abuse, dangerous transportation conditions, and sickness and starvation.
Despite the ongoing war and humanitarian crisis in Yemen, in 2018 the migration route to the country
from the Horn of Africa across the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden continued to be in high use. In 2018,
156 people are known to have drowned in this crossing. In the context of the displacement of millions
of people from the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, 42 people from the country lost their lives while
trying to migrate elsewhere in the region in 2018. No deaths of Venezuelans were recorded by MMP
in the previous year.  Since 2014, 1,884 deaths have been recorded along the United States–Mexico
border, including 434 in 2018.
To download the MMP data, see https://missingmigrants.iom.int/downloads. New data sources are constantly added andefforts are ongoing to improve data collection globally. For a discussion of the challenges of collecting data on migrant deaths,
please see http://missingmigrants.iom.int/methodology.

33WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

Migrant workers
The latest available estimates indicate that there were roughly 164 million migrant workers around theworld in 2017, accounting for nearly two thirds (64%) of the (then) 258 million global stock of internationalmigrants.27 When compared with the global population of international migrants of working age – regarded
as 15 years of age or older (234 million) – migrant workers account for 70 per cent. For a range of reasons,however, these global figures are likely to be underestimates.28 While earlier global estimates of migrant
workers have been produced, ILO notes that these cannot be compared with 2017 figures, due to definitional
differences and changes in methodology and data sources.
In 2017, 68 per cent of migrant workers were residing in high-income level countries – an estimated
111 million people. An additional 47 million migrant workers (29%) were living in middle-income countries,
and 5.6 million (3.4%) were in low-income countries. While we are unable to compare the numbers of migrant
workers over time, it is useful to examine changes in proportional distribution. In 2017, for example, there
was a noticeable change in destination country category; that is, from 2013 to 2017, high-income countries
experienced a 7 percentage point drop in migrant workers (from 75% to 68%), while upper-middle-income
countries observed a 7 percentage point increase (from 12% to 19%) (see figure 6). This apparent shift may be
influenced by economic growth in middle-income countries and/or changes to labour immigration regulations
in high-income countries. The share of migrant workers in the total workforce across country income groups
was quite small in low-income (1.9%), lower-income (1.4%) and upper-middle-income countries (2.2%), butmuch greater for high-income countries (18.5%).

Figure 6. Migrant workers by destination country income level, 2013 and 2017
80
70

Percentage

60
50
40
30
20
10
0

Low income

Lower-middle income
2013

Upper-middle income

High income

2017

Source: ILO, 2018.

27 The content in this subsection is based on and drawn from ILO, 2018. Please refer to this document for explanatory notes, deeper
analysis, limitations and caveats associated with the numbers and trends presented. More generally, information on foreign-born
employment in OECD countries is available at OECD, n.d.b.
28 See, for example, ILO, 2018.

34

Migration and migrants: A global overview

Male migrant workers outnumbered female migrant workers by 28 million in 2017, with 96 million males(58%) and 68 million females (42%), in a context where males comprised a higher number of internationalmigrants of working age (127 million or 54%, compared with 107 million or 46% females). This represents aslight shift since 2013, towards an even more gendered migrant worker population, when the share of malemigrant workers constituted 56 per cent and females 44 per cent. See table 2 for further breakdowns by
income level and sex.

Table 2. Migrant workers, by sex and income level of destination countries, 2017
Low-income

Lower-middleincome

Upper-middleincome

High-income

Global total

M

F

Total

M

F

Total

M

F

Total

M

F

Total

M

F

Total

Migrant workers(millions)

3.6

1.9

5.6

10.9

5.6

16.6

17.4

13.1

30.5

63.7

47.5

111.2

95.7

68.1

163.8

As a proportion of all
migrant workers (%)

2.2

1.2

3.4

6.7

3.4

10.1

10.6

8

18.6

38.9

29

67.9

58.4

41.6

100

Source: Based on ILO, 2018.
Note:

Totals may not add up due to the effects of rounding.

As evident from the data, the international migrant worker population is currently gendered as well as
geographically concentrated. There is a much larger number of male than female migrant workers worldwide(see table 2), with a gender composition that sees much higher numbers of men in low-income and lowermiddle income countries compared with women, and in contrast to the gender splits for high-income
countries. In terms of geography, and as seen in figure 7 below, 99.6 million or almost 61 per cent of all
migrant workers resided in three subregions: Northern America; the Arab States; and Northern, Southern andWestern Europe.29 Notably, there is a striking gender imbalance of migrant workers in two regions: Southern
Asia (6 million males compared with 1.3 million females) and the Arab States (19.1 million males comparedwith 3.6 million females). The Arab States region is one of the top destinations for migrant workers, where
they can dominate key sectors. For example, in the Gulf States, over 95 per cent of the labour force forconstruction and domestic work is comprised of migrant workers.30 From 2013 to 2017, the number of migrant
workers in the Arab States increased by over 5 per cent, following greater demand for male migrant workers,
many of whom are involved in manual labour, mostly in the construction sector.31

29 The ILO category of “Arab States” includes the following countries and territories: Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman,
Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syrian Arab Republic, United Arab Emirates, Yemen and the Palestinian Territories.
30 ILO, n.d.
31 ILO, 2018.

35

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

Figure 7. Geographic distribution of migrant workers by sex, 2017
Arab States
Central and Western Asia
Eastern Asia
Eastern Europe
Latin America and the Caribbean
Northern Africa
Northern America
Northern, Southern and Western Europe
South-Eastern Asia and the Paciﬁc
Southern Asia
Sub-Saharan Africa
0

5

10

15

20
25
millions

Male

30

35

40

45

FemaleSource: ILO, 2018.
Note:

The figure reflects ILO geographic regions and subregions, and does not imply official endorsement or acceptance by
IOM. Please see annex A of ILO, 2018 for more information on regional breakdowns. Please note that the rest of thischapter refers to the UN DESA geographical regions.

International remittances
Remittances are financial or in-kind transfers made by migrants directly to families or communities in theircountries of origin. The World Bank compiles global data on international remittances, notwithstanding the
myriad data gaps, definitional differences and methodological challenges in compiling accurate statistics.32
Its data, however, do not capture unrecorded flows through formal or informal channels, and the actual
magnitude of global remittances are therefore likely to be larger than available estimates.33 Despite theselimitations, available data reflect an overall increase in remittances in recent decades, from USD 126 billion
in 2000, to USD 689 billion in 2018.
There was a 9 per cent increase in remittances in 2018, up from USD 633 billion in 2017. However, the twoconsecutive years prior to 2017 witnessed a decline; from 2014 to 2015, global (inward) flows of remittances

32 The content of much of this subsection, unless otherwise noted, is based on and drawn from the World Bank’s data in relation to
migration and remittances (World Bank, n.d.b); and publications on the topic (World Bank, n.d.c.). In particular, the World Bank’s
annual remittances datasets (World Bank, n.d.b), the Migration and Development Brief 31 (World Bank, 2019), Migration andDevelopment Brief 30 (World Bank, 2018), the Migration and Development Brief 27 (World Bank, 2017a) and its 21 April Press
Release (World Bank, 2017b) are key sources of information. Please refer to these sources as well as the World Bank’s Factbooks on
Migration and Development, including its latest, published in 2016, for explanatory notes, deeper analysis, caveats, limitations andmethodologies associated with the numbers and trends presented.
33 World Bank, 2016.

36

Migration and migrants: A global overview

contracted by an estimated 1.2 per cent, from USD 603 billion in 2014 to USD 595 billion in 2015, and byanother 1.1 per cent from 2015 to 2016 (from USD 595 billion to USD 589 billion). Consistent with this trend,
remittances to low- and middle-income countries (which account for the majority of the global total) had
declined for two consecutive years, from 2014 to 2016 – a trend that had not been seen for three decades,
according to the World Bank, before returning back to the positive long-term trend from 2016 to 2018(from USD 444 billion in 2016, to USD 483 billion in 2017, and USD 529 billion in 2018). Since the mid1990s, remittances have greatly surpassed official development assistance levels,34 defined as government aid
designed to promote the economic development and welfare of developing countries.35
In 2018, India, China, Mexico, the Philippines and Egypt were (in descending order) the top five remittancerecipient countries, although India and China were well above the rest, with total inward remittances
exceeding USD 67 billion for each country (see table 3). When remittances are viewed as a percentage ofgross domestic product, however, the top five remittance-receiving countries in 2018 were Tonga (at 35.2%),
followed by Kyrgyzstan (33.6%), Tajikistan (31%), Haiti (30.7%) and Nepal (28%).
High-income countries are almost always the main source of remittances. For decades, the United States has
consistently been the top remittance-sending country, with a total outflow of USD 67.96 billion in 2017,
followed by the United Arab Emirates (USD 44.37 billion), Saudi Arabia (USD 36.12 billion) and Switzerland(USD 26.6 billion). The fifth-highest remittance-sending country in both 2016 and 2017 was Germany (withtotal outflows of USD 20.29 billion and 22.09 billion, respectively). In addition to its role as a top recipient,
China (classified as an upper-middle-income country by the World Bank) has also been a significant, althoughdeclining, source of remittances, with USD 20.29 billion in 2016, down to USD 16.18 billion in 2017. Table 3
provides further details and trends.36

Table 3. Top countries receiving/sending remittances (2005–2018) (current USD billions)
Top countries receiving remittances
2005

2010

2015

2018

China

23.63

India

53.48

India

68.91

India

78.61

Mexico

22.74

China

52.46

China

63.94

China

67.41

India

22.13

Mexico22.08

Philippines

29.80

Mexico35.66

Nigeria

14.64

Philippines

21.56

Mexico26.23

Philippines

33.83

France

14.21

France19.90

France

24.06

Egypt

28.92

Philippines

13.73

Nigeria

19.75

Nigeria

21.16

France26.43

Belgium

6.89

Germany

12.79

Pakistan

19.31

Nigeria

24.31

Germany

6.87

Egypt

12.45

Egypt

18.33

Pakistan

21.01

Spain

6.66

Bangladesh

10.85

Germany

15.81

Germany

17.36

Poland6.47

Belgium

10.35

Bangladesh

15.30

Viet Nam

15.93

34 See World Bank, 2019, for example.
35 See, for example, OECD, n.d.c, which also contains data on official development assistance. There is a growing body of work exploring
the developmental, economic and social impacts of this trend.
36 Breakdowns for countries sending remittances in 2018 were unavailable at the time of writing.

37

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

Top countries sending remittances
2005

2010

2015

2017a

United States

47.25 United States

50.78

United States

61.86

United States

67.96

Saudi Arabia

14.30 Saudi Arabia

27.07

United ArabEmirates

40.33

United ArabEmirates

44.37

Germany

12.71

RussianFederation

21.45

Saudi Arabia

38.79

Saudi Arabia

36.12

Switzerland

10.52 Switzerland

17.76

Switzerland

25.40

Switzerland

26.60

United Kingdom

9.64 Germany

14.68

China

20.42

Germany

22.09

France9.48 Italy

12.89

RussianFederation

19.69

RussianFederation

20.61

Republic of Korea

6.9 France

12.03

Germany

18.03

China

16.18

RussianFederation

6.83 Kuwait

11.86

Kuwait15.20

Kuwait13.76

Luxembourg

6.70 Luxembourg

10.65

France12.79

France

13.50

Malaysia

5.68

United ArabEmirates

10.57

Qatar

12.19

Republic of
Korea

12.89

Source: World Bank, n.d.b. (accessed July 2019).
Note:

All numbers are in current (nominal) USD billion.

a

The latest available data at the time of writing was for 2017. Breakdowns for countries sending remittances in 2018 were
unavailable.

IOM’s assisted voluntary return and reintegration programmes
IOM has implemented assisted voluntary return and reintegration (AVRR) programmes since 1979.
IOM’s AVRR support to migrants comprises a range of activities, and typically includes: the provisionof pre-departure counselling, the purchase of flight tickets, administrative and travel assistance and,
where possible, the provision of reintegration assistance.
On average, from 2005 to 2014, IOM assisted 34,000 migrants per year through AVRR. In line withthe rise in the volume of migration in recent years, the number of returns has increased. In 2018,
AVRR support was provided to 63,316 migrants returning from 128 host or transit countries to
169 countries or territories of origin. However, this amounts to a 12 per cent decrease compared38

Migration and migrants: A global overview

with 2017 (72,176). This decrease can be explained by a combination of structural and contextual
factors, varying from country to country: lower numbers of migrant arrivals and asylum applications,and changes in national migration and asylum policies. Of the 63,316 AVRR beneficiaries in 2018,
approximately 24 per cent were women and 22 per cent were children. Over 7 per cent of these
returnees were victims of trafficking, unaccompanied migrant children, or migrants with healthrelated needs. Approximately 18,274 beneficiaries were provided with pre-departure reintegration
counselling in host countries, and 41,461 beneficiaries were provided with reintegration counsellingupon arrival in their countries or territories of origin.
Top 10 host/transit countries and countries of origin of AVRR beneficiaries, 2018
Host or transit countries

Countries of origin

Germany

15,942

Iraq

5,661

Niger

14,977

Guinea5,088

Greece4,968

Ethiopia

4,792

Austria

3,469

Mali

4,041

Djibouti

3,392

Georgia

2,681

Belgium

2,795

Afghanistan

2,232

Netherlands

2,149

Albania

2,167

Morocco

1,508

Russian Federation

1,952

Turkey1,494

Ukraine

1,901

Italy

958

Côte d’Ivoire

1,834

In 2018, the majority of AVRR beneficiaries (54%) returned from the European Economic Area
(EEA) and Switzerland, particularly from Germany, Greece, Belgium, Austria and the Netherlands.
Returns from the EEA and Switzerland decreased from 50,587 in 2017 to 33,971 in 2018. This trend
confirms the increasing number of voluntary returns from transit countries. In 2018, returns fromthe Niger, Djibouti and Morocco to countries such as Guinea, Mali and Ethiopia amounted to morethan 22 per cent of the global total. The main regions of origin for AVRR beneficiaries in 2018 wereWest and Central Africa (31% of total); South-East Europe, East Europe and Central Asia (28%); andAsia and the Pacific (14%). Together, the top 10 countries and territories of origin accounted for
51 per cent of the total number of AVRR beneficiaries.
For more information, see IOM, 2019a.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

39

Refugees and asylum seekers
By the end of 2018, there was a total of 25.9 million refugees globally, with 20.4 million under UNHCR’s
mandate and 5.5 million refugees registered by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine
Refugees (UNRWA) in the Near East.37 The total number of refugees is the highest on record, although theannual rate of growth has slowed since 2012.
There were also approximately 3.5 million people seeking international protection and awaiting determinationof their refugee status, referred to as asylum seekers. In 2018, approximately 2.1 million asylum claims werelodged with States or UNHCR. Of the roughly 1.7 million first-instance applications for asylum lodged in 2018,
the United States was the top recipient of asylum claims, with 254,300 new asylum applications, a 23 per centdecrease from 2017 (331,700), contrasting with the previous trend of increasing asylum applications in the
United States from 2013 to 2016. Peru was the second largest recipient, with a sharp increase of asylum
applications, from 37,800 new asylum claims in 2017 to 192,500 in 2018, mainly lodged by Venezuelans(190,500). Peru was followed by Germany, where the number of asylum applications continued to decrease(722,400 in 2016, down to 198,300 in 2017 and 161,900 in 2018).
UNHCR estimates that, at the end of 2018, those under 18 years of age constituted roughly 52 per cent of
the global refugee population. From 2003 to 2018, according to available disaggregated data, the proportionof children among stocks of refugees was very high, fluctuating between 41 and 52 per cent. The proportionof females has remained relatively stable, at 47 to 49 per cent, over the same period. Consistent with broader
global dynamics, refugees continued to be primarily based in urban settings, with about 61 per cent ofrefugees located in urban areas at the end of 2018.38
Unaccompanied and separated children lodged an estimated 27,600 individual asylum applications in atleast 60 countries in 2018, marking a continued declining trend since the exceptionally high number ofapplications in 2015 (98,400).39
As in other years, unresolved or renewed conflict dynamics in key countries contributed significantly tocurrent figures and trends. Of the refugees under UNHCR’s mandate at the end of 2018, the top 10 countriesof origin – the Syrian Arab Republic, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Myanmar, Somalia, Sudan, the Democratic
Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic, Eritrea and Burundi – accounted for roughly 16.6 million,or 82 per cent of the total refugee population. Many of these countries have been among the top sources ofrefugees for at least seven years. The ongoing conflict in the Syrian Arab Republic saw the number of refugees
from that country reach approximately 6.7 million. The instability and violence that have made Afghanistana major source of refugees for over 30 years have continued, with the country being the second largest origin
country in the world, with 2.7 million refugees; this is a slight increase from 2017 figures (2.6 million),largely due to births during that year. South Sudan remained the third largest origin country of refugees
since large-scale violence erupted in the middle of 2016, with 2.3 million at the end of 2018. Refugees from37 The content in this subsection is based on and drawn from UNHCR, 2018 and UNHCR, 2019. Please refer to these documents for
explanatory notes, deeper analysis, caveats, limitations and methodologies associated with the numbers and trends presented.
UNHCR’s previous Global Trends reports, as well as its Population Statistics database (UNHCR, n.d.a) are other key sources of
information.
38 See UNHCR, 2018 and UNHCR, 2019 for limitations applicable to these assessments related to age, sex and location.
39 See UNHCR, 2019 on why these figures are underestimates.

40

Migration and migrants: A global overview

the Syrian Arab Republic, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Myanmar and Somalia comprised over two thirds of theworld refugee population. Figure 8 shows the trends in refugee numbers for the top five countries of origin
from 2005 to 2018. The impact of the Syrian conflict is clearly illustrated in figure 8; in 2010, the Syrian Arab
Republic was a source country for fewer than 30,000 refugees and asylum seekers, whereas it was the thirdlargest host country in the world, with more than 1 million refugees mainly originating from Iraq.40

Figure 8. Number of refugees by top 5 countries of origin as of 2018 (millions)
7
6

millions

5

Syrian Arab Republic
Afghanistan

4South Sudan
3

Myanmar2

Somalia102005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

Source: UNHCR, n.d.a. (accessed on 9 July 2019).
Note:

South Sudan became a country in 2011.

In 2018, for the fifth consecutive year, Turkey was the largest host country in the world, with 3.7 million
refugees, mainly Syrians (over 3.6 million). Reflecting the significant share of Syrians in the global refugee
population, two other bordering countries – Jordan and Lebanon – also featured among the top 10. Pakistan
and the Islamic Republic of Iran were also among the top 10 refugee-hosting countries, as the two principal
hosts of refugees from Afghanistan, the second largest origin country. Uganda, Sudan, Germany, Bangladesh
and Ethiopia comprised the rest. The vast majority of refugees were hosted in neighbouring countries.
According to UNHCR, the least developed countries – such as Bangladesh, Chad, the Democratic Republic of
the Congo, Ethiopia, Rwanda, South Sudan, Sudan, the United Republic of Tanzania, Uganda and Yemen –hosted 33 per cent of the global total (6.7 million refugees). It is only when refugees are measured against
national populations that high-income countries, such as Sweden (seventh) and Malta (ninth), rank among
the top 10. Figure 9 shows trends in refugee numbers for the top five host countries from 2000 to 2018.

40 UNHCR, 2010.

41

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

Figure 9. Number of refugees by top 5 host countries as of 2018 (millions)
4.0
3.5
3.0
Turkeymillions

2.5

Pakistan

2.0

UgandaSudan

1.5

Germany

1.0
0.5
0.0
2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

Source: UNHCR, n.d.a. (accessed on 25 June 2019).

During 2018, over 590,000 refugees returned to their countries of origin – a decrease compared with the667,400 returned refugees in 2017 – while the global refugee population has continued to increase. The
majority of returns (210,900) were to the Syrian Arab Republic, primarily from Turkey.
While there are many challenges to measuring those benefiting from local integration, UNHCR estimates that,in 2018, 27 countries reported at least one naturalized refugee (compared with 28 countries in 2017), witha total of 62,600 naturalized refugees for the year (a decrease from the 73,400 newly naturalized refugees in
2017, but a significant increase compared with the 23,000 reported in 2016). Turkey, which naturalized an
estimated 29,000 refugees from the Syrian Arab Republic in 2018 (compared with 50,000 in 2017), represents
the greatest proportion, with Canada, the Netherlands, Guinea-Bissau and France contributing the bulk of
the rest.
The traditional resettlement countries of Canada, the United States of America and Australia continued to
conduct the majority of the world’s refugee resettlements. In 2018, approximately 92,400 refugees wereadmitted for resettlement globally, representing more than a 10 per cent decrease from 2017 (102,800).
Syrian, Congolese and Eritrean refugees were the key beneficiaries. Figure 10 provides an overview ofresettlement statistics for key countries from 2005 to 2018. With almost 23,000 resettled refugees in 2018,
it was the first time since 1980 that the United States of America was not the top resettlement country.41
The significant decline in the number of refugees resettled in the country was due to a substantial loweringof the refugee admission ceiling (the number of refugees admitted for resettlement each fiscal year) andenhanced security screening for refugees from “high-risk” countries, which has had the effect of decreasing
the number of refugee admissions from these countries.42 With a steady increase in the number of resettled
refugees over the last decade, Canada became the top resettlement country in 2018, with slightly more than
28,000 resettled refugees.
41 Radford and Connor, 2019.
42 United States Department of Homeland Security, 2018; and Blizzard and Batalova, 2019.

42

Migration and migrants: A global overview

Figure 10. Number of refugees resettled by major resettlement countries
in 2005–2018 (thousands)
United States of America
CanadaAustralia

2018
2015

United Kingdom

2010
2005

NorwaySweden
0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

thousands
Source: UNHCR, n.d.b. (accessed on 25 June 2019).

IOM’s role in resettlement
IOM arranges safe and organized travel for refugees through resettlement programmes, as well as
for other vulnerable persons of concern moving through other humanitarian pathways. Beyond
traditional refugee resettlement and humanitarian admission programmes, more States are interested
in or are currently carrying out other forms of admission, such as private sponsorships, academic
scholarships and labour mobility schemes. IOM’s movement data for resettlement assistance referto the overall number of refugees and other persons of concern travelling under IOM auspices fromvarious countries of departure to destinations around the world during a given period.
During calendar years 2017 and 2018, IOM supported some 40 States in carrying out resettlement,
humanitarian admission and relocation initiatives in over 138 countries of departure, with significant
operations conducted in Lebanon, Turkey, Afghanistan, Jordan, Greece, Italy, Uganda, Kenya, Iraq,
Ethiopia and Sudan.
In 2017, a total of 137,840 individuals travelled to 40 States under IOM auspices for resettlement
assistance; the top nationalities were Syrians, Afghans, Eritreans, Iraqis and Congolese. In 2018, a
total of 95,400 individuals travelled to 30 States under IOM auspices for resettlement assistance; thetop 5 nationalities were the same as the previous year. From 2017 to 2018, the gender breakdown
remained close, with 52 per cent males and 48 per cent females resettling to third countries.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

43

Comparing years 2015–2016 with 2017–2018, there was a 49.6 per cent reduction of individuals
resettled to North America, and a 46 per cent increase in resettlement and relocation to the European
Economic Area (EEA). The top nationalities admitted to the EEA during 2017–2018 were Syrians,
Eritreans, Iraqis, Congolese, Sudanese and Afghans.
Under cooperative agreements, IOM provides stakeholders with necessary information and sharesdata with key partners, such as UNHCR, resettlement countries and settlement agencies. IOM works
in close collaboration with UNHCR on a regular basis, to verify and better align aggregate data related
to resettlement, specifically around departures figures. For more information on IOM’s resettlement
activities, see www.iom.int/resettlement-assistance.

Internally displaced persons
The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) compiles data on two types of internal displacement:
new displacements during a given period, and the total stock of IDPs at a given point in time. This statisticalinformation is categorized by two broad displacement causes: (a) disasters, and (b) conflict and violence.
However, IDMC acknowledges the challenges associated with distinguishing between disasters and conflict as
the immediate cause of displacement, and highlights the growing need to identify better ways to report on
displacement in the context of multiple drivers.43
With an estimated 41.3 million, the total global stock of people internally displaced by conflict and violenceat the end of 2018 was the highest on record since IDMC began monitoring in 1998, and represents anincrease from the 40 million reported in 2017. As with trends for refugees (discussed in the previous section),
intractable and new conflicts have meant that the total number of persons internally displaced by conflictand violence has almost doubled since 2000, and has risen sharply since 2010.
Figure 11 shows the world’s top 20 countries with the largest number of IDPs displaced due to conflict andviolence (stock) at the end of 2018. Most countries were either in the Middle East or sub-Saharan Africa.
The Syrian Arab Republic had the highest number of people displaced due to conflict (6.1 million) by theend of 2018, followed by Colombia (5.8 million). The Democratic Republic of the Congo had the third largest
number with 3.1 million, followed by Somalia (2.6 million) and Afghanistan (2.6 million). Over 30 million(nearly 75%) of the global total of 41.3 million people displaced live in just 10 countries.44 In terms ofproportion of national population, the Syrian Arab Republic, whose conflict has dragged on for several
years, had over 30 per cent of its population displaced due to conflict and violence. Somalia had the second
highest proportion (18%), followed by the Central African Republic and Colombia (with both over 10%). It
is important to note, however, that especially for protracted displacement cases, such as in Colombia, some

43 IDMC highlights the challenges in collecting data on displacements due to development projects, criminal violence, or slow-onset
disasters, as well as their efforts to overcome these difficulties. See IDMC, 2019.
44 The 10 countries include: the Syrian Arab Republic, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia, Afghanistan, Yemen,
Nigeria, Ethiopia, Sudan and Iraq.

44

Migration and migrants: A global overview

people who have returned to their places of origin and to their homes may still be counted as internallydisplaced. This is because, in some cases, a durable solution has not been achieved.45 Organizations such as
IDMC follow the Inter-Agency Standing Committee’s framework on “Durable Solutions for Internally Displaced
Persons”, which stipulates eight criteria that constitute a durable solution in determining when people
should no longer be considered internally displaced.46

Figure 11. Top 20 countries with the largest stock of internally displaced persons
by conflict and violence at the end of 2018
millions | per centSyrian Arab Republic
Colombia
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Somalia
Afghanistan
Yemen
Nigeria
Ethiopia
Sudan
Iraq
South Sudan
TurkeyUkraineCameroon
Central African Republic
India
Bangladesh
MyanmarAzerbaijan
Mexico
6

5

4

3

2

1

0

5 10 15 20 25 30

Source: IDMC, 2019.
Notes: IDP stock refers to the accumulated number of people displaced over time.
The population size used to calculate the percentage of conflict stock displacements is based on the total resident
population of the country per 2017 UN DESA population estimates.

45 A durable solution is achieved “when IDPs no longer have specific assistance and protection needs that are linked to theirdisplacement and such persons can enjoy their human rights without discrimination resulting from their displacement”. See, forexample, the Brookings Institution and University of Bern, 2010.
46 The criteria include: safety and security; adequate standard of living; access to livelihoods; restoration of housing, land and property;
access to documentation; family reunification; participation in public affairs; and access to effective remedies and justice. See, forexample, the Brookings Institution and University of Bern, 2010; IDMC, 2019.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 202045

In 2018, for the first time, IDMC also provided an estimate of the global stock figure of persons displaced bydisasters. Slightly over 1.6 million persons were reported to be still living in displacement at the end of 2018
due to disasters that occurred in 2018. As noted by IDMC, this figure is a “highly conservative estimate”, asit does not capture those living in displacement because of disasters that took place before 2018.

New displacements in 2018
At the end of 2018, there were a total of 28 million new internal displacements across 148 countries andterritories. Sixty-one per cent (17.2 million) of these new displacements were triggered by disasters, and39 per cent (10.8 million) were caused by conflict and violence. As in previous years, weather-related disasters
triggered the vast majority of all new displacements, with storms accounting for 9.3 million displacements andfloods 5.4 million. The number of new displacements associated with conflict and violence almost doubled,from 6.9 million in 2016 to 11.8 million in 2017, and slightly decreased, to 10.8 million, in 2018.47
In 2018, Ethiopia topped the list with a significantly higher number of new displacements caused by conflictand violence (2.9 million in 2018, compared with 725,000 in 2017), considerably influencing global numbers
as a result.48 Ethiopia was followed by the Democratic Republic of the Congo (1.8 million) and the Syrian Arab
Republic (1.6 million).
Many more people are newly displaced by disasters in any given year, compared with those newly displacedby conflict and violence, and more countries are affected by disaster displacement. This is apparent when
examining the number of countries and territories in which new displacements occurred in 2018: 144 fordisasters, compared with 55 for conflict and violence. In 2018 (as in previous years), disasters triggeredby climate and weather-related hazards, such as storms and floods, accounted for the bulk of the total(16.1 million, or almost 94%). Information on displacements caused by droughts was also available andobtained for the first time in 2017, with 1.3 million new displacements and, in 2018, 764,000, mostly in theHorn of Africa. Since 2008, the other cause of disasters, geophysical hazards, has triggered an average of
3.1 million displacements per year. While 2017 statistics for geophysical disasters were well below average,
with 758,000 new displacements recorded, the number increased to 1.1 million in 2018. The Philippines andChina (approximately 3.8 million each), as well as India and the United States (respectively around 2.7 and1.2 million), had the highest absolute numbers of disaster displacements in 2018.
As shown in figure 12, in previous years, annual new disaster displacements outnumbered new displacements
associated with conflict and violence. IDMC notes, however, that a significant portion of the global total of
new displacements by disasters is usually associated with short-term evacuations in a relatively safe andorderly manner.

47 The content in this subsection is based on and drawn from IDMC, 2018 and IDMC, 2019. Please refer to these documents for
explanatory notes, deeper analysis, caveats, limitations and methodologies associated with the numbers and trends presented.
IDMC’s previous Global Estimates reports (available at www.internal-displacement.org/global-report/), as well as its Global Internal
Displacement Database (IDMC, n.d.), are other key sources of information.
48 IDMC highlights possible reasons for these changes, including stabilization of front lines of conflicts, ceasefires, restrictions on
freedom of movement, and changes in methodology for data collection.

46

Migration and migrants: A global overview

Figure 12. New internal displacements by conflict and disasters, 2008–2018 (millions)
45
40
35

millions

30
25
20
15
10
5
0

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

New internal displacements by conﬂict

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

New internal displacements by disasters

Source: IDMC, n.d. (accessed 4 June 2019).
Notes: The term “new displacements” refers to the number of displacement movements that occurred in a given year,
not the total accumulated stock of IDPs resulting from displacement over time. New displacement figures include
individuals who have been displaced more than once, and do not correspond to the number of people displaced
during a given year.

IOM’s Displacement Tracking Matrix
IOM’s Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) programme tracks displacement in countries affected byconflicts or natural disasters. It is designed to capture, process and disseminate information on the
movements and evolving needs of displaced populations and migrants. Data are shared in the form ofmaps, infographics, reports, interactive web-based visualizations and raw or customized data exports.
Based on a given situation, the DTM gathers information on populations, locations, conditions, needs
and vulnerabilities, using one or more of the following methodological tools:(a) Tracking mobility and multisectoral needs in specific locations to target assistance;(b) Tracking movement (“flow”) trends and the overall situation at origin, transit and destination
points;(c) Registering individuals and households for beneficiary selection, vulnerability targeting andprogramming;(d) Conducting surveys, to gather specific in-depth information from populations of interest.
In 2018, the DTM tracked over 40 million individuals (including internally displaced persons,returnees and migrants) in over 60 countries. IOM’s DTM data is one of the largest sources for global
annual estimates on internal displacement compiled by IDMC.  For more information on IOM’s DTM,
see www.globaldtm.info.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 202047

Stateless persons
Stateless persons are, by definition, in a vulnerable situation, as they are not recognized as nationals by any
State.49 They face obstacles in accessing basic services – such as education, employment or health care – andcan suffer discrimination, abuse and marginalization. While stateless persons are not necessarily migrants,
their situations involving vulnerability and lack of rights may lead them to migrate, internally or acrossborders, and often irregularly, given the significant obstacles they can face in accessing travel documents andregular migration pathways.50
As part of its statelessness mandate, UNCHR reported 3.9 million stateless persons globally in 2018, the same
global figure as in 2017.51 This figure is, however, a low estimate, and the number may have been as high as
10 million in 2017, according to UNHCR. Indeed, while identifying who is stateless is a necessary first step
towards preventing and reducing statelessness worldwide, data collection remains a significant challenge.52
For the first time, UNHCR included Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh and IDPs in Rakhine State, Myanmar,in its 2017 and 2018 data of stateless persons, “in light of the size of this population and that they arein fact stateless as well as displaced”.53 Bangladesh and Myanmar were the countries with the first andthird largest populations of stateless persons, respectively, in 2018 (around 906,000 stateless persons in
Bangladesh and 620,000 in Myanmar). Figure 13 shows the other countries in the top 10 as of 2018. Côte
d’Ivoire stood at the second position with 692,000 stateless persons, including mainly persons considered as“foreigners” after the country’s independence, as well as their descendants.54 Thailand had the fourth largest
population of stateless persons in 2018, which consisted mostly of indigenous and ethnic communities.55
Latvia reported almost 225,000 stateless persons, with a significant number of ethnic Russians who have notbeen able to naturalize due to the country’s citizenship law after its independence from the Soviet Union,
which only grants nationality by descent.56 It was followed by the Syrian Arab Republic (160,000), Kuwait(92,000), Uzbekistan (80,000), Estonia (78,000) and the Russian Federation (76,000). In terms of proportionof national populations, over 11 per cent of Latvia’s population was stateless, followed by Estonia, wherestateless persons amounted to nearly 6 per cent.

49
50
51
52
53

United Nations, 1954. See also UNHCR, 2014a.
McAuliffe, 2018.
The content of this subsection is based on and drawn from UNHCR, 2018 and UNHCR, 2019, unless otherwise indicated.  
UNHCR, 2019:51.
UNHCR, 2018:53. In line with UNHCR statistical methodology, stateless refugees, asylum seekers and IDPs in other countries remain
excluded from reported data on stateless persons. In Global Trends: Forced Displacement in 2017, however, UNHCR indicates thatthe statistical reporting for stateless populations is currently being reviewed (UNHCR, 2018).  See also Institute on Statelessness andInclusion, 2018.  
54 Adjami, 2016.
55 Van Waas, 2013.
56 Venkov, 2018; Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion, 2014.

48

Migration and migrants: A global overview

Figure 13. Major populations of stateless persons by top 10 reporting countries as of 2018
Bangladesh
Côte d'Ivoire
MyanmarThailand
LatviaSyrian Arab Republic
KuwaitUzbekistan
Estonia
Russian Federation
15

10

5

Total population in thousands

0

5

10

15

Proportion of national population (%)

Source: UNHCR, 2019; UN DESA, 2017b.
Notes: The stock on the left side of the graphic refers to the reported accumulated number of persons who fall within theinternational definition of stateless persons and under UNHCR mandate, although some countries may include persons
whose nationality is undetermined. Data are from the UNHCR Global Trends report, which diverges from data reported
in its Population Statistics database. In contrast to its report, the database does not include Rohingya refugees in
Bangladesh and IDPs in Myanmar, who were stateless in 2017 and 2018.
The population size used to calculate the percentage of the stock of stateless persons on the right side of the graphic isbased on the total resident population of the country per 2017 UN DESA population estimates.

Unfortunately, given current data gaps and methodological challenges, it is not feasible to provide trends
over time either of statelessness, or of the impact of current efforts to eradicate it. While UNHCR’s Global
Action Plan to End Statelessness by 2024 has led to tangible results since 2014, reducing statelessness is a slow
process.57 UNHCR notes a reported 56,400 stateless persons in 24 countries who acquired nationality or whose
nationality was confirmed in 2018, especially in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, the Russian Federation, Sweden,
Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Viet Nam.

57 UNHCR, 2014b; UNHCR ExCom, 2017.

49

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

The Counter-Trafficking Data Collaborative
Since the mid-1990s, IOM has assisted over 100,000 victims of trafficking globally. Through these
direct assistance activities, IOM has developed its central case management database, which contains
information on over 55,000 individual cases since 2002. These data include information on victims of
trafficking, including demographics, but also information on their trafficking experience. As a uniquesource of information on human trafficking, IOM has worked to bring these data to a public audienceso that valuable insights can be developed and shared among counter-trafficking actors worldwide. A
major part of this effort has been the launch of the Counter-Trafficking Data Collaborative (CTDC) in
2017, in partnership with Polaris and Liberty Shared.a
CTDC is the first global data hub on human trafficking, and combines the three largest case-level
datasets, resulting in one centralized dataset with information on over 90,000 cases. For programmeyears 2016 and 2017, 40,190 new case registrations were included. Victims registered in that period
were from 147 countries and were exploited in 107 countries. Most of them were women (54%),
while 20 per cent were girls, 22 per cent were men and 5 per cent were boys. Just over a quarter werechildren, with 16 per cent of the victims from 15 to 17 years of age. Nearly 30 per cent were trafficked
into forced labour, while 47 per cent were trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation. However,as shown in figures below, there are substantial regional differences.b
Gender by region of exploitation in CTDC data (2016–2017)

EuropeAsia

Americas

Africa
0

20

40
Girls

Women

60
Boys

80
Men

100

50

Migration and migrants: A global overview

Type of exploitation by region of exploitation in CTDC data (2016–2017)
EuropeAsia

Americas

Africa020
Forced labour

40

60
Sexual Exploitation

80

100

Other exploitationa Available at www.ctdatacollaborative.org/.
b Oceania was omitted, due to the small number of victims in the CTDC dataset. The “other exploitation” category in theright-hand side of the figure includes forced marriage, organ removal, slavery and similar practices, and other kinds of
exploitation. Information on definitions can be found on the CTDC website.

Conclusion
It is important to understand migration and displacement, and how they are changing globally, given theirrelevance to States, local communities and individuals. Human migration may be an age-old phenomenon
that stretches back to the earliest periods of history, but its manifestations and impacts have changed overtime as the world has become more globalized. Now, more than at any other time in history, we have more
information on migration and displacement globally at our disposal. And yet, the very nature of migration in
an interconnected world means that its dynamism can be difficult to capture in statistical terms. Migration
involves “events” that can be fast-paced and complex. While it is certainly true that international migration
patterns are related to social, economic and geopolitical processes that have evolved over generations, if
not hundreds of years, recent advances in transnational connectivity are opening up more opportunities for
greater diversity in migration processes.
It is increasingly relevant, therefore, to stay abreast of trends and evolving patterns in migration anddisplacement. In this chapter, we have provided a global overview of migration and migrants, based on thecurrent data available. Notwithstanding data gaps and lags, several high-level conclusions can be drawn. At
the global level, for example, we can see that, over time, migrants have taken up residence in some regions(such as Asia) at a much greater rate than others (such as Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean), andthat this trend is likely to continue (see figure 1). Likewise, statistics show that migrant workers continue togravitate toward regions with greater opportunities, as economies grow and labour markets evolve, and thatsome migrant worker populations are heavily gendered (see figure 7).

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

51

The global data also show that displacement caused by conflict, generalized violence and other factors
remains at a record high. Intractable, unresolved and recurring conflicts and violence have led to an
upsurge in the number of refugees around the world in recent years, with women and children comprisinga substantial portion of the total. While a handful of countries continue to provide solutions for refugees,
overall, these have been insufficient to address global needs, especially given the recent change in refugee
resettlement patterns to the United States (see figure 10). In addition, there were estimated to be more
people displaced internally at the end of 2018 than ever before. We also find that the estimated number ofstateless persons globally is significant, at almost 4 million, notwithstanding that it has been cautioned that
this is an underestimate. Aside from fundamental human rights issues, statelessness can place people at riskof (irregular) migration and displacement, so it is an important global issue worthy of further data collection,
reporting and analysis.58
International cooperation on migration has been recognized by a significant majority of States – along with
non-State actors in migration – as essential and central to achieving safe, orderly and regular migration
for all. The Global Compact for Migration makes this clear, emphasizing a global commitment to improving
international cooperation on migration, as well as the collection of migration data, so that we may better
understand trends and evolving patterns and processes, to support the development of evidence-based
responses.59 There are opportunities to be realized as well as challenges to be overcome, as we work collectively
toward implementation of this commitment.

58 Objective 4 of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration recognizes the need to reduce statelessness and outlines
measures to achieve this.
59 See chapter 11 of this report for discussion of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, and its 23 objectives.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

3

53

MIGRATION AND MIGRANTS: REGIONALDIMENSIONS AND DEVELOPMENTS

Introduction
The previous chapter provides an overview of migration globally, with specific reference to international stocks
and flows. Particular migrant groups – including migrant workers, refugees, asylum seekers and internallydisplaced persons (IDPs) – as well as remittances, were outlined. Chapter 3 focuses primarily at the regional
level in order to provide a more detailed picture of migration, which sets out a different, but complementary,
perspective of migrants and movements in different parts of the world.1
Our starting point is geographic, rather than thematic, given that geography is one of the fundamentals
underpinning migration today, just as it was in the past. Notwithstanding increasing globalization, geography
is one of the most significant factors shaping patterns of migration and displacement. Many people who
migrate across borders do so within their immediate regions, to countries that are close by, countries to which
it may be easier to travel, that may be more familiar, and from which it may also be easier to return. For
people who are displaced, finding safety quickly is paramount. People, therefore, tend to be displaced to safer
locations nearby, whether that is within their own countries or across international borders.
This chapter seeks to assist migration policymakers, practitioners and researchers to make better sense ofinternational migration globally by using a geographic perspective to present regional migration overviews.
The analysis in this chapter focuses on six world regions as defined by the United Nations, and used by theUnited Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) and other organizations:
•
•
•
•
•
•

AfricaAsia
EuropeLatin America and the Caribbean
Northern America
Oceania

For each of these regions, the analysis includes: (a) an overview and brief discussion of key migration
statistics based on data compiled and reported by UN DESA, the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR) and the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC); and (b) succinct descriptions of“key features and developments” in migration in the region, based on a wide range of data, information andanalyses from international organizations, researchers and analysts.

1

All reasonable efforts have been made to ensure the accuracy of the data referred to in this chapter, including through data
verification. We regret, however, any data errors that may remain. While the report generally does not refer to data or events afterJune 2019, international migrant stock statistics published by UN DESA on 17 September 2019 have been incorporated to the extent
possible.

54

Migration and migrants: Regional dimensions and developments

To account for the diversity of migration patterns, trends and issues within each of the six regions, thedescriptive narratives of “key features and recent developments” are presented at the subregional level.
For Asia, for example, this cascade approach allows for the presentation of insights from statistical data on
Asia as a whole, followed by summary information on subregions, including Eastern Asia, Southern Asia,
South-East Asia, the Middle East and Central Asia. A breakdown of the regions and subregions is provided
in appendix A. These subregional overviews provide information on migration patterns from, within and to
the subregions.2 Beyond this, attention has been paid to particular features that exist in a subregion, suchas labour migration and remittances, irregular migration, human trafficking, displacement (internal andinternational) and integration. The subregional overviews are not intended to be exhaustive, but are designed
to be illustrative of key trends and recent changes in migration.
It is important to note that this chapter builds on chapter 3 of the World Migration Report 2018, Migrationand migrants: Regional dimensions and developments, by providing an update on statistics and current
issues. Importantly, it has been produced as a stand-alone chapter and does not require readers to refer backto the previous report.3 Significant changes over the two years since the last report have been reflected in thischapter, which incorporates data and information up until the end of June 2019. Recent shifts in migrationand displacement – such as the large-scale movement through South and Central America from the Bolivarian
Republic of Venezuela – are discussed, as is the mass displacement of Rohingya from Myanmar’s Rakhine Statein the second half of 2017. The chapter draws on the existing evidence base, and sources are provided infootnotes and the references section. We encourage readers to refer to sources cited in this chapter to learn
more about topics of interest.

Africa4
Migration in Africa involves large numbers of migrants moving both within and from the region. As shownin figure 1, in 2019, over 21 million Africans were living in another African country, a significant increase
from 2015, when around 18.5 million Africans were estimated to be living within the region. The numberof Africans living in different regions also grew during the same period, from around 17 million in 2015 tonearly 19 million in 2019.
Figure 1 shows that, since 2000, international migration within the African region has increased significantly.
And since 1990, the number of African migrants living outside of the region has more than doubled, withthe growth to Europe most pronounced. In 2019, most African-born migrants living outside the region wereresiding in Europe (10.6 million), Asia (4.6 million) and Northern America (3.2 million).
One of the most striking aspects to note about international migrants in Africa, as shown in figure 1, is thesmall number of migrants who were born outside of the region and have since moved there. From 2015 to2019, the number of migrants born outside the region remained virtually unchanged (around 2 million), mostof whom were from Asia and Europe.

2
3
4

Please note that subregions relate largely to migration dynamics and so may differ from those of UN DESA. Details are provided inappendix A.
In order to ensure, to the extent possible, that this chapter provides a comprehensive “stand-alone” overview of regional migrationin 2017 and 2018, we have drawn upon relevant material included in the World Migration Report 2018 (chapter 3), especially thatwhich provides historical context to recent events and migration trends.
See appendix A for details on the composition of Africa.

55

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

Figure 1. Migrants to, within and from Africa 1990–2019
Migrants to Africa

Migrants within Africa

Migrants from Africa

20

Migrant Stock (millions)

15

10

5

0
1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2019 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2019 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2019Year

RegionAfricaEuropeNorthern America

Asia

Latin America andthe Caribbean

Oceania

Source: UN DESA, 2019a.
Note:“Migrants to Africa” refers to migrants residing in the region (i.e. Africa) who were born in one of the other regions(e.g. Europe or Asia).“Migrants within Africa” refers to migrants born in the region (i.e. Africa) and residing outside
their country of birth, but still within the African region. “Migrants from Africa” refers to people born in Africa who
were residing outside the region (e.g. in Europe or Northern America).

Many African countries have experienced significant changes in the size of their populations in recent years,
as shown in figure 2, which ranks the top 20 African countries with the largest proportional population change
between 2009 and 2019. All top 20 countries were in sub-Saharan Africa and each underwent substantial
population growth during this period. These 20 countries reflect the trend across the continent, with Africa
currently the fastest-growing region in the world and expected to surpass 2 billion people by 2050.5 It is
important to note that the largest proportional population changes from 2009 to 2019 occurred in countries
with relatively smaller populations, as to be expected. Africa’s most populous countries – Nigeria, Ethiopia

5

UN DESA, 2019b.

56

Migration and migrants: Regional dimensions and developments

and Egypt – are not among the top 20; however, all three countries also experienced increases in their
populations.6 The population growth in Africa is in contrast to population change in Europe, for example,
which has experienced slower population increases in some countries and even decline in others over thesame period (see figure 14).
The significant increase in international migration within Africa (see figure 1) has contributed to the recent
population growth at the national level. While migration is not the only factor, with high fertility rates
and increasing life expectancy also playing roles,7 increased intraregional migration within the continent
has influenced population changes in some countries. For example, the share of international migrants as
a proportion of national population in Equatorial Guinea has sharply increased in recent years. In 2005,
international migrants accounted for less than 1 per cent of Equatorial Guinea’s population; by 2019, thisfigure had increased to nearly 17 per cent. South Africa is another example. In 2005, international migrants
comprised 2.8 per cent of South Africa’s population; by 2019, this figure had risen to 7 per cent.

Figure 2. Top 20 countries with the largest proportional population change in Africa,
2009–2019
Equatorial Guinea
Niger
AngolaUgandaDemocratic Republic of the Congo
Gabon
Chad
BurundiZambiaGambiaMali
United Republic of Tanzania
Burkina Faso
Mauritania
Mozambique
SenegalBenin
Malawi
Somalia
Liberia
0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

Source: UN DESA, 2019c.
Note:

6
7

Ibid.
Ibid.

It is important to note that the largest proportional population changes from 2009 to 2019 are more likely to occur incountries with relatively smaller populations.

57

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

The African countries with the largest numbers of emigrants tend to be in the north of the region. These
are shown on the left-hand side of figure 3, where countries are ranked by their overall numbers of migrants(the combination of immigrants in the country and emigrants from the country). In 2019, Egypt had thelargest number of people living abroad, followed by Morocco, South Sudan, Somalia, Sudan and Algeria. In
terms of the number of immigrants, South Africa remains the most significant destination country in Africa,
with around 4 million international migrants residing in the country. Other countries with high immigrant
populations as a proportion of their total populations but not among the top 20, included Gabon (19%),
Equatorial Guinea (18%), Seychelles (13%) and Libya (12%).

Figure 3. Top 20 African migrant countries in 2019
Migrants(millions)

Percentage of
population

South Africa
Egypt
Côte d'Ivoire
South Sudan
Sudan
MoroccoNigeria
Democratic Republicof the Congo
UgandaBurkina Faso

Immigrant

Algeria

Emigrant

Ethiopia
Somalia
Mali
Kenya
Ghana
Mozambique
Zimbabwe
AngolaRwanda

4

2

0

2

4

20

10

0

10

Source: UN DESA, 2019a.
Note 1: The population size used to calculate the percentage of immigrants and emigrants is based on the UN DESA total resident
population of the country, which includes foreign-born populations.
Note 2: “Immigrant” refers to foreign-born migrants residing in the country. “Emigrant” refers to people born in the country whowere residing outside their country of birth in 2019.

58

Migration and migrants: Regional dimensions and developments

Significant migration corridors within and from Africa exist, many of which are related to geographic proximity
and historical ties, as well as displacement factors. The size of a migration corridor from country A to country
B is measured as the number of immigrants from country A who were residing in country B in 2019. Migration
corridors represent an accumulation of migratory movements over time and provide a snapshot of how migration
patterns have evolved into significant foreign-born populations in specific destination countries. Some of
the largest migration corridors involving African countries, as shown in figure 4, are between North Africancountries such as Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia to France, Spain and Italy, in part reflecting post-colonialconnections and proximity. Others, such as those between South Sudan and Uganda as well as Somalia andEthiopia are the result of large-scale displacement due to conflict. Significant labour migration corridors to
Gulf States also exist, as in the case of Egypt to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Importantly, justover half of the main migration corridors shown in figure 4 were within Africa, with the corridor from Burkina
Faso to neighbouring Côte d’Ivoire constituting the second largest for Africa overall.

Figure 4. Top 20 migration corridors involving African countries, 2019
Algeria France
Burkina Faso Côte d'Ivoire
South Sudan Uganda
Morocco France
Egypt Saudi Arabia
Egypt United Arab Emirates
South Sudan Sudan
Mozambique South Africa
Morocco Spain
Sudan South Sudan

Migrants placeof residence
AfricaAsia
EuropeCôte d'Ivoire Burkina Faso
Mali Côte d'Ivoire
Somalia Ethiopia
South Sudan Ethiopia
Sudan Saudi Arabia
Somalia Kenya
Morocco Italy
Tunisia France
Egypt Kuwait
Zimbabwe South Africa
0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

Migrants (millions)
Source: UN DESA, 2019a.
Note:

Corridors represent an accumulation of migratory movements over time and provide a snapshot of how migration
patterns have evolved into significant foreign-born populations in specific destination countries.

59

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

Displacement within and from Africa is a major feature of the region, as shown in figure 5. Most refugees
and asylum seekers on the continent were hosted in neighbouring countries within the region. The top
10 countries in Africa, ranked by the combined total of refugees and asylum seekers both hosted by andoriginating from a given country, are shown in figure 5. Similar to 2017, South Sudan produced the highest
number of refugees in Africa in 2018 (2.3 million), and ranked third in the world, with most hosted inneighbouring countries such as Uganda. After decades of conflict, Somalia produced the second highest
number of refugees in the region and the fifth highest in the world, with the majority hosted in Kenya andEthiopia. Other large refugee populations have originated from Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo,
the Central African Republic and Eritrea. Uganda remained the largest host country of refugees in the region,
with around 1.2 million refugees living in the country; most were from South Sudan and the Democratic
Republic of the Congo. Other large refugee hosting countries in 2018 were Sudan and Ethiopia.

Figure 5. Top 10 African countries by total refugees and asylum seekers, 2018
South Sudan

Sudan
Democratic
Republic of the Congo
Location:

UgandaHostedEthiopia

AbroadStatus:Somalia

Refugees
Central African
Republic
Asylum seekers
Eritrea

Burundi

Kenya
2

1

0

1

Persons (millions)

Source: UNHCR, n.d.
Note:

“Hosted” refers to those refugees and asylum seekers from other countries who are residing in the receiving country (righthand side of the figure); “abroad” refers to refugees and asylum seekers originating from that country who are outside of
their origin country. The top 10 countries are based on 2018 data and are calculated by combining refugees and asylum
seekers in and from countries.

60

Migration and migrants: Regional dimensions and developments

The largest new internal displacements in Africa in 2018 took place in sub-Saharan Africa, with the majority
displaced by conflict, not disasters. This is in contrast to Asia, which experienced a larger number ofdisplacements caused by disasters (see figure 12). Conflict displacement within countries was most pronouncedin Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which dwarfed the remainder of the region (figure 6).
At the end of 2018, there were 2.9 million new conflict displacements in Ethiopia, the largest number
globally, and much higher than the 2017 figure, which was just over 700,000. In addition to those displacedby conflict, there were more than 290,000 new displacements in Ethiopia as a result of disasters. In 2018,the Democratic Republic of the Congo had the second highest number of new conflict displacements both inAfrica and globally, with the figure reaching 1.8 million. In the Central African Republic, while the scale ofdisplacement was not as acute as in countries such as Ethiopia, it had the highest proportional rate of internal
displacement (11%). Notably, several countries with large numbers of internal displacements – such as the
Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia and Somalia – are also either hosting or producing significant
numbers of refugees and asylum seekers (see figure 5). It is also important to mention that countries such as
Mozambique, which recently experienced large-scale displacement due to cyclones Idai and Kenneth, are notincluded in figure 6. This is because the data used only capture the number of new internal displacements
during 2018, not 2019. However, the discussion on displacement in Southern Africa due to weather-related
events such as cyclone Idai can be found in “Key features and developments in Africa” below.

Figure 6. Top 20 African countries by new internal displacements (disaster and conflict), 2018
Millions

Percentage of population

Ethiopia
Democratic Republicof the Congo
Nigeria
Somalia
Central African
Republic
Cameroon
Kenya

DisasterSouth Sudan
UgandaSudan

Conﬂict

Mali
Niger
Libya
Ghana
Burkina Faso
RwandaBurundiMozambique
United Republicof Tanzania
Benin
0.5

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

2

0

2

4

6

8

10

Source: IDMC, n.d; UN DESA, 2017.
Notes: The term “new displacements” refers to the number of displacement movements that occurred in 2018, not the total
accumulated stock of IDPs resulting from displacement over time. New displacement figures include individuals who havebeen displaced more than once and do not correspond to the number of people displaced during the year.
The population size used to calculate the percentage of new disaster and conflict displacements is based on the total
resident population of the country per 2017 UN DESA population estimates, and the percentage is for relative illustrative
purposes only.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

61

Key features and developments in Africa
Eastern and Southern Africa
Intractable conflicts, political and communal violence, and peacebuilding setbacks have resulted in
the displacement of millions in Eastern Africa, with most countries in the subregion affected. At theend of 2018, for example, there were over 2.2 million South Sudanese refugees and close to 1.9 million IDPs.8
While the South Sudanese refugee population decreased slightly, from 2.4 million in 2017, it was still thelargest in Africa in 2018.9 In the same year, Somalia was the origin of nearly 1 million refugees and had morethan 2.6 million IDPs displaced by conflict and violence.10 Meanwhile, with 2.1 million IDPs, Ethiopia ranked
among the top 10 countries with the largest number of people living in internal displacement as a resultof conflict and violence at the end of 2018.11 In Somalia, the protracted civil war has pushed people into
other countries in the subregion, as well as eastward to countries such as Yemen; however, the unrelenting
conflict in Yemen has created intolerable conditions, forcing migrants to return to Eastern Africa, while
generating new asylum and refugee arrivals, including Yemenis.12 Thousands of Yemenis have fled to East
African countries such as Djibouti, which, relative to its population size, ranked among the top 10 refugee
hosting countries in the world in 2018.13 Other countries – including Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya and the United
Republic of Tanzania – continued to host substantial numbers of refugees, predominantly from the subregion,
as did South Sudan – notwithstanding the conflict that has prompted large-scale displacement from andwithin that country.14 The complex and multicausal factors triggering displacement and inhibiting solutions
have meant that these host countries – some of the least developed in the world – continue to provide
long-term refuge to a disproportionate share of the world’s displaced.15 In recognition of the challenges thatmany African countries face hosting large numbers of displaced people, and in an effort to highlight the link
between displacement, peace, security and its development dimension, the African Union declared its theme
for the year 2019 as “Refugees, Returnees and Internally Displaced Persons: Towards Durable Solutions toForced Displacement in Africa”.16 In 2019, the African Union not only aims to bring greater attention to thechallenges of displacement in Africa, but also to foster innovative and robust initiatives to address the root
causes and promote lasting solutions to forced displacement on the continent.17
Eastern and Southern Africa have long been major destinations for migrants from within Africa andother regions, while Eastern Africa is also increasingly a significant origin of migrant workers going
to Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) States.18 Immigration from India has historically been significant incountries such as Uganda, Kenya and South Africa,19 while recent years have seen a sharp increase in the

8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19

UNHCR, 2019a; IDMC, 2019.
UNHCR, 2018a, 2019a.
UNHCR, 2019a; IDMC, 2019.
IDMC, 2019.
UNHCR, 2019a; IOM, 2018a.
Ibid.
UNHCR, 2019a.
For internal displacement more generally, see also the IOM Displacement Tracking Matrix, particularly for Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya,
Malawi, Mozambique, South Sudan, Uganda and Zimbabwe.
African Union, 2019.
Ibid.
The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is a regional political organization comprised of six countries: Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman,
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Flahaux and de Haas, 2016.

62

Migration and migrants: Regional dimensions and developments

number of Chinese migrant workers moving to countries in the subregion.20 Given its advanced economy andrelative political stability, South Africa has also experienced high volumes of immigration in recent years,
attracting migrants, asylum seekers and refugees from within and outside Southern Africa. The number ofinternational migrants in South Africa increased from around 2 million in 2010 to over 4 million in 2019.21
Meanwhile, Eastern Africa continues to experience considerable levels of outward labour mobility, driven bypoverty, low wages and high unemployment.22 This is most evident in the large number of low- and semiskilled East Africans who have in recent years moved to GCC States on temporary work contracts. The Gulf
States’ proximity to Eastern Africa and their employment opportunities make them an attractive destination
for many East Africans.23
In Eastern and Southern Africa, intraregional migration is also driven by the growing demand for highand low-skilled labour. As East African economies, such as Kenya and Rwanda, are becoming increasingly
diversified, demand for workers in the services industry, for example, has drawn migrant workers from other
East African countries, including Uganda and the United Republic of Tanzania. This is especially the case for
Rwanda’s expanding technology sector, which continues to attract workers from within the subregion.24 The
East African Common Market Protocol, which provides for the free movement of labour, has helped to facilitate
labour migration within the subregion.25 Several countries have ratified the Protocol and some have alreadyabolished work permits for East African citizens, making it easier for people to work across the subregion.
Meanwhile, intraregional labour migration is well established in Southern Africa, where significant numbersof people have traditionally migrated from countries such as Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi and Zimbabwe, towork in South Africa and Botswana.26 While traditional sectors, such as mining, continue to attract migrant
workers, other sectors – including finance and information technology – are increasingly drawing migrants
to South Africa.27
Migration in Eastern and Southern Africa continues to involve high numbers of irregular migrants,characterized by mixed migration flows and underpinned by multiple drivers, including socioeconomic
factors, conflict and political instability. Migrant smuggling is particularly prominent in both subregions,with many people using the services of smugglers to reach their intended destinations. Many smuggling
networks are based in the Horn of Africa, while countries that are members of the East African Community –such as Kenya and the United Republic of Tanzania – are largely transit countries.28 The Middle East, Europe
and Southern Africa are among the major destinations for migrants from Eastern Africa, who use several
routes, including the Eastern routes to the Arab Peninsula and other countries in the Middle East, southernroutes to Southern Africa, and northern routes to North Africa, Europe and North America. However, the Hornof Africa routes are also significant, with a large number of people moving to or within the Horn of Africa.29
Similar to Eastern Africa, irregular migration is widespread in Southern Africa, and involves intraregional

20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29

Cook et al., 2016.
UN DESA, 2019a.
Manji, 2017.
Atong, Mayah and Odigie, 2018.
UNCTAD, 2018.
East African Community, n.d.
Nshimbi and Fioramonti, 2013.
UNCTAD, 2018.
UNODC, 2018.
IOM, 2019a.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 202063

migrants, such as those from Zimbabwe and Mozambique, moving to South Africa, as well as those fromoutside the subregion.30 Migrant smuggling networks have proliferated over the decades and have become
more organized and professionalized, as it has become increasingly difficult to cross borders in Southern
Africa.31 While a significant number of migrants smuggled into Southern Africa are from within the subregion,a large number also originate from outside Southern Africa, most notably from the Horn of Africa. Many
migrants often face significant vulnerability, with many experiencing violence and extortion.32
Environmental change and disasters in Eastern and Southern Africa are prevalent and increasing, andare influencing human movement and displacement. The subregion has faced increased variability inprecipitation and higher occurrence of drought in recent decades.33 These slow-onset environmental changes
have a major impact on food security, given that agriculture is a dominant economic sector in both Easternand Southern Africa.34 Droughts have become a regular occurrence in countries such as Somalia, and are amajor driver of displacement in the country. In 2018, there were a quarter of a million new displacements in
Somalia due to drought.35 In 2017, drought-related displacements reached more than 850,000 in Somalia.36
Drought conditions have been responsible for increased malnutrition, food scarcity and increased competition
for already limited resources, especially among farmers and pastoralists in the subregion; an estimated 1.2
million children in Somalia were acutely malnourished in 2017.37 Several countries in Southern Africa also
experienced significant displacement due to sudden-onset hazards. From January to June 2018, Eastern
Africa accounted for five of the most severe disaster events in the world.38 And in March 2019, Southern Africa
experienced two subsequent cyclones, Idai and Kenneth, which brought torrential rains and winds, leaving
a trail of destruction in Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi. Cyclone Idai, which made landfall in central
Mozambique, is considered one of the worst natural disasters to hit Southern Africa in decades.39 By April,
the cyclone had claimed almost 600 lives and displaced more than 130,000 people in Mozambique alone.40
Xenophobic attacks on migrants and the emergence of new armed groups in Southern Africa havecontributed to increased displacement in the subregion. Over the last 10 years, migrants in countries suchas South Africa have increasingly been subjected to violence, resulting in the destruction of property, injuries
and sometimes loss of life. Nationwide xenophobic attacks, such as those that took place in 2008, displaced
thousands of migrants and resulted in more than 60 deaths.41 More recently, xenophobic attacks in 2018
led to several deaths, looting and destruction of property belonging to foreign nationals; the violence has
extended into 2019 with more lives lost.42 Outbreaks of xenophobic violence are most common in South Africa’s
townships and other economically poor neighbourhoods, where residents often blame foreign nationals for

30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42

Maher, 2018.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Climate and Development Knowledge Network, 2014a.
Tierney, Ummenhofer and deMenocal, 2015; USAID, n.d.
IDMC, 2019.
IDMC, 2018a.
UN Environment, 2018a.
IDMC, 2018b.
UNICEF, 2019.
IOM, 2019b.
Landau, 2018.
Amnesty International, 2018.

64

Migration and migrants: Regional dimensions and developments

high rates of crime and job losses. In parts of the subregion, armed groups terrorizing communities continue
to cause displacement. In northern Mozambique, for example, an armed group known as Al-Sunna wa Jama’aremains a potent threat and has driven hundreds of people from their homes.43

West and Central Africa
Intraregional migration, which is significant in West and Central Africa, is characterized by migration
flows that are influenced by multiple drivers. While there are significant data deficits on movement, andaccurate numbers can be difficult to ascertain, recent estimates indicate that the majority of internationalmigrants in West and Central Africa move within the subregion.44 Intraregional migration dominates for several
reasons, including visa-free movement among the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)
members, the relatively small sizes of many countries in the subregion and the strong networks among themany ethnic groups scattered across the subregion.45 Importantly, intraregional migration within ECOWAS is
mostly due to labour mobility, with seasonal, temporary and permanent migrant workers moving largely fromcountries such as the Niger and Mali toward Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire.46 A large number of migrant workers
are in low-skilled sectors, including domestic work, informal trade and agriculture.47 In parts of West Africa,
agricultural labourers often move during the harvest period (July to September), as well as through the offseason harvest that runs until March.48 Some of the migrant workers are children, as is the case with the
movements between Côte d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso.49 Unlike West Africa, where environmental and economic
factors are important drivers of intraregional migration, conflict and instability have played a larger role indisplacement to neighbouring countries in Central Africa.50 However, labour migration is not absent in Central
Africa, with Gabon, for example, home to a large number of migrant workers from within Central Africa whowork in its oil and lumber industries.51
Irregular migration remains prevalent in West and Central Africa, although free movement agreementsin the subregion have been designed to facilitate migration and reduce irregularity. The use of
smugglers to cross borders even within free movement areas such as ECOWAS is not uncommon, particularly
in circumstances where people do not possess identity documents.52 It is important to emphasize, however,that most West Africans who are smuggled overland begin their journeys as regular migrants under the freemovement protocol and only violate immigration laws after exiting the ECOWAS area.53 Moreover, a numberof borders in West Africa are extremely porous, enabling unauthorized movements between countries, withseveral ECOWAS borders cutting across politically unstable and sparsely populated areas, which are alsocharacterized by security deficiencies.54 For many West and Central African migrants attempting to cross theMediterranean to reach Europe, the Niger is an important country of transit as well as a major smuggling

43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54

Human Rights Watch, 2018.
Adepoju, 2016.
Flahaux and de Haas, 2016.
Devillard, Bacchi and Noack, 2016.
UNCTAD, 2018.
ACAPS, 2018.
UNCTAD, 2018.
IOM, n.d.a.
Ibid.
Altai Consulting and IOM, 2015.
Carling, 2016.
Ibid.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 202065

hub.55 The Niger’s weak border management capacity has been exacerbated by an increase in attacks by armed
and extremist groups operating along the country’s borders. Most attacks, including from Boko Haram, havebeen concentrated in the Niger’s Diffa region, located in the south-east of the country, bordering Nigeria. The
violence has had a devastating impact on health services and education, and has driven thousands of people
from their homes.56
Conflict and violence linked to political upheavals, communal and ethnic tensions and Boko Haramextremism, have meant that most countries in West and Central Africa are affected by internal or crossborder displacement, although the magnitude varies dramatically. As with other subregions in Africa,
countries in West and Central Africa have long histories of hosting and producing displaced populations, often
simultaneously. The Democratic Republic of the Congo is one such example. At the end of 2018, it was home
to more than half a million refugees, while at the same time it was the country of origin of over 700,000
refugees, with 300,000 of them residing in Uganda and significant numbers in other neighbouring countries,
including Rwanda (77,000) and Burundi (71,000).57 The protracted nature of conflict in the Democratic
Republic of the Congo, which involves dozens of armed groups, has had a devastating effect on the country,
creating one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world. At the end of 2018, there were 3 million IDPs in
the country, the third highest number of people displaced as a result of violence and conflict globally (seechapter 2, figure 11).58 Meanwhile, with large swathes of the country controlled by armed groups, the civil war
in the Central African Republic was reignited in 2016 after a period of relative calm; the conflict spilled over
into 2017 and 2018, wreaking havoc and sending hundreds of thousands of people from their homes. Both the
Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Central African Republic ranked among the top 10 origin countriesof refugees in the world in 2018, with the Central African Republic producing nearly 600,000 refugees andmore than half a million conflict IDPs.59 The Boko Haram insurgency, which began in 2009 in Nigeria’s
northern State of Borno, combined with counter-insurgency operations and communal clashes over scarce
resources, have also led to significant displacement in the Lake Chad region. With more than 2.2 million IDPs,
Nigeria ranked among the top 10 countries with the highest number of people displaced due to conflict andviolence by end of 2018 (see chapter 2, figure 11).60 In the same year, there were more than 600,000 IDPs in
Cameroon and over 156,000 in the Niger.61 Some of the violence and displacement in West Africa is linked toconflict between pastoralists and farmers over land and resources, although these conflicts often have ethnic
and religious dimensions too.62
Environmental changes in West and Central Africa are impacting human livelihoods and mobility. For
example, although precipitation events in the Sahel63 are slowly increasing, they are becoming increasingly
unpredictable, leading to the frequent occurrence of droughts and floods.64 In the Niger, an estimated 40,000
disaster-related displacements were recorded at the end of 2018, while in Nigeria, there were around 600,000

55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63

Altai Consulting and IOM, 2015.
IFRC, 2018.
UNHCR, 2019a.
IDMC, 2019.
UNHCR, 2019a; IDMC, 2019.
IDMC, 2019.
Ibid.
UNOWAS, 2018.
The Sahel region is a semi-arid tropical savanna ecoregion spanning many countries in West and Central Africa, including Senegal,
Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, the Niger, Nigeria, Chad and Sudan.
64 Hummel, Doevenspeck and Samimi, 2012.

66

Migration and migrants: Regional dimensions and developments

displacements as a result of floods in the same year.65 At the same time, rapid population growth has led tothe intensification of cropping, deforestation and overgrazing, contributing to land degradation.66 Despite
an increase in the scale of agriculture in the subregion, food insecurity remains rampant.67 For example,
at the end of 2018, more than 3 million people were affected by food insecurity in the Lake Chad Basin.68
Millions of people in West and Central Africa depend on Lake Chad; however, the lake’s volume has decreased
by 90 per cent in area in the last 40 years, due to increased drought and human-related causes such asincreased irrigation withdrawals.69 The lake’s shrinkage has not only affected the livelihoods of millions
of people, but also impacted cattle transhumance, and is increasingly a source of tension and communal
conflict;70 moreover, the deterioration of living conditions, which has made it difficult for people living along
the lake to adapt to the harsher conditions, has created an ideal environment for armed groups to emerge.71
The complex and interconnected environmental changes – such as droughts and floods, overexploitation of
resources and climate change – are contributing factors to rural–urban and cyclical mobility within countries
and across borders in the subregion. Migration is one strategy used to increase livelihoods and reduce risks
in the Western Sahel, particularly in light of uncertain agricultural returns.72 Research has also highlighted
the interconnections between, on the one hand, impacts of climate change on natural-resource-dependent
livelihoods and food insecurity and, on the other hand, tensions, conflicts and mobility.73

North Africa
Migration of North Africans to Europe and Gulf States continues to be a defining feature of the
migration dynamics of the subregion, and one that has developed over several decades. Migration of
North Africans to countries outside of Africa has been, and continues to be, much higher than migration toother countries within the subregion and within Africa.74 Two distinct streams have characterized outflows
from North Africa: migrants from the north-west (such as Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia) have historically
moved to Europe, owing to their geographic proximity, previous labour recruitment agreements and postcolonial ties,75 while those from the north-east (such as Egypt and Sudan) have predominantly sought
temporary work in GCC countries. Large income disparities between the origin and destination countries, andthe high levels of unemployment in North Africa, remain significant drivers of migration. As of 2019, almost
12 million North Africans were living outside their countries of birth, with roughly half in Europe and 3.3
million living in Gulf States.76
In addition to being a major migrant transit area, North Africa also hosts notable populations ofinternational migrants, including refugees. Sudan had the largest number of international migrants in

65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76

IDMC, 2019.
Ibid.
UNEP, 2011.
European Commission, 2018a.
Gao et al., 2011.
UN Environment, 2018b.
Rudincova, 2017.
Hummel and Liehr, 2015.
UNEP, 2011.
Flahaux and de Haas, 2016.
Natter, 2014.
UN DESA, 2019a.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 202067

the subregion, over 1.2 million in 2019.77 Sudan was followed by Libya, with over 800,000. The number ofinternational migrants in Egypt increased from 300,000 in 2010 to more than 500,000 in 2019, with migrants
primarily originating from the Syrian Arab Republic, Somalia, Sudan and the Palestinian Territories.78 While
Morocco has traditionally been a country of emigration, it is increasingly becoming a destination country,
including of migrants from other subregions in Africa, who stay for an indeterminate period while looking fora way to cross over to Europe.79
Conflict and violence within North Africa, and in surrounding subregions, have contributed todisplacement. At the end of 2018, Sudan was the sixth largest country of origin of refugees globally, witharound 700,000 refugees, the majority of whom were hosted by the neighbouring countries of Chad, South
Sudan and Ethiopia.80 Sudan also had approximately 2.1 million IDPs due to conflict and violence.81 At thesame time, Sudan is also a prominent host country of refugees, with over 1 million refugees (this number morethan doubling since 2016), most of whom were from South Sudan, Eritrea and the Syrian Arab Republic.82
Algeria also hosted over 94,000 refugees by the end of 2018,83 while Egypt hosted over 240,000 refugees,
primarily originating from the Syrian Arab Republic, the Palestinian Territories and other African countries
and territories.84 A volatile security and political situation in Libya had contributed to a total populationof 221,000 IDPs by the end of 2018 (a drop from over 300,000 in 2016), while also affecting the more than
56,000 refugees and asylum seekers residing in Libya.85
As a key hub of transit activity for migrants originating from many countries to the south, the North
African subregion is confronted with protection challenges associated with irregular migration toEurope. In 2018, approximately 117,000 migrants arrived in Europe by sea.86 This is a significant dropcompared with 2017 (around 172,000) and 2016, when the number rose to 364,000.87 There has also been ashift in the routes taken by most irregular maritime migrants; while the majority from Africa who entered
Europe in 2016 and 2017 used the Central Mediterranean route (from Libya, mainly to Italy), most irregularmaritime arrivals to Europe in 2018 took the Western Mediterranean route (from Morocco, mainly to Spain).88
There were close to 59,000 sea arrivals in Spain, as opposed to around 23,000 in Italy.89 The change inmajor routes, from the Central to the Western Mediterranean, is linked to several factors, including closer
cooperation between the European Union (EU) and countries of origin and transit, counter smuggling efforts,
as well as increased maritime security patrols off the Libyan coast.90 Migrants from sub-Saharan Africancountries comprised the majority of irregular maritime arrivals in Spain, followed by Moroccans.91 People
who travelled the Central Mediterranean route to Italy were mostly Tunisian, followed by Eritreans, Iraqis,

77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91

Ibid.
Ibid.
Reifeld, 2015.
UNHCR, 2019a.
IDMC, 2019.
UNHCR, n.d.
UNHCR, 2019a.
Ibid.
IDMC, 2019, UNHCR, 2019a.
IOM, n.d.b. This includes arrivals to Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Malta and Spain.
Ibid.
Frontex, 2019; MacGregor, 2019.
IOM, n.d.b.
UNHCR, 2019b; Frontex, 2019; MacGregor, 2019.
UNHCR, 2019b.

68

Migration and migrants: Regional dimensions and developments

Sudanese and Pakistanis.92 From January to November 2018, an estimated 15 per cent of all irregular maritime
arrivals in Italy were unaccompanied children.93
There are sizeable migrant smuggling routes to, within and from North Africa, with smuggling
increasingly concentrated among a few organized criminal networks.94 With the help of smugglers,migrants from countries in sub-Saharan Africa, for example, often embark on highly dangerous journeys
to North Africa, including through the Sahara Desert.95 One of the main smuggling passageways includes
migrants moving from Somalia, Sudan and Ethiopia, towards Egypt and Israel.96 But as socioeconomic
conditions in Egypt have deteriorated in recent years, smugglers have turned increasingly to countries suchas Libya, which prior to 2011 was a significant destination for migrant workers and, more recently, has
become a major smuggling hub and the main departure point for migrants trying to get to Europe via theCentral Mediterranean route.97 The subregion continues to struggle with serious human rights violations andprotection challenges; many migrants in transit are exposed to sexual and gender-based violence, forced
labour, arbitrary detention, extortion and exploitation, among other abuses. This is especially the case in
Libya, where human smuggling often morphs into trafficking. In 2018, IOM assisted over 16,000 migrants
to return home after they had been detained or stranded in Libya,98 some at the hands of smugglers andtraffickers. The protracted civil conflict in Libya has created a climate of lawlessness, in addition to severely
weakening its institutions and crippling its economy.99

Asia100
Asia – home to around 4.6 billion people – was the origin of over 40 per cent of the world’s internationalmigrants in 2019 (111 million). More than half (66 million) were residing in other countries in Asia, asignificant increase from 2015, when around 61 million were estimated to be living within the continent. As
shown in the middle panel of figure 7, intraregional migration within Asia has increased significantly overtime, rising from 35 million in 1990. Considerable growth has also occurred in Asian-born migrant populationsin Northern America and Europe over the last two decades. In 2019, migration from Asia to Northern America
reached 17 million, rising from a little over 16 million in 2015, whereas in Europe, migration from Asia stoodat nearly 22 million in 2019. Migration from Asia to Northern America and Europe drove much of the increasein the number of Asian migrants outside the region, reaching a total of 44.6 million extra-regional migrants
in 2019, an 11 per cent increase from 40 million in 2015.
The number of non-Asian-born migrants in Asia has remained at relatively low levels since 1990. Europeanscomprise the largest group of migrants from outside Asia in the region. These numbers include migrants fromthe European part of the former Soviet Union now living in Central Asia. During the same period, the numberof Africans – the other sizable group of migrants in Asia – has grown.
92 Ibid.
93 Ibid.
94 UNODC, 2018.
95 Ibid.
96 İçduygu, 2018.
97 Ibid.
98 IOM, 2018b.
99 UNSMIL and OHCHR, 2018.
100 See appendix A for details on the composition of Asia.

69

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

Figure 7. Migrants to, within and from Asia, 1990–2019
Migrants to Asia

Migrants from Asia

Migrants within Asia

Migrant Stock (millions)

60

40

20

0
1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2019 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2019 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2019Year

RegionAfricaEuropeNorthern America

Asia

Latin America andthe Caribbean

Oceania

Source: UN DESA, 2019a.
Note:“Migrants to Asia” refers to migrants residing in the region (i.e. Asia) who were born in one of the other regions (e.g. Europe
or Africa). “Migrants within Asia” refers to migrants born in the region (i.e. Asia) and residing outside their country of birth,but still within the Asian region. “Migrants from Asia” refers to people born in Asia who were residing outside the region(e.g. in Europe or Northern America).

Several Asian countries have undergone substantial changes in the size of their populations in recent years.
These changes are shown in figure 8, which ranks the top 20 Asian countries with the largest proportional
population change from 2009 to 2019. Except the Syrian Arab Republic, all top 20 countries experienced
increases in their populations during this period. GCC countries, which are all represented among the top 20
countries, underwent some of the most significant population changes over the last decade. International

70

Migration and migrants: Regional dimensions and developments

migration has been a significant determinant of population change in Asia, and especially in GCC States,
which continue to be important destinations for migrant workers from within Asia and from outside theregion. As illustrated in figure 9, international migrants make up large proportions of national populationsin GCC States, with migrants in the United Arab Emirates, for example, accounting for 88 per cent of thecountry’s population.101

Figure 8. Top 20 countries with the largest proportional population change in Asia, 2009–2019
Oman
Qatar
Maldives
KuwaitJordanLebanonBahrain
Iraq
Afghanistan
Yemen
Saudi Arabia
Tajikistan
United Arab Emirates
Pakistan
Mongolia
Timor-Leste
Kyrgyzstan
Syrian Arab Republic
TurkmenistanIsrael
-40%

-20%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

Source: UN DESA, 2019c.
Note:

It is important to note that the largest proportional population changes from 2009 to 2019 were more likely to occur incountries with relatively smaller populations.

The two Asian “population giants”, India and China, have the largest absolute numbers of migrants living
abroad (figure 9). It is important to add that these large absolute numbers of emigrants constitute small
shares of the total populations of India and China. Migrants from China made up the third largest populationof foreign-born migrants in the world after India and Mexico. Nearly 3 million Chinese-born emigrants resided
in the United States, which was also home to other large Asian migrant groups from India, the Philippines
and Viet Nam. Other countries with large numbers of migrants residing abroad include Bangladesh and the
Syrian Arab Republic.
In GCC countries, migrants make up high proportions of the total national populations (figure 9). For example,
in 2019, migrants accounted for 88 per cent of the population in United Arab Emirates; 72 per cent in Kuwait;

101 UN DESA, 2019a.

71WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

nearly 79 per cent in Qatar; and 45 per cent in Bahrain.102 Many migrants came from Africa, South Asia
(for example, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal), and South-East Asia (for example, Indonesia and thePhilippines).
It is also important to note that current data on foreign-born migrants also partly reflect significant historicalevents, such as the 1947 Partition, resulting in the mass displacement of people from and to India andPakistan. This is evident in 2019 data, which show that over 5 million and 3 million foreign-born migrants,
respectively, resided in the two countries.

Figure 9. Top 20 Asian migrant countries in 2019
Migrants(millions)

Percentage of
population

India
Saudi Arabia
China
Bangladesh
Pakistan
TurkeySyrian Arab Republic
United Arab Emirates
Kazakhstan
Philippines

Immigrant

Afghanistan

Emigrant

Malaysia
Indonesia
ThailandJordanIran (Islamic Republic of)
MyanmarRepublic of Korea
Japan
Kuwait

10

0

10

50

0

50

Source: UN DESA, 2019a.
Note 1: The population size used to calculate the percentage of immigrants and emigrants is based on the UN DESA total resident
population of the country, which includes foreign-born populations.
Note 2: “Immigrant” refers to foreign-born migrants residing in the country. “Emigrant” refers to people born in the country whowere residing outside their country of birth in 2019.

102 UN DESA, 2019a.

72

Migration and migrants: Regional dimensions and developments

Figure 10 shows the top 20 migration corridors from Asian countries, with a little over half of them – 13 of 20 –occurring within the region. These migration corridors represent an accumulation of migratory movements
over time and provide a snapshot of how migration patterns have evolved into significant foreign-born
populations in specific destination countries. The largest corridor is from the Syrian Arab Republic to Turkey,
where over 3.7 million Syrians were residing in 2019. This is a change from 2015 and 2017 when the largest
corridor in Asia was India to the United Arab Emirates.

Figure 10. Top 20 migration corridors from Asian countries, 2019
Syrian Arab Republic Turkey
India United Arab Emirates
Bangladesh India
China United States of America
India United States of America
Kazakhstan Russian Federation
Russian Federation Kazakhstan
India Saudi Arabia
Afghanistan Iran (Islamic Republic of)Philippines United States of America
Myanmar Thailand
Indonesia Saudi Arabia
Afghanistan Pakistan
India Pakistan
Turkey Germany
Pakistan Saudi Arabia
Viet Nam United States of America
India Oman
Bangladesh Saudi Arabia
Indonesia Malaysia

Migrants placeof residence
Asia
EuropeNorthern
America

0

1

2

3

Migrants (millions)
Source: UN DESA, 2019a.
Note:

Corridors represent an accumulation of migratory movements over time and provide a snapshot of how migration patterns
have evolved into significant foreign-born populations in specific destination countries.

73

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

International displacement within and from Asia is a major feature of the region, as shown in figure 11. The
Syrian Arab Republic and Afghanistan were the top origin countries of refugees in the world. The impact of
the Syrian conflict on displacement can be clearly seen in figure 11, with refugees and asylum seekers fromthe Syrian Arab Republic dwarfing numbers from Afghanistan. In 2018, the vast majority of refugees from
Asian countries lived in neighbouring countries. Refugees from the Syrian Arab Republic, for example, werepredominantly hosted in Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, while refugees from Afghanistan, whose size grewfrom 2.6 million in 2017 to 2.7 million in 2018 (mostly due to births during the year), were largely hosted inPakistan and the Islamic Republic of Iran. Due to violence against and persecution of the Rohingya, Myanmar
produced the third largest refugee population in the region and the fourth largest in the world in 2018, withmost refugees hosted in Bangladesh. As shown in figure 11, it is also important to note that origin countries
such as Pakistan, the Islamic Republic of Iran and Iraq are also themselves hosting refugees.

Figure 11. Top 10 Asian countries by total refugees and asylum seekers, 2018
Syrian Arab RepublicTurkeyAfghanistan

Location:

Pakistan

HostedIran (Islamic Republic of)

AbroadStatus:MyanmarRefugees
Bangladesh
Asylum seekers
Lebanon

Iraq

Jordan
5

2.5

0

2.5

Persons (millions)

Source: UNHCR, n.d.
Note:

“Hosted” refers to those refugees and asylum seekers from other countries who are residing in the receiving country (righthand side of the figure); “abroad” refers to refugees and asylum seekers originating from that country who are outside of
their origin country. The top 10 countries are based on 2018 data and are calculated by combining refugees and asylum
seekers in and from countries.

74

Migration and migrants: Regional dimensions and developments

The largest new internal displacements in Asia resulted from disasters (figure 12). The Philippines, which had
3.8 million new disaster displacements at end of 2018, recorded the largest number globally. The disasters
that triggered displacement included volcanic eruptions, and flooding caused by monsoons and landslides.
With around 3.7 million displacements, China recorded nearly as many new disaster displacements as thePhilippines. China was followed by India (2.7 million) and Indonesia (853,000). Conflict also contributed toa large number of new internal displacements in Asia, with the Syrian Arab Republic recording the largest
number (1.6 million), around 9 per cent of its population. Other countries where conflict led to significant
internal displacement included Afghanistan (372,000), Yemen (252,000) and the Philippines (188,000).

Figure 12. Top Asian countries by new internal displacements (disaster and conflict), 2018
Millions

Percentage of population

Philippines
China
India
Syrian Arab Republic
Indonesia
Afghanistan
MyanmarDisaster

Yemen
Iraq
Japan

Conﬂict

Viet Nam
Sri Lanka
Bangladesh
Iran (Islamic Republic of)
Democratic People's
Republic of Korea
Malaysia
Cambodia
Lao People's Democratic Republic
Nepal
3

2

1

0

1

2

0

2

4

6

8

Source: IDMC, n.d.; UN DESA, 2017.
Notes: New displacements refers to the number of displacement movements that occurred in 2018, not the total accumulated
stock of IDPs resulting from displacement over time. New displacement figures include individuals who have been displaced
more than once and do not correspond to the number of people displaced during the year.
The population size used to calculate the percentage of new disaster and conflict displacements is based on the total
resident population of the country per 2017 UN DESA population estimates, and the percentage is for relative illustrative
purposes only.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 202075

Key features and developments in Asia
South-East Asia
For many countries in South-East Asia, migration entails significant levels of both emigration andimmigration, as well as transit migration. Considerable income disparity in the subregion is a major factor
underpinning the strong trend of people to migrate from lower-income countries to higher-income countries
within (and beyond) the subregion. There are a little more than 10 million international migrants within
the subregion and just over 21.8 million total migrants from the subregion, 6.8 million of whom migrated
to other countries within South-East Asia.103 The advanced economies of Malaysia and Singapore are notable
destinations for migrants. The efforts of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) toward greater
regional integration have contributed to increased intraregional migration. There is also a strong geographic
aspect to migration, with higher levels of migration occurring between countries sharing borders, particularly
along Thailand’s border with neighbours Cambodia, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic and Myanmar.104
Intraregional, long-term migration corridors are evident, which are mainly dominated by temporary labour
migration, with smaller components of permanent (skilled and family) migration, student migration andforced migration.105
Labour migration, a prominent feature in South-East Asia and a key driver of economic growth anddevelopment, is also associated with inconsistent human rights practices. Labour migrants have long
been integral to the economies of major destination countries within the subregion – such as Malaysia,
Singapore and Thailand – where they help fill gaps in labour markets. This is especially the case for lowerskilled sectors such as fisheries, domestic work and construction.106 Meanwhile, the prospects for employment
and higher wages often compel people from countries such as the Philippines and Indonesia to move to more
prosperous economies within the subregion.107 Many migrants send significant shares of their earnings to theirfamilies back home, with the Philippines, for example, consistently ranking among the largest remittancerecipient countries in the world. In 2018, the Philippines, whose international remittance inflows amounted
to USD 34 billion, was the fourth largest remittance recipient globally after India, China and Mexico.108 But
even as labour migration has helped relieve labour shortages in destination countries, many labour migrants
continue to face exploitative conditions. Workers employed in low-skilled, labour-intensive sectors, regardlessof their legal status, are most affected, with wage-related abuse the most common.109 Many labour migrants
are required to work extremely long hours for below minimum wages, a consequence of inadequate protection
afforded to labour migrants during both recruitment and employment.110

103 UN DESA, 2019a.
104 Hugo, 2014; Hatsukano, 2015.
105 Hugo, 2014.
106 Harkins, Lindgren and Suravoranon, 2017.
107 Pholphirul, 2018.
108 World Bank, 2019a.
109 Harkins, Lindgren and Suravoranon, 2017.
110 Ibid.

76

Migration and migrants: Regional dimensions and developments

Migration involves high proportions of irregular migration, mostly in relation to economic factors
such as poverty and lack of employment. Irregular migration flows such as those from Cambodia and theLao People’s Democratic Republic to destinations including Thailand and Malaysia are often facilitated bysmugglers. Smugglers also play a significant role in irregular migration out of the subregion, with Vietnamese
migrants moving to Europe, for example, often using smugglers to reach their destinations.111 Mixed migration
flows exist (involving movements of people with and without international protection needs), as do migration
flows underpinned by mixed motivations. Many migrants face exploitation in South-East Asia, stemmingfrom their irregular status. Migrant workers in particular industries also face forced labour, exploitationand serious abuse (for example, in the fishing, agriculture, construction and manufacturing industries).112
In addition to smuggling, trafficking of persons continues to be a challenge in South-East Asia, with nearly
half of all victims in Asia (46%) trafficked within the subregion.113 Large numbers of people are trafficked forboth sexual exploitation and forced labour, with a larger share of females trafficked for sexual exploitation in
2016.114 Countries such as Malaysia and Thailand had more victims of forced labour than sexual exploitationin 2016.115
There has been an increase in displacement in the subregion due to violence, systemic persecution andmarginalization. The Rohingya refugee situation is the most acute, and remains one of the most complex
refugee crises in the world. By end of 2018, there were over 900,000 Rohingya in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh,and more than 1 million people in need of humanitarian assistance.116 The Kutupalong-Balukhali site in Cox’s
Bazar continues to be the biggest and most densely populated refugee settlement in the world; refugees
from Myanmar accounted for the fourth largest refugee population in the world in 2018.117 Due to a surge intargeted killings and human rights abuses in August 2017, a significant number of Rohingya were displaced
from Myanmar’s Rakhine State, the majority seeking protection in Bangladesh. While this was not the firsttime that Rohingya fled Myanmar as a result of violence, the August 2017 violence prompted one of thelargest waves of displacement in decades. Meanwhile, within South-East Asia, Malaysia continued a long-term
trend of hosting a large population of refugees and people in refugee-like situations (over 120,000 in 2018),
mainly as a result of displacement caused by civil conflict in Myanmar over many years.118 Resettlement ofrefugees from the subregion is mainly undertaken by “traditional” resettlement countries (such as the UnitedStates, Canada and Australia), and there is little by way of “protection infrastructure” within the subregion.119
There are also large populations of IDPs and stateless populations in the subregion, with eight countries inthe subregion hosting stateless populations (the largest of which is in Myanmar, which hosted more than
600,000 at end of 2018).120

111 UNODC, 2018.
112 Gois, 2015.
113 IOM, n.d.c.
114 UNODC, 2018.
115 Ibid.
116 IOM, 2018c.
117 UNHCR, 2019a.
118 Ibid.
119 McAuliffe, 2016. “Protection infrastructure” encompasses domestic law, national policies as well as administrative practices onprotection; see Sitaropoulos, 2000.
120 Southwick, 2015; UNHCR, 2019a.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

77

Southern Asia
Migration from Southern Asia to other subregions is a key feature, with many temporary migrant
workers in the GCC countries originating from this subregion. The prospects of higher wages andaccessible employment opportunities have resulted in a significant increase in the number of people leaving
the subregion in recent years.121 For countries in the subregion with significant labour surpluses, migration
has relieved labour pressures, while helping to reduce poverty through remittances. Accordingly, Southern
Asia is among the largest recipients of remittances in the world. In 2018, remittance inflows to India amounted
to USD 79 billion, the largest in the world; and in countries such as Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh,
remittances exceeded 5 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) in the same year.122
Migration within the subregion is a dominant feature in Southern Asia, driven by economic and labour
market differentials.123 Intraregional movement, both regular and irregular, is related to strong common
historical roots, geographic proximity, and cultural and kinship ties between countries.124 In 2019, just under
80 per cent of the 14 million international migrants in Southern Asia originated from other countries in thesubregion.125 Major migration corridors include Bangladesh–India, Afghanistan–Pakistan, India–Pakistan and
Nepal–India; however, it is important to note that these corridors are all quite distinct, reflecting a rangeof historical and contemporary economic, security and cultural factors. There are millions of Bangladeshi
and Nepalese labour migrants currently working in India, for example, primarily in the informal sector as
construction labourers and domestic workers, whereas the India–Pakistan corridor in part reflects the mass
displacement following the 1947 Partition of India and Pakistan.126 Further, many of the 3.9 million Afghaninternational migrants who reside in the subregion (primarily in the Islamic Republic of Iran and Pakistan)
have been displaced across borders due to conflict and violence within Afghanistan that has waxed and waned
since the 1970s.127 Internal migration within the countries of South Asia is extensive and larger in scale thaninternational migration, related primarily to temporary and seasonal migration from rural to urban areas.128
From 2001 to 2011, Southern Asia’s urban population grew by 130 million people.129 However, while rural–
urban migration has contributed to this growth, it has largely been driven by the reclassification of rural
settlement and natural population increase.130

121 Doherty et al., 2014.
122 World Bank, 2019a.
123 Srivastava and Pandey, 2017.
124 Ibid.
125 UN DESA, 2019a.
126 Srivastava and Pandey, 2017.
127 Schmeidl, 2016; UNHCR, 2016.
128 Ibid.
129 Ellis and Roberts, 2016.
130 Ibid.

78

Migration and migrants: Regional dimensions and developments

Irregular migration both within and from the subregion is common in Southern Asia, and is often aided
by loose smuggling networks. While the exact number of people undertaking irregular migration within thesubregion is not known, there are estimated to be large irregular migrant populations within the subregion.131
India, for example, is home to significant populations of irregular migrants from Bangladesh, Nepal and, toa lesser extent, Sri Lanka.132 Regions including Europe, Northern America and Oceania are among the most
preferred destinations of irregular migrants from Southern Asia.133 Socioeconomic and insecurity factors incountries of origin, in addition to better wages and employment opportunities in destination countries, areamong the factors associated with irregular migration and migrant smuggling.134 Migrants from Southern
Asia heading to Western Europe are primarily smuggled through Central Asia and the Russian Federation, as
well as through the Middle East into the Western Balkans.135 Other irregular migrants are smuggled throughto Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia for work.136 There have been many documented cases of migrants being
exploited and abused by smugglers in Southern Asia.137 Trafficking of persons remains a serious concern
in Southern Asia, although data and information for many countries in the subregion are scarce. A 2018
UNODC report estimates that nearly 60 per cent of victims of trafficking detected in the subregion in 2016
were female, based on information available for four countries, including Bangladesh, Maldives, Nepal andPakistan.138 In Nepal, there were more child victims than adult victims.139
Long-standing conflict, political instability, violence and repression have made Southern Asia asignificant source of displacement; the subregion also hosts significant populations of displaced
persons. In recent history, every country in the subregion (other than Maldives) has been an origin or ahost of displaced populations. Most notably, at the end of 2018, there were 2.7 million Afghan refugees, thesecond largest refugee population in the world after the Syrian Arab Republic, and 2.6 million Afghan IDPs.140
The neighbouring countries of Pakistan and the Islamic Republic of Iran hosted the most Afghan refugees
and, accordingly, featured among the top host countries in the world.141 Pakistan, with its porous border andclose ethnic, linguistic, religious and economic ties, has been the major host for decades, with around 1.4
million refugees at the end of 2018, almost exclusively Afghans;142 around 60,000 refugees were repatriated to
Afghanistan in 2017, most of them from Pakistan.143 At the end of 2018, the Islamic Republic of Iran hosted
close to 1 million refugees,144 making it the sixth largest refugee host country in the world, while both India
and Bangladesh continued to host large IDP populations.145

131 Srivastava and Pandey, 2017.
132 Jayasuriya and Sunam, 2016.
133 McAuliffe and Jayasuriya, 2016.
134 Ibid.
135 Sengupta, 2018.
136 Gallagher and McAuliffe, 2016.
137 UNODC, 2018.
138 Ibid.
139 Ibid.
140 UNHCR, 2019a; IDMC, 2019.
141 UNHCR, 2019a.
142 Ibid.
143 IOM and UNHCR, 2018.
144 UNHCR, 2019a.
145 IDMC, 2019. For internal displacement more generally, see also the IOM Displacement Tracking Matrix, particularly for Afghanistan,
India, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

79

Southern Asian populations are particularly vulnerable to slow-onset and rapid-onset disasters related
to natural hazards and climate change. Except for Afghanistan, where conflict and violence played a largerrole in driving people from their homes, disasters were responsible for most displacements in Southern Asia
in 2018.146 There were an estimated 3.3 million new displacements in Southern Asia due to sudden-onset
hazards in 2018, with most of those affected in India, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Relative toits population size, Southern Asia has the highest number of people at risk of displacement as a result of
sudden-onset hazards, with Bangladesh, India and Pakistan having the highest disaster risk.147 India bore
most of the brunt of the disasters in the subregion, with more than 2.7 million displacements as a result of
tropical storms and floods.148 Afghanistan had the second highest number of disaster displacements in thesubregion, with 371,000 new displacements, mostly due to drought conditions. Thousands of people were also
displaced in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh as a result of monsoons.149 The scale of disaster-related destruction
and displacement in Southern Asia in recent years has in part been attributed to poor planning and lackof preparedness in the subregion.150 Migration and mobility are particularly important coping strategies in
response to environmental change events in Southern Asia – including sea-level rise, coastal erosion, flooding
and groundwater depletion – all of which pose considerable challenges in the subregion.151

Eastern Asia
Eastern Asia is undergoing significant demographic change, with several countries experiencing low
fertility rates and ageing populations, leading to revisions of immigration policies. Countries such as
Japan are already experiencing negative population growth, while the Republic of Korea’s fertility rate is well
below the replacement rate of 2.1 required to sustain a population.152 In 2019, Japan had the lowest potential
support ratio in the world (the number of workers per retiree) and, along with China, was among the top
10 most populous countries with fertility rates that are below replacement.153 These demographic changes
have far-reaching implications for public debt, the welfare state and labour markets. Japan, for example, isgrappling with an acute labour shortage.154 These realities are prompting policymakers to reassess historically
restrictive approaches toward immigration, which have been associated with a relatively high degree ofcultural homogeneity in some countries, more limited experience in immigration policy compared with otherregions and subregions, and the relative unpopularity of immigration in many countries.155

146 IDMC, 2019.
147 Ibid.
148 Ibid.
149 Ibid.
150 IDMC, 2018a.
151 Climate and Development Knowledge Network, 2014b. See also Ionesco, Mokhnacheva and Gemenne, 2017.
152 UN DESA, 2019c.
153 Ibid.
154 Nye, 2019.
155 Staedicke, Batalova and Zong, 2016.

80

Migration and migrants: Regional dimensions and developments

As key Eastern Asian countries experience declines in their populations, several countries have passed
new immigration laws or implemented programmes meant to attract foreign workers. In December
2018, Japan’s Parliament approved a new immigration law easing restrictions on foreign workers in industries
facing labour shortages, with the changes expected to bring in more than 300,000 workers.156 Recent changes
to Japan’s immigration laws are also partly a response to the surge in demand for workers in areas suchas construction, as the country prepares to host the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.157 Meanwhile, through the
Employment Permit System, which allows inflows of foreign workers from partner Asian countries158 that havesigned memorandums of understanding, the Republic of Korea is expected to accept 56,000 foreign workers
in 2019, in an effort to address labour shortages.159 China, primarily a country of origin of migrant workers,
has also recently sought to attract workers in high-skilled and low-skilled sectors, both through changing its
immigration policies and signing bilateral agreements. Attracting an increasing number of foreign workers
is not only designed to address skills gaps, but is also part of the country’s efforts towards more economic
openness and inclusiveness. In 2018, for example, China relaxed its visa requirements for professionals
and high-skilled workers, in a bid to attract top foreign talent160 to join an economy that is graduallytransitioning from manufacturing to services. In the same year, the country established, for the first time, theState Immigration Administration. The new immigration bureau is a response to both a growing number ofinternational migrants in China and the need to streamline and better manage immigration.161 Additionally,
China and the Philippines signed an agreement in 2018 that will allow 300,000 Filipino workers, including
100,000 English language teachers, to work in China.162
Migration in Eastern Asia is increasingly characterized by significant outward and inward student
mobility. The number of international students from Eastern Asia, particularly at the tertiary level, has
increased rapidly in recent years, while the number of foreign students within the subregion also continues
to grow. Driven by the prospect of better-quality education, a high number of international students from
Eastern Asia study in destinations such as the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. China continued
to a major source of international students globally in 2018, with over half a million of its students embarking
on further studies abroad, an increase of more than 8 per cent from 2017.163 However, Eastern Asia is not only
a major origin of international students, it is also gradually becoming an important destination for foreign
students, many of them coming from within the subregion. The number of international students at higher
education institutions in China was over 490,000 in 2018.164 Students from the Republic of Korea accounted
for the largest number of international students in China in 2018.165 They were followed by students fromThailand, Pakistan and India.166

156 McCurry, 2019; BBC, 2018.
157 Tian and Chung, 2018.
158 The Employment Permit System partner countries as of 2019 include Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Timor-Leste, Indonesia,
Kyrgyzstan, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, the Philippines, Uzbekistan
and Viet Nam.
159 Ju-Young, 2018.
160 Ning, 2018.
161 The State Council, the People's Republic of China, 2018.
162 Jennings, 2018.
163 Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China, 2019a; Shuo, 2019.
164 Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China, 2019b.
165 Ibid.
166 Ibid.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 202081

Outward labour migration, particularly from China, has meant that the subregion is one of the largest
recipients of international remittances in the world. In 2019, Chinese-born international migrants were
the third largest foreign-born population in the world after Indians and Mexicans, with nearly 11 million
Chinese migrants living outside of China.167 Global remittance flows in 2018 amounted to nearly USD 690
billion, with China receiving over USD 67 billion, the second largest share of international remittances
worldwide after India.168
While this chapter is focused primarily on international migration, it is important to note that, in
this context, internal migration has been a significant feature in Eastern Asian countries, involving
unprecedented movement of people from rural areas to urban centres. While the pace of urbanization has
slowed and even decreased in parts of the continent such as Western Asia, Eastern Asia has undergone one of
the fastest rates of urbanization over the last few decades.169 By 2015, the share of urban population in thesubregion had risen to 60 per cent, more than tripling since 1950.170 This has most notably been the case in
China, where the economic and social reforms of the 1980s initiated one of the largest human migrations inhistory. Among the reforms was the relaxation of the Hukou system, devised to record and control internalmigration, which tied people’s access to services to their residential status. As a result, hundreds of millions
of workers, driven by the prospect of employment and higher wages, left the countryside for the cities, wheremost economic activities were concentrated and in demand of both unskilled and skilled labour migrants.171
Most people have migrated from China’s western provinces to its eastern provinces. The socioeconomic
dynamics between western and eastern China are important factors, with the west characterized by highpopulation growth rates, a surplus of workers and lower incomes, while the east contends with a shortage ofworkers in metropolitan areas and records both higher incomes and higher education levels.172
A recent new (atypical) feature in Eastern Asia’s migration dynamics was the arrival of hundreds ofasylum seekers from countries ravaged by conflict and violence. In 2018, over 500 Yemeni asylum seekers
arrived on the Republic of Korea’s Jeju Island, gaining entry through the Island’s visa-free policy designed to
attract tourists.173 The arrival of Yemenis generated intense public debate and some anti-immigrant sentiment,
in a country where asylum applications have historically been low. The Republic of Korea has not previously
been much of a destination country for those seeking protection (except those from the Democratic People’s
Republic of Korea).174 By the end of 2017, China and the Republic of Korea had around 600 and nearly 20,000
asylum seekers, respectively.175

167 UN DESA, 2019a.
168 World Bank, 2019a.
169 UN DESA, 2018.
170 Ibid.
171 Hu, 2012; Qin et al., 2016.
172 Hugo, 2015.
173 Kwon, 2019.
174 People from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea who move to the Republic of Korea seeking protection are not consideredasylum seekers, but are recognized as citizens under the Republic of Korea’s Constitution.
175 UNHCR, 2019a.

82

Migration and migrants: Regional dimensions and developments

Central Asia
Migratory movements in Central Asia occur in large part out of the subregion, and most noticeably
northward to the Russian Federation. In 2019, for example, there were just under 5 million migrants bornin Central Asia who were living in the Russian Federation.176 With significantly higher wages and better
employment opportunities,177 the Russian Federation has long been a leading destination for labour migrants
from Central Asia.178 For people in rural Kyrgyzstan, for example, labour migration has become a livelihood
strategy, with many Kyrgyz migrant workers seeking employment in the Russian Federation, with provinces
such as Siberia becoming increasingly popular.179 The Russian Federation is also attractive because of thelarge number of Kyrgyz who are already well-established in the country and provide assistance in termsof finding suitable accommodation and work for new arrivals.180 But not all migrants from Central Asia to
the Russian Federation are low-skilled labour migrants; migrants from Kazakhstan, for example, are largely
composed of students and highly skilled professionals.181 People from Central Asia also migrate to other partsof Europe and China, where work and family ties are relatively strong. An increasing number of Central Asians
are also moving to destinations such as Turkey and the Republic of Korea to find work; movements to the
Republic of Korea have been facilitated by bilateral labour agreements with countries such as Uzbekistan andKyrgyzstan.182
Intraregional migration is a key feature in the subregion and is underpinned by geographic, cultural,
economic, political and social links that are historical in nature. Central Asia is home to millions ofinternational migrants, mainly from within the subregion, but also from further afield. Migrants primarily
originate from countries of the former Soviet Union, many of which are current members of the Commonwealthof Independent States.183 In 2019, Kazakhstan, for example, had a substantial foreign-born population(3.7 million), of whom 2.4 million were born in the Russian Federation.184 Kazakhstan is now predominantly
a country of transit and of immigration, attracting skilled workers from various countries and, increasingly,
becoming a destination for low-skilled migrant workers from Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. In
recent years, Central Asian countries have revised policies regulating intraregional migration, including
through the conclusion of bilateral agreements on entry and readmission.185 For example, the establishmentof the Eurasian Economic Union in 2015 has allowed people from its member States – including Kazakhstan
and Kyrgyzstan – to move freely to live, work and study in other member States of the Union.186 Further
cooperation is currently occurring in the region on enhancing the management of mixed flows, including on
aspects related to border management, migrants’ rights and protection, and irregular migration.187 There is a
growing recognition of the importance of undertaking proactive migration policies and programmes in order

176 UN DESA, 2019a.
177 Sengupta, 2018.
178 Turaeva, 2018.
179 Sengupta, 2018.
180 Ibid.
181 Nikiforova and Brednikova, 2018.
182 Eurasianet, 2019; Matusevich, 2019.
183 Ibid.
184 UN DESA, 2019a.
185 OSCE, 2016.
186 Eurasian Economic Union, n.d.
187 IOM, 2016a.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 202083

to protect the rights and dignity of migrants, as well as their families and communities. Both male and femalemigrant workers from Central Asia can be vulnerable to exploitation and abuse, particularly within informal
employment, such as construction, agricultural and domestic work.188
International remittances play an important role in Central Asian economies, especially for the lessdeveloped countries in the subregion. Two of the world’s top 10 remittance-receiving countries relative
to GDP are in the subregion – Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.189 In Kyrgyzstan, remittances have been estimatedto reduce the national poverty rate by 6–7 per cent.190 Remittance flows into Central Asian countries largely
reflect migration patterns within and from the subregion, which are closely linked to work and income
generation. Remittances from the Russian Federation, for example, have been substantial over time, aided
by the relatively low transfer costs from the Russian Federation to the Central Asian countries. After a few
years of consecutive decline, driven by economic slowdown and policy changes in the Russian Federation,
remittances to Europe and Central Asia bounced back in 2017, growing by 21 per cent and reaching USD 48
billion in 2017.191 This figure further increased to USD 59 billion in 2018.192 Among the factors behind thisgrowth was the continued recovery of economic activity in the Russian Federation.193
Irregular migration is a feature in Central Asia, although exact numbers are difficult to ascertain.
Irregular migrants come from both within and outside the subregion, with those transiting through Central
Asia often moving toward Western Europe. Most migrants’ first points of entry are Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan
before being smuggled through Kazakhstan and the Russian Federation to Western Europe.194 Factors suchas weak border management, combined with isolated borders, have contributed to irregular migration acrossthe subregion.195 Migrant smuggling in Central Asia is a complex process, and involves both formal andinformal arrangements at various border points within the subregion, as well as transborder activities that
help facilitate the movement of people beyond Central Asia.196

Middle East
Gulf countries have some of the largest numbers of temporary labour migrants in the world. Driven
by oil wealth, GCC countries have undergone remarkable economic development over the last few decades,
drawing both skilled and semi-skilled workers to various sectors, including construction and maintenance,
retail and domestic service. In countries such as Qatar, the recent increased demand for workers in areas
such as construction is partly driven by the country’s preparation for the 2022 World Cup.197 The increasein labour migration to GCC States has created tremendous demographic change. In 2019, migrants madeup the majority of the population in half of the GCC countries – comprising 88 per cent of the population

188 IOM, 2016b.
189 World Bank, 2019a.
190 UNDP, n.d.
191 World Bank, 2018a, 2018b.
192 World Bank, 2019a.
193 Ibid.
194 Sengupta, 2018.
195 Ibid.
196 Ibid.
197 Buckley et al., 2016.

84

Migration and migrants: Regional dimensions and developmentsin the United Arab Emirates, around 79 per cent in Qatar and 72 per cent in Kuwait.198 Labour migrants in
GCC countries primarily originate from Asia and Africa. Income differentials between origin and destination
countries are a key driver of migration, with the Gulf countries providing higher wages and employment
opportunities to labour migrants.199 Despite some progress, regulation and protection of migrants’ rights
remain a challenge in the subregion. The Kafala sponsorship system,200 which ties migrant workers to theiremployers and is practised across a number of GCC States, has come under scrutiny. Although several Gulf
States have implemented reforms to the Kafala system, the changes have been minimal and have had little
positive effect on migrants.201 The sponsorship system remains widespread and continues to contribute to thevulnerability of labour migrants in the Gulf, including to conditions of forced labour and wage exploitation.202
Civil conflict, intensification of sectarian violence and the proliferation of terrorism (particularly byDaesh) have resulted in extensive levels of internal and international displacement in the subregion
in recent years. Two countries in the subregion – the Syrian Arab Republic and Yemen – are facing “level 3”
emergencies (the global humanitarian system’s classification for the most severe, large-scale humanitariancrises) and are key contributors to the world’s total displacement figures.203 The conflict in the Syrian Arab
Republic, occurring now for over seven years, has displaced well over half of the country’s population, withover 6.6 million refugees and over 6.1 million IDPs, and had produced close to 140,000 asylum seekers
by the end of 2018.204 Successive waves of displacement in Iraq – a feature since the beginning of the
century – continued and intensified in 2016 and into 2017. This occurred in the context of efforts to retake
territory and counter Daesh. While over 1.9 million Iraqis remained internally displaced by end of 2018, thiswas the first time in nearly over four years that this number fell to under 2 million.205 A growing number of
Iraqis have also returned home, as Daesh has increasingly been pushed back and lost territory in both Iraq andin the Syrian Arab Republic; the militant group has lost more than 90 per cent of the territory it controlled inboth countries.206 Yemen’s political and security situation continued to deteriorate, and the ensuing violenceand volatility left the country with over 2.3 million IDPs at the end of 2018.207 By the end of 2018, more than
8 per cent of Yemen’s population had been internally displaced.
The Middle East continues to host a significant share of the world’s refugees. At the end of 2018, theMiddle East subregion hosted the largest number of refugees globally, including the refugees registered with
the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).208 Neighbouring
countries inevitably share a disproportionate burden when it comes to hosting people seeking refuge inother countries, and this dynamic is a key feature of contemporary displacement patterns in the subregion.
As countries bordering the Syrian Arab Republic and the principal hosts of Syrian refugees, Turkey, Lebanon

198 UN DESA, 2019a.
199 Jacobsen and Valenta, 2016.
200 “The Kafala system restricts family reuniﬁcation for unskilled migrants, ties them to a single employer, disallows them from marrying
locals, and enforces other restrictions on rights and movements so that migrants stay as transient workers in the Gulf countries”(Rahman, 2013).
201 Diop, Johnston and Le, 2018.
202 Ibid.
203 OCHA, n.d.
204 UNHCR, 2019a; IDMC, 2019.
205 IDMC, 2019; IOM, 2018d.
206 Seligman, 2018.
207 IDMC, 2019.
208 UNHCR, 2019b.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 202085

and Jordan were all among the top 10 host countries in the world in 2018 (Turkey is 1st, Lebanon 7th andJordan 10th).209 The depth of their responsibility is particularly apparent when the number of refugees ineach country is compared against the national population – in Lebanon, there were 156 refugees per 1,000
inhabitants; in Jordan, 72 per 1,000; and in Turkey, 45 per 1,000.210 Other countries in the subregion,
including those affected by conflict, also host many refugees, including Yemen and Iraq, and even the Syrian
Arab Republic.211 The almost 5.5 million refugees registered with UNWRA are also located in the subregion.212
Irregular migration within and from the subregion continues to pose challenges for migrants andStates. Political instability and protracted conflicts in the Middle East are major drivers of irregular migrationand migrant smuggling in the subregion.213 Most smuggled migrants in the subregion are people escaping
conflict and violence. Migrant smuggling and irregular migration often go hand in hand with refugee andasylum movements.214 As conflicts have proliferated across the subregion, so has the number of smuggled
migrants and countries affected by smuggling networks. Moreover, smuggling networks have become a lot
more diversified and complex.215 The very large numbers of Syrian refugees hosted in neighbouring countries,
together with the protracted conflict and the low probability of return to the Syrian Arab Republic, have seen
refugees undertaking irregular migration onward to other countries, most notably those in Europe via theEastern Mediterranean route.

Europe216
Over 82 million international migrants lived in Europe in 2019, an increase of nearly 10 per cent since 2015,
when 75 million international migrants resided in the region. A little over half of these (42 million) wereborn in Europe but were living elsewhere in the region; while this number has only moderately increased
since 2015, it was much lower in 1990, at around 28 million (figure 13). From 2015 to 2019, the populationof non-European migrants in Europe increased from a little over 35 million to around 38 million.
In 1990, there were roughly equal amounts of Europeans living outside Europe as non-Europeans living inEurope. However, unlike the growth in migration to Europe, the number of Europeans living outside Europe
mostly declined during the last 30 years, and only returned to 1990 levels over recent years. In 2019,
European-born migrants living outside the continent were based primarily in Northern America (7.4 million).
There was also some gradual growth of European migrants in Asia and Oceania from 2010 to 2019.

209 Ibid.
210 UNHCR, 2019a.
211 Ibid.
212 UNRWA, n.d.
213 İçduygu, 2018.
214 Ibid.
215 Ibid.
216 See appendix A for details of the composition of Europe.

86

Migration and migrants: Regional dimensions and developments

Figure 13. Migrants to, within and from Europe, 1990–2019
Migrants to Europe

Migrants from Europe

Migrants within Europe

40

Migrant Stock (millions)

30

20

10

0
1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2019 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2019 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2019Year

RegionAfricaEuropeNorthern America

Asia

Latin America andthe Caribbean

Oceania

Source: UN DESA, 2019a.
Note:“Migrants to Europe” refers to migrants residing in the region (i.e. Europe) who were born in one of the other regions(e.g. Africa or Asia). “Migrants within Europe” refers to migrants born in the region (i.e. Europe) and residing outside theircountry of birth, but still within the European region. “Migrants from Europe” refers to people born in Europe who wereresiding outside the region (e.g. in Latin America and the Caribbean or Northern America).

Several European countries have experienced large changes in the size of their populations over the last
decade. Figure 14 ranks the top 20 European countries with the largest proportional population change from2009 to 2019. While some countries, such as Luxembourg, Norway and Switzerland experienced population
growth, others underwent substantial population decline over the last 10 years. Lithuania, Bosnia andHerzegovina and Latvia experienced the steepest population declines (more than 10%). Low fertility rates are
the most important driver of negative population change in parts of Europe. However, negative net migration,

87

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

where the number of emigrants exceeds the number of immigrants, has also contributed to population decline
on the continent, especially in countries such as Lithuania and Latvia. A discussion on demographic changes
in Europe, and their link to migration, can be read below under “Key features and developments in Europe”.

Figure 14. Top 20 countries with the largest proportional population change in Europe,
2009–2019
Luxembourg
Lithuania
Bosnia and Herzegovina
NorwaySwitzerland
LatviaMonacoSan Marino
AndorraIrelandSwedenUnited Kingdom
Iceland
Malta
Austria
Liechtenstein
Bulgaria
Belgium
Romania
Croatia
-15%

-10%

-5%

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

Source: UN DESA, 2019c.
Note:

It is important to note that the largest proportional population changes from 2009 to 2019 are more likely to occur incountries with relatively smaller populations.

Many countries in the east of Europe – such as the Russian Federation, Ukraine, Poland and Romania – havesome of the largest emigrant populations within the region (figure 15). At over 10 million emigrants in 2019,
the Russian Federation had the largest population of its citizens living abroad in Europe. After the RussianFederation and Ukraine, Poland and the United Kingdom had the third and fourth largest European emigrant
population (4.4 million and 4.3 million respectively). Bosnia and Herzegovina had the highest share ofemigrants in comparison with the resident population in 2019, many of whom left during the breakup of theformer Yugoslavia. Portugal and Bulgaria, two countries that have long histories of emigration, also had highshares of populations abroad.
With over 13 million migrants in 2019, Germany had the largest foreign-born population of any country inEurope; the number of immigrants in the country increased by nearly 3 million between 2015 and 2019. The
largest groups came from Poland, Turkey, the Russian Federation, Kazakhstan and the Syrian Arab Republic.
The populations of the United Kingdom and France each included over 9.5 million and around 8 million
foreign-born people, respectively, in 2019. Migrants born in French-speaking North African countries made up

88

Migration and migrants: Regional dimensions and developments

some of the largest foreign-born populations in France. In the United Kingdom, some of the largest migrant
populations were from India, Poland and Pakistan. With foreign-born populations of around 6 million, Italy
and Spain were the fifth and sixth most popular migrant destinations in Europe in 2019; both countries
experienced slight increases in the number of foreign-born migrants since 2015. Many of the foreign-born
populations in these countries came from elsewhere in Europe – such as Romania, Albania and the Germany –or from North African countries such as Morocco. The migration of people from countries of the former
Soviet Union – such as Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan – accounted for some of the largest European
migrant corridors (see figure 16). As illustrated in figure 15, of the top 20 migration countries in the region,
Switzerland had the highest share of migrants in its population (29.9%) followed by Sweden (20%), Austria(19.9%) and Belgium (17.2%).

Figure 15. Top 20 European migrant countries in 2019
Migrants(millions)

Percentage of
population

Russian Federation
Germany
United Kingdom
UkraineFranceItaly
Spain
PolandRomania
Portugal

Immigrant

Netherlands

Emigrant

Switzerland
Belgium
Belarus
SwedenAustria
GreeceSerbiaBulgaria
Bosnia and Herzegovina

10

5

0

5

10

40

20

0

20

Source: UN DESA, 2019a.
Note 1: The population size used to calculate the percentage of immigrants and emigrants is based on the UN DESA total resident
population of the country, which includes foreign-born populations.
Note 2: “Immigrant” refers to foreign-born migrants residing in the country. “Emigrant” refers to people born in the country whowere residing outside their country of birth in 2019.

89

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

Figure 16 shows the top 20 migration corridors involving European countries, representing an accumulationof migratory movements over time, and providing a snapshot of how migration patterns have evolved into
significant foreign-born populations in specific destination countries. One of the more striking featuresof the main migration corridors involving European countries is that most are intraregional corridors. The
Russian Federation features heavily in the main corridors. Russian-born populations in former member Statesof the Soviet Union – such as Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan – formed some of the largest European
migrant corridors in 2019. However, it is important to note that these Russian-born populations only became
international migrants after the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991; before that, they were internalmigrants within the Soviet Union. The Russian Federation was also the second largest destination of migrants
in Europe after Germany.

Figure 16. Top 20 migration corridors involving European countries, 2019
Russian Federation Ukraine
Ukraine Russian Federation
Kazakhstan Russian Federation
Russian Federation Kazakhstan
Poland Germany
Algeria France
Turkey Germany
United Kingdom Australia
Uzbekistan Russian Federation
Romania Italy
Morocco France
Russian Federation Germany
Kazakhstan Germany
India United Kingdom
Poland United Kingdom
Russian Federation UzbekistanAzerbaijan Russian Federation
Belarus Russian Federation
United Kingdom United States of America
Morocco Spain

Migrants placeof residence
Asia
EuropeNorthern
America
Oceania

0

1

2

3

Migrants (millions)
Source: UN DESA, 2019a.
Note:

Corridors represent an accumulation of migratory movements over time and provide a snapshot of how migration patterns
have evolved into significant foreign-born populations in specific destination countries.

90

Migration and migrants: Regional dimensions and developments

In 2018, Germany continued to host the largest population of refugees and asylum seekers in Europe and thefifth largest in the world (figure 17). The largest number of refugees in Germany came from the Syrian Arab
Republic, Iraq and Afghanistan. France and Sweden were the second and third largest hosts of refugees in
Europe, with over 368,000 and over 248,000, respectively. Ukraine and the Russian Federation produced thelargest refugee population in Europe at the end of 2018, around 93,000 and 61,000 respectively.

Figure 17. Top 10 European countries by total refugees and asylum seekers, 2018
Germany

France

Italy

Location:

SwedenHostedRussian Federation

AbroadStatus:United Kingdom

Refugees
Austria
Asylum seekers
GreeceUkraineSwitzerland
0

0.5

1

1.5

Persons (millions)

Source: UNHCR, n.d.
Note:

“Hosted” refers to those refugees and asylum seekers from other countries who are residing in the receiving country (righthand side of the figure); “abroad” refers to refugees and asylum seekers originating from that country who are outside of
their origin country. The top 10 countries are based on 2018 data and are calculated by combining refugees and asylum
seekers in and from countries.

Most new internal displacements in 2018 in Europe were the result of disasters, not conflict (figure 18).
Ukraine was the only country in Europe with new conflict-related internal displacements in 2018, with anestimated 12,000 new displacements due to conflict and violence during the year. The rest of the new internal

91WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

displacements were triggered by disasters, with Greece recording the largest number of disaster-induced
displacements (9,200) followed by France (6,300). Both countries suffered from significant floods and storms.
The Russian Federation, Spain and Italy recorded over 3,000 new disaster displacements in 2018.

Figure 18. Top 20 European countries by new internal displacements (disaster and conflict),2018
Thousands

Percentage of population

Ukraine
GreeceFranceRussian Federation
Spain
Italy
Romania

DisasterGermany
PortugalSlovenia

Conﬂict

Slovakia
United Kingdom
Croatia
SerbiaSwedenAlbania
Finland
Belgium
Bulgaria
North Macedonia
10

5

0

5

10

0.08

0.06

0.04

0.02

0.0

0.02

Source: IDMC, n.d; UN DESA, 2017.
Notes: New displacements refers to the number of displacement movements that occurred in 2018, not the total accumulated
stock of IDPs resulting from displacement over time. New displacement figures include individuals who have been displaced
more than once and do not correspond to the number of people displaced during the year.
The population size used to calculate the percentage of new disaster and conflict displacements is based on the total
resident population of the country per 2017 UN DESA population estimates, and the percentage is for relative, illustrative
purposes only.

92

Migration and migrants: Regional dimensions and developments

Key features and developments in Europe
South-Eastern and Eastern Europe
For most South-Eastern and Eastern European countries, emigration rather than immigration has
been the key feature over recent years and decades, with fairly low levels of immigration comparedwith other subregions of Europe. Due to this and other factors, several countries in Europe are projected
to experience very significant population decline by 2050 (including Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria,
Romania, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine).217 Emigration from Eastern European countries to Western
Europe has been a growing trend, particularly since the expansion of the EU in both 2004 and 2007 to
encompass more Eastern European member States, while extending the external borders of the EU outward
towards non-member countries in the East.218 Emigration from Eastern and Southern Europe largely comprises
labour migrants in high-skilled and low-skilled occupations. Recent years have, for example, seen a sharp
increase in the number of medical professionals moving to Western Europe. Attracted by higher wages,
a significant number of medical professionals from countries such as Romania, Poland and Slovakia haveleft their countries to work in Western Europe.219 It is estimated that, by 2015, Romania had lost half its
doctors.220 The emigration of high-skilled professionals, in addition to a declining population, has created asevere shortage of workers in some sectors in several countries in Eastern Europe.
Despite the anticipated demographic decline across Europe, with Eastern Europe experiencing someof the most dramatic population changes, some countries are resistant to immigration as part of abroader response. As fertility rates in Europe fall, the number of elderly continues to rise. More people areliving longer and life expectancy in Europe and Northern America reached 78.7 years in 2019 and is projected
to increase to 83.2 years by 2050.221 Globally, an estimated 962 million people were over the age of 60 in 2017,with Europe having the largest percentage (25%).222 As the number of elderly expands, the social protection
systems in Eastern European countries will come under significant strain, with public spending on healthcare and pensions expected to significantly increase.223 Meanwhile, a decline in the number of people ofworking age will have key implications for Europe’s labour force, with the average age of people participatingin the labour force reaching 42.6 years by 2030.224 Even as Eastern Europe’s population grows older, many
countries in the subregion are reluctant to embrace immigration as one part of the longer-term solution to
impending demographic crises. Countries such as Hungary are already beginning to feel the negative effects
of a declining labour force. In response to a shortage of workers and the impact this is having on the country’s
economy, in 2018 the Government of Hungary passed a controversial law that generated mass protest action;
the so-called “slave law” could require people to work up to 400 hours of mandatory overtime.225 In February
2019, Hungary also announced new loan and tax benefits aimed at boosting the country’s low birth rate, while

217 UN DESA, 2015.
218 Kahanec and Zimmermann, 2009.
219 Hervey, 2017.
220 Ibid.
221 UN DESA, 2019c.
222 Ibid.
223 ILO, 2018.
224 Ibid.
225 Karasz and Kingsley, 2018; Peto, 2019.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 202093

it remains openly opposed to immigration.226 However, while attitudes and political discourse on immigration
remain negative across Eastern Europe, countries such as Poland have increasingly been tapping into foreignlabour, particularly Ukrainians, to address labour shortages. The number of Ukrainians in Poland has sharply
increased since fighting began in Eastern Ukraine in 2014. In 2017, Poland issued more than 660,000 residence
permits to foreigners, with the majority (more than 85%) going to Ukrainians.227
The Russian Federation remains the major destination country in the subregion (and one of themost significant in the world). In 2019, the country hosted around 11.6 million international migrants.228
Most immigrants have come from neighbouring countries, most notably members of the Commonwealth of
Independent States.229 Immigrants from Ukraine comprised the largest number of foreign born populationsin the Russian Federation (over 3 million), followed by Kazakhstan (around 2.5 million) and Uzbekistan(1.1 million).230 The Russian Federation’s large number of international migrants, many of whom are labour
migrants, means that the country is also one of the biggest origins of remittances in the world. In 2018,
remittances from the Russian Federation amounted to USD 21 billion, owing to the slow and but steadyrebound of the country’s economy, which continues to attract labour migrants.231 In 2019, Ukraine also hada significant foreign-born population at around 5 million, with migrants originating in large part from theBelarus, Kazakhstan, the Republic of Moldova, Russian Federation and Uzbekistan.232
The subregion has experienced increased displacement in recent years, largely as a result of the
protracted conflict in Eastern Ukraine. The conflict, now in its fifth year, has resulted in significant
internal displacement and generated an outflow of refugees and migrants to neighbouring States. By theend of 2018, Ukraine was the origin of nearly 93,000 refugees and around 800,000 IDPs.233 In 2018 alone,
there were 12,000 new conflict/violence displacements in Ukraine (see figure 18).234 A significant number ofrefugees from Ukraine were living in the Russian Federation. Since the start of the conflict in Eastern Ukraine
in 2014, an estimated 400,000 people moved to the Russian Federation, with a large number having gained
refugee status or temporary asylum.235

226 Szakacs, 2019; Walker, 2019.
227 Eurostat, 2018.
228 UN DESA, 2019a.
229 The Commonwealth of Independent States consists of nine member States: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan,
the Republic of Moldova, the Russian Federation, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan; as well as two associate States: Turkmenistan andUkraine.
230 UN DESA, 2019a.
231 World Bank, 2019a; Hickey, 2019; World Bank 2018a.
232 UN DESA, 2019a.
233 UNHCR, 2019a; IDMC, 2019.
234 IDMC, 2019.
235 UNHCR, 2019c.

94

Migration and migrants: Regional dimensions and developments

Northern, Western and Southern Europe
Intraregional migration within Europe is particularly dynamic, continuing to increase over time. Asof 1 January 2017, there were 22 million persons living in one of the EU member States with the citizenshipof another member State, up from 16 million a year prior.236 Such a high degree of intraregional migration ismade possible by free movement arrangements, which enable citizens to cross borders without being subjected
to border checks. The Schengen Area, which comprises 22 EU member States and 4 non-EU member countries,
guarantees free internal movement to over 400 million citizens.237 In 2017 Romania, Poland, Italy, Portugal
and Bulgaria had the highest numbers of their citizens living in other EU member States.238 However, freemovement in Europe faces challenges. In 2015, the arrival of large numbers of migrants and refugees to Europe
via the Mediterranean put pressure on the common European asylum system and affected the functioning of
the Schengen rules. This led to a temporary suspension of the Dublin system and the introduction of borderchecks by several member States.239 There is also a degree of uncertainty, particularly for migrant workers,
following the June 2016 EU membership referendum in the United Kingdom about future migration settingsarising from “Brexit” negotiations. However, the bigger issue is the finalization of Brexit itself, and whether/
how it will be implemented.
Immigration continues to be a contentious issue in Europe and remains on top of the political agenda
across the region. While balanced debates on the issue are not absent, political rhetoric and public discourseon migration have at times been dominated by anti-immigrant sentiments. Over the course of 2017 and2018, far-right wing groups across Europe promoted myths or “fake news” about migration.240 This was mostevident in the coordinated online campaigns against the Global Compact for Migration by far-right activists,
including through social media, online petitions and videos. The negative campaigns played a significant rolein generating backlash against the Global Compact for Migration in several European countries, promptingsome governments to withdraw from the migration pact.241 General attitudes toward immigration also remainpolarized, while negative anti-immigration political rhetoric continues to take centre stage in several
national elections across Europe.242 A 2018 European Commission survey found that four in ten Europeans
view immigration as more of a problem than an opportunity.243 In a separate survey conducted in 10 EU
countries244 by the Pew Research Centre, more than half said they want fewer immigrants in their countries.245
Irregular migration continues to pose challenges to the region, and remained high on the European
agenda in 2017 and 2018. By the end of 2018, the largest number of irregular maritime arrivals to Europe
used the Western Mediterranean route, which leads to Spain.246 This marked a change from 2016 and 2017,
when irregular maritime migrants arrived to Europe in the greatest numbers via the Central Mediterraneanroute from Libya (mainly to Italy) or from Turkey to Greece on the Eastern Mediterranean route. In 2018, over
236 Eurostat, 2019.
237 European Commission, n.d.
238 Eurostat, 2019.
239 Ibid.
240 McAuliffe, 2018.
241 Ibid.
242 Diamant and Starr, 2018.
243 European Commission, 2018b.
244 The 10 EU countries surveyed included Greece, Hungary, Italy, Germany, Sweden, Poland, France, the Netherlands, the United
Kingdom and Spain.
245 Connor and Krogstad, 2018.
246 Frontex, 2019; MacGregor, 2019.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

95

117,000 and more than 26,000 migrants arrived in Europe by sea and land, respectively.247 There were around59,000 sea arrivals in Spain and 23,370 in Italy in the same year.248 More than 2,000 migrants died in the
Mediterranean in 2018, with the Central Mediterranean route by far the deadliest route for irregular migrants
in 2018 (over 1,300 deaths).249 While the number of migrants who died at sea trying to reach Europe dropped
in 2018 due to fewer overall crossings, the death ratio along the Central Mediterranean route increased
from 2.6% in 2017 to 3.5% in 2018 and, by April 2019, it had reached 10 per cent.250 A large number ofmaritime arrivals in 2018 came from countries that continue to be affected by violence and conflict, including
Afghanistan, the Syrian Arab Republic and Iraq, especially to Greece. North and sub-Saharan Africans also
continued to make up a significant portion of migrant flows to Europe, especially to Italy and Spain.
Human trafficking remains a major challenge in Europe, and the region has seen a rise in bothtrafficking for labour and sexual exploitation. Trafficking in human beings for sexual exploitation remains
the predominant form of human trafficking in Europe (56%), followed by labour exploitation (26%) and otherforms of exploitation, such as forced begging or organ removal (18%).251 Women and girls continue to be themost vulnerable group (68% of victims), often exploited in care and domestic work and forced prostitution.252
Two important trends reported by EU member States are the sharp increase in child trafficking (23% of all
victims) and the growth of intra-EU trafficking (44% of victims are EU citizens).253 Profiles of traffickers andmodus operandi have changed, with an observed increase in the number of women and younger perpetrators,
and a growing role of Internet and social media for recruitment and distribution of exploitation material.
Despite growing awareness and knowledge of trafficking practices, prosecution and conviction rates remain
low. Irregular migrants are especially vulnerable, as traffickers often take advantage of their status to lockthem into cycles of exploitation. In 2018, a case of migrant fishermen working on Irish registered trawlers wasbrought to the Republic of Ireland’s High Court; some of the migrants were believed to have been trafficked
and worked under harsh conditions, including being racially abused, underpaid and overworked.254

Latin America and the Caribbean255
Migration to Northern America is a key feature in the Latin America and the Caribbean region. In 2019,
over 26 million migrants had made the journey north and were residing in Northern America. As shownin figure 19, the Latin American and the Caribbean population living in Northern America has increased
considerably over time, from an estimated 10 million in 1990 and 25.5 million in 2015 to 26.6 million
in 2019. Another 5 million were in Europe in 2019; while this number has only slightly increased since2015, the number of migrants from Latin America and the Caribbean living in Europe has more thanquadrupled since 1990. Other regions, such as Asia and Oceania, were home to a very small number of
migrants from Latin America and the Caribbean in 2019 (400,000 and 200,000 migrants, respectively).
247 IOM, n.d.b.
248 Ibid.
249 IOM, n.d.d.
250 IOM, 2019c.
251 European Commission, 2018c.
252 Ibid.
253 Ibid.
254 O’Faolain, 2018.
255 See appendix A for details of the composition of Latin America and the Caribbean.

96

Migration and migrants: Regional dimensions and developments

The total number of migrants from other regions living in Latin America and the Caribbean has remained
relatively stable, at around 3 million over the last 30 years. These were comprised mostly of Europeans(whose numbers have declined slightly over the period) and Northern Americans, whose numbers haveincreased. In 2019, the number of Europeans and Northern Americans living in Latin America and the
Caribbean stood at 1.4 million and 1.2 million, respectively.

Figure 19. Migrants to, within and from Latin America and the Caribbean, 1990–2019
Migrants to Latin America and the Caribbean

Migrants within Latin America and the Caribbean

Migrants from Latin America and the Caribbean

Migrant Stock (millions)

30

20

10

0
1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2019 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2019 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2019Year

RegionAfricaEuropeNorthern America

Asia

Latin America andthe Caribbean

Oceania

Source: UN DESA, 2019a.
Note:“Migrants to Latin America and the Caribbean” refers to migrants residing in the region (i.e. Latin America and the
Caribbean) who were born in one of the other regions (e.g. in Europe or Asia). “Migrants within Latin America and the
Caribbean” refers to migrants born in the region (i.e. Latin America and the Caribbean) and residing outside their countryof birth, but still within the Latin America and the Caribbean region. “Migrants from Latin America and the Caribbean”
refers to people born in Latin America and the Caribbean who were residing outside the region (e.g. in Europe or Northern
America).

97WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

Several countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have undergone considerable population changeover the last decade. Figure 20 shows the 20 countries in the region which have experienced the largest
proportional population change from 2009 to 2019. All the top 20 countries experienced an increase in thesize of their populations during this period, with the largest proportional population changes occurring inCentral America. Belize had the greatest percentage change, with its population increasing by 24 per centfrom 2009 to 2019. It was followed by Guatemala and Honduras, whose populations grew by nearly 23 and20 per cent respectively.

Figure 20. Top 20 countries with the largest proportional population change in Latin America
and the Caribbean, 2009–2019
BelizeGuatemalaHonduras
PanamaEcuador
Bolivia (Plurinational State of)
Haiti
Paraguay
Nicaragua
MexicoPeru
Colombia
Chile
Dominican Republic
Antigua and Barbuda
Costa Rica
BahamasSuriname
Argentina
Brazil
0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

Source: UN DESA, 2019c.
Note:

It is important to note that the largest proportional population changes from 2009 to 2019 are more likely to occur incountries with relatively smaller populations.

Mexico was by far the largest emigration country in Latin America and the Caribbean (figure 21). Around 12
million Mexicans lived abroad in 2019. Mexico is also the second largest migrant origin country in the world
after India. Most Mexican emigrants lived in the United States, which continues to be the largest country-tocountry migration corridor in the entire world (figure 22). Many other Central American countries – such as
El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras – also have large migrant populations in the United States, as do SouthAmerican countries such as Colombia, Ecuador, Brazil and Peru. Large populations of South American migrants
resided elsewhere in the region. Colombia and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela had the second andthird highest number of emigrants in the region in 2019 (2.9 million and 2.5 million respectively). Around1 million Venezuelans lived in Colombia, reflecting recent cross-border displacement from the Bolivarian
Republic of Venezuela.

98

Migration and migrants: Regional dimensions and developments

In 2019, Argentina was home to the largest foreign-born population in the region (with over 2 million
migrants), mainly from neighbouring countries such as Paraguay and the Plurinational State of Bolivia. The
Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela had the next largest migrant population, followed Colombia and Mexico. In
2019, Mexico had over 760,000 migrants born in the United States. As illustrated in figure 21, of the top 20
migrant countries in the region, Costa Rica had the highest immigrant share of its total population (8%), due
to long-standing migration from neighbouring Nicaragua. Other countries in the region outside of the top 20
had higher migrant populations as a proportion of the total population, such as Belize at 15 per cent.

Figure 21. Top 20 Latin America and Caribbean migrant countries in 2019
Migrants(millions)

Percentage of
population

MexicoColombia
Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of)Argentina
BrazilPeru
Dominican Republic
Cuba
El Salvador
Haiti

Immigrant

Chile

Emigrant

EcuadorGuatemalaJamaica
Bolivia (Plurinational State of)Paraguay
Honduras
Nicaragua
Uruguay
Costa Rica

12

8

4

0

30

20

10

0

10

Source: UN DESA, 2019a.
Note 1: The population size used to calculate the percentage of immigrants and emigrants is based on the UN DESA total resident
population of the country, which includes foreign-born populations.
Note 2: “Immigrant” refers to foreign-born migrants residing in the country. “Emigrant” refers to people born in the country whowere residing outside their country of birth in 2019.

The most striking feature of the main migration corridors within and from the region (figure 22 is thedominance of the United States as the main country of destination. Most of the corridors in 2019 were to theUnited States, with the remainder all occurring within the Latin American and Caribbean region (for example,

99

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela to Colombia). These migration corridors represent an accumulationof migratory movements involving countries in Latin America and the Caribbean over time, and provide
a snapshot of how migration patterns have evolved into significant foreign-born populations in specificdestination countries.

Figure 22. Top 10 migration corridors involving Latin America and Caribbean countries, 2019
Mexico United States of America
El Salvador United States of America
Cuba United States of America
Dominican Republic United States of America

Migrants placeof residence
Latin America
and the Caribbean
Northern
America

Guatemala United States of America
Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of) Colombia
Colombia Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of)Colombia United States of America
United States of America Mexico
Jamaica United States of America

0

3

6

9

12

Migrants (millions)
Source: UN DESA, 2019a.
Note:

Corridors represent an accumulation of migratory movements over time and provide a snapshot of how migration patterns
have evolved into significant foreign-born populations in specific destination countries.

In 2018, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela was the largest source country of asylum claims in the world,with over 340,000 new asylum claims submitted by the end of the year. This is a sharp increase from 2017,
when new asylum claims numbered just over 100,000. An estimated 3 million Venezuelans had left theircountry at the end of 2018 due to several factors, including violence, persecution and economic/politicalcrisis. The vast majority of Venezuelans displaced abroad lived in Colombia (around 1 million). Colombia was
the largest country of origin of refugees in the Latin America and Caribbean region. Most of the refugees from
Colombia were hosted in the neighbouring countries of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and Ecuador. El
Salvador was the second largest country of origin of refugees and the second largest source of new asylum
claims in the region, after the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. El Salvador was followed by Haiti, which was
the third largest origin of refugees in Latin America and the Caribbean at the end of 2018.

100

Migration and migrants: Regional dimensions and developments

Figure 23. Top 10 Latin America and Caribbean countries by total refugees and asylum seekers,
2018
Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of)

Peru

Colombia

Location:

BrazilHostedEl Salvador

AbroadStatus:

MexicoRefugees
Ecuador
Asylum seekers
GuatemalaHonduras

Haiti
0.5

0.25

0

0.25

Persons (millions)

Source: UNHCR, n.d.
Note:

“Hosted” refers to those refugees and asylum seekers from other countries who are residing in the receiving country (righthand side of the figure); “abroad” refers to refugees and asylum seekers originating from that country who are outside of
their origin country. The top 10 countries are based on 2018 data and are calculated by combining refugees and asylum
seekers in and from countries.

Most new internal displacements in Latin America and the Caribbean were due to violence and conflict, notdisasters. Figure 24 shows the top 20 countries in the region with the largest new internal displacements
triggered by both conflict and violence and disasters. El Salvador and Colombia recorded the highest numbersof new internal displacements in Latin America and the Caribbean in 2018, with most displacements driven by
violence and conflict in both countries. There were 246,000 new conflict-related displacements in El Salvador(nearly 4% of the country’s population), while Colombia recorded 145,000. With 11,000 new displacements
due to violence and conflict, Mexico recorded the third highest number in the region. The rest of the large
internal displacements in the region were triggered by disasters, with Brazil recording the largest number(86,000), followed by Colombia (67,000) and Cuba (52,000). While the number of new internal conflict101

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

displacements in Latin America and the Caribbean are much lower compared with Africa, these are the only
two regions where the number of new displacements due to violence and conflict is higher than those causedby disasters.

Figure 24. Top Latin America and Caribbean countries by new internal displacements(disaster and conflict), 2018
Percentage of population

Thousands
El Salvador
Colombia
BrazilCuba
Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of)
MexicoParaguay

Disaster

GuatemalaHonduras
Argentina

Conﬂict

Peru
Nicaragua
Costa Rica
Ecuador
Chile
Bolivia (Plurinational State of)Trinidad and Tobago
Dominica
Uruguay

50

0

50

100

150

200

0.5 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5

Source: IDMC, n.d; UN DESA, 2017.
Notes: New displacements refers to the number of displacement movements that occurred in 2018, not the total accumulated
stock of IDPs resulting from displacement over time. New displacement figures include individuals who have been displaced
more than once and do not correspond to the number of people displaced during the year.
The population size used to calculate the percentage of new disaster and conflict displacements is based on the total
resident population of the country per 2017 UN DESA population estimates, and the percentage is for relative, illustrative
purposes only.

102

Migration and migrants: Regional dimensions and developments

Key features and developments in Latin America and the Caribbean
South America
Political and economic turmoil in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has resulted in one of themost acute humanitarian crises in the world, displacing millions of people from the country. By
the end of 2018, the number of displaced Venezuelans worldwide had surpassed 3 million;256 by mid-2019,
this number had risen to 4 million.257 The large majority were hosted in neighbouring countries such as
Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, Argentina, Chile and Brazil, although an increasing number of Venezuelans are also
moving to countries in Central America and the Caribbean.258 Colombia and Peru hosted the largest numberof Venezuelans at the end of 2018, over 1 million and 500,000 people, respectively.259 With the economy
collapsing, a dire economic crisis has left millions of people unable to afford basic needs such as food,medicine and medical supplies. The poor state of the health-care system and increasing levels of malnutrition
among children resulted in multiple deaths in 2018.260 The International Monetary Fund estimated that
hyperinflation in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela would reach over 1 million per cent in 2018, andwould increase to 10 million per cent in 2019.261 In addition to the economic crisis, the Bolivarian Republic ofVenezuela is experiencing a deteriorating political situation, which involves targeting of political opponents
and the arrest of thousands of protesters.262 The rise in violent crimes in the country also continues to force
more people to seek protection in other countries. Asylum applications lodged by Venezuelans arriving in the
United States, for example, reached nearly 28,000 by the end of June 2018.263
Intraregional migration within South America is very significant, with the large majority ofinternational migrants currently moving within the subregion. Most migrants in countries such as
Argentina and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, the two countries with the largest number of internationalmigrants in South America in 2019, were from within the subregion.264 Argentina’s international migrants
were mainly from Paraguay, the Plurinational State of Bolivia and Chile, while those in the Bolivarian
Republic of Venezuela were largely from Colombia.265 Most of the foreign-born population in Chile is also
primarily comprised of migrants from South American countries such as Peru, Argentina and the Plurinational
State of Bolivia.266 The Residence Agreements adopted by the Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR) – aneconomic and political body made up of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and the Bolivarian Republic ofVenezuela267 – have played a significant role in enhancing intraregional labour migration, while at the same

256 IOM, 2018e.
257 UNHCR, 2019d.
258 UNHCR, 2019a.
259 Ibid.
260 OHCHR, 2018a.
261 Werner, 2018; Reuters, 2018.
262 Human Rights Watch, 2019.
263 UNHCR, 2019a.
264 UN DESA, 2019a.
265 Ibid.
266 Ibid.
267 Chatzky, 2019.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

103

time reducing irregular migration within the subregion.268 These agreements allow nationals of MERCOSUR toreside and work in member States for a period of two years, provided they have no criminal record and canprove citizenship.269 As a result, low- and semi-skilled migrants in sectors such as agriculture, fishing anddomestic work, who comprise the majority of labour migrants in South America,270 have been able to moveand work more freely within the subregion.
Millions of South Americans continue to reside outside of the subregion, while at the same time thenumber of migrants from outside the subregion is slowly growing. Emigration from South America ismostly related to work, fuelled by economic crises and political instability in origin countries.271 The UnitedStates is the largest destination country of South American migrants, with 3.4 million.272 The countries
with the highest numbers of emigrants residing outside of South America in 2019 were Colombia (around1.57 million), followed by Brazil (1.5 million) and Ecuador (around 1 million).273 At the same time, reduced
opportunities in labour markets abroad, as well as improved economic conditions in the subregion, arecontributing to the return of many South American migrants and a decrease in the rate of extraregionalmigration.274 The number of migrants in South America from outside the subregion is also growing. For
example, since 2010, more people have emigrated from the EU to Latin America and the Caribbean overall,than from Latin America and the Caribbean to the EU.275 Many of these people are not return migrants, butrather EU nationals, primarily from Spain, Italy and Portugal.276 Migrants from these three origin countries
collectively represented a population of over 800,000 people in South America in 2019.277 Increased numbersof Haitians, Cubans and Dominicans have also migrated to South America.278
Though localized to particular countries, conflict and violence contribute to human displacement
and migration in the subregion. In Colombia, over 5.7 million people remained internally displaced asof the end of 2018 – the second highest number of IDPs in the world.279 In the same year, around 139,000
Colombians were living as refugees or in refugee-like situations abroad, a drop from more than 190,000 in2017 and around 300,000 in 2016.280 There were around 1 million Colombians in the Bolivarian Republic ofVenezuela and Ecuador in 2019. However, as Colombia begins to transition out of five decades of violence withpeace talks in late 2016 and 2017, deteriorating economic and social conditions in the Bolivarian Republic ofVenezuela are leading many Colombians to return home.281

268 Acosta, 2016; Aimsiranun, 2018.
269 Ibid.
270 Aimsiranun, 2018.
271 IOM, 2017.
272 UN DESA, 2019a.
273 Ibid.
274 IOM, n.d.e.
275 IOM, 2015.
276 Ibid.
277 UN DESA, 2019a.
278 IOM, 2017.
279 IDMC, 2019.
280 UNHCR, 2018a, 2019a.
281 UNHCR, 2019a.

104

Migration and migrants: Regional dimensions and developments

Central America and the Caribbean
Migration northward continues to be the predominant trend in Central America, Mexico and the
Caribbean. Mexico remains a prominent origin country, with thousands emigrating mainly to the UnitedStates each year. It is also a significant transit country for migrants travelling northward to the southern
United States border. However, within a context of improving economic conditions and rising educational levelsin the country, as well as stricter immigration enforcement in the United States, Mexico is an increasingly
significant destination country for international migrants, some of whom may have been unable to enterthe United States as initially planned.282 The total number of foreign-born persons in Mexico increased
from around 970,000 in 2010 to a little over 1 million in 2019 – a majority of whom were North Americans,
but also an increasingly larger portion of whom were migrants from other Latin American and Caribbean
countries.283 However, the United States is by far the most popular destination for Central American migrants,
with more than 90 per cent of Central American migrants living in the United States in 2017.284 Violence andinsecurity, poverty and family reunification remain important drivers of migration from Central America.285
The most prominent intraregional migrant corridors involve Nicaraguans, Panamanians and other Central
Americans moving to Costa Rica for temporary or permanent labour, and Central Americans (primarily from
Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador) migrating to Belize because of instability and a lack of employment
opportunities.286 In the Caribbean, the most prominent intraregional migrant corridors include Haitians
migrating to the Dominican Republic.287 There is also an increasing number of migrants from other regions,
including those from Africa, transiting through Central America toward the United States.288
Irregular migrant flows in the subregion are dynamic, becoming increasingly complex as well as
diverse. Mexicans represented the vast majority of irregular migrants apprehended while attempting tocross the United States–Mexico border for many years. However, in recent years, apprehensions of Central
Americans originating from the “Northern Triangle” region of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador exceededthat of Mexicans at the United States–Mexico border.289 Fleeing violence, persecution and poverty, thousandsof migrants from Central America trekked for thousands of miles toward the Mexico–United States border.
The most recent so-called “migrant caravan” began in Honduras in October 2018. As Honduran migrants
made their way toward the United States–Mexico border, thousands more migrants from countries such as El
Salvador and Guatemala joined the group. By the end of 2018, the migrant caravan had grown to thousands of
migrants, many of them children.290 Several factors drove people to the caravan, including escaping violence incountries such as Honduras, fleeing extreme poverty and seeking better economic opportunities. The migrantcaravan resulted in fierce political debate in the United States and prompted the Government to deploy morethan 7,000 active-duty military officers to the border with Mexico.291 By early 2019, a few thousand migrants
who managed to reach the United States border had been apprehended. Some received Mexican humanitarianvisas, while others were deported or chose to return to their countries of origin.292 Hundreds of migrants
remain in Tijuana, Mexico. In February 2019, a caravan of Cubans and Haitians, including some Africans

282 Dominguez-Villegas, 2019.
283 UN DESA, 2019a.
284 Ibid.
285 FAO, 2018a; CEPAL, 2019.
286 ILO, 2016.
287 Ibid.
288 Solomon, 2019.
289 Bialik, 2019.
290 UNICEF, 2018.
291 Meissner, 2018.
292 Dominguez-Villegas, 2019; BBC, 2019.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

105

and Asians, entered Panama from Colombia and later reached Mexico. In a shift from its more open policy
announced at the start of 2019, Mexico began detaining migrants from Central America in April 2019.293
Migrant smuggling is also a major feature of the subregion, as people attempt to bypass border controlsin Central America and Mexico. Along the United States–Mexico border, smuggling networks are a profitableindustry overseen by international crime groups.294 Smuggled migrants are known frequently to fall victim
to predatory practices ranging from demands for bribes to mass kidnapping and extortion.295 Migrants havealso been subjected to execution, physical and sexual assault, torture and disappearance; this is especiallythe case in Mexico, where it has been reported that some smuggling networks are often managed by drugtrafficking organizations.296 Migrant smuggling has also long enabled irregular migration in and throughCentral American countries such as Guatemala, especially with migrants moving to the United States. Both
Guatemalan nationals and international migrants transiting through Guatemala have historically heavily
relied on smuggling, locally known as Coyoterismo, to reach their final destinations.297 There is growing
concern in Latin America that visa regimes are exploited to enable migrants to enter countries in the region
before they are smuggled onward to other destinations.298 Moreover, a significant number of people have diedwhile making irregular migration journeys across Central America.299
Socioeconomic conditions and generalized community-level violence in a number of Central Americancountries contribute to migration, notably of high numbers of women and children. There has been asignificant increase in the number of asylum claims from Central America. Applications from Central America
and Mexico comprised 54 per cent of all asylum claims in the United States in 2017.300 Migrants from El
Salvador made up the majority of applicants (over 33,000), followed by those from Guatemala (around 33,000)
and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (27,500).301 There has been an increase in the number of family units
apprehended at United States–Mexico border; in 2018, around 163,000 family members were apprehended,accounting for 35 per cent of all border apprehensions and more than three times the number of family
apprehensions in 2017.302 Unaccompanied children remain a significant part of irregular migration flows, with
about 54,000 unaccompanied children apprehended at the border in 2018.303
Climate change appears to be impacting on human mobility in Central America and the Caribbean,although isolating the environmental drivers of migration remains a complex task. According to
the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the rise in global temperature is associated withoutmigration in communities dependent on agriculture.304 In 2018, drought conditions in Central America
were responsible for an estimated 82 per cent loss of maize and bean crops in Honduras, putting nearly
3 million people at risk of food insecurity.305 In countries such as El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, alarge share of the populations live in rural areas and heavily rely on agriculture for their livelihoods, making

293 Cullell, 2019.
294 Sanchez, 2018.
295 Ibid.
296 Ibid.
297 Velasco, 2018; Sanchez, 2018.
298 Ibid.
299 IOM, n.d.d.
300 UNHCR, 2019a.
301 Ibid.
302 Bialik, 2019.
303 Ibid.
304 IPCC, 2018.
305 Palencia, 2014; FAO, 2018b.

106

Migration and migrants: Regional dimensions and developments

them especially vulnerable to environmental changes such as droughts.306 The effects of climate change may
have played a role in recent migration dynamics in Central America, with a significant number of people who
were part of the caravan, for example, engaged in activities such as agriculture, forestry, cattle raising andfishing prior to embarking on the journey northward.307 Meanwhile, the Caribbean is located in an area highly
prone to both seismic activity and climate-related disaster risks. Countries in the Caribbean are among themost vulnerable to natural disasters and climate change. With a significant share of the Caribbean population
living in areas exposed to sea-level rise, recent disasters have resulted in large-scale displacement and loss oflife. Hurricane Irma, for example, which swept across parts of the Caribbean and Northern America, was thelargest disaster event globally in 2017, displacing more than 2 million people in both regions.308 In addition
to the loss of life, the hurricane left catastrophic damage to property and infrastructure in several Caribbean
areas, including Puerto Rico, Cuba and the United States Virgin Islands.309 Many Caribbean islands are alsoheavily reliant on sectors such as agriculture and tourism, and disasters have taken a significant toll on theireconomies. As these disasters increase in frequency and intensity due to climate change, health risks andfood insecurity are expected to worsen, in addition to increasing damage to biodiversity.310
Emigration to the United States is a key feature in the Caribbean, with Caribbean-born immigrants
among the largest groups in the country. Historical ties between the Caribbean and the United States, aswell as geopolitics, have significantly influenced migration northward. In 2017, 10 per cent of all immigrants
in the United States were from the Caribbean, making it the largest destination for Caribbean migrants outside
the subregion.311 Other main destinations include Canada, Spain and the United Kingdom. Over 65 per cent of
Caribbean immigrants in the United States in 2019 came from just five countries (Haiti, Trinidad and Tobago,
Cuba, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic), with the majority of these coming from Cuba.312 The increasein the Cuban population in the United States post-mid-1960s was to a large extent driven by two laws thatoffered unique treatment to immigrants from Cuba: the 1966 Cuban Adjustment Act and the 1994 and 1995
United States–Cuba Migration Accords, which made it possible for Cubans (who had arrived in the UnitedStates via land) to gain permanent residence after living in the country for one year. This came to be known
as the “wet foot, dry foot” policy.313

Northern America314
Migration in Northern America is dominated by migration into the region. As shown in figure 25, over 58.6
million migrants were residing in Northern America from a variety of regions in 2019. This number has
increased by around 3 million since 2015, when around 55.6 million migrants were living in the region.
The largest group was from Latin America and the Caribbean (26.6 million), followed by Asia (17.4 million)
and Europe (7 million). During the last 30 years, the number of migrants in Northern America has morethan doubled in size, driven by emigration from Latin American and the Caribbean, and Asia, as well as byeconomic growth and political stability in Northern America.

306 CEPAL, 2019.
307 IOM, 2018f.
308 IDMC, 2018a.
309 Ibid.
310 Otker-Robe, 2019.
311 Zong and Batalova, 2019.
312 UN DESA, 2019a.
313 CEPAL, United Nations and IOM, 2017; Zong and Batalova, 2019.
314 See appendix A for details on the composition of Northern America.

107WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

The number of Northern American migrants living within the region or elsewhere was very small compared withthe foreign-born population in the region. In contrast to regions such as Asia and Africa where intraregionalmigration is dominant, more Northern American-born migrants lived outside the region (around 3 million)
than had moved elsewhere within the region (1.4 million).

Figure 25. Migrants to, within and from Northern America, 1990–2019
Migrants to Northern America

Migrants within Northern America

Migrants from Northern America

Migrant Stock (millions)

40

20

0
1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2019 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2019 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2019Year

RegionAfricaEuropeNorthern America

Asia

Latin America andthe Caribbean

Oceania

Source: UN DESA, 2019a.
Note:“Migrants to Northern America” refers to migrants residing in the region (i.e. Northern America) who were born in oneof the other regions (e.g. Europe or Asia). “Migrants within Northern America” refers to migrants born in the region (i.e.
Northern America) and residing outside their country of birth, but still within the Northern American region. “Migrants
from Northern America” refers to people born in Northern America who were residing outside the region (e.g. in Europe orAfrica).

108

Migration and migrants: Regional dimensions and developments

Figure 26 shows the countries with the largest proportional population change in Northern America between
2009 to 2019. The population changes in both Canada and the United States were in terms of growth, with
Canada experiencing the largest change in the size of its population over the last decade (11%). The UnitedStates’ population also expanded during the same period, increasing by around 7 per cent. In Canada, recent
population changes have largely been driven by immigration, which remains the main driver of population
growth in the country.

Figure 26. Countries with the largest proportional population change
in Northern America, 2009–2019

CanadaUnited States of America

0%

2%

4%

6%

8%

10%

12%

Source: UN DESA, 2019a.
Note:

It is important to note that the largest proportional population changes from 2007 to 2019 are more likely to occur
in countries with relatively smaller populations.

In 2019, the United States had the largest foreign-born population in the world, while Canada had the eighthlargest. Over 86 per cent of the foreign-born population in the region lived in the United States. As shown infigure 27, the share of Canada’s total population that was foreign-born (at over 21%) was considerably higher
than in the United States in 2019 (15%). Canada also had a larger share of its citizens who had emigrated (asa percentage of its total home population) compared with the United States.

Figure 27. Main migration countries in Northern America in 2019
Migrants(millions)

Percentage of
population

United States of America

Immigrant

CanadaEmigrant
0

10

20

30

40

50

0

5

10

15

20

Source: UN DESA, 2019a.
Note 1: The population size used to calculate the percentage of immigrants and emigrants is based on the UN DESA total resident
population of the country, which includes foreign-born populations.
Note 2: “Immigrant” refers to foreign-born migrants residing in the country. “Emigrant” refers to people born in the country whowere residing outside their country of birth in 2019.

109

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

Figure 28 shows the top 10 migration corridors involving Northern American countries, representing an
accumulation of migratory movements over time and providing a snapshot of how migration patterns have
evolved into significant foreign-born populations in specific destination countries. The largest migrant
corridors in Northern America all involve migrants either from Asia or Latin America and the Caribbean, tothe United States. Mexican-born migrants form the biggest migrant group, with over 11 million living in
the United States in 2019. The next largest migration corridors involve populous Asian countries, including
China, India and the Philippines. Some of the other large migration corridors from Viet Nam, the Republicof Korea and Cuba to the United States grew rapidly after conflicts or political changes in origin countries
many years ago.

Figure 28. Top 10 migration corridors involving Northern American countries, 2019
Mexico United States of America
China United States of America
India United States of America
Philippines United States of America

Migrants placeof residence
Northern
America

El Salvador United States of America
Viet Nam United States of America
Cuba United States of America
Dominican Republic United States of America
Republic of Korea United States of America
Guatemala United States of America
0

3

6

9

12

Migrants (millions)
Source: UN DESA, 2019a.
Note:

Corridors represent an accumulation of migratory movements over time and provide a snapshot of how migration patterns
have evolved into significant foreign-born populations in specific destination countries.

The United States hosted over 1 million refugees and asylum seekers in 2018. As apparent from figure 29, themajority, over 700,000, were asylum seekers. The United States also remained the largest recipient of new
asylum claims in the world in 2018 (over 250,000), although this was a decrease from 2017, when asylum
claims surpassed 300,000. Asylum seekers in the United States came from a vast range of countries; however,the largest populations were from El Salvador, Guatemala, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and Honduras.
Canada is also host to a large number of refugees and asylum seekers. In 2018, Canada hosted over 190,000
refugees and asylum seekers, an increase from 2017, when the country hosted about 150,000. Recent changes
in refugee resettlement to the United States and Canada are discussed in the “Key features and developments
in Northern America” section below.

110

Migration and migrants: Regional dimensions and developments

Figure 29. Numbers of refugees and asylum seekers in and from Northern American countries,
2018
Location:
HostedUnited States of America

AbroadStatus:Refugees

Canada
0

0.25

0.5

0.75

1

Asylum seekers

Persons (millions)

Source: UNHCR, n.d.
Note:

“Hosted” refers to those refugees and asylum seekers from other countries who are residing in the receiving country (righthand side of the figure); “abroad” refers to refugees and asylum seekers originating from that country who are outside of
their origin country.

All new internal displacements in Northern America were due to disasters (figure 30). The United Statesrecorded the highest number, with more than 1.2 million people displaced as a result of two major hurricanes
and wildfires. The scale of displacement in the rest of Northern America was much lower compared with theUnited States; Canada, for example, recorded 19,000 new displacements in 2018. The number of new internal
displacements due to disasters in Northern America came second only to Asia, which experienced moredisaster-driven displacement than conflict (see figure 12).

Figure 30. Top Northern American countries by new internal displacements(disaster and conflict), 2018
Disaster

Percentage of population

Millions

United States of America

Conﬂict

CanadaGreenland
1.2

1.0

0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

0.0

0.35

0.3

0.25

0.2

0.15

0.1

0.05

0.0

Source: IDMC, n.d; UN DESA, 2017.
Notes: New displacements refers to the number of displacement movements that occurred in 2018, not the total accumulated
stock of IDPs resulting from displacement over time. New displacement figures include individuals who have been displaced
more than once and do not correspond to the number of people displaced during the year.
The population size used to calculate the percentage of new disaster and conflict displacements is based on the total
resident population of the country per 2017 UN DESA population estimates, and the percentage is for relative, illustrative
purposes only.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

111

Key features and developments in Northern America
Migration trends in the United States are characterized by high levels of immigration, primarily from
Latin America and Asia, although the demography of international migrants continues to evolve. The
United States’ foreign-born population increased by 5 per cent from 2015 to 2019, reaching nearly 51 million
people.315 As of 2019, Mexican-born migrants were still by far the largest foreign-born population living in the
United States, at just over 12.4 million, accounting for around 22.7 per cent of the total number of immigrants
in the United States.316 However, while Mexicans have historically comprised the largest inflows of migrants to
the United States (at least since 1970), their numbers have dropped over the last few years.317 Recent arrivals
have mainly come from Asia – particularly India, China and the Philippines – as well as from other countries
in Latin America and the Caribbean, such as the Dominican Republic, Cuba and El Salvador.318 In 2019, China
was the origin of the second largest number of immigrants to the United States, and Asia is projected to
become the largest origin region by 2055.319 The largest immigration pathway for Asians migrating to theUnited States is through family-sponsored visas,320 although many are also students; there were more than
360,000 Chinese international students in the United States in the academic year 2017/2018.321
Migrant populations in Canada continue to increase, representing a growing percentage of the country’s
total population. In 2000, foreign-born persons represented about 18 per cent of Canada’s total population,
increasing to nearly 19 per cent in 2005, around 20 per cent in 2010 and over 21 per cent in 2019.322 However,while migrant populations in Canada have originated primarily from European countries in the past, thecomposition of the country’s foreign-born population has shifted to include large populations of migrants
from Asian countries. For example, in 2000, the largest origin country of international migrants in Canada was
the United Kingdom (608,000), followed by China (412,000), India (319,000) and Italy (315,000). By 2019,
India and China had surpassed the United Kingdom as the two largest origin countries, with around 709,000
and nearly 700,000 migrants respectively.323 Other Asian countries such as the Islamic Republic of Iran also
featured in the top 10 largest populations within Canada’s total 7.9 million total foreign-born population in
2019.324 In 2017, Canada admitted over 286,000 new permanent residents, with India, the Philippines andChina representing the top three countries of origin.325
The estimated number of irregular migrants in the United States is thought to be lower than a decadeago, but remains much larger when compared with Canada. An estimated 10.5 million irregular migrants
were living in the United States in 2017, accounting for 3.2 per cent of the total population.326 The number

315 UN DESA, 2019a.
316 Ibid.
317 Zong, Batalova and Burrows, 2019.
318 UN DESA, 2019a.
319 Radford, 2019; UN DESA, 2019a.
320 Malik, 2015.
321 IIE, 2018.
322 UN DESA, 2019a.
323 Ibid.
324 Ibid.
325 IRCC, 2018.
326 Krogstad, Passel and Cohn, 2019.

112

Migration and migrants: Regional dimensions and developmentsof irregular migrants has been decreasing, falling from a high of 12.2 million in 2007.327 For the first time,
Mexicans comprised less than half (47%) of all undocumented migrants in the United States.328 The numberof Central American irregular migrants – most from the Northern Triangle countries of El Salvador, Guatemala
and Honduras – increased from 1.5 million in 2007 to 1.9 million in 2017.329 A significant number of adultirregular migrants in the United States are not new arrivals; more than 65 per cent of adults in 2017 had
lived in the United States for more than 10 years.330 Irregular migrants may enter the country withoutauthorization; however, a large number are visa overstayers who initially entered the United States regularly.
In the fiscal year 2018, for example, there were more than 600,000 foreigners who overstayed their visas
in the United States.331 Canada also has a significant number of irregular migrants, although estimates vary
widely, and accurate numbers are difficult to establish. However, in the two years prior to June 2019, morethan 45,000 migrants were reported to have crossed into Canada irregularly.332
The United States and Canada have resettled significant numbers of refugees, representing the twolargest resettlement countries in the world. In 2018, Canada resettled more refugees than the UnitedStates, the first time that the United States has not taken the lead globally. Out of the 92,400 refugees
resettled around the world in 2018, Canada admitted around 28,000, while the United States took in a little
less than 23,000.333 The number of refugees resettled in the United States has been declining over the last two
years; in 2016, for example, the United States admitted nearly 100,000 refugees.334 This number dramatically
dropped to 33,000 the following year.335 There has also been a significant increase in the number of UnitedStates citizens applying for asylum in Canada since 2016. In 2017 alone, more than 2,500 citizens of theUnited States applied for asylum in Canada,336 six times the number of applications in 2016 and the highest
number on record since Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) began reporting on the numberof asylum seekers more than two decades ago.337 The majority of asylum applications from United States’
citizens were made by children of parents without United States residency.338
Immigration policies in the United States have hardened, slowing immigration inflows andhumanitarian intakes. For example, in 2018, overall visa issuances for both immigrant and non-immigrants
declined for a second year in a row.339 More than 10 million non-immigrant visas were issued in 2016; bythe end of 2018, this number had fallen to a little over 9 million. The United States’ travel ban – which
first came into effect in January 2017 and originally included citizens of the Islamic Republic of Iran,Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, the Syrian Arab Republic and Yemen – has contributed to a reduction in thenumber of immigrants and visitors entering the United States. After it was challenged in court, the revised

327 Ibid.
328 Ibid.
329 Ibid.
330 Ibid.
331 United States Department of Homeland Security, 2018.
332 Connolly, 2019.
333 UNHCR, 2019a.
334 UNHCR, 2018a.
335 Ibid.
336 Patriquin, 2018.
337 Ibid.
338 Ibid.
339 United States Department of State, n.d.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

113

travel ban, which added more names to the list of banned countries, came into effect in September 2017.
It included the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the Bolivarian Republicof Venezuela, Chad, Yemen, Somalia and Libya, although Chad was later removed from the list.340 The mostcontroversial change began in June 2018, when the Government put into effect the so-called “zero-tolerance
policy”, applying to migrants, including asylum-seeking families crossing the United States border without
documentation. The policy was meant to serve as a punitive deterrent for irregular border crossing,341 and its
implementation led to the separation of over 2,600 children from their parents,342 but the public outcry thatensued forced the Government to quickly reverse course. Tougher immigration policies have come on the backof widespread anti-immigrant rhetoric, which has sought to characterize migrants as both a danger and drain
on United States society; conspiracy theories about immigration have also been widespread, creating an
atmosphere of mistrust and fear.343 A 2018 poll found that more than half of United States citizens believed
their Government to be withholding information on the real cost of immigration to society and taxpayers.344
Recent data also reveal that the number of hate crimes in the United States increased in 2017, with many
victims targeted because of their race or ethnicity.345
As immigration policies become more restrictive at the national level, “sanctuary cities” in the UnitedStates have stepped in, offering protection to undocumented migrants whose status puts them at riskof either being detained or deported. While the concept of sanctuary cities exists in other parts of theworld, it is most commonly applied in the United States, where many local jurisdictions – such as cities,
counties or States – are in open defiance of national immigration laws346 and have passed legislation aimed
at protecting undocumented residents.347 In 2018, California – the most populous state in the United States,
and with the largest number of undocumented migrants – signed into law statewide measures that limit local
law enforcement cooperation with federal authorities on immigration enforcement.348 Sanctuary cities havegenerated backlash from federal authorities, including attempts to punish jurisdictions that do not comply
with federal immigration ordinances.349

Oceania350
In 2019, around 7.7 million international migrants from outside Oceania were living in the region. As shownin figure 31 the foreign-born migrant population was primarily composed of people from Asia (49%) andEurope (38%). Throughout the last 30 years, the Asian migrant group has grown, while the number from
Europe has remained steady.

340 Chishti and Bolter, 2019.
341 OHCHR, 2018b.
342 Mittelstadt, 2018; Shapiro and Sharma, 2018.
343 Gaston and Uscinski, 2018.
344 Ibid.
345 FBI, 2018.
346 Duncan and Popp, 2017.
347 Bauder, 2016.
348 Raphelson, Hobson and Bentley, 2018.
349 Chishti and Bolter, 2019.
350 See appendix A for details on the composition of Oceania.

114

Migration and migrants: Regional dimensions and developments

Out of all of the six world regions, Oceania had the lowest number of migrants outside its region in 2019,
partly a reflection of the low total population size of the region, although there was an increase in their
number during the previous 30-year period. Most of those born in Oceania living outside the region resided
in Europe and Northern America.

Figure 31. Migrants to, within and from Oceania, 1990–2019
Migrants to Oceania

Migrants within Oceania

Migrants from Oceania

8

Migrant Stock (millions)

6

4

2

0
1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2019 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2019 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010 2015 2019Year

RegionAfricaEuropeNorthern America

Asia

Latin America andthe Caribbean

Oceania

Source: UN DESA, 2019a.
Note:“Migrants to Oceania” refers to migrants residing in the region (i.e. Oceania) who were born in one of the other regions(e.g. Europe or Asia). “Migrants within Oceania” refers to migrants born in the region (i.e. Oceania) and residing outside
their country of birth, but still within the Oceania region. “Migrants from Oceania” refers to people born in Oceania who
were residing outside the region (e.g. in Europe or Asia).

115

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

Several countries in Oceania have experienced significant changes in the size of their populations over thelast decade. The largest changes, as shown in figure 32, occurred in Vanuatu and Solomon Islands, whose
populations increased by around 30 per cent between 2009 and 2019. The population change in the rest of
the countries was also in terms of growth.

Figure 32. Countries with the largest proportional population change
in Oceania, 2009–2019
VanuatuSolomon Islands
Papua New Guinea
Kiribati
Australia
TuvaluNew Zealand
Micronesia (Federated States of)
Nauru
Samoa
0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

Source: UN DESA, 2019c.
Note:

It is important to note that the largest proportional population changes from 2009 to 2019 are more likely to occur incountries with relatively smaller populations.

The vast majority of international migrants in Oceania were living in either Australia or New Zealand (figure 33).
Most countries in the region have skewed migration profiles, being either large net origin or net destination
countries. For example, Tonga, Samoa and Fiji all have high counts of emigrants in comparison with theirnative population, and very low shares of foreign-born populations. Their emigrants were located primarily
in New Zealand and, to a lesser extent, in Australia. Australia and New Zealand have high shares of foreignborn populations as a portion of their total population, comprising around 29 per cent and 22 per cent,respectively.

116

Migration and migrants: Regional dimensions and developments

Figure 33. Oceania migrant countries in 2019
Migrants(millions)

Percentage of
population

Australia

New Zealand

Papua New Guinea

Immigrant
Emigrant
Fiji

Samoa

Tonga

0

2

4

6

75

50

25

0

25

Source: UN DESA, 2019a.
Note 1: The population size used to calculate the percentage of immigrants and emigrants is based on the UN DESA total resident
population of the country, which includes foreign-born populations.
Note 2: “Immigrant” refers to foreign-born migrants residing in the country. “Emigrant” refers to people born in the country whowere residing outside their country of birth in 2019.

Figure 34 with the top 10 migration corridors involving Oceania countries shows an accumulation of migratory
movements over time, and provides a snapshot of how migration patterns have evolved into significant
foreign-born populations in specific destination countries. Eight out of the 10 top migration corridors in
the region involve migrants to Australia, with the largest being of migrants from the United Kingdom. These117

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

larger corridors also include migrants from a variety of countries from outside Oceania – including China,
India, Viet Nam and the Philippines – many of which have experienced rapid population growth over recent
decades. Migrants from Oceania were more likely to end up within the region than in other regions. For
example, New Zealand had high shares of migrants abroad, with the vast majority residing in Australia.

Figure 34. Top 10 migration corridors involving Oceania countries, 2019
United Kingdom
Australia
China Australia
New Zealand Australia
India Australia

Migrants placeof residence
Northern
America

Philippines Australia
United Kingdom New Zealand

Oceania

Viet Nam Australia
Papua New Guinea Canada
Italy Australia
South Africa Australia
0.0

0.5

1.0

Migrants (millions)
Source: UN DESA, 2019a.
Note:

Corridors represent an accumulation of migratory movements over time and provide a snapshot of how migration patterns
have evolved into significant foreign-born populations in specific destination countries.

In 2018, Oceania hosted a little more than 126,000 refugees and asylum seekers. Australia was the largest
host country in this region, followed by Papua New Guinea and New Zealand. Most of the refugees in thesecountries originated from Asia, such as Indonesians in Papua New Guinea or Afghans and Iranians in Australia.
Globally, there were around 3,000 refugees and asylum seekers from countries in the Oceania region in 2018.

118

Migration and migrants: Regional dimensions and developments

Figure 35. Numbers of refugees and asylum seekers in and from Oceania countries, 2018

Australia

Location:
HostedAbroadPapua New Guinea
Status:RefugeesFiji

Asylum seekers
New Zealand

0

0.03

0.06

0.09

0.12

Persons (millions)

Source: UNHCR, n.d.
Note:

“Hosted” refers to those refugees and asylum seekers from other countries who are residing in the receiving country (righthand side of the figure); “abroad” refers to refugees and asylum seekers originating from that country who are outside of
their origin country. The figure is based on 2018 data and are calculated by combining refugees and asylum seekers in andfrom countries.

Most new internal displacements in Oceania in 2018 resulted from disasters, not conflict (see figure 36). Papua
New Guinea recorded the highest number of internal disaster displacements (61,000), which were largely
triggered by an earthquake. Other large displacements associated with disasters were recorded in the Northern
Mariana Islands (14,000), Vanuatu (13,000) and Australia (11,000). Volcanic activity led to most internal
displacements in Vanuatu, while in Australia, bush fires were responsible for most of the displacements
recorded in 2018. With 360 new conflict displacements, Papua New Guinea was the only country in Oceania
that experienced displacements driven by violence and conflict.

119

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

Figure 36. Top countries in Oceania by new internal displacements (disaster and conflict), 2018
Percentage of population

Thousands

Papua New Guinea
VanatuAustralia

DisasterTonga
New ZealandConﬂict

Solomon Islands
Fiji
Samoa
60

50

40

30

20

10

0

25

20

15

10

5

0

Source: IDMC, n.d.; UN DESA, 2017.
Notes: New displacements refers to the number of displacement movements that occurred in 2018, not the total accumulated
stock of IDPs resulting from displacement over time. New displacement figures include individuals who have been displaced
more than once and do not correspond to the number of people displaced during the year.
The population size used to calculate the percentage of new disaster and conflict displacements is based on the total
resident population of the country per 2017 UN DESA population estimates, and the percentage is for relative, illustrative
purposes only.

Key features and developments in Oceania
Annual net migration to both New Zealand and Australia has declined. In the year that ended November
2018, New Zealand had a net migration of a little over 51,000, slightly down from around 52,000 in the year
ending December 2017;351 estimates for Australia’s net overseas migration in the year ending June 2018 was
237,200 people, a 10 per cent drop from the year ending June 2017.352 The regions where migrants to Australia
are born have changed in recent years; since 2014, the largest number of immigrants have largely come from
Asia as opposed to traditional regions of origin, including Oceania and Europe.353 For example, the numberof migrant arrivals from South and Central Asia have now surpassed those from North-West Europe andOceania.354 In 2019, 30 per cent of Australia’s population was foreign born, in comparison with 21.3 per centin Canada and 15.4 per cent in the United States.355 The United Kingdom has consistently been the main
origin country of migrants in New Zealand for decades, with a notable increase in the number of Asian
migrants, particularly from China and India, as well as a considerable population of people from the Pacific351 Stats, New Zealand, 2019.
352 Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2019.
353 Ibid.
354 Ibid.
355 UN DESA, 2019a.

120

Migration and migrants: Regional dimensions and developments

Islands, including Fiji, Samoa and Tonga.356 In 2017, New Zealand’s foreign-born population constituted nearly
23 per cent of the country’s total population.357 In both Australia and New Zealand, there are a significant
number of temporary workers. Over 209,000 people were granted work visas in New Zealand in 2016/2017,an increase of 9 per cent from 2015/2016.358 The largest origin country of temporary migrant workers in New
Zealand was India in 2016/2017, followed by the United Kingdom, China and Germany.359 Both countries also
attract a large number of international students. The number of international students has increased since2012 in Australia, reaching a record high of nearly 700,000 in 2018,360 while there were over 91,000 student
visa holders in New Zealand in the year 2016/2017, with most students primarily from China and India.361
Both Australia and New Zealand participate in refugee resettlement. Australia’s refugee resettlement
programme is the third largest in the world, with nearly 13,000 refugees resettled in the country in 2018.362
Under Australia’s Humanitarian Program, an additional 12,000 humanitarian places were made available in2015 for people displaced by conflicts in the Syrian Arab Republic and Iraq.363 The number of places under
Australia’s Humanitarian Program rose to 16,250 in 2017/2018 and was expected to further increase to 18,750
place from 2018 to 2019.364 Australia’s policy is to transfer those who arrive irregularly by boat as asylum
seekers to offshore processing centres on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea and in Nauru.365 In July 2013,
Australia also announced that all persons arriving by boat and found to be in need of international protection
would not be resettled to Australia.366 As part of a 2016 bilateral resettlement arrangement between the
United States and Australia, the United States agreed to resettle up to 1,200 refugees from Nauru and Papua
New Guinea’s Manus Island.367 By early 2019, only around 500 refugees from these offshore processing centres
had been resettled in the United States under the arrangement.368 At the same time, around 1,000 of those
who were transferred to Manus Island and Nauru remain there, some of whom were experiencing severe
physical and mental health needs.369 New Zealand is also a refugee resettlement country, resettling 1,000
refugees annually through its Refugee Quota Programme.370 This also includes 250 places specifically set for
Syrian refugees in 2016/2017 and in 2017/2018.371 New Zealand has also established an additional quota of
300 places per year that allow extended family members of refugees in New Zealand to apply for Permanent
Residence.372

356 Ibid.
357 Ibid.
358 New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, 2018.
359 Ibid.
360 Australian Department of Education and Training, 2018.
361 New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, 2018.
362 UNHCR, 2019a.
363 Australian Department of Social Services, 2019.
364 Ibid.
365 Refugee Council of Australia, 2017.
366 Ibid.
367 Andrew and Renata Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law, 2019.
368 Davidson, 2019.
369 UNHCR, 2019e.
370 New Zealand Immigration, n.d.
371 UNHCR, 2018b.
372 Ibid.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

121

Economic challenges influence emigration from Pacific Island countries. Many Pacific Islands continue
to experience persistent challenges related to poverty and inequality. The Islands’ economic growth has also
been hampered by their remoteness or vast distances between them and larger markets, limited natural
resources and narrowly-based economies.373 Additionally, the subregion is experiencing a significant “youth
bulge”, with 70 per cent of the population in Solomon Islands, for example, under the age of 34.374 This
has resulted in a significant number of young people struggling with unemployment, leading to a highdegree of labour emigration. Since 2007, seasonal labour migration schemes have helped to relieve labour
shortages in the Pacific Islands, with the establishment of New Zealand’s Recognised Seasonal Employer
scheme and Australia’s Seasonal Worker Programme in 2012, aimed at meeting labour needs, mainly in thehorticulture and viticulture industries.375 Over 9,600 people from the Pacific Islands were granted visas under
New Zealand’s Recognised Seasonal Employer scheme during the 2017/2018 season and more than 8,000
under Australia’s Seasonal Worker Programme during the same season.376 In 2018, a new labour scheme,
the Pacific Labour Scheme (PLS), was established to fill gaps in low- and semi-skilled jobs in both rural andregional Australia.377 Importantly, while Australia and New Zealand remain the major destinations for labour
migrants from Pacific Islands, labour emigration from these Islands has diversified, with Fijians and Tongans,for example, increasingly moving to countries such as Japan.378
Environmental change and degradation are also among the array of factors influencing many PacificIslanders to migrate. The Pacific region is extremely vulnerable to natural hazards, some of which are linked
to climate change. Vulnerability to climate change and associated migration, displacement and planned
relocation varies among Pacific Island countries and territories. Half the population in Kiribati and Tuvalu
lives in overcrowded urban areas on atolls of narrow strips of coral with limited access to water and land.379
Incremental sea-level rise, saltwater intrusion and drought are important factors, among others, impacting
people’s decisions to migrate in the region, both internally and internationally.380 In this context, there isalso growing discussion around the need for the planned relocation of groups and communities.381 For example
Kiribati, one of the States most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, promoted the “Migration with
Dignity” policy as a long-term adaptation measure.382 The policy aims to facilitate both permanent andtemporary labour migration on a voluntary basis as a way of coping with the effects of climate change.383
Meanwhile, the Government of Fiji has been relocating people from several coastal villages that have been
identified as highly vulnerable to the impacts of environmental change and degradation.384

373 World Bank, 2019b.
374 Vanderwey, 2019.
375 ILO, 2019.
376 Ibid.
377 Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, 2019.
378 Ibid.
379 Curtain et al., 2016.
380 ESCAP, 2015.
381 See, for example, Georgetown University, n.d., for a range of resources on planned relocation.
382 Farbotko, 2018; Curtain and Dornan, 2019.
383 Ibid.
384 Ibid.

122

Migration and migrants: Regional dimensions and developments

Conclusion
This chapter has drawn on a wide range of statistics and information to provide regional overviews ofinternational migration around the world, with emphasis on changes occurring in calendar years 2017 and2018 (and drawing on material published up until the end June 2019). The chapter focused on six broad world
regions (Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, Northern America and Oceania), and provided
discussion of key issues as well as recent developments at the subregional level.
Overall, and as is highlighted by the graphs presented at the regional level, there are clear geographic
aspects to migration and displacement. A quick scan of figures in the chapter shows visually the significant
differences in migration patterns between regions: migration in Africa has been predominantly intraregional(from one African country to another) with migration also occurring to other regions of the world (fromAfrican to non-African countries), whereas in Latin America and the Caribbean, migration is dominated byemigration to other world regions, especially Northern America, with intraregional migration playing a more
limited role.
The addition of two regional graphs in this edition of the World Migration Report – one on population changeover a decade and one on new internal displacements for 2018 – highlights and reinforces some interesting
dynamics at the regional level. For example, we can see that, while the most significant proportional
population change over the last decade has been mostly in terms of growth, parts of Europe have experienced
significant population decline; this is exceptional globally, with no other region experiencing such results.
The curious anomaly of population decline, long-term emigration trends, ageing populations and hostility
toward immigration raises a number of strategic policy questions that some European countries will likely
face for years to come. At the same time, demographic challenges are being addressed in other parts of theworld, including in several North Asian countries, which are reassessing their approaches to immigration
with a keen eye to labour markets, meeting key occupation and sectoral needs and preparing further forageing populations. The addition of the new internal displacement graphs highlights the stark differences
between conflict-related displacement and disaster displacement globally, with strong variations evident at
the regional level.
At the subregional level, we can see that key features may remain largely the same from year to year,with only incremental change evident. It is, however, in the examination of recent developments that we
can see substantial change occurring in some areas of the world. In part, this change is due to significant
migration “events”, such as the large-scale outflow of people from the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, or
the mass displacement of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar. We are also seeing change occurring on migration
governance as subregions experience shifts in migration patterns and underlying population change. In North
Asia, for example, China established its first immigration agency, bringing together functions from a numberof agencies into one consolidated authority. Meanwhile, the Republic of Korea experienced large arrivals of
asylum seekers from the Middle East not previously seen before, prompting intense public debate on related
policy issues.
The regional differences and complexities, as well as recent developments, provide an important perspective
to understanding migration. So often, we read and hear about migration from a national perspective, mostcommonly in recent times portrayed as a critical (negative) domestic political issue. But this dominant focus
can mask the reality that migration patterns and processes are very closely linked to geography, and that key
regional features developed over decades, if not centuries, continue to play a central role in how and where
people migrate internationally. Greater recognition of regional and subregional migration patterns, variations
and complexities can assist in formulating strategic and sustainable policy responses.

124

Migration research and analysis: Growth, reach and recent contributions

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

4125

MIGRATION RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS: GROWTH,REACH AND RECENT CONTRIBUTIONSIntroduction
In its simplest form, public policy has been defined as “anything a government chooses to do or not to do”.1
Policymaking involves action through the setting of rules, laws, procedures, programmes, guidelines andother forms of regulation. But how do States decide on what should be regulated, and what should go into
those regulations? Questions of policy settings transcend political systems, although policymaking processes
vary across different types of systems.2 The “raw ingredients” of policymaking include evidence (statistics andother data, research and evaluation) as well as funding, public sector capability and political dynamics.3 In
migration policymaking, all ingredients are important; however, in recent years, we have seen the emphasison political dynamics grow, sometimes regardless of, or in contrast to, the existing evidence base. It is clear,
therefore, that the raw ingredients themselves are not enough to result in evidence-based policymaking, butthat the following conditions are required:4
1.

Evidence exists and is accessible to policymakers.

2.

Policymakers are motivated to use evidence.

3.

Policymakers have the capacity to use evidence.

4.

Policymakers and policymaking bodies have relationships that facilitate the relevance and use of evidence.

This chapter on migration research and analysis is focused on point 1 above – for without statistics and otherdata and research on migration, any attempts at evidence-based decision-making are futile. The evidence forpolicymaking that originates from rigorous analysis and research on migration is the prime source and starting
point for migration policymakers. It is also fundamental to migration practitioners, students, scholars andthe public, as they examine aspects of migration and how they might be changing. A key challenge for manyis how to determine the relevance and quality of an ever-growing body of migration research and analysis. It
can often be overwhelming to identify what is important, and what should be afforded weight, when facedwith virtual mountains of research output. This chapter is aimed in particular at those who would benefit
from some broad guidance on this topic. It provides an overview of research and analysis on migration being
undertaken and published by a range of actors – such as academics, governments, and intergovernmental
and non-governmental organizations – by building on the foundational chapter of the same name in theWorld Migration Report 2018.5 Understanding the variety, nature and characteristics of the different types

1
2
3
4
5

Dye, 1972.
Acemoglu and Robinson 2000; Duckett and Wang, 2017.
Hewlett Foundation, 2018.
Ibid.
This topic first appeared in the World Migration Report 2018 (IOM, 2017e), and will be repeated in future editions.

126

Migration research and analysis: Growth, reach and recent contributionsof research and analysis being produced on migration is important for those working on migration policies,
studying migration, or wanting to develop an informed opinion on migration.
It is important to highlight at the outset that there are fundamental differences in the publishing processes
for academic and non-academic material, and each has its strengths and weaknesses. The academic publishingsystem is largely focused on producing journal articles and books. This process typically involves multi-stage
reviews and editorial comments involving authors, editors and reviewers. Most published academic research(“white” literature) is behind paywalls (that is, not freely accessible), and often managed by commercial
publishers. In contrast, the production of research and analysis publications outside of academic publishing(“grey” literature) generally involves faster and simpler processes that are typically, although not always,
characterized by more limited peer review. Contributions from grey literature (such as research reports, working
papers and government/official documents) are usually freely available. A report such as this, designed tocontribute to our collective understanding of migration and mobility in an increasingly interconnected world,
would clearly be incomplete without describing the role of grey literature, which has been “recognized as a
key source of evidence, argument, innovation, and understanding”.6
The volume, diversity and growth of both white and grey literature preclude a systematic review of all thematerial produced and published on migration in 2017 and 2018. Instead, this chapter highlights examples
of key contributions made during this period, published in English by a selection of academic journals andintergovernmental organizations. It provides an update to the chapter in World Migration Report 2018, including
by focusing on different academic journals and intergovernmental organizations, and their key output in 2017and 2018.7 The next section provides an overview of the different actors involved in migration research andanalysis. The third section features recent, selected contributions from academia and intergovernmentalorganizations, and the reach and impact of some of the migration research materials published.

Main producers of migration research and analysis
Academia
Ideally, researchers create new knowledge that is supported by strong evidence and is useful for others.
Research findings are produced for, and disseminated to, different target audiences. Traditional academic work
can be highly technical and narrowly focused, although academic researchers are increasingly encouraged
to disseminate their work beyond academic spheres.8 Researchers analysing policy-relevant issues are often
keen to engage with policymakers to impart knowledge that can inform policy deliberations and help shapepolicymaking – this is especially the case with migration. Effective research contributions for policy audiences
tend to take the form of short papers and blog articles, as well as policy workshops and interactive expert
meetings.

6
7
8

GreyNet International, 2014.
In order to ensure, to the extent possible, that this chapter provides a comprehensive “stand-alone” overview of migration research
and analysis in 2017 and 2018, we have drawn upon key background and context material included in the World Migration Report2018 (chapter 4).
McAuliffe, 2016.

127

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

In academia, the main focus is on publishing, with some forms (such as academic journals) having muchgreater credibility and weight than others. A key strength of academic publications is that they have usually
been peer reviewed by experts in the field, which typically enhances their quality. The growing number ofpublishing outlets is, however, characterized by a wide range of peer review standards. Arguably, one of
the weaknesses of academic research is that the pressure to publish has contributed to a large increase inacademic output in recent years, not always of high-quality material. Appendix A provides a summary ofacademic publishing, including details of peer-review processes, citations and impact assessment.
Within the many thousands of journals currently being produced – covering all disciplines, topics and research
fields9 – we identified over 130 migration-related journals publishing in English, French or Spanish, a list ofwhich is published on the research page of the IOM website as a resource for students and others conducting
migration research (www.iom.int/migration-research). Mainstream academic publishers tend to publish in
English, which has the advantage of standardizing outputs but the downside of excluding those who are notable to submit manuscripts with an acceptable level of English.
Recent academic output on migration comprises mainly journal articles (see figure 1). The long-term trend
shows a gradual increase in academic publishing on migration, which is likely to be related to both thegeneral expansion of academic literature production, and the increased prominence of migration research.

Figure 1. Number of academic publications on “immigration” OR “emigration”
2,500

2,000

1,500

1,000

500

0

2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

Books

Articles

Source: Scopus, Available at www.scopus.com (accessed 18 June 2019).
Note:

9

Querying the term “migration” alone returns figures that are more than 10 times higher. However, these include use of
the term “migration” in disciplines that are irrelevant to the current research, such as computer science (data migration),
biology (cell migration), zoology (bird or fish migration) and many others. Using the Scopus advanced search, we excluded
subject areas such as chemistry, physics, astronomy, neuroscience and so forth.

Ware and Mabe, 2015.

128

Migration research and analysis: Growth, reach and recent contributions

Governments
Historically, government administrative data on persons entering and/or leaving a country’s territory
constitute the earliest sources of information on international migration.10 The earliest scholarly work on
migration in the modern era, however, was on internal migration dynamics based on national census datacollected by authorities in the United Kingdom.11 To this day, data enumerated by population censuses,
population registers, representative surveys and other official statistical sources often constitute the basis
for migration-related databases. The centrality of migration-related data within a government context is
recognized, for example, by the IOM Development Fund, which supports (among other things) capacitybuilding of Member States on migration-related statistics.
Beyond statistical data collection, administration and reporting, some governments are also significant
contributors of information on migration, particularly in the form of policy-related materials, such as
evaluations, studies and discussion papers. They may also commission research with partners in academia,
applied researchers, intergovernmental organizations and think tanks. The increasing relevance of migration
has led to governments providing funding for empirical work directly (rather than indirectly through national
research councils, funds or grant bodies), thereby opening up new research areas and broadening the scopeof migration studies.12 This has led to some criticism of government-commissioned research being overly
focused on policy issues and for, at times, suggesting “simplistic, short-term remedies to complex, long-termsocial issues”,13 or of researchers being used to legitimize immigration policy.14 While this may be a valid
concern, especially for commissioned research, governments continue to be significant funders (if not themost significant) of academic research in many countries, including of research on migration. There are,however, different ways research is funded and supported – some examples are provided in table 1.
There has been some evidence of researchers being pressured into “produc[ing] politically useful results”
in policy-related research more generally.15 Understandably, issues addressed in government-commissioned
dedicated migration research vary widely, and can depend on the countries’ role in the migration process.16
Equally, there is recognition that policy-irrelevant research is also crucial – particularly migration researchthat looks beyond the policy frames of reference to explore less visible aspects of migration.17 It is also
important to note that research commissioned by governments can provide useful and rigorous examinationsof migration – particularly in partnership with academic and other researchers, who can bring different
perspectives, knowledge and analytical approaches to the examination of complex, multi-faceted migration
issues, including by drawing upon administrative data that might not otherwise be accessible.

10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17

Poulain, Perrin and Singleton, 2006.
Ravenstein, 1885.
Castles, 2010.
Ibid.
Boswell, 2008.
The LSE GV314 Group, 2014.
Iredale et al., 2001.
Bakewell, 2008.

129

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

Table 1. Examples of government funding of migration research
ExampleDescription

Council for theDevelopment of Social
Science Research in Africa

Funded by multiple donors and focusing on producing social science
research in Africa, including on the links between migration andurbanization(see www.codesria.org/spip.php?rubrique193).

Horizon 2020
(European Union)

Largest research platform to date, focusing on the impact of migrationand integration, as well as migration and development(see https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/whathorizon-2020).

India Centre for Migration

Funded by the Ministry of External Affairs and conducting research oninternational migration that informs policymaking, including on theinternational labour migration of Indians(see https://mea.gov.in/icm.htm).

Irregular Migration
and Border Research
Programme (Australia)

Producing policy-relevant research on the complex dynamics and driversof irregular migration and the challenges of border management(see www.homeaffairs.gov.au/research-and-statistics/research/irregular-migration).

Social Sciences andHumanities ResearchCouncil Insight Program(Canada)Federal research funding program supporting research that enhances
understanding of people, societies and the world, including on
migration(see www.sshrc-crsh.gc.ca/funding-financement/umbrella_programsprogramme_cadre/insight-savoir-eng.aspx).

Swiss Network ofInternational Studies

Funding for interdisciplinary academic research in Switzerland on topics
transcending nation-State boundaries, including migration(see https://snis.ch/).

UK Research and Innovation

Range of funding support for research and innovation, such as the
Global Challenges Research Fund, a GBP 1.5 billion fund to promoteresearch on the challenges faced by developing countries, including
migration(see www.ukri.org/research/).

Note:

All hyperlinks were operating at the time of publication.

130

Migration research and analysis: Growth, reach and recent contributions

Think tanks and governments
The role of think tanks in informing migration policymaking is capturing increasing political andacademic attention. As major contributors to grey literature, and in an era of increasing contestabilityof policy advice to governments, think tanks have emerged as important producers of migrationrelated information and analysis. The increasing prevalence of think tanks working on migration wasquantified in World Migration Report 2018.
Think tanks are often associated with governments because, among other reasons,  many aim to linkscientific and policy communities by a range of activities, such as dialogues, workshops and closed
meetings conducted under the Chatham House Rule. Think tanks may also undertake research andpresent it to governments in the form of analytical briefings (published and unpublished). Think tanks
tend to act as brokers of policy knowledge, centres of research and incubators of new ideas, including by
providing advisory services to governments and civil society, conducting training activities, publishingresearch reports, collaborating with the media, and undertaking advocacy work.a Many thinks tanks
produce high-quality work and thus play an important role in generating and disseminating new dataand information about migration.b Not all think tanks operate in the same way, however; some are
independent and do not rely on government funding, while others may operate as part of broader
State functions and authorities.
Although think tanks often portray themselves as experts providing evidence-based information andanalysis, some are driven by political ideologies and agendas.c Some of them work directly for, anddevelop close relationships with, governments or specific political parties, as advisors or helping
drafting legislative reform agendas on immigration.d Politicization of some think tanks can resultin biased and ideologically-grounded information.e There is a risk that some think tanks promoteanti-immigration narratives and restrictive immigration policies to large audiences, especially whenmaterial produced is then relayed by news and other media.f
a
b
c
d
e
f

Rich, 2004.
Carling, 2016.
Troy, 2012.
Rojc, 2017; FAIR, 2017; Lopez, 2016.
Langerak, 2010; Woods and Manning, 2015.
Ellis, 2017.

Intergovernmental organizations
As publishers and institutional authors, intergovernmental organizations make specific contributions on
migration. In some circumstances, such organizations may be the only source of information, and multiplereferences to publications by intergovernmental organizations are therefore often found in academic
literature. A commercially published edited volume or article on an aspect of international migration or
displacement, for example, can typically refer to material from the United Nations Department of Economic
and Social Affairs (UN DESA), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), IOM, theWORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

131

International Labour Organization (ILO), the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human
Rights (OHCHR), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime(UNODC), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Educational, Scientificand Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and/or the World Bank, among others. Scholarly publications note thatintergovernmental organizations are now among the main producers of information on migration, whichreflects a broader growing interest in the issue of migration.18
Although definitions of intergovernmental organizations may vary, Davies and Woodward define the term
as “formal, continuous structures founded by an authoritative instrument of agreement between members(including two or more sovereign states) or an existing international organization through which members
pursue their common interest”.19 Since the first half of the last century, the number, diversity and influenceof intergovernmental organizations have grown,20 so much so that a systematic review of contributions on
migration by such organizations is well beyond the scope of this chapter. The focus of this chapter is on global
contributors within the United Nations system – UN DESA, UNHCR, IOM, ILO, OHCHR, UNICEF, UNODC, UNDP,UNESCO and the World Bank – which in no way diminishes the work of other organizations, including those
operating at a regional or national level.21 As programmes or units within the principal organs of the United
Nations or semi-autonomous, specialized or related agencies, the intergovernmental organizations discussed
in this chapter all have global reach, access to the inputs and expertise of diverse stakeholders and, in somecases, global operations that enable them to shape discourse and practice on migration and mobility.
The mandates, missions or competencies of some of the organizations (such as IOM and UNHCR) are focusedon specific forms of migration and displacement, while others have responsibilities relevant to particular
aspects or groups of people: UN DESA for data; ILO for migrant workers; OHCHR for migrants’ rights; UNICEF
for migrant children; UNODC for transnational criminal aspects (such as human trafficking and migrantsmuggling); UNDP for migration and development; UNESCO for the educational, scientific and cultural aspectsof migration; and the World Bank for economic implications of migration. Their various mandates enable
such intergovernmental organizations to collect significant quantities of data and/or access data from States.
Many of these organizations also convene and report on dialogues and conferences related to migrationand mobility, in addition to generating and publishing background, technical, operational, state-of-the-art
and agenda-setting research and analysis, including on global statistical data. As with other publishers,intergovernmental organizations are not immune to criticism related to quality, framing and agenda-setting.
However, there is clearly also recognition of the responsibility of producing rigorous and robust data andresearch. Intergovernmental organizations, for example, routinely work in collaboration with leading
migration-related data analysts and researchers as a means of drawing on critical skills and expertise.
Given the cross-cutting nature of migration, research on the topic is often undertaken jointly byintergovernmental organizations. Many publications were released under the aegis of the Global Migration
Group (GMG) which, prior to its transition in late 2018 to the United Nations Network on Migration, consisted
18
19
20
21

See, for example, Mason, 1999; Pécoud, 2015.
Davies and Woodward, 2014.
Ibid.
Other organizations – such as the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Human
Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat), the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the United
Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) andthe International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) – also publish material on aspects of migration, according to the thematic
perspectives of their respective mandates. Future editions of the World Migration Report are expected to highlight some of thegrowing body of work by not-for-profit and for-profit international non-governmental organizations, which is beyond the scope of
this chapter.

132

Migration research and analysis: Growth, reach and recent contributionsof 22 member agencies working on migration.22 The importance of collaborative research on migration wasrecently highlighted in the report of the United Nations Joint Inspection Unit (JIU) Strengthening Policy
Research Uptake in the Context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, published in 2018.23 While
the report is more broadly concerned with policy research within the United Nations system, it features a casestudy on migration that maps collaboration on migration research among 14 JIU participating organizations,as well as IOM (see the text box below).

Collaborative research on migration in the United Nations system
Excerpt of the JIU report Strengthening Policy Research Uptake in the Context of the 2030 Agenda for
Sustainable Developmenta…the Inspector map[ped] the pattern of inter-agency collaborative research [on migration]. The
mapping was based on the responses to a specific question about the organizations’ engagement
in any form of cooperation with other United Nations entities prior to, during and after the research
process. This mapping is not exhaustive, but it presents a sample of such interaction. The 15 available
examples of inter-agency collaborative research are summarized in [the] table below, while [the]figure illustrates the relationships of the co-authors.
Samples of inter-agency collaborations in research projects on migration:
Projects

Collaborating organizations

Management of refugee data

DESA, UNHCR

Co-custody of [Sustainable Development Goal] indicator
10.7.2 on countries with well managed migration policies

DESA, IOM

The 2018 Report on “Migration and Structural
Transformation”

UNCTAD, IOM

Impact of foreign direct investment by diaspora in Tunisia

UNDP, IOM

Six-country study on access to economic opportunities forpeople affected by the Syrian crisis

UNDP, ILO, WFP

Report on “Violence against women migrant workers”

UN-Women, ILO, IOM, UNHCR,
OHCHR

Study “At the Root of Exodus: Food Security, Conflict andInternational Migration”

WFP, IOM, FAO

Joint analysis of data for the “Migration Pulse” initiative

WFP, IOM, FAO, World Bank

22 Discussion of GMG and the United Nations Network on Migration are included in chapter 11 of this report on global migration
governance.
23 Dumitriu, 2018.

133

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

Projects

Collaborating organizations

The 2017 publication “Migration, Free Movement andRegional Integration”

UNESCO, UNU-CRIS

The 2019 Global Education Monitoring report on migration,
displacement and education

UNESCO, IOM, UNHCR, UNICEF“Breaking the Impasse” study

OCHA, UNHCR, UNDP, IOM

Preliminary discussion on taking forward projects on
migration

UNRISD, IOM

Research initiative on migration governance and policy in the
Global SouthUNU-WIDER, FAO

Research projects related to migration and displacement in
the context of the climate change

UNU-EHS, IOM, UNHCR, UNDP

Collective contributions to the research outcomes of the
Global Management GroupDESA, UNDP, UNESCO, ESCAP,
ESCWA, UNU, IOM (GMG)

UNRISD
ESCWA
ESCAP
UNU

OCHA

IOM

UNESCO
ILO

FAO

UNDP
UNHCR

(GMG)
UNDESAUNCTADWFP
UN WOMENAs limited in size as is, the above sample of cases, corroborated with information extracted frominterviews, allowed the Inspector to note:(a) The collaborative research reflects by and large the necessity to add the interdisciplinary
perspective to research activities;(b) The collaboration scheme is more the result of separate initiatives and case-by-case needs
than a systematic process of collaboration, characterized by joint agenda-setting, knowledgesharing, co-design and co-production of research based on the specific mandates and expertiseof interested organisations;

134

Migration research and analysis: Growth, reach and recent contributions(c) While various undertakings do not necessarily converge into the same directions, there arethree vectors indicating an emerging trend for a more systematic collaborative research:• the presence of IOM, as a specialized partner, in most of the collaborations identified;• the role of DESA and IOM as co-custodians of indicator 10.7.2 on migrations, which indicatesan option towards a more systematic and demand-driven approach of policy research;• the use of a group for collective reflection, action and enhanced coherence.
a Inspector Petru Dumitriu. Full report can be accessed at www.unjiu.org/sites/www.unjiu.org/files/jiu_rep_2018_7_
english_0.pdf.

IOM produces a large number of research and analysis publications on migration. Given the Organization’s
focus on the provision of technical assistance and direct support to migrants and Member States, publications
produced by IOM outside the realm of research and analysis typically include corporate reports (such as
meeting/workshop reports and Migration Initiatives), training materials, handbooks and guides, andinformation materials for migrants (including graphic novels). It is worth acknowledging the mandate andcontext within which IOM operates, as well as its status as a United Nations-related organization.24 IOM’s
role as a service delivery agency over almost 70 years has necessarily shaped how it articulates aspects of
migration, including the links between its operations and migration practice, as well as migration policy
and governance. Programmatic data, for example, have been a mainstay of IOM migration data – a reflectionof IOM’s strong and enduring role in migration and displacement, including, for example, the support ofinternally displaced persons, the resettlement of refugees globally, health assessments, assistance to victimsof human trafficking, and support to migrants returning home. Concomitantly, IOM has long recognized theneed to support more nuanced understandings of migration, including through its focus on specific thematic
areas, such as migration health and environmental migration.

Recent contributions: 2017 and 2018 in focus
Having described the main producers of migration research and analysis, we now turn to a discussion of
examples of recent contributions by academia and intergovernmental organizations.
Academia
The large number of scholarly publications on migration precludes a review of all material published in 2017and 2018. We instead examine a sample of contributions from the scholarly community, focusing on eightpeer-reviewed migration-related journals. The previous edition of the World Migration Report featured different
journals, as will future ones. For this chapter, we focused on the International Journal of Migration and BorderStudies, International Migration, the International Migration Review, the Journal of Immigrant and Refugee

24 IOM was established as an intergovernmental organization in 1951 and became a United Nations-related organization in September
2016.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

135

Studies, the Journal on Migration and Human Security, Migration Studies, the Refugee Survey Quarterly, andthe Revue européenne des migrations internationales.25 The examination comprised two components: analysisof all article titles published by these journals in 2017 and 2018 (totalling 493 articles); and editors’ overviewsof their journals’ key contributions for this two-year period. This exercise allowed for deeper insights into
journal contributions, highlighting their similarities as well as different interests and areas of focus, including
thematically and geographically. Each editor’s overview is provided in full in appendix B. Excerpts of journal
editors’ overviews are included in text boxes throughout the remainder of this chapter.
All journal editors emphasized the importance of rigorous and high-quality research on migration; however,relevance of scientific/academic writings for policymakers emerged as an important aspect for only somejournals. Two editors emphasized the importance of contributions tackling policy-relevant issues in the fieldof migration (Gamlen and Chetail – see appendix B). This was noted as expanding the “growing community of
migration experts” who are in turn “contributing to public life by informing and impacting the thoughts anddecisions of politicians, policymakers and practitioners of migration policy at every level, from local NGOs, tomunicipal governments, to national governments and international organizations” (Gamlen – see appendix
B). In addition, policymakers were specifically identified as falling within the target audience of two otherjournals (Duncan and Kerwin – see appendix B). The content of these journals is designed to appeal to apolicy audience: one journal requires each contribution to start with an executive summary and set out aseries of policy recommendations at the end (Kerwin – see appendix B), while the other journal introduced
occasional interviews with senior policy officials (Duncan – see appendix B).

Migration Studies
Through scholarship that is policy-relevant but not policy-driven, Migration Studies is one of a rangeof academic journals contributing to building migration management capacity in communities
and governments around the world. The past several years have seen a worldwide proliferation of
graduate programmes and think tanks specializing in migration issues. At the same time, the rising
political salience of migration has created a growing need for policymakers, journalists and NGO
professionals in other areas to gain working familiarity with migration issues. In view of these trends,
in the past two years, Migration Studies has run two series intended to contribute to the theory andpractice of higher education on this topic.
Source: Alan Gamlen, Editor-in-Chief. The full submission is in appendix B.

The analysis of the thematic focus of articles published in the selected journals in 2017 and 2018 in part
relates to the specific, narrower focus of some of the journals. The Refugee Survey Quarterly, for example, isprimarily on refugee research (Chetail – see appendix B), while the Journal of Immigrant and Refugee Studies
covers labour migrants and asylum seekers/refugees (Triandafyllidou – see appendix B). The editors of theInternational Migration Review note that “beyond a general focus on international migrants, we find equal
25 We have attempted to provide geographic diversity in the contributions obtained from the main migration journals. This exercise
will be repeated in future editions of the World Migration Report, for which other journals will be invited to provide input. Tenjournals were invited to contribute to this edition, and editors of nine journals replied positively, while only eight ended up providing
input. Editors of Georgetown Immigration Law Journal accepted the invitation but did not end up contributing, and Migraciones
internacionales did not reply to the initial invitation.

136

Migration research and analysis: Growth, reach and recent contributions

attention to native-born and second-generation groups, a critical mass of articles focus on immigrant youth,
but far less work on refugees” (Winders et al. – see appendix B).
Nevertheless, the topics covered in the articles published in these eight journals in 2017 and 2018 arediverse and address complex migration issues. They also reflect new developments and trends in migration,
acknowledging some delay effect due to the time frame required for peer review and publication (Duncan– see appendix B). For instance, among the 2017 and 2018 contributions, only three articles addressed the
Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration and the Global Compact on Refugees initiated in
September 2016 by the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants and adopted in December 2018. We
expect that many more articles on the two compacts will be published in 2019 and 2020 (and beyond).

International Migration
The academic literature on migration responds in part to trends in migration phenomena and policy
as well as to shifts in migration-related theory and previously published literature. Normally, there is adiscernible time lag between the onset of a phenomenon and the appearance of scientific literature,
this owing to the time required for research and then for publishing. The literature on the Syrian
refugee crisis is now beginning to appear in significant amounts, and we can expect that the literatureon the United Nations’ Global Compacts will start appearing in 2019. But looking back only slightly, to2017–2018, we see discussions of earlier trends and phenomena […].
Source: Howard Duncan, Editor. The full submission is in appendix B.

That said, two main themes reflecting complex migration issues emerge from editors’ contributions. The
first topic is irregular migration, including in relation to border controls and enforcement. Editors of threejournals identified this theme as particularly salient in the 2017 and 2018 contributions, covering issues
ranging from human trafficking (Triandafyllidou – see appendix B), to border violence (Ma Ming and Petit –see appendix B), or detention and deportation (Kerwin – see appendix B). As “asylum and migration havebecome increasingly blurred in the past decades in both policy and practice”, this topic was also addressed inresearch on forced migration, most notably through the securitization of asylum and the detention of asylum
seekers (Chetail – see appendix B).

Revue européenne des migrations internationales
The issue of violence is a recurring theme in the latest dossiers. The importance of this issue reflects
the tragic consequences of migration policies in particular contexts or crises, and the emergence ofwork around migrants’ journeys. […] Considering language practices as an integral part of migration
practices in the context of migration to Europe, the articles analyse how the actors put into words
death and violence at borders. Death is considered in multiple dimensions: social death, physicaldeath, disappearance, institutional and security arbitrariness, etc. These language practices are

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

137

understood at different sociological and political levels, whether it is their production from institutional
spaces (international organisations, political spaces at European or state level) or their reception by
migrants, during their life in Europe or afterwards when they arrive there, or when they return totheir country after an expulsion. The language approach, corresponding both to a consideration of
the discourses produced on migrants and of the narratives taken by migrants in plural discursive
frameworks. This perspective makes it possible to think of the border object while offering a grid forinterpreting socio-spatial inequalities in the era of globalization.
Source: Emmanuel Ma Mung and Véronique Petit, Chief Editors. The full submission is in appendix B.

The second topic of convergence across the selected articles is migrants’ inclusion, which was identified byeditors of four journals as a prominent thematic focus in 2017 and 2018 (Gamlen, Triandafyllidou, Winders
et al., and Ma Mung and Petit – see appendix B). The diversity of issues related to inclusion addressed inthese four journals reflects the complexity of the topic. Contributions to the Journal of Immigrant andRefugee Studies analysed integration processes, including the role of non-governmental and governmentalorganizations, integration barriers and the gender dimension of integration (Triandafyllidou – see appendix
B). The issue of labour market incorporation was more particularly examined in Migration Studies, together
with wider adaptation processes in terms of class, capital accumulation and happiness (Gamlen – see appendix
B). The International Migration Review featured articles on assimilation, economic mobility and interpersonal
contacts (Winders et al. – see appendix B), while contributions to the Revue européenne des migrations
internationales approached inclusion through migrants’ perspectives.

Journal of Immigrant and Refugee Studies
The JIRS offers a unique virtual transnational space where different systems of reception and integrationand different populations coming into the host countries under a variety of regimes (labour or family
migrants, asylum seekers or resettled refugees) may face similar challenges (including that of mental
and physical health), learning the ropes in their new environment, activating their social capital
resources, and eventually carving a place for themselves in their destination country, are discussed.
The double background of the JIRS from social work/community studies, and from sociology/ethnic
studies pays well in bringing these different topics together.
Source: Anna Triandafyllidou, Editor-in-Chief. The full submission is in appendix B.

Figure 2 shows the distribution of the 493 articles published in 2017 and 2018 in the selected journals
according to their geographic focus. The greater proportion of articles focused on Europe (233 or 47 %),followed by Northern America (153 or 31 %), Asia (150 or 30 %), Africa (107 or 22 %), Latin America and the
Caribbean (89 or 18%) and Oceania (34 or 7 %).

138

Migration research and analysis: Growth, reach and recent contributions

Figure 2. Number of articles published by selected journals in 2017 and 2018, by region

Number of articles

250
200
150
100
50
0
AfricaAsia

EuropeLAC

Northern America

Oceania

Notes: Articles could be classified in more than one region. n=493.
“LAC” means Latin America and the Caribbean. Categorization based on UN DESA geographic regions (see chapter 3
appendix A for details), not implying official endorsement or acceptance by IOM.

One editor noted a shift of geographical focus from North America to Europe, Asia and the Pacific, as well asSouth-East Asia, with “a clear increase in recent years of articles focusing on the Middle East and particularly
on Turkey, and the Syrian conflict” (Triandafyllidou – see appendix B). Broadening the geographical coverageof contributions to provide more articles on developing country issues was described as a new approach by
one editor to better account for the fact that “the vast majority of refugees are hosted in the Global South”(Chetail – see appendix B). Editors of two other journals noted that increasing the geographic scope ofarticles was an objective for their journals (Kerwin and Winders et al. – see appendix B).

International Migration Review
A close examination of IMR publications since 2016 (about 100 articles) identifies a number of trends.aFirst, in terms of geography, around 80% of articles focus on North America or Western Europe, witha significantly smaller percentage focused on Asia (just over 10%) and an even smaller number on
Latin America, the Middle East, or Africa. This uneven geographic coverage reflects one of the main
shortcomings of migration studies – limited attention to migration dynamics beyond North America
and Western Europe. It also highlights the challenges that scholars writing about the wider geographyof international migration face in attempts to situate their work in relation to hegemonic perspectives
about two global regions.
a This discussion is based on articles officially published in an IMR volume. It does not consider articles published “earlyview” online but not yet assigned to a journal volume.
Source: Jamie Winders, Pieter Bevelander, Cynthia Feliciano, Filiz Garip and Matthew Hall, Associate Editors. The full submission
is in appendix B.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

139

However, so far, there remains a dominant “receiving country” perspective, especially in relation to Europe.
This was already observed in chapter 4 of the World Migration Report 2018, where Europe was the only
geographical term among the 10 terms most frequently used in the 538 articles under consideration.26
Referred to by Castles as the “receiving country bias”, the traditional focus of migration research andanalysis on developed countries is explained: “Most migration research has taken the situation in northern
destination countries as its starting point, neglecting the perspectives of origin and transit countries, andof migrants. This is not surprising, since research funding and capacities are concentrated in the North.”27
The concentration of research funding in wealthy industrialized States not only affects the geographic focusof research, it also acts to build research skills and capacities within donor countries at the expense ofdeveloping country researchers.28 For example, while there were some 3,000 researchers for every 1 million
people in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries as of 2007, fewer than
50 researchers for every 1 million persons were accounted for in sub-Saharan Africa.29

Refugee Survey Quarterly
One of the main challenges for the years to come will be to further diversify the geographical origin ofcontributors to the Refugee Survey Quarterly. While efforts have been made in this sense in the past
years, submissions are still dominated by scholars from the Global North. This is not peculiar to the
Refugee Survey Quarterly, but more broadly reflects the prevailing biases in academic research andpublications. In this field like in many others, the production of knowledge remains largely structuredby the Western-centric priorities of research funding that is financed by wealthy states and fuelledby the dominant discourse of the governing elites. This trend is further exacerbated by the enduring
misperceptions spread by mass media, as illustrated by the rhetoric – if not the obsession – about theso-called refugee crisis in Europe. While it may have less implications in other fields, the geographicalrepresentation of researchers is particularly crucial in migration to account for the multifaceted
dimensions and challenges of such a worldwide phenomenon that concerns every region of theworld. There is more than ever a vital need for developing a more nuanced, representative andcomprehensive understanding of migration through independent and evidence-based knowledge.
Source: Vincent Chetail, Editor-in-Chief. The full submission is in appendix B.

A geographic comparison of the primary affiliations of authors as reported in the articles they published in
the selected journals in 2017 and 2018 confirms that a disproportionately high number of contributors arefrom institutions in developed countries (see figure 3). Of the 917 authors, 84 per cent were affiliated withinstitutions in developed countries. Almost 43 per cent were affiliated with institutions based in Europe, and36 per cent in Northern America. Of the 6 per cent affiliated with institutions in Oceania, nearly 91 per centof these institutions were based in Australia or New Zealand.

26
27
28
29

IOM, 2017e.
Castles, 2010.
McAuliffe and Laczko, 2016.
Ibid., citing DFID, 2008.

140

Migration research and analysis: Growth, reach and recent contributions

Figure 3. Distribution of primary academic affiliations of authors by selected journals
in 2017 and 2018, by region
50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%
AfricaAsia

EuropeLAC

Northern America

Oceania

Notes: Multiple categories were applied when an author had multiple academic affiliations in different regions.
Affiliations of authors from international or non-governmental organizations are not included. n=917.
“LAC” means Latin America and the Caribbean. Categorization based on UN DESA geographic regions (see chapter 3
appendix A for details), not implying official endorsement or acceptance by IOM.

While fewer than 12 per cent were affiliated with institutions in Asia, researchers from institutions in
Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean are particularly underrepresented (accounting for, respectively,
approximately 3% and 2%). This may also be explained in part by language barriers, noting the dominanceof English language academic journals over other languages.30 It is important to note, however, that figure 3
only accounts for authors’ affiliations as published in the articles under consideration. Many academics havemultiple affiliations and some may choose to publish under a (more prestigious) affiliation that may not be
the author’s main institution.

International Journal of Migration and Border Studies
The IJMBS contributed to the understanding of how the logics of borders are confronted
by migrant realities and everyday experiences. Research has documented the increasingly
protracted nature of migrants’ journeys. Being in transit has become the daily lived reality ofmany people on the move. Accordingly, special attention was paid by IJMBS to the concept oftransit as a space constructed through mobility restrictions regimes and the above-mentioned
systems of reciprocal conditionalities.
Source: Idil Atak, Editor-in-Chief. The full submission is in appendix B.

30 See IOM’s lists of migration journals in Spanish and French, respectively, Available at www.iom.int/sites/default/files/our_work/ICP/
MPR/Migration-Journals-ES.pdf and www.iom.int/sites/default/files/our_work/ICP/MPR/Migration-Journals-FR.pdf (both accessed
18 June 2019).

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

141

Plan S: The future of open access for scientific research?
Plan S is an open access initiative of Science Europe and the Open Access Envoy of the European
Commission that was launched in September 2018 by a coalition of national research fundingorganizations, with the support of the European Commission and the European Research Council.
Its objective is for all scientific publications funded by national and European research councils andfunding bodies to be immediately available in open access after 1 January 2020. While authors willretain copyrights on their publications, funding institutions will cover open access publication fees
applied by publishers, which will be standardized and capped.
The success of Plan S to establish universal open access will depend on the participation of funding
institutions worldwide. As of April 2019, Plan S was supported by a coalition of 15 national researchfunding organizations and 4 philanthropic organizations within and outside Europe. Other funding
institutions were awaiting a decision concerning the amount of capped fees for open access to be
applied by publishers and/or investigating the impact that Plan S will have on research funding andscientific research before deciding whether or not to join.a Some publishers have raised concerns
about the implications of the initiative on academic freedom and the quality of scientific research,as the choice of publishers for researchers will be limited to those giving the option of open accesspublications.b
The more funding institutions will decide to join “cOAlition S”, the more likely Plan S will be able
to break the paywall business model of publishers and secure free access to scientific researchworldwide. While this is particularly important for researchers in developing countries, whose
institutions do not always have the financial resources to pay subscriptions to scientific journals, Plan
S may well, however, create another geographic bias: open access publications will likely be outside
the reach of researchers from the Global South, whose funding institutions will not be able to pay
open access costs applied by publishers.
More information on Plan S can be found at www.coalition-s.org/.
a Rabesandratana, 2019.
b Kelly, 2019.

Beyond the selected journals, it is likely that this uneven distribution reflects the broader state of migration
research. In 2015, professor Jørgen Carling compiled a list of “top” migration researchers who have publishedextensively in leading migration journals, concluding: “It’s striking that there’s not a single person on the list
based in Africa or Latin America. And the six people based in Asia are all working in countries of immigration.
This geographical bias continues to be a major challenge for migration research.”31
As the interest in migration has increased, and the amount of migration research and analysis material
has grown, it would be reasonable to expect that the reach (through expanding readerships, for example)

31 Carling, 2015.

142

Migration research and analysis: Growth, reach and recent contributions

has also increased. One indicator – though extensively criticized – in academic publishing is a journal’s
Impact Factor.32 However, Impact Factors were available for only three of the selected journals (International
Migration, International Migration Review and Migration Studies). Taking into consideration these threejournals, together with those examined in the World Migration Report 2018, there appears to have been an
increase (see figure 4). The recent average Impact Factor increase suggests that the articles published in thesejournals are receiving more attention: citing a paper reasonably implies that it has been read, and that someof its content was helpful in adding to the evidence base and/or generating debates, building knowledge, orinforming migration policy and practice.

Figure 4. Impact Factor of selected journals
2.5

Asian and Paciﬁc
Migration JournalInternational Migration

2.0

Impact Factor

International Migration Review
Journal of Ethnic andMigration Studies

1.5

Journal of Refugee Studies

1.0

Migration Studies
Mobilities

0.5

Population Space and Place
Average

0.0
2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2017

2018

Source: https://jcr.incites.thomsonreuters.com/ (accessed 21 June 2019).
Note:

International Journal of Migration and Border Studies, Journal of Immigrant and Refugee Studies, Journal on Migrationand Human Security, Refugee Survey Quarterly and Revue européenne des migrations internationales were not indexed
by InCites at the time of writing (June 2019), while Migration Studies started to be indexed in InCites in 2017. The
Impact Factor is the ratio of citations to publications.

Publication metrics based on citation counts (including the Impact Factor) clearly have various limitations
and downsides.33 First, citations tend to accumulate slowly, given academic publishing timelines and thetime it takes to compile/release statistics. Second, citations are a matter almost solely within the academic
context, which is one reason alternative measures (discussed below) have been developed. Third, citations
do not measure quality of material, but are a way of quantifying impact (see the discussion on this point in

32 The Impact Factor is a citations–publications ratio. For a given year, it takes into account citations and publications from the preceding
two years. For more information, please see the example in appendix A.
33 For a recent overview of Impact Factor limitations, see Williams and Padula, 2015. For a broader account of Impact Factor misuse,see The PLoS Medicine Editors, 2006.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

143

appendix A). While citation metrics have become a priority for academic publishers and scholars, they arelikely to be less relevant to people outside academia.
New metrics are being developed for scholarly publications to assess their impact outside of academia. One
such metric is the Altmetric Attention Score,34 indicating “how many people have been exposed to andengaged with a scholarly output”.35 For any research output, the Attention Score “provides an indicator of theamount of attention that it has received”,36 with some sources having more weight than others. For instance,coverage in the news has the highest weight of 8, since “it’s easy to imagine that the average newspaper
story is more likely to bring attention to the research output than the average tweet”.37 Other high-weightsources include blogs (5), Wikipedia (3), policy documents (3) and Twitter (1). Altmetrics are relatively
new, having commenced in 2012. They have been recognized as “tools that aim to measure the real-timereach and influence of an academic article”.38 Academics found “positive but relatively weak correlation withcitations”,39 supporting the idea that “citation and altmetrics indicators track related but distinct impacts”.40
Mentions in blogs are particularly “able to identify highly cited publications”41 – an empirical finding that
supports the important weight assigned to blogs within the altmetric algorithm, further highlighting theincreasing importance of this form of dissemination of scientific material.
We have analysed views/downloads and the Altmetric Attention Score of 410 peer-reviewed articles publishedin 2017 and 2018 by six of the eight journals under consideration in this chapter (International Journal ofMigration and Border Studies and Revue européenne des migrations internationales were not publishing thesedata at the time of writing). The Attention Score was chosen for two main reasons: (a) first, it was freely
available on all the journal publishers’ websites; (b) second, the available evidence supports its use, especiallyfor tracking recent research output.42 The analysis allowed us to unveil quantitative aspects of academic
publications on migration, such as how many were mentioned, viewed and/or downloaded. Table 2 shows the
top 10 articles with the highest Altmetric Attention Score for the selected journals in April 2019. The highscores obtained by these articles, however, does not reflect the Altmetric Score of the 410 sampled articles.
Only 21 articles (5%) scored higher than 20 – roughly the equivalent of one mention in the news and one ina blog plus five tweets. The largest share of scholarly articles (172 or 42%) had a score from 2 to 20. However,75 articles (18%) had a score of 2 or lower – meaning that they attracted, at most, the equivalent of a coupleof tweets – and 142 articles (35%) scored zero, as they were not mentioned online by any source. This relates
in part to the fact that they are recently published, and we would expect to see some articles attract more
attention over time.

34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42

See www.altmetric.com (accessed 19 June 2019).
See www.altmetric.com/about-altmetrics/what-are-altmetrics/ (accessed 19 June 2019).
Available at https://help.altmetric.com/support/solutions/articles/6000060969-how-is-the-altmetric-attention-score-calculated-.
Ibid.
Warren, Raison and Dasgupta, 2017.
Costas, Zahedi and Wouters, 2015; Thelwall et al., 2013.
Priem, Piwowar and Hemminger, 2012.
Costas, Zahedi and Wouters, 2015.
Just like classic citation metrics, altmetrics offer benefits and disadvantages. See Bornmann (2014) for a deeper discussion.

144

Migration research and analysis: Growth, reach and recent contributions

Table 2. Top 10 articles with the highest Altmetric Attention Score
for selected journals, 2017 and 2018
ArticleJournalScore

The 2,000 mile wall in search of purpose: Since 2007
visa overstays have outnumbered undocumented bordercrossers by a half million, by R. Warrant and D. Kerwin

Journal on Migration and
Human Security

139

Unpacking the presumed statelessness of Rohingyas, by
N. Kyaw

Journal of Immigrant andRefugee Studies

125

Between rootedness and rootlessness: How sedentarist
and nomadic metaphysics simultaneously challenge andreinforce (dual) citizenship claims for Liberia, by R.N. Pailey

Migration Studies

101

Does the legalization of undocumented immigrants in the
US encourage unauthorized immigration from Mexico? An
empirical analysis of the moral hazard of legalization, byT. Wong and H. Kosnac

International Migration

50

The effect of visas on migration processes, by M. Czaika andH. de Haas

International Migration
Review

45

Refugee resettlement as an alternative to asylum, by
N. Hashimoto

Refugee Survey Quarterly

39

Repeat migration in the age of “unauthorized permanent
resident”: A quantitative assessment of migration intentions
postdeportation, by D. Martinez, J. Slack and R. MartinezSchuldt

International Migration
Review

39

Sanctuary cities: Policies and practices in international
perspective, by H. BauderInternational Migration

38

The borders beyond the border: Australia’s extraterritorial
migration controls, by A.L. Hirsch

Refugee Survey Quarterly

35

Forced displacement in Turkey: Pushing the limits of the
ECHR system, by D. Dinsmore

International Migration

34

Note:

International Journal of Migration and Border Studies and Revue européenne des migrations internationales were notpublishing these data at the time of writing (April 2019).

Concerning article views and downloads, not all journals provide such data on their websites. At the timeof writing, one (Journal of Immigrant and Refugee Studies) was providing views only, one (Journal on
Migration and Human Security) provided only downloads, and two (Migration Studies and Refugee Survey

145WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

Quarterly) provided views and downloads. Four journals (International Journal of Migration and Border Studies,International Migration, International Migration Review, and Revue européenne des migrations internationales)
were not showing any data on article views or downloads. To overcome this lack of standardization, weaggregated views and downloads. Figure 5 shows the distribution of views/downloads of 181 articles from thefour available sources, grouped by hundreds. As for the articles of the seven journals examined in the World
Migration Report 2018,43 the skewed shape of the distribution – similar to the Attention Score – highlights
a relatively low level of reach. Only 24 articles (13%) were viewed/downloaded more than 1,000 times. The
views/downloads data indicate that most academic writings have fairly limited readership.

Figure 5. Distribution of numbers of views and downloads of 181 articles from 2017 and 2018,selected journals
35

Number of articles

30
25
20
15
10
5

0–

3,
50

0

3400-3500

3,
40

0

3,
00
0–

0–
2,
40

1,
90

2900-3000

2,
90

2,
50

0

0

2400-2500

2,
00

1,
0–
40
1,

1900-2000

0–

50

0

0

1400-1500

00

1,
0–

40

900-1000

90

0

50

10
0–

400-500

0–

0-100

0

0

Article views and downloads

Source: Journal publishers’ websites, as of 26–28 February 2019.
Note:

International Journal of Migration and Border Studies, International Migration, International Migration Review and
Revue européenne des migrations internationales were not providing data on views or downloads at the time ofwriting (April 2019).

In summary, our quantitative analysis shows that migration as a topic is receiving increasing attention: thegrowing number of publications and citations are a sign of heightened interest, at least within the academic
community. Measures of views/downloads and Altmetrics suggest that there is room for improving the reachand readership of scholarly production on migration. One of the main obstacles to this is the fact that
academic publications tend to be behind paywalls, significantly limiting access to material beyond academia.
Journal subscribers, for example, are often academic institutions, and the cost of downloading single articles

43 IOM, 2017e.

146

Migration research and analysis: Growth, reach and recent contributions

for non-subscribers can be prohibitive. Open access for academic publications enables free downloads, but
usually requires publisher fees to be paid by the author or their institution. More open-access journals (suchas Comparative Migration Studies and Anti-Trafficking Review) have, however, been publishing on migration.44
In addition, academic language and writing style tend to be more technical than in other areas of publishing,
and the topics tend to be narrower. Dissemination of findings, however, through both traditional and newer
forms of media, offer opportunities for academic research on migration to inform public and policy discourses.
The potential reach of blogs on migration, for example, is discussed further below.

Journal on Migration and Human Security
Without sacrificing academic and analytical rigor, JMHS papers take a human-centered approachto migration scholarship, focusing on (typically) at risk, vulnerable, and marginalized persons who
are misunderstood and often scapegoated in migration policy debates. JMHS requires that eachpublished paper begin with an executive summary and end with a series of policy recommendations.
This increases the accessibility of JMHS papers to policymakers, policy influencers, and the generalpublic. JMHS promises potential authors that their work will be rigorously reviewed, published in atimely fashion (if accepted), and distributed through research and university library databases, to
JMHS’s extensive dissemination list, and to tailored lists of policymakers, the press and others with a
special interest in the topic. JMHS also publicizes its papers via social media, both upon their releaseand subsequently in response to news hooks and relevant policy discussions.
Source: Donald Kerwin, Executive Editor. The full submission is in appendix B.

Intergovernmental organizations
The contributions of key United Nations organizations working on migration reflect mandates as well as
current trends and issues in migration. Table 3 provides examples of key material published in 2017 and2018 by the United Nations organizations examined in this chapter. Given the high number and variety of
publications issued during these two years, the table is limited to key material that has a global focus.

Table 3. Examples of key global material published in 2017 and 2018

UN DESAInternational Migration Report 2017
International Migration Policies Data Booklet, 2017
Dataset on International Migrants Stock
Dataset on International Migration Flows

2017
2017
Ongoing (2019)
Ongoing

UNHCR

Global Trends: Forced Displacement in 2017
Global Trends: Forced Displacement in 2016
Population Statistics Database

2018
2017
Ongoing

44 Open access involves making published material available for free, not on a fee/subscription basis. See text box above on Plan S.

147

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

ILO

ILO Global Estimates on International Migrant Workers – Resultsand Methodology
Addressing Governance Challenges in a Changing Labour
Migration Landscape
ILOSTAT

OHCHR

Principles and Guidelines, Supported by Practical Guidance,on the Human Rights Protection of Migrants in Vulnerable
Situationsa

UNICEFA Child Is a Child: Protecting Children on the Move from Violence,
Abuse and Exploitation
Beyond Borders: How to Make the Global Compacts on Migration
and Refugees Work for Uprooted Children
Education Uprooted: For Every Migrant, Refugee and DisplacedChild, Education

2018
2017
Ongoing
2018

2017
2017
2017

UNODC

Global Report on Trafficking in Persons 2018
Global Study on Smuggling of Migrants
Smuggling of Migrants Knowledge Portal

2018
2018
Ongoing

UNDP

Climate change, migration and displacementb

2017

Global Education Monitoring Report on Migration, Displacementand Education
Migration and its Interdependencies with Water Scarcity, Genderand Youth Employment

UNESCOMoving for Prosperity: Global Migration and Labor Markets
Migration and Remittances: Recent Developments and Outlook –Transit Migration
Migration and Remittances: Recent Developments and Outlook –Return Migration
Migration and Remittances Data

World Bank

GMGc
Inter-agency
collaboration

Note:

OECD,
ILO,
IOM and
UNHCR

Handbook for Improving the Production and Use of Migration
Data for Developmentd
Migration, Remittances and Financial Inclusion: Challenges andOpportunities for Women’s Economic Empowermente
G20 International Migration and Displacement Trends Report
2018f

2018
2017
2018
2018
2017
Ongoing
2017
2017
2018
2017

This table does not include all material, such as working papers; only key material is included. IOM publications are
discussed below.

Sources: (a) Published by OHCHR and the Global Migration Group; (b) Published by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) andUNDP; (c) GMG was an inter-agency group within the United Nations system that worked collaboratively on migration.
Prior to its transition in late 2018 to the United Nations’ International Network on Migration, it had 22 member agencies,
with a rotating annual chair. Discussion of GMG and the Network are included in chapter 11 of this report on global
migration governance; (d) Produced by the Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development (KNOMAD),World Bank; (e) Produced by the Economic Empowerment Section of UN-Women, New York, on behalf of GMG; (f) Led byOECD, jointly published with ILO, IOM and UNHCR.

148

Migration research and analysis: Growth, reach and recent contributions

UN DESA coordinates the assembly of data, including in relation to migration – a process that has highlighted
limitations in the capabilities of national statistical offices.45 In 2017, its Population Division publishedthe International Migration Report 201746 – a biennial publication that presents information on levels andtrends in international migration for major areas, regions and countries of the world, and on the ratification
status of migration-related legal instruments. The Population Division maintains the United Nations Global
Migration Database – the most complete set of statistics on international migrants enumerated in countries
or areas, and classified by age, sex and country or area of birth or citizenship – as well as a smaller data set
with annual data on international migration flows for 45 countries.
As a United Nations agency with a mandate to pursue protection, assistance and solutions for refugees,
UNHCR produces a wealth of publications and has a dedicated research repository – refworld. Released
annually in June, Global Trends47 is one of UNHCR’s flagship publications. It presents and analyses annual
trends worldwide in relation to refugee and other populations of concern to UNHCR. UNHCR is also the key
source of global statistics on refugees and other populations of concern, as reported in its online Population
Statistics Database.
ILO is a standard-setting body responsible for coordinating the development and supervising theimplementation of international labour standards. In the context of its efforts to improve the collection
and production of labour migration statistics, ILO Global Estimates on International Migrant Workers48
provides estimates of the proportion of labour migrant workers among the total number of migrants worldwide.
In 2017, it also published a report entitled Addressing Governance Challenges in a Changing Labour Migration
Landscape49 to inform the development of just and effective governance of labour migration. In addition tolabour migration data, the ILOSTAT database contains diverse statistics related to the labour market which
are also relevant to labour migration.
Part of the United Nations Secretariat, OHCHR is the principal United Nations office mandated to promote
and protect the human rights of all persons, including migrants. In addition to supporting United Nations
human rights mechanisms, such as treaty bodies and Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council, OHCHR
produces a wealth of relevant materials. As co-chair of the former GMG Working Group on Migration, Human
Rights and Gender, it led the development of the Principles and Guidelines, Supported by Practical Guidance,on the Human Rights Protection of Migrants in Vulnerable Situations.50 These Principles and Guidelines offer
guidance to States on the operationalization of international human rights law to protect migrants who findthemselves in vulnerable situations but do not fall into the legal category of “refugee”. They are explicitly
referred to in the Global Compact for Migration to “[d]evelop national policies and programmes to improve
national responses that address the needs of migrants in situations of vulnerability”.51
Although UNICEF’s flagship publication – the State of the World’s Children52 – does not necessarily single out
migrant children, in 2017 UNICEF published A Child Is a Child: Protecting Children on the Move from Violence,
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52

Davies and Woodward, 2014.
UN DESA, 2017.
UNHCR, 2019.
ILO, 2018.
ILO, 2017.
OHCHR, 2018.
UNGA, 2018: para. 23(I).
UNICEF, 2017a.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

149

Abuse and Exploitation.53 It examines the risks faced by migrant children because of the lack of safe and legal
migration pathways, and sets out some policy recommendations to better protect them.
Within its mandate to assist States in addressing international crimes, UNODC undertakes efforts to combat
transnational organized crime, including human trafficking and migrant smuggling, and produces a variety ofreports on these themes. The fourth Global Report on Trafficking in Persons,54 published in 2018, provides an
overview of patterns and flows of trafficking in persons, and is based primarily on trafficking cases detectedfrom 2014 to 2016. In 2018, UNDOC released its first Global Study on Smuggling of Migrants,55 which gives anaccount of the magnitude and functioning of migrants’ smuggling, the profiles of the people involved, and therisks faced by migrants. UNODC also maintains a Smuggling of Migrants Knowledge Portal on information to
support the implementation of the 2000 United Nations Protocol Against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land,
Sea and Air, Supplementing the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime56 (such ascase law, annotated bibliography and legislation).
As the United Nations global development agency, UNDP’s commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals
translates into a broad range of programmes, including for building long-term development responses tomigration and displacement. In 2017, UNDP issued a report, together with the Overseas Development Institute(ODI), entitled Climate Change, Migration and Displacement,57 which seeks to shed light on the complex
connections between climate change and human mobility.
UNESCO’s mandate is focused on building peace by means of education, culture and science. The 2019 editionof its annual Global Education Monitoring Report58 series focuses on migration and displacement. It analyses
the impact of human mobility on the education systems and the way these systems can help address thechallenges posed by human mobility, offering examples of successful policies.
As a United Nations specialized agency and a major international financial institution, the World Bank
publishes a variety of books, reports and working papers on the importance of migration for growth andeconomic prosperity, and monitors data on migration and remittances, such as remittances inflows andoutflows. It issues regular Migration and Development Briefs on topical issues, the two most recent ones
dealing with transit and return migration. The Policy Research Report entitled Moving for Prosperity: Global
Migration and Labor Markets,59 released in 2018, analyses the apparent tension between academic findings on
the social and economic benefits of migration, and the antimigration public discourse.
Key global material was also published in 2017 and 2018 as a result of inter-agency collaboration. Prior to
its transition into the United Nations Network on Migration, GMG produced publications covering various
topics relating to migration, often taking the form of handbooks and guidelines.60 In 2017, it published a
handbook to support Member States in the production and use of data on migration for development purposes(produced by UN-Women). It also released a report examining the question of remittances and migrant

53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60

UNICEF, 2017b.
UNODC, 2018a.
UNODC, 2018b.
UNODC, 2000.
UNDP and ODI, 2017.
UNESCO, 2018.
World Bank, 2018.
GMG was an inter-agency group gathering 22 United Nations agencies working collaboratively on migration.

150

Migration research and analysis: Growth, reach and recent contributions

women’s financial inclusion (produced by KNOMAD, World Bank). Another key publication resulting frominter-agency collaboration is the G20 International Migration and Displacement Trends Report 201861 produced
by OECD,62 jointly with ILO, IOM and UNHCR. The report presents migration trends and policy challenges in
G20 countries and Member States of the European Union.63

IOM
IOM published a wide range of research and analysis materials in 2017 and 2018 – most notably in the form ofstand-alone studies and reports, many of which stemmed directly from specific projects and often produced
locally by IOM missions. For example, the report Making Mobility Work for Adaptation to Environmental
Changes: Results from the MECLEP Global Research64 is the final publication of the European Union-funded
Migration, Environment and Climate Change: Evidence for Policy (MECLEP) project assessing the evidence baseon migration and climate change in the six countries involved in the project: the Dominican Republic, Haiti,
Kenya, Mauritius, Papua New Guinea and Viet Nam.
The text box below lists key publications produced by IOM in 2017 and 2018. In 2017, IOM released its
biennial flagship publication, the World Migration Report 2018.65 In 2018, the Organization also revitalized
its Migration Research Series, which publishes policy-relevant research and analysis on diverse and complex
migration issues. Calls for abstracts were circulated in 2018 on topics addressed in the World Migration
Report 2018 to further stimulate research and analysis, and three papers were published. Additionally, three
Migration Profiles were issued in 2017 and five in 2018. They provide country-specific migration overviews(largely funded by IOM’s Development Fund) to support, among other things, capacity-building on migration
data, and research and analysis in Member States. IOM’s support of migration journals – International Migrationand Migration Policy Practice – was also an important contribution to migration research.

Key IOM research-related publications produced in 2017 and 2018
World Migration Report 2018a
Migration Research Leaders’ Syndicate: Ideas to Inform International Cooperation on Safe, Orderly
and Regular Migrationb
Migration and the 2030 Agenda: A Guide for Practitionersc
Fatal Journeys, Volume 3: Improving Data on Missing Migrants (Parts 1 and 2)d
The Atlas of Environmental Migration e

61 OECD, ILO, IOM and UNHCR, 2018.
62 OECD comprises 36 members. Its mission is to promote policies enhancing the economic and social well-being of individuals
worldwide. It conducts research on a variety of topics, including migration, with a scope that often goes beyond its member andpartner countries.
63 G20 members are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Republic ofKorea, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union.
64 IOM, 2017c.
65 IOM, 2017e.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

151

Making Mobility Work for Adaptation to Environmental Changes: Results from the MECLEP Global
Research f
Migrant Smuggling Data and Research: A Global Review of the Emerging Evidence Base (volume 2)g
Global Migration Data Analysis Centre Data Briefs
Migration, Environment and Climate Change Policy Briefs
Migration Profiles (several country reports, including Jamaica, Kenya, Maldives, Senegal andZimbabwe)
a
b
c
d
e
f
g

IOM, 2017e.
IOM, 2017d.
IOM, 2018.
IOM, 2017a, 2017b.
Ionesco, Mokhnacheva and Gemenne, 2017.
IOM, 2017c.
Triandafyllidou and McAuliffe, 2018.

In 2017 and 2018, IOM also supported Member States during the consultation and negotiation process of the
Global Compact for Migration with the creation of the Migration Research Leaders’ Syndicate. A collection ofshort technical papers was published in 2017 in the form of a report (Migration Research Leaders’ Syndicate:
Ideas to Inform International Cooperation on Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration)66 was one of the key outputsof the Syndicate’s work, as presented in the text box below.

IOM 2017 Migration Research Leaders’ Syndicate in support of the Global
Compact for Migration
The innovative research “Syndicate” initiative drew upon the research and knowledge of 36 of theworld’s leading “migration policy scholars” hailing from all regions.
The 2017 Syndicate was established and convened to enable high-quality technical expertise anddeep knowledge to be fed directly into the development of the Global Compact for Migration. Key
outputs included:•

Syndicate members’ top three reads for policymakers on migration;•

Short technical papers on Global Compact for Migration-related themes with evidence, analysis
and recommendations for policymakers;

66 IOM, 2017d.

152

Migration research and analysis: Growth, reach and recent contributions•

Blogs published by IOM’s partner, the World Economic Forum, on Global Compact for Migrationrelated topics;•

Syndicate members’ participation in Global Compact for Migration consultations as thematic
experts and panel members;•

Syndicate panel discussions at United Nations headquarters on Global Compact for Migrationrelated topics, including in the margins of the Global Compact for Migration negotiations.

Further information is available in IOM, 2017d.

In recent years, the IOM online bookstore has been upgraded and improved. Launched in 2009 as a means offacilitating greater access to IOM publications, the online bookstore is now able to track and support analysisof data on the number of downloads of IOM publications. These data provide insights into accessibility andreach of IOM publications, supplementing readers’ surveys of specific outputs. As of the end of 2018, thebookstore contained 1,794 electronic publications in 28 different languages, most of which could be accessed
free of charge. While download data do not allow for an assessment of the quality of publications (such as
can be done through reader surveys or peer review, for example), they do provide some insights into theindividual publications that have high download rates, as well as the themes and geographic nature of theresearch-related publications that are produced and accessed globally. In 2018, the number of downloads fromthe IOM bookstore exceeded 2 million.
In 2018, the World Migration Report 2018 became the most downloaded IOM publication of all time, with over
400,000 downloads globally as at end of August 2019 (or around 620 downloads per day). The World Migration
Report 2018 was the first edition after substantive changes were made to the World Migration Report series
concerning content and quality assurances processes, including a move away from a single thematic report toa much broader coverage of key data and information on migration as well as complex and emerging issues.
These changes have been successful in expanding the report’s readership and sustaining a high download ratecompared with previous editions, such as the World Migration Report 2015, which was on the single themeof migrants and cities (see figure 6). In addition, the 2018 report has received more than 500 citations inacademic literature.67

67 At 14 October 2019 Google Scholar searches found 551 citations.

153

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

Figure 6. Downloads of World Migration Report 2018 compared with 2015 edition
20,00015,00010,0005,000
0Month Month Month Month Month Month Month Month Month Month Month Month
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
WMR 2015

WMR 2018

Source: IOM.
Note:

Downloads for each month following respective report launches; includes the English
versions only.

An examination of IOM research-related publications that were each downloaded more than 1,000 times
shows that some themes were more prominent than others, with cross-cutting publications featuring heavily– including, for example, country migration profiles that traverse multiple thematic issues. Interest in
migration law and governance increased in 2017 (see figure 7).

Figure 7. Proportion of IOM research-related downloads by theme
Other
Return migration
Migrant health2015

Migration law / governance2016

Migration and development

2017

Labour migration

2018

Environment / climate migrationIM, smuggling / traﬃcking
Cross-cutting themes
0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

Source: IOM.
Notes: “IM” means irregular migration. Only publications downloaded more than 1,000 times in a year included (downloads
in 2015 have been prorated, as data for the entire year are not available). Downloads could be classified by more than
one theme. n=5,547,808 downloads.

154

Migration research and analysis: Growth, reach and recent contributions

Overall, interest in research on specific regions was relatively stable from 2015 to 2018. Publications focusing
on Africa featured more heavily than others for the past four years (see figure 8), followed by Asia, Europe,
Latin America and the Caribbean, Northern America and Oceania.

Figure 8. Proportion of IOM research-related downloads by region
25%
20%
15%

2015
2016

10%

2017
2018

5%
0%
AfricaAsia

EuropeLAC

Northern America

Oceania

Source: IOM.
Notes: Only publications downloaded more than 1,000 times in a year have been included (downloads for 2015 have beenprorated, as data for the entire year are not available). Downloads could be classified by more than one region.
n=5,547,808 downloads.
“LAC” means Latin America and the Caribbean. Categorization based on UN DESA geographic regions (see chapter 3
appendix A for details), not implying official endorsement or acceptance by IOM.

Blogs
As part of the broader tendency towards greater interest in migration and migration-related research,
there has been a concomitant rise in the number of blogs that feature articles on migration. While thegrowth and utility of blogging was addressed in chapter 4 of the World Migration Report 2018,a it iswell beyond the scope of this chapter to examine in detail the changes in blog publishing specificallyon migration; however, examples of widely read migration articles are provided below. They showthat some blog articles can reach large audiences and, because of this, are likely to be influential in
informing discussions on migration.b It is also important to acknowledge that some argue that blogs
tend to be written on “hot” or controversial migration topics, such as irregular or mass migration,
refugees and asylum seekers, while less controversial topics are often neglected.c

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

155

Examples of migration-related articles published on blogs
Canada wants to take in more than 1 million new immigrants in the next 3 years, by Kate Whiting,published by the World Economic Forum’s Agenda blog on 3 December 2018 – 102,224 views.
Why accepting refugees is a win-win-win formula, by Dany Bahar, published by Brookings’s Up Front
blog on 19 June 2018 – 24,094 views.
Trump and AMLO are headed for a U.S.-Mexico blow-up, by Shannon O’Neil, republished by theCouncil on Foreign Relations’ blog on Latin America’s Moment (with permission from Bloomberg) on
30 July 2018 – 11,536 views.
Beware the notion that better data lead to better outcomes for refugees and migrants, by Jeff Crisp,
published by Chatham House’s Expert Comment blog on 9 March 2018 – 4,991 views.
The journey across America: understanding a nation’s immigration experience, by Katy Long,
published by the Overseas Development Institute, 2018 – 1,200 views.
Note: The number of reads or views and related analytics were provided by the relevant blog editor in April 2019.
a IOM, 2017e.
b Aldred et al., 2008.
c Ozimek, 2012.

Conclusions
Building on the World Migration Report 2018, this chapter provides an overview of the key contributions ofsome of the main producers of migration research and analysis during the last two calendar years (2017 and2018). We found that the long-term trend of increased output of migration research was further extended
in 2017 and 2018, which saw the largest amount ever of academic output on migration published in 2017
and equalled in 2018 (see figure 1). Further, these two years saw tremendous activity by intergovernmentalorganizations, with a large number of global reports on aspects of migration having been published (seetable 3 for examples).
The increase in material published is undoubtedly related to the salience of migration in policy, politicalas well as public spheres. We have witnessed the increasing use of migration – or more correctly at times,
anti-immigration – as a political tool, despite the existing evidence base showing that there has not been
substantive changes in migration (levels or processes) to warrant such significant shifts in the public debate(see chapter 5 of this report for discussion). It is understandable that researchers, working on academic or
applied research, or in white or grey literature, have been inspired to seek and report the truth during aperiod in which we witnessed “fake news” and “disinformation” increasingly take hold in public debates on
migration globally.

156

Migration research and analysis: Growth, reach and recent contributions

Consistent with the findings of World Migration Report 2018, there is certainly a strong case to be madefor playing to the strengths of the different types of research published on migration. Some of the highest
quality blogs on migration, for example, are based on carefully elaborated and conducted studies, andinsightful analysis drawing on years of research. They also are able to garner significant interest, with dataclearly showing extended reach to wider audiences that lay beyond the scientific. The use of blog platforms
by influential migration academics to communicate their empirical and theoretical research findings to policy
and general audiences demonstrates the relevance of the form. We are also seeing recognition of this in thecalculation of how research impact is measured. The growing use of altmetrics, for example, which measure ajournal article’s reach in non-academic publishing, points to the increasing need to extend knowledge basedon rigorous research and analysis into wider audiences. However, this should not be at the expense of the
bedrock provided by scientific research, with its focus on meeting high quality standards.
In this chapter we examined research and analysis output from a geographic perspective for the first time.
Previous IOM research projects conducted in partnership with academic and applied researchers aroundthe world had brought disparities into sharp relief.68 Our examination of the selected journals and IOM
publications for 2017 and 2018 showed that there are indeed significant differences in focus, volume andauthor affiliation when published material is analysed by geographic region. As we have commented elsewhere,
this is undoubtedly related to research funding sources (direct and indirect), with most sources emanatingfrom wealthier countries. More effort, on a sustained basis, is needed to better support research institutions
and researchers in developing countries, including by confronting some of the structural impediments thatexists to funding and capacity. Analysis of IOM’s own research publications confirmed anecdotal evidence thatan important part of IOM’s role is its focus on research concerning parts of the developing world, especiallyin Africa. Even greater effort to support research in developing States, however, is warranted as the vast
majority of countries around the world work toward the implementation of the Global Compact for Migration– endeavours that would greatly benefit from the input of academic and applied researchers.
Finally, we again encourage policymakers, practitioners, researchers and others to access and digest the great
wealth of written material on migration with a critical eye. We also underscore the importance of activities
and initiatives that bring together migration scholars, practitioners and policymakers, including throughworkshops, conferences, briefing sessions and related consultations. While it may be difficult at times to
do so, bridging the gaps that exist between policy, practice and research when done thoughtfully can reap
enormous dividends for all.

68 See, for example, IOM, 2017d, McAuliffe and Lazcko, 2016 and Triandafyllidou and McAuliffe, 2018.

PART IICOMPLEX AND EMERGING MIGRATION ISSUES160

MARIE MCAULIFFEADRIAN KITIMBO
BINOD KHADRIA

Reflections on migrants’ contributions in an era of increasing disruption and disinformation

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

5161

REFLECTIONS ON MIGRANTS’ CONTRIBUTIONSIN AN ERA OF INCREASING DISRUPTION AND
DISINFORMATION1Introduction
A glance through previous World Migration Reports, and other policy and scientific publications on internationalmigration, shows that at least two observations have been prevalent over time: i) recognition that migration,
particularly immigration, has emerged as a prominent international and national policy issue; and ii) that the
public discourse on migration has increasingly become polarized with the space for balanced, rigorous, andevidence-based analyses having diminished over time.2 While the nature of the public discourse has changed
over time, there is widespread recognition that the “toxicity” of the migration debate has further intensified
over the last few years, with the politics of fear and division increasingly framing discussions.3 Disruption anddisinformation are increasingly being deployed as part of tactical pursuits of power, with negative impacts on
public, political and social media discourse, on societal values, and on public policy issues such as migration,
displacement and migrants (including refugees).4
In the face of often negatively skewed discussions on migration and migrants, one can lose sight of the factthat human endeavours to improve peace and prosperity in modern times that are underpinned by migration
have been on the whole successful, and in specific key areas very successful (such as the eradication orcontrol of specific, deadly diseases and the dramatic decline in infant mortality following the efforts of
Nations under the 2000–2015 Millennium Development Goals).5 Migrants provide a source of dynamism
globally, and are overrepresented in innovation and patents, arts and sciences awards, start-ups and successfulcompanies. Such historical and contemporary contributions have become increasingly overlooked or ignored
in recent discussions on international migration, with many contributions being “normalized” over time but
nevertheless evident (at times conspicuously so).
It is also easy to lose sight of the fact that international migration remains a relatively uncommon phenomenon,
with a mere 3.5 per cent of the world’s population being international migrants (see chapter 2 of thisreport for details). Notwithstanding this small proportion, the total number of international migrants has
increased in recent decades to reach as high as 272 million, or close to the national population of Indonesia(269 million).6 What we currently know is that mobility, as opposed to migration, is becoming much moreprevalent, making some argue that now is the time to rethink how we conceptualize and discuss these issues.7
1
2
3
4
5
6
7

Marie McAuliffe, Head, Migration Policy Research Division, IOM; Adrian Kitimbo, Research Officer, Migration Policy Research Division,
IOM and Binod Khadria, Professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University.
GCIM, 2005; Martin, Larkin and Nathanson, 2000; McAuliffe and Ruhs, 2017.
Fisher, 2017; Kaufmann, 2017; Zappettini and Krzyzanowski, 2019.
Morgan, 2018.
Mathers et al., 2018.
UN DESA, 2019.
Deutschmann and Recchi, 2019; Skeldon, 2018. See also the discussion on mobility in chapter 1.

162

Reflections on migrants’ contributions in an era of increasing disruption and disinformation

In this context, revisiting the many ways in which migrants have contributed – at the transnational,
national and local levels – is important in presenting a balanced discussion on migration. This is not tosuggest that international migration and displacement do not pose challenges for communities in origin,transit and destination countries (as well as migrants) – many other chapters in this report are focused onsuch challenges. However, in writing this chapter, we acknowledge that the many ways in which migrants
contribute to societies are currently being overlooked, downplayed or taken for granted, and it is the purposeof this chapter to bring these contributions of migrants to the forefront.
The next section describes key concepts related to contributions, providing an analytical framework for thischapter in the context of a rich body of academic and policy work on the topic. We then go on to describe
and analyse migrants’ contributions globally, with reference to sociocultural, civic–political and economic
aspects. The chapter then discusses emerging impediments to the recognition of migrants’ contributions
globally, before outlining the implications for policy deliberations and for further research.

What are “contributions”?
To contribute means to give something – money, time, ideas, labour, material goods – in order to achieve
something with other people.8 Outside of personal relationships, such as those with family and friends, andin the context of sociology and social change theory, “contributions” are part of broader interactions andengagement with individuals, groups and institutions in society. In other words, contributions occur as partof broader structural settings and social processes that support and shape societies. They can be broadly
categorized as being in sociocultural, civic–political or economic domains (see text box for definitions).

Sociocultural relates to different groups of people in society and their habits, traditions and beliefs.
Civic–political relates to participation in civic duties in the context of accepted authority of the State.
Economic relates to aspects concerned with trade, industry or money.
Sources: Cambridge Dictionary, 2019; Almond and Verba, 1963.

As the salience of migration has risen in public policy and research spheres, there has been a new and greater
focus on migrants per se – as distinct subpopulations within larger national populations, with reference tothe structural settings they encounter, especially in the destination countries.9 The way in which people
enter, stay and settle in a new country occupies the time of an increasing number of researchers, policymakers
and those in the media:10 the first focusing on understanding the demographic, geographic, economic, legal/

8 Cambridge Dictionary, 2019.
9 Dennison and Drazanova, 2018.
10 Chapter 4 quantifies the increase in research output; chapter 11 discusses global migration governance.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

163

policy and other factors;11 the second on how best to meet policy objectives (however defined); and the third
scrutinizing and commenting on both. Research continues to explore the dynamic relationships that exist
between migrants (including potential migrants) and migration processes and related factors. We know fromexisting evidence and analysis, for example, that the contributions migrants are able to make in destination
as well as origin settings do partly depend on legal–policy frameworks, such as those impacting the ability ofboth regular and irregular migrants to stay, participate in civic activities, work lawfully and send remittances,
as well as to return home (see chapter 6 of this report).12 Contributions are also related to demographic
and socioeconomic characteristics, with those who choose to migrate having higher skills, education andopportunity, ultimately also reflecting a greater likelihood of contributing in origin and destination countries
in a variety of ways.13
Consistent with migration research more generally (see chapter 4 of this report), there is recognition that muchof the analysis on migrants has been undertaken from a destination country perspective,14 with some arguingthat the most significant immigration country in the world – the United States – has disproportionately
influenced the study of migrants globally.15 With this in mind, this chapter attempts to reflect broader
experiences of international migrants’ contributions by incorporating recent research and analysis focusing
on destination and origin.16 In scoping and presenting the chapter in this way, we acknowledge that we are
not seeking to summarize all existing literature, nor are we suggesting that the findings highlighted in thechapter are representative. What we do recognize, however, is the importance of encapsulating a reasonablegeographic and thematic diversity of research and analysis on the topic in what, after all, would make amigration report truly a World Migration Report.
Importantly, this chapter does not assess the overall impacts of migration in these settings. Studies on
the impacts of migration are numerous and well documented (see examples in the text box below);17 they
provide important insights and analyses. This body of work is focused mainly on economic impacts rather
than sociocultural or civic–political impacts, including because economic variables are to a greater extent
standardized, thereby supporting comparative analysis. Some examples of recent publications on the economic
impacts of migration, including some empirical estimates, are included in the text box below.

11 See, for example, writings on cumulative causation (Massey, 1990), neoclassical economics (Todaro, 1989), world system theory(Wallerstein, 1974; Portes and Walton, 1981), new economics of labour migration (Stark and Bloom, 1985) and social network theory(Boyd, 1989).
12 Baldwin-Edwards, 2008; Kanko and Teller, 2014; Shah, 2009.
13 Goldin, 2018; Hunt, 2010.
14 Carling, 2015; Castles, 2010; McAuliffe and Laczko, 2016; Morawska, 2008.
15 FitzGerald, 2014.
16 While this chapter focuses on international migration, we acknowledge that it may also be relevant to internal migration in somecountries. See Weiner (1978) for examples of disruptions and disinformation leading to conflict and discrimination faced by interState migrants within India.
17 See also the World Migration Report 2005 (IOM, 2005).

164

Reflections on migrants’ contributions in an era of increasing disruption and disinformation

Assessing the economic impacts of migration
Estimating overall economic impacts of migration is a topic of intense debate in political and policy
circles. Some recent publications on the topic include:•

Exceptional People: How Migration Shaped Our World and Will Define Our Future, by Goldin,
Cameron and Balarajan, shows that there is broad consensus among economists that, fordestination countries, immigration is a catalyst for economic growth at an aggregate level andproduces net economic benefits. However, the authors also acknowledge that there are ongoingdebates on how to measure these effects.a•

The McKinsey Global Institute’s report, People on the Move: Global Migration’s Impact andOpportunity, echoes these findings, showing that migrants contributed over 9 per cent, or
USD 6.7 trillion, to global gross domestic product (GDP) in 2015.b•

International Migration: Recent Trends, Economic Impacts, and Policy Implications, by theInternational Monetary Fund, concludes that the economic impacts of migration vary acrosscountries, and that, while migration brings challenges, it also confers benefits to origin anddestination countries.c•

Migration and the Economy: Economic Realities, Social Impacts and Political Choices, by Goldin
et al., affirms that immigration impacts positively on economic growth, and that this happens ina number of ways: many migrants are comparatively younger than local populations and thus
have a significant positive impact on both GDP per capita and overall (aggregate) GDP; migration
enhances output per worker by increasing human capital; and migration bolsters total factor
productivity as well as innovation. The report finds that, had immigration to the United Kingdom
and Germany ceased in 1990, both countries’ real GDP in 2014 would have been lower by GBP
175 billion and GBP 155 billion, respectively.d•

The impacts on labour markets, including on wages, vary widely, are often negligible and arelargely driven by how complementary migrants’ skills are to those of local workers;e these may
be reversible in the longer run, as economies adjust to immigration, as Ruhs argues in The Priceof Rights: Regulating International Labor Migration.f•

The Economic and Fiscal Effects of Granting Refugees Formal Labor Market Access, by Clemens,
Huang and Graham, suggests that most evidence shows that the average effect of refugee
inflows is  on labour markets for both developed and developing countries is small or null.g

a
b
c
d
e
f
g

Goldin, Cameron and Balarajan, 2011.
McKinsey Global Institute, 2016.
IMF, 2015.
Goldin et al., 2018.
Ibid.
Ruhs, 2013.
Clemens, Huang and Graham, 2018.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

165

The next section of this chapter discusses sociocultural contributions, and is followed by sections covering
civic–political and then economic contributions. The chapter then examines recent evidence on how publicmigration debates are changing, including through the (mis)use of social media platforms for misinformationand disruption with transnational reach. The final concluding section summarizes the implications of current
evidence for policy, practice and research.

Migrants’ sociocultural contributions
The sociocultural contributions of migrants are felt by many of us on a daily basis, even though we may
not be conscious of it. Simple activities – such as shopping for groceries at our local market, eating out at
a restaurant or ordering take-away food, visiting a place of worship, attending a musical performance orwatching a sporting match – are likely to have been influenced or enriched (or, in some cases, made possible)
by migrants who have brought with them customs and traditions.
Perhaps one of the most significant and highly visible contributions of migrants to the socioculturaldimensions of societies throughout the world has been the sharing of food and culinary traditions, resulting
in the tremendous increase in food diversity in modern times. The highly social aspect of sharing food is
a distinctly human trait of considerable cultural importance, and it has provided an opportunity for social
bonding in private and public settings.18 The power of sharing and valuing such intimate and historicalcultural conditions as the preparation of food allows for migrants’ contributions to be understood as more
profound than the superficial so-called “sushiology” of migration.19 Food can lie at the heart of integration
experiences, which are often depicted as two-way processes:

Immigrants travel with their culinary practices and habits, while acquiring new food customs
that they adapt naturally to their new life and, occasionally, import to their countries of origin.
This mixing takes place, therefore, in both directions, as a reflection of human beings’ needto share and dialogue, expressed through food.20
Food also acts as a catalyst for cultural fusion and new experience, as many of the world’s so-called “global
cities” can show.21 Recent research shows that, globally, we are now more connected in culinary terms than everbefore. A study of crop origins has found that the most important primary regions of diversity contributing toa country’s modern food system are more often located elsewhere around the planet.22 Immigration, mobility
and trade links have helped facilitate the development of the modern food system. Cuisines such as “Indian
curry” or the “chicken tikka masala” (which rose to the status of being called Britain’s national dish) havebeen a widely acknowledged aspect of the Indian–Pakistani–Bangladeshi diaspora’s contribution to bringing
diverse people together both “on the table” and “inside the kitchen”.23
Food culture can also be enriched by migrants returning home. In Belize, for example, its diversity andemigration patterns have allowed for the development of a rich food culture that draws on a variety of
18
19
20
21
22
23

Pilcher, 2017.
Skerry, 2002.
Oussedik, 2012:55.
Kershen, 2002.
Khoury et al., 2016.
Lal, Reeves and Rai, 2006.

166

Reflections on migrants’ contributions in an era of increasing disruption and disinformation

cuisines and ingredients that are brought home to the country by migrant workers.24 There are many countries
throughout the world that can claim their cuisines have been enriched by international migration and thetransfer of related cultural practices, especially those situated along sea and land trade routes or part oflong-term migration corridors, such as Malta and Singapore. Recent studies have found a strong relationshipbetween diversity of modern cuisines and migration.25
In recent years, the arenas of professional and representational sport at the international level have become
important in anti-racism and counter-xenophobia campaigns. The highly competitive and elite nature of this
sector, as well as its high profile, has meant that migrants are often centre-stage for predominantly positive
reasons.26 In many ways, elite sports allow migrants to “transcend” discrimination and other negative issues
because of the extraordinary talent they display and the admiration they may invoke. Programmes such as
the European Sport Inclusion Network, the Social Inclusion and Volunteering in Sports Clubs in Europe, and“Welcome Football” (Australia) have sought to acknowledge and utilize migrant sports stars as positive rolemodels, including to encourage integration through sports activities.27 And yet, research has pointed to issuesof inequality in the international sphere of elite sports, whereby migrants from countries of considerable,
long-standing talent at the representative level have not necessarily been able to support vibrant sporting
systems. Or, put another way, “during the 2002 soccer World Cup, 21 out of 23 players on the team from
Senegal… played in the French league… real Senegalese football is not therefore played within Senegal,
but in the clubs of Europe”.28 At the local level in Australia, Sudanese migrants have established basketballteams at local sports clubs as a way of encouraging teenagers from the community – African-Australian andothers – to leave street culture behind.29 Australia is a sporting country, and the discourse on sports andmigration has been reasonably strong, with policy and programming including sporting activities as a meansof integration. However, recent research has found that migrants’ cultural contributions can be both an asset
to, and a source of exclusion from, sport participation.30 This depends, in part, on the majority–minority
aspects of the sports activity and the extent to which the specific cultural capital of migrants can be flexibly
incorporated into sporting systems.31 Nevertheless, there is no doubt that, overall, migrants have madesignificant positive contributions in sports at local, national and global levels. See, for example, the text box
below on the “Salah effect”.

24
25
26
27
28

Wilk, 1999.
Sajadmanesh et al., 2017.
Lal, Reeves and Rai, 2006.
Atkinson, 2015; CMY, n.d.; SPIN, n.d.
Simiyu Njororai, 2010:449. This was also the case for the 2018 World Cup, in which the winning French team was almost entirelycomprised players of African origin (McPartland, 2018).
29 Hinds, 2018.
30 Smith, Spaaij and McDonald, 2018.
31 Ibid.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

The Salah effectBesides his second-minute penalty for Liverpool FC against Tottenham Hotspur FC in Madrid on 1
June, Egyptian football striker Mo Salah may have also scored a goal against prejudice, according to
a new study.
On the pitch, Salah often celebrates goals by dropping to his knees and touching his forehead to thegrass in the sujood (an Islamic prayer position), while Liverpool fans have a chant that goes: “If hescores another few, then I’ll be Muslim, too.” But the Salah effect is having an impact beyond thestadium walls, say researchers from Stanford University, who found a drop in hate crimes around
Liverpool since Salah signed with the club in June 2017. Islamophobia – or anti-Muslim racism –has been on the rise in the UK since the 9/11 attacks in New York in 2001, according to think-tank
Runnymede Trust. There are generally spikes in anti-Muslim hate crimes between 24 to 72 hours after
a terrorist attack by Islamic fundamentalists, such as the attack at Westminster in London in March2017.
The report examined data from police departments around England, including Merseyside, the UK
county in which Liverpool is located. It found hate crimes there were “significantly lower” – droppingby 18.9% since Salah joined the club – than would be otherwise expected.
“The observed decrease is larger in Merseyside than in all placebo counties, suggesting the result is
not merely due to chance,” wrote the researchers. They noted that the trend has not coincided witha general decline in crime: “There is a larger relative decline in hate crimes than in any other crime
category.” Not only that, but after studying 15 million tweets by UK football fans, the researchers
found Liverpool supporters had halved the number of anti-Muslim tweets they were posting.
In the Stanford study, a survey of more than 8,000 Liverpool fans suggested the reason for the
reduction in prejudice towards Muslims in Merseyside was because Salah was familiarizing his fanswith Islam, through his observation of the faith, while his image as a bubbly father, friend and fantastic
footballer was breaking down stereotypes of “threatening Muslims”. Through his now-famous goalcelebration, his social media posts, his pitch-side interviews and seeing his wife Magi cheering him
in a veil, Salah’s fans have been invited into his public and private lives. “These findings suggestthat positive exposure to outgroup celebrities can reveal new and humanizing information about thegroup at large, reducing prejudiced attitudes and behaviours,” the researchers concluded. And they
hope the Salah effect will offer up “new potential avenues for building social cohesion around theglobe”.
Salah was named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people of 2019, described by HBO
host John Oliver as “a humble, thoughtful, funny man who isn’t taking any of this too seriously”.
Perhaps the last word should go to his Liverpool manager, Jurgen Klopp, who praised the athlete’s
recognition in Time, noting, “Mo is a very smart person and his role is very influential. In the world at
the moment, it is very important that you have people like Mo.”
Abridged excerpt of Whiting, 2019.

167

168

Reflections on migrants’ contributions in an era of increasing disruption and disinformation

Just as extraordinary sporting talent has been found to enable individuals to transcend aspects of racism,migrants possessing exceptional artistic ability have been able to gain popularity and achieve success,thereby providing diverse role models for others in their communities. This is not to say that discrimination
is overcome, but that social norms are able to be shaped over time in positive and constructive ways throughadmiration and respect (as highlighted in the text box above). In popular culture, difference is an asset,
providing an “edge” in highly competitive talent and consumer-driven markets, making migrants from diverse
backgrounds often overrepresented in entertainment sectors.32 In the creation of pop music, migrants cancontribute fresh ideas:

Artistic production is an endeavour in which innovation is highly prized. This may givemigrants and their ambivalently native born yet not-quite-native children some ironic
advantages... Bringing different frames, tastes and repertoires from their cultures of origin
may give migrants something new to add to the creative mix.33
Cultural traditions can also be shared experiences as well as form the basis of resilience and strength inforeign (sometimes hostile) environments. A recent line of analysis has focused on “super-diversity” and thebenefits as well as challenges highly diverse communities can present as a result of international migration,
including in relation to cultural fusion and social cohesion, but also social tensions and xenophobia.34 The
notion of “super-diversity” often relates to cities as the main site of increasingly diverse populations35 and,relatedly, of diversity of sociocultural settings and experiences.
Migrants have also made significant sociocultural contributions to countries of origin. It has long been
observed that migrants bring with them new ideas, values and practices, sometimes referred to as “social
remittances”.36 These types of remittances are transferred or exchanged in various ways, including “whenmigrants return to live in or visit their communities of origin, when non-migrants visit those in the receiving
country, or through the exchange of letters, videos, cassettes, emails, blog posts and telephone calls”.37
Importantly, not all social remittances are positive. The ideas and practices that migrants bring with themcan have both positive and negative effects.38 For example, migrants have helped to shape gender norms
in countries of origin by supporting and arguing for greater gender equity after experiencing it in othercountries. Returning migrants have been found to have contributed positively to the empowerment of womenand girls in their home countries.39 One recent migration study found migrants in countries with gender
parity are likely to promote gender equality in the social institutions in countries of origin, with womenbeing greater agents of change than men.40 However, those who migrated to countries with lower ratings ofgender equality tend to bring back more conservative gender norms.41 A similar trend has been observed inrelation to fertility rates. A 2013 study examining the relationship between international migration and thefertility rates of countries of origin at the macroeconomic level found that migration to countries with lower
32 Lal, Reeves and Rai, 2006.
33 Kasinitz and Martiniello, 2019:858.
34 Vertovec, 2007; Van der Meer and Tolsma, 2014. Noting that the empirical basis of the term has been questioned by empiricalfindings showing that in some locations (such as the United States), migration has increased but there has been a narrowing ofdiversity of immigrants (Czaika and de Haas, 2014).
35 Nicholls and Uitermark, 2016.
36 Levitt, 1998.
37 Lamba-Nieves and Levitt, 2011.
38 Ibid.
39 Levitt and Lamba-Nieves, 2010; Lafleur and Duchesne, 2017; Grabowska and Engbersen, 2016; Kenny and O’Donnell, 2016.
40 Ferrant and Tuccio, 2015.
41 Ibid.  

169

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

fertility rates is associated with a reduction in fertility rates at home, while migration to destinations withhigh fertility rates tends to result in the reverse.42

Migrants’ contributions in civic–political terms
Migrants can be important contributors to civic–political life. In destination countries, for example, migrants
can be involved in governance and politics at different levels (such as community/local areas, national
levels), undertake volunteer work, and support fellow migrants (especially those who are newly arrived)
as they integrate into new communities. Chapter 6 of this report discusses aspects of these issues from an
integration and social cohesion perspective, including the extent to which migrants are able to wholly engage
in political processes (such as democratic elections).
Perhaps more than sociocultural and economic contributions, the extent to which migrants are able to makecivic–political contributions depends on policy settings of the country, including at the national, subnational
and local levels; this topic is discussed in chapter 6 of this report and is not repeated here. However, the key
factors influencing migrants’ contributions have been neatly summarized in a publication on migrants’ civic–
political contributions (see table 1). This summary table shows the complexity of factors affecting the extent
to which migrants are able to contribute in the civic–political sphere, which include structural settings but
extend to other factors, including cultural and demographic aspects.

Table 1. Factors influencing immigrants’ civic–political contributions
Global level• Transportation andcommunication
technology• International laws
and treaties onhuman rights• International
power politics,
pressures andconflicts involving
immigrants’ homecountry/region

National level(origin and destination)

Local level(external and intragroup)• Geographic proximity between
origin and destination• Structure and dynamics of theeconomy• State–national model of civic–
political integration• Civic culture/practice of inclusion–
exclusion (multiculturalism)• State of Nation-building process• Immigration/emigration policies
and citizenship• State-to-State bilateral relationship• Patriarchal/egalitarian gender
relations in private and publicspheres• Structure and dynamics of theeconomy• Civic culture/practiceof inclusion–exclusion(multiculturalism)• Extent of residential segregation• Intergroup relations• Proportion of foreign-born• Immigrant/ethnic group size andresidential concentration• Sojourn/diaspora mentality• Immigrant/ethnic group sense of
civic entitlement• Internal organization andleadership

Source: Adapted from Morawska, 2013, p. 142.

42 Beine, Docquier and Schiff, 2013.

170

Reflections on migrants’ contributions in an era of increasing disruption and disinformation

As can be seen from table 1, normative or policy settings at all three governance levels (global, national
and local) are important in circumscribing migrants’ civic–political contributions. For example, the right tovote, hold public office, or join a political party or a trade union may be set by (or rely upon) regulations
at different levels, determining the extent and nature of related engagement. In some places, for example,
migrants are able (and expected) to contribute actively, including through voting in democratic elections(e.g. New Zealand), although this is still relatively uncommon for national elections. (See the text box on“Countries where migrants can vote in national elections” in chapter 6 of this report.) The ability to votein democratic elections is often linked to naturalization, so that migrants who become citizens are able tovote as well as stand for public office. In the United States, for example, the November 2018 elections forthe 116th Congress delivered the most racially and ethnically diverse Congress in the country’s history, and13 per cent of its members are first- or second-generation migrants.43 In other locations, such as Gulf States,
migrant workers make up very significant proportions of workforces and yet are banned from contributing to
the protection of workers’ rights through collective/trade unionism, let alone able to naturalize (see chapter
6 of this report).44
The role of diaspora has received significant attention in research and policy communities, and the extent towhich diaspora groups are able to engage in the political processes of origin countries varies widely, and canbe contested and sensitive.45 Recent Turkish elections (Parliamentary, and a referendum on the Constitution),for example, showed a high rate of participation by the Turkish diaspora and were also the subject ofcontroversy, namely the extent of election campaigning by political parties targeting Turks living in Europe.46
There are also some specific limitations on diaspora engagement that are set at the international level, suchas limits on the most extreme forms of political insurgency conducted by banned organizations operatingtransnationally.47 Experiences in destination countries can also shape the political ideals of migrants asthey witness different systems in action and become integrated into host societies. Migrants can bring backpolitical ideologies to origin countries when they return, temporarily or permanently. Research has foundthat returning Filipino migrants from Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China, for example, showeda higher commitment to democracy, while returnees from Saudi Arabia expressed more ambivalence towards
it.48 Migrants, including refugees, can also be important agents of change in peacebuilding and reconstruction
processes, bringing their experiences, skills and resources to the rebuilding of infrastructure, social cohesion
and political processes in post-conflict settings, as shown in the text box below.49

43
44
45
46
47
48
49

Bialik, 2019; Geiger, Bialik and Gramlich, 2019.
ILO, 2019; Khadria, 2016.
Pan, 1999; Lal, Reeves and Rai, 2006.
Adamson, 2018.
Clarke, 2017.
Rother, 2009.
Bradley, Milner and Peruniak, 2019; Jacobsen, Young and Osman, 2008; Milner, 2011.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

Diaspora building peace
Diaspora involvement in the conflict ‘back home’ can be both positive and negative because of thediversity within the diaspora. Diaspora individuals and organisations often have conflicting roles: some
contribute to the conflict and prolong the conflict through the provision of financial, material andpolitical support that is used for military purposes and decreases the parties’ incentives to negotiate.
Others contribute to peace and the resolution of conflict through the provision of financial, material
and political support that can put pressure on parties to engage in negotiations to bring about apolitical solution.a
Until recently, the dominant discourse on diaspora engagement in peacebuilding primarily focusedon the negative aspects of diaspora engagement in conflict and post-conflict contexts, namely, thecoercive power of diaspora groups. Diasporas were viewed as fuelling conflict and exacerbating
tensions; however, diasporas often contribute positively towards peacebuilding efforts in conflictaffected countries. The challenge is how to inspire diasporas to direct their energy to the promotionof a sustainable peace.
A Diaspora peacebuilder must be dexterous, informed, connected, passionate and courageous.
No-one embodies this more than Stéphanie Mbanzendore, founder member of the organisation
Burundian Women for Peace and Development (BWPD).b During the Diaspora Academy,c Stéphanieemphasised the value of soft power when sharing her experience as a diaspora peacebuilder actively
engaged in peace work in the Netherlands and Burundi. Soft power as a strategy requires carefuland clear consideration of people, issues and processes. It also involves taking decisions that allow
the peace potential of a situation to manifest gracefully through nuance engagement in navigatinga challenging reality. Stéphanie demonstrates the skilful use of soft power in planning a trip home.
In July 2004, she participated in a trip to Burundi aimed at introducing the Burundian diaspora to
the new Burundian government, to build relations, and to assess the situation; this was her first visit
home in nine years. There was a great deal of planning, strategising and preparation beforehand to
make the trip a success.
After 2004, Stéphanie did lots of capacity-buildingd trainingse focused on building peace in Burundi,
and a campaign to educate girls. A practical consideration (the high cost of hiring training venues)
led to the idea of possibly building a training centre. In Stéphanie’s own words, “At first, I doubted
it is possible, but when you don’t ask, you don’t get.” On her return to the Netherlands, Stéphanie
approached the Dutch Government with the idea to build a centre, and received a positive response.
She then asked counterparts in Burundi what their contribution would be to this project, and the
local municipality gave the land for the building. The Multi-Purpose Centre of Kirundo was built; it has
a large hall that seats 250, a library, training room, two offices, a computer room, and a large insidecompound. The First Lady of Burundi officially opened the centre on 11 March 2011. The staff of theCentre has an orange uniform to acknowledge and thank the Netherlands for its contribution.

171

172

Reflections on migrants’ contributions in an era of increasing disruption and disinformationa Smith and Stares, 2007.
b Burundian Women for Peace and Development was established in 2001 with seven women. Stéphanie Mbanzendore is afounding member. Available at www.bwpd.nl.
c Stéphanie participated in the Diaspora Academy as an expert.
d Capacity-building training was held on the topics of: conflict resolution, gender-based violence, domestic violence,leadership, self-esteem, elections and campaigning, HIV/AIDS and youth.
e Stephanie says, “At the end of every training, all participants received a new bicycle. They need means to travel. They arevery happy with that. They say, “We’ve got somebody who understands our concern.’”
Abridged excerpt of Nordien, 2017.

The economic contributions of migrants
In terms of economic contributions, there is a very substantial and growing body of evidence on the centralityof migrants’ remittances to support families and local communities in origin countries.50 International
remittances – in contrast to overseas development assistance and, to a lesser extent, direct foreign
investment – are localized contributions made through personal transactions, typically helping families tomeet basic household needs (such as food and shelter) and alleviate poverty.51 The money that migrants
send home can be important buffers against unexpected costs, supporting household financial stability andresilience.52 Money can also support access to health services and investment in education of immediate andextended family members, as well as provide the ability to invest in businesses, property and other assets.53
The introduction and expansion of “mobile money” apps over the last decade has allowed for migrants’contributions in the form of remittances to better support their families and friends. An example from Kenya
illustrates:

As of 2013, 93 per cent of the adult population in Kenya is registered for M-Pesa, and60 per cent actively use the service. The impact of the M-Pesa is much broader as it has
facilitated the creation of thousands of small businesses and gave nearly 20 million Kenyans
access to financial services, particularly low-income Kenyans. The percentage of people
living on less than $1.25 a day using M-Pesa grew from less than 20 per cent in 2008 to
72 per cent in three years.54
In addition to enhanced financial inclusion, “mobile money” also provides lower money transfer costs andreduces the risk of exploitative practices. There is, however, recognition that both access rates and usage differ
socioeconomically and demographically within local communities. Recent research in Ghana, for example, has
found that women display different financial behaviours and are more likely to save in household settings
using mobile money, and yet have more limited access to information and communication technology (ICT).

50
51
52
53
54

de Haas, 2005; Mohieldin and Ratha, 2019; OECD/ILO, 2018.
IOM, 2016; Skeldon, 2018.
Beaton, Catão and Koczan, 2018.
UNDP, 2011.
Shrier, Canale and Pentland, 2016:10. M-Pesa, which stands for Mobile Money, is a platform that makes it possible for users to store
and transfer money to other users using mobile phones. See Suri and Jack, 2016.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

173

The researchers subsequently recommended that “efforts should be geared towards the provision of mobile
phones (and other ICTs) to women to help them to be financially included to achieve development”.55 A similar
study in Uganda found that poor households would benefit from tailored programmes and additional assistanceto support greater access to mobile money services.56 In some countries, various laws and regulations have
limited ICTs for cross-border financial flows. While it is important to ensure digital security and prevent
illicit financial transfers, overly cumbersome and rigid regulations have often driven up the cost of sending
remittances, for example, and slowed the uptake of new technologies needed to enhance financial inclusion.57
Legal status can have a profound effect on the ability to contribute economically to families and communities
back home. Irregularity and precariousness are linked to more limited options to remit, and higher costs indoing so. Irregularity in destination also often translates into lower wages with greater risk of exploitation,higher relative living costs and reduced choice, which can in turn translate into a lower capacity to remit.58
In addition, studies have found that greater precariousness associated with working as an irregular migrantin informal settings results in workers ensuring they have enough money to deal with uncertainties, which
again negatively affects their ability to remit.59 This is in the context of recognition that irregular migrants– even more so than other migrants – will be key contributors to societies of the type of labour least favoured
by the native-born: the so-called 3D (dirty, dangerous, demanding) jobs.60 The “winners” in all this, someargue, are the receiving countries, who are able to benefit from a steady supply of workers in the informal
economy and so keep wage costs down,61 while also not benefiting from income tax revenues. This is not
uniform, however, and certain sectors in many economies (such as the agricultural, fishery and care sectors)
rely more heavily on irregular migrant workers, resulting in labour market segmentation. Employers in these
sectors may operate as “bad actors” by exploiting irregular migrant workers, who are more likely to accept
lower pay and bad working conditions out of desperation.62 As one means of addressing these issues, somecountries implement regularization programmes periodically so that those who are in irregular situations
can gain lawful status and (re)enter the formal economy.63 However, more systematic responses focusing on
decent work for native-born and migrants alike will ensure people performing low-/semi-skilled work are able
to improve their ability to contribute.

55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63

Osabuohein and Karakara, 2018.
Murendo et al., 2018.
Cooper, Esser and Peter, 2018; IFAD and the World Bank Group, 2015.
Baldwin-Edwards, 2008; Kanko and Teller, 2014; Shah, 2009.
Schluter and Wahba, 2009.
Shah, 2009; Khadria, 2009.
Shah, 2009.
Papademetriou, 2014.
Triandafyllidou, Bartolini and Guidi, 2019.

174

Reflections on migrants’ contributions in an era of increasing disruption and disinformation

More than a worker…
While we often think of international migrants as primarily a source of labour, they are more than justworkers, playing diverse economic roles in origin and destination countries, including:•

As workers, migrants are part of, but also have an impact on, the labour market; they also alter
the country’s income distribution and influence domestic investment priorities.

•

As students, migrants – or their children – contribute to increasing the stock of human capitaland diffusing knowledge.

•

As entrepreneurs and investors, they create job opportunities and promote innovation andtechnological change.

•

As consumers, they contribute to increasing the demand for domestic – and foreign – goods andservices, thus affecting the price and production levels, as well as the trade balance.

•

As savers, they not only send remittances to their countries of origin but also contributeindirectly, through the bank system, to fostering investment in their host countries.

•

As taxpayers, they contribute to the public budget and benefit from public services.

•

As family members, they support others, including those who need care and support.

Source: OECD/ILO, 2018 (adapted).

Migrants have made and continue to make significant economic contributions, in both countries of origin
and destination. Migrants’ monetary remittances to their countries of origin are among the most widely
researched and scrutinized economic contributions. As the amount of money sent in the form of remittances
has sharply increased over the years, so has the interest from policymakers and academics in understanding
how remittances contribute, both positively and negatively, to recipient countries. In 2018, global remittances
amounted to USD 689 billion, whereas flows to low- and middle-income countries alone rose to a record
USD 529 billion, up from USD 483 billion in 2017.64 The significance of remittances to countries of origin
cannot be overstated; remittances to low- and middle-income countries, except for China, exceeded foreign
direct investment (FDI) flows in 2018,65 a reflection of increased international migration, as well as new
and relatively lower cost channels for international money transfers.66 More information on remittances isprovided in chapters 2 (global overview) and 3 (regional developments) of this report.
While migrants’ other aggregate contributions to countries of origin are not as well documented as remittances,a growing body of evidence is providing a sharper focus on these benefits. One such contribution is financing

64 World Bank Group, 2019.
65 Ibid.
66 Meyer and Shera, 2017.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

175

through instruments such as diaspora bonds. For struggling and cash-strapped countries, diaspora bonds
are a relatively inexpensive way to raise funds, including during periods of financial stress67 and after
disasters; they have been a key alternative to borrowing funds from more expensive lenders such as othergovernments, financial institutions or capital markets. Borrowing at an attractive rate from their citizens
abroad, governments have also been able to pursue large development projects. Meanwhile, diaspora bonds
have provided citizens and former citizens abroad with the opportunity to be development actors back home
– to tangibly contribute to their origin countries’ economies, particularly as disaster management initiatives
after calamities such as earthquakes and floods have struck their “homelands”. In 2017, for example, Nigeria
issued its first diaspora bond, raising USD 300 million to fund infrastructure projects.68 Armenia, a country
with a large diaspora, also established government-issued diaspora bonds in 2018.69 But India and Israel areperhaps the most successful examples of countries that have reaped benefits from diaspora bonds, with bothcountries raising billions of dollars over the decades.70 India has also been offering differential and tax-freeinterest rates on fixed deposits in Indian banks made by non-resident Indians.71 Since 1951, Israel has raised
more than USD 40 billion through this financing mechanism.72
In addition to diaspora bonds, migrants have contributed to their home countries’ economies by directly
investing in or starting new businesses. Several studies have demonstrated that returned migrants are more
likely to start businesses than are people who never left their countries.73 Indeed, in some countries, diasporaowned companies make up a significant share of FDI. In Georgia, for example, an estimated 17 per cent ofprivate sector firms belong to the country’s diaspora.74 Diaspora entrepreneurship has not only helped tobuild physical capital in countries of origin, but also continues to enhance economic productivity as wellas contribute to job creation. But the economic contributions migrants make to countries of origin extend
beyond financing and entrepreneurship; by establishing migration networks across countries, migrants have
reduced information barriers and have helped to boost trade and investment flows between countries of origin
and destination.75 A recent study, exploring if the presence of migrants has an impact on FDI investment
decisions, found that immigration does indeed reduce information asymmetries and positively affects
outgoing FDI stocks from destination to countries of origin.76 The presence of a large number of migrants
can also establish a market for products manufactured in their countries of origin and thus enhance tradeflows between economies.77 Offshore business process outsourcing and back-office operations are significant
ventures in India, started by returnees by raising venture capital at times of economic downturns in thedeveloped countries, particularly the United States, that drove them back home in the first place.78 Amongthe most important contributions that migrants make to their countries of origin is their influence on humancapital stocks. This is done either directly when they return with new knowledge and skills, or indirectly

67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78

Ratha and Ketkar, 2011.
Brookings Institution, 2018.
Lieberman, 2018.
Strohecker, 2016.
A variety of bank accounts are offered by the Indian banking system. See Khadria, 2009, 2012.
Strohecker, 2016.
OECD, 2016; Demurger and Xu, 2011; Naudé, Siegel and Marchand, 2015.
OECD, 2016.
IMF, 2015.
Fensore, 2016.
Ibid.
Khadria, 2009.

176

Reflections on migrants’ contributions in an era of increasing disruption and disinformation

by incentivizing citizens to acquire or enhance their human capital, bolstering a country’s overall skills.79
Innovative engagement of expatriate doctors and nurses in a perceived “United Nations Healthkeeping Force”(emulating the United Nations Peacekeeping Force) to provide free or low-cost medical care to unskilled andirregular immigrants among their own diaspora, as well as in low-Human Development Index third countries,
has been suggested.80 However, a recurring concern among policymakers is that emigration, particularly ofhigh-skilled migrants, can come at a cost. “Brain drain” and “brain waste”, or the loss/under-utilization ofhigh-skilled human capital, are commonly raised and widely debated issues.81
The economic contributions of migrants in destination countries have been examined in depth over time. A
large body of evidence exists on how both low- and high-skilled migrants have rectified labour shortages, which
may relate to particular occupation groups, sectors or specific professions.82 In countries with large shares ofhigh-skilled natives, low-skilled migrant workers have complemented the skills of natives by occupying jobs insectors where citizens are in short supply; in many cases, these are also sectors that native workers consider
unattractive.83 This not only addresses labour gaps in industries such as construction and agriculture,84 but also
allows native workers in high-skilled sectors to further specialize in their work. This complementarity of skills
has been significant for native, high-skilled women. As migrants have filled jobs in childcare and housekeeping,female native workers have been able to increase their workplace participation and productivity. For example,
a study conducted in Italy found that, when there was a large supply of immigrants who provided household
services, native Italian women spent more time at work.85 A 2011 study in the United States drew the sameconclusion, suggesting that by lowering the costs of household services, low-skilled immigration increases thelabour supply and average hours of market work of high-skilled native women.86
Some countries are almost entirely dependent on migrant workers, especially in industries such as
construction, hospitality and retail. In the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, for example, internationalmigrants make up significant proportions of their national populations (88% and 76%, respectively).87 And
for countries undergoing population decline, migrants can be essential in offsetting some of the negative
economic consequences associated with a shrinking population, which can stymie a country’s overall
economic productivity and growth. As fertility rates tumble across regions such as Europe, migrants remain
significant contributors to population growth and labour supply.88 In the European Union, natural population
change (births and deaths) only contributed 20 per cent to population growth from 2012 to 2016, while net
migration added 80 per cent to total population increase.89
In terms of their broader economic contributions with large-scale and long-term externalities to societies,
migrants have long been drivers of entrepreneurship and innovation. Migrants, unlike people who have never

79 McKinsey Global Institute, 2016.
80 Khadria, 2012.
81 “Brain drain” is defined as the migration of high-skilled people from poorer to wealthier countries, while “brain waste” refers to adowngrading of skills, where migrants end up working in occupations that require skill levels lower than those they had acquired intheir countries of origin. See Docquier and Rapoport, 2011; Pires, 2015.
82 Khadria, 2012; Ruhs, 2013; Goldin et al., 2018; Goldin, Cameron and Balarajan, 2011; IMF, 2015.
83 Constant, 2014.
84 Ibid.
85 Barone and Mocetti, 2010.
86 Cortés and Tessada, 2011.
87 UN DESA, 2019.
88 See the discussion on migration and population change in world regions in chapter 3 of this report.
89 Eurostat, 2019.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

177

lived outside of their home countries, are much more willing to take business risks. This, as some researchers
have observed, may be because migrants have already taken the risk of leaving their countries of origin topursue opportunities in new places and are thus well-primed to be risk takers.90 By overcoming obstacles
and the challenges that come with moving to a new country, they develop the so-called “growth mindset”,
which allows them to be adaptable, more confident and to have a higher tolerance for uncertainty.91 Recent
studies, however, have cautioned against seeing migrants as “super-entrepreneurs” compared with natives
when aggregate data are patchy at best.92 Additionally, migrant entrepreneurs continue to face significant
challenges, which can result in the collapse of their enterprises. The failure to access credit is among themost important constraints on migrant entrepreneurship, and while this is not unique to migrants, they havegreater difficulty acquiring business loans than those who are native born.93 Factors such as lack of collateral,
shorter credit histories, possible discrimination and credit institutions’ unfamiliarity with migrants all makethem less likely to receive credit from lending institutions.94 Other obstacles – including limited rights tostart a business, lack of local networks, unfamiliarity with the local business environment and language andcultural barriers – remain significant constraints on migrant entrepreneurship.95
Perhaps more than in any other developed country, immigrants have significantly contributed to driving
innovation and entrepreneurship in the United States. While immigrants represented only 13 per cent of
the population in a country of more than 300 million people, they comprised nearly 30 per cent of all
entrepreneurs.96 In addition to their disproportionate contribution toward entrepreneurship, recent researchsuggests that businesses founded by immigrants in the United States were not only more likely to survive,
but also tended to outperform those started by native citizens when it came to employment growth overthree- and six-year periods.97 However, the same study did find that, in terms of growth in wages, immigrantfounded companies did not perform any better than those started by natives and may in fact underperformtheir native peers.98 The success and contribution to innovation is most visible in the engineering andtechnology industries; in about one quarter of engineering and technology firms founded in the United Statesfrom 2006 to 2012, for example, at least one main founder was an immigrant.99 Silicon Valley is often cited as
the hub of such successful migrant innovators and entrepreneurs.100 Yet this trend is not limited to the UnitedStates. Globally, migrants continue to help create jobs as well as contribute to destination countries’ economic
growth through entrepreneurship. A 2012 survey of 69 economies by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor
demonstrated that immigrants had higher entrepreneurial activity compared with natives.101 Moreover, while
there is a dearth of research on the contributions of migrants to entrepreneurship in low-income countries,
emerging studies, particularly those focused on refugees, show that where they are given the opportunity towork, refugees make positive contributions to destination economies. In Uganda, a country that hosts one

90 Goldin et al., 2018.
91 Kelly, 2018.
92 Naudé, Siegel and Marchand, 2017.
93 Desiderio, 2014.
94 Ibid.
95 UNCTAD, IOM and UNHCR, 2018.
96 Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, 2017.
97 Kerr and Kerr, 2016.
98 Ibid.
99 Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, 2014.
100 Lal, Reeves and Rai, 2006.
101 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, 2013.

178

Reflections on migrants’ contributions in an era of increasing disruption and disinformationof the largest refugee populations in the world, refugees – those residing in both cities and in rural areas –are highly entrepreneurial and have created jobs not just for themselves but also for Ugandan nationals.102
Research conducted on refugee entrepreneurs in Kampala, showed that refugees employ 2.4 people on averagein the city.103 A similar trend has been observed in South Africa, whose self-settlement approach to refugees
allows them not only to move freely, but also to find work and to be self-employed. However, because many
refugees struggle to find employment in the formal economy, many choose to start their own enterprises in
the informal sector. A recent report on “refugee entrepreneurial economies in urban South Africa” found thatrefugee enterprises have contributed to the country’s economy by creating jobs;104 an estimated 52 per centand 45 per cent of businesses in the provinces of Cape Town and Limpopo, respectively, employ people in theirenterprises, with around 50 per cent of these businesses more likely to employ South Africans.105

Migrants as innovators
The contributions that migrants make toward innovation, particularly in destination countries, havereceived much attention in recent years. There is little dispute and widespread consensus that migrants
are significant drivers of innovation globally. A recent report identifies four ways through which
migrants enhance innovation: (a) migrants’ higher concentration in economic sectors that tend to be
more innovative; (b) through patents and as entrepreneurs; (c) their greater contribution to businessstart-ups compared with natives; and (d) by fostering investment, trade and technology linkages.a
The United States is the most salient example of migrants’ innovation.  For example, migrants havelong been linked to an increase in patents in the United States.b In fact, given their concentrationin fields such as science and engineering, migrants in the United States have been shown to patent
twice as much as natives.c A recent study, which sought to determine how high-skilled immigration
affects “product reallocation” in the United States, found that “a 10 per cent increase in the shareof H-1B workers is associated with a 2 per cent increase in product reallocation rates”.d In otherwords, companies that hired more highly skilled, college-educated foreign workers created more new
products.e Product reallocation, which is another measure of innovation, is defined as the entry of
new products into the market and exit of older products.f
A separate 2018 study determined that, despite comprising a relatively small share of the country’s
population, migrants have accounted for 30 per cent of aggregate innovation in the United Statessince 1976.g The contribution of immigrants to United States innovation is evident in the numberof Nobel Laureates and members of the National Academy of Sciences who are immigrants, which
is triple that of natives.h Although most studies on innovation have focused on the United States,a growing body of work is exploring how migrants have made contributions in this area in othercountries. A study assessing migrants’ contribution to the increase in patents in the United Kingdom,France and Germany determined that, similar to the United States, there is a positive correlation
between high-skilled migrants and innovation.i

102 Betts et al., 2014.
103 Ibid.
104 Crush et al., 2017.
105 Ibid.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

179

a Goldin et al., 2018.
b Rassenfossea and Pellegrino, 2019; Moser, Voena and Waldinger, 2014; Hunt and Gauthier-Loiselle, 2010; Kerr and Lincoln,
2010.
c Hunt and Gauthier-Loiselle, 2010.
d Khanna and Lee, 2018.
e Ibid.
f Ibid.
g Bernstein et al., 2018.
h Goldin et al., 2018.
i Venturini, Montobbio and Fassio, 2012.

New impediments to the recognition of migrants’ contributions
In previous sections, we have seen that there have always existed obstacles, major and minor, to migrants
being able to contribute in origin and destination settings, typically related to policy settings stemmingfrom a range of legal contexts. Many obstacles, for example, are based on the application of laws regulating
societies more broadly, such as those related to labour law, property law, criminal law, tax law and such.
Likewise, we have seen that changes in structural/policy settings and new technology (such as mobile money)
have been successfully adopted to facilitate migrants’ contributions in specific ways. The issue of maximizingor optimizing contributions and creating the right conditions for opportunities to be realized in the pursuitof peace and prosperity is, of course, not specific to migrants, but remains at the heart of policymaking inmost countries throughout the world as it relates to all residents (citizen and non-citizens). However, therelationships between policymaking and politics have also evolved, bringing them much closer together
over time for a range of reasons, including the 24/7 media cycle, the shift from “expertise and analysis” to“opinion”, the very significant changes in expediency and delivery at the expense of critical reflection andadjustment, among others.106
Combined with seismic geopolitical events – such as the end of the Cold War, the 9/11 attacks, the 2015/16
large-scale movements of people to and through Europe – more recent policy environments have had toincreasingly accommodate a more brutal form of politics and respond to the pressing issue of migration.
This is most apparent in Western democratic countries, but is by no means limited to them. In a 2014 bigdata study on media depictions of migration and migrants in 10 countries,107 one of the key findings wasthat politicians were by far the most dominant voices in the media in all countries. This was the case in
Afghanistan, just as it was in Sri Lanka, Canada and the United Kingdom.108 Immigration is increasingly
being used as a political reference point, and as a way of defining values (and in democratic systems, as ameans of appealing to the electorate). Some studies have found that “political conflict over immigration
follows a political logic and must be attributed to parties and party competition rather than to ‘objective

106 Kirkpatrick, Ackroyd and Walker, 2005; Weinberger, 2011.
107 McAuliffe and Weeks, 2015. The 10 countries in scope were Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Canada, the Netherlands, Norway, Pakistan, Sri
Lanka, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Viet Nam.
108 Ibid.

180

Reflections on migrants’ contributions in an era of increasing disruption and disinformationpressures’”.109 The role of far-right parties in politicizing immigration for political expediency is a recurring
theme in recent studies.110 In other words, in many countries “anti-immigration” rhetoric has become acentral plank of political branding in the quest for market share, regardless of the significance (or otherwise)of the substantive issue itself. What was once “dog-whistling” on anti-immigration has become a central
theme in political messaging. Politics itself is becoming a significant impediment to balanced policy on
immigration and the contributions of migrants.

Politics and migration
Among the old stalwarts of the centre-left, there is a simple explanation for the decline of the parties
they used to lead: immigration... Hardly a week passes without some candidate or columnist declaringthat liberals will only regain power when they lock down the borders. The obsession with immigration
is not an accident. It reflects a widely held belief that the decline of the grand parties of the centreleft across Europe... has been caused by the rise of the new parties of the populist radical right, whohave “stolen” the old working-class vote with a nativist, even authoritarian, message.
...
But since the so-called refugee crisis of 2015, these worries have escalated into a panic, as theleaders of Europe’s social democratic parties scramble to show their concerns over immigration... [A]dramatic shift in the rhetoric of ostensibly centre-left parties is part of a larger panic over how to halt
the spread of right-wing populism across the west in recent years.
...
…the recent growth of populist radical-right parties – unlike their initial expansion in the 1990s – has
not been driven by winning over more of the working class. The real story is that responses to events
such as 9/11 and the “refugee crisis” by mainstream commentators and politicians brought thearguments of the populist radical right more into the mainstream discussion – and their “solutions”
consequently became acceptable to broader sections of the public. As a result, the most successful
populist radical-right parties now are Volksparteien – “people’s parties”, rather than “workers’
parties” – and do not represent just the working class.
...
Academic research consistently shows that when mainstream parties move to the right in an
attempt to co-opt the issues of the radical right, it does not hurt populist right parties – in fact, it
often helps them.a Moreover, other research shows that it does not stop the electoral bleeding ofsocial democratic parties either.b This makes perfect sense. By prioritising immigration as an issue –and reinforcing the negative depiction of migrants and migration – mainstream parties only help toboost the main issue and frame of the populist radical right. Moreover, populist radical right voters
are not only nativist, they are also populist, which explains why the “immigration realism” of social
democratic parties is ultimately not effective.
a Abou-Chadi and Krause, 2018.
b Abou-Chadi, 2018.
Abridged excerpt of Mudde, 2019.

109 Grande, Schwarzbözl and Fatke, 2018.
110 Abou-Chadi and Krause, 2018; Abou-Chadi, 2018; Mudde, 2019.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

181

We must also recognize that the fundamental ways in which public debates occur has changed. By this wemean that the “who, what, where and how” of public discourse are manifestly different in a world that has
recently experienced a rapid transformation in transnational connectivity. The ability to access informationand opinion from different locations globally has massively expanded. We are also able to (self) publish ourown views largely without restraint, a development made possible by relatively new social media platforms.
By using these platforms, organized groups, regardless of their numeric size, are increasingly able to utilize
open, real-time (un-curated) publishing to distort narratives in attempts to realize changes in political (andpolicy) decisions.111 Overall, the way we – as countries, as communities, and increasingly as transnational
value-based groups – describe and discuss migration to ourselves and to others is being shaped by the massivechanges in the media landscape. Recent research on these changes has been undertaken utilizing big data
analysis on Twitter, for example, finding that some groups are engaging in “entanglement” of messaging inorder to portray refugees and other migrants as negative, regardless of the facts (see text box below).

Transnational tribalism, immigration and social media platforms
A big data study of Twitter during the peak of the so-called refugee crisis (October 2015 to May 2016)
analysed almost 7.5 million tweets collected through hashtags such as #refugee, #refugeecrisis and#flüchtlinge.a The study examined the framing of refugees in the Twittersphere, and the extent towhich the frames represented alternative voices. The analysis found that, overall, dominant frames
revolved around security and safety on the one hand and humanitarianism on the other. The study
also identified some explicitly racist hashtags linked to some of the security and safety frames. Linking
any new issue to pre-existing hashtags—for example, #refugees and #tcot – points to an emerging
dynamic in which new issues are subsumed and used for different political purposes. The researchers
found that Twitter is no longer a social media platform that operates as a levelling field; rather, thelong-standing presence of some has already conditioned the medium, “socializing” new tags in theirown way and “broadcasting” to millions of followers. This points to the instrumentalization of Twitter,
where it is used strategically to achieve certain political ends by specific interests, such as far-rightactivists. There was evidence of increasingly strident anti-immigration voices in Europe. Overall, therefugee debate on Twitter was caught between the security and racist frames on the one hand, andhumanitarian responses on the other.
It is understandable that European activists were found to be present in the study, given the events
that were taking place at the time in Europe. The relationship to these events and the rise oftransnational tribalism through social media platforms as well as traditional media, spearheadedby political leaders, is a topic of intense interest to many political scientists. Migration features
prominently in these analyses, which is often characterized as “battles”, “struggles” and “hostilities”.b
The main actors in the battle are based in Europe, the United States and Australia, and are able
to connect via unprecedented transnational communication.c Rather than predominantly economic
issues, the battle is over societal attitudes between “nationalism and protectionism” and “integrationand openness”.d Immigration policy has regrettably become the centrepiece of this transnational
struggle for political power.e

111 McAuliffe, 2018; Siapera et al., 2018; Suiter and Culloty, 2019.

182

Reflections on migrants’ contributions in an era of increasing disruption and disinformation

a
b
c
d
e

Siapera et al., 2018.
Mounk and Foa, 2018.
Zemandl, 2018; Suiter and Culloty, 2019.
Kaufmann, 2017; Zemandl, 2018.
McAuliffe, 2018.

Concluding observations on the challenge ahead
In an ideal world, there would be no need for this chapter to be written. The topic itself would be so obvious
and uncontroversial as to render it irrelevant. And yet, it is more important now than at any other time inmodern, post-war history to reflect on migrants’ contributions to countries and communities around theworld. Simply put, this is because it is becoming increasingly difficult to hear balanced perspectives in publicdebates on important policy issues, such as international migration.
Given this context, this chapter is not about quantitative cost–benefit analyses of migration. Instead,the chapter has looked at the often neglected but core determinant of the migrant(s) as contributors tocommunities of destination as well as those back in their places of origin.
With this perspective, we have focused on three central domains of what makes a good society: sociocultural,
civic–political and economic contributions. Today in the twenty-first century, migrants may be better able
to make contributions to these domains than they were in the last century (or prior) largely because of
the phenomenal improvements in development that have taken place in most countries, as well as strong
recognition of the need to ensure that global development and stability are underpinned by human rights.112
Yet, this chapter also drives home the point that the contributions of migrants to societies, polities andthe economies globally have not only been largely overlooked, downplayed and taken for granted, butalso hindered, through proliferation of disruption and disinformation against migrants. Recent research andanalysis show that some forms of technology are impacting our media, social and political interactions, andare becoming more pressing for governance, both in relation to the regulation of newer forms of technology
and how they are shaping democratic processes.113
The question therefore remains as to what would be a balanced strategy to make the contributions optimally,
if not maximally, visible, acknowledged and accepted on the global and national policy agendas.
While some activists and advocates argue for adopting political responses,114 and others engage in countering
negative images only by putting forward positive “idealized” representations of migrants, others argue that weneed to be cautious, as these approaches risk further polarization in public discussions that are increasingly
influenced by inflammatory (and sometimes inaccurate) social media commentary.115 With this context in
mind, the following implications for policy, practice and research are offered:112 See, for example, the United Nations Human Development Index results over time, which show significant improvements in the levelof development in most countries globally.
113 Morgan, 2018.
114 See, for example, Crawley and McMahon, 2016.
115 Kaufmann, 2017; Alfred, 2017.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

183•

Balanced public discussions require greater scrutiny of “fake” social media content, including bypromoting a better understanding of the responsibilities that go hand-in-hand with free speech. Thisis currently a “hot” issue in many parts of the world, with stricter regulatory regimes being actively
considered, or having been put in place.116•

There is clearly a place for greater emphasis on migrant-centric research and analyses, as well as researchon the social media activists’ influence on bolstering unbalanced political discourse (and ultimately
political decisions). Ideally, this research would examine the impacts of a wide range of distorted
messaging, noting that existing studies outlined in this chapter indicate that the negative, anti-migrantinterest groups appear to be increasingly using social media platforms to great effect, at times regardlessof accuracy or truthful representations.

•

Both historically and contemporarily, there is strong evidence that migrants have made substantial
contributions in a variety of settings and in a variety of important ways. However, it is also clearthat there are structural limits that act to circumscribe migrants’ contributions in ways that arecounterproductive for communities, States and migrants. The most obvious examples exist with respect
to irregular or undocumented migrants who may be doing low-prestige, underpaid work that is, in manycases, nevertheless much needed. Structural reforms combined with migration policy initiatives (such as
regularization and enhanced regular pathways) offer the opportunity to optimize migrants’ contributions
and support sectors and communities.117•

There is room to build on innovations delivered by new technology – such as mobile money apps – tohelp facilitate migrants’ contributions in origin and destination settings. Migrant tech has the ability
to support migrants all the way through the migration cycle, including as a means of supporting safe,
regular and orderly migration. Further support of migrant tech start-ups is one practical approach,noting the work already underway in this area.118•

There is considerable room to improve recognition of the enormous value of sociocultural and civic–politicalcontributions of migrants in societies and globally, including in political, media and research spheres.
While this can be challenging, the tendency to focus on economic issues without fully acknowledging
the importance of other aspects leads to a transactional view of societies and nation States. Expanding
research, for example, on the influence migrants can have as positive leaders (for example, the “Salah
effect”), as well as on the relationship between culinary knowledge transfer and health and well-being,
would enable policymakers and general audiences to better appreciate the important contributions
migrants have already made to modern life globally, as well as what further contributions they will offer.

116 BBC, 2019; Tusikov and Haggart, 2019.
117 Triandafyllidou, Bartolini and Guidi, 2019.
118 See, for example, “Start-ups Without Borders” available at https://startupswb.com/.

CÉLINE BAULOZZANA VATHIDIEGO ACOSTA

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

6185

MIGRATION, INCLUSION AND SOCIAL COHESION:
CHALLENGES, RECENT DEVELOPMENTS ANDOPPORTUNITIES1Introduction
The relationship between migrants and the communities in which they reside forms an integral and importantpart of the migration cycle.2 This relationship takes the form of psychological and sociological processesof adaptation between migrants and receiving communities, which affect the degree of inclusion migrants
will experience, including their sense of belonging. Settling in a new community – either temporarily or
permanently – may require migrants to adapt to a new culture, customs, social values and language. The
extent to which migrants will in turn be progressively included in their destination country also depends on
the attitudes of receiving communities, including their openness to migration and migrants.
Migrants’ inclusion has always been an important part of the migration phenomenon; however, it is today
a particularly complex issue. In an increasingly globalized world, the growth in the absolute number of
migrants over the past 50 years and the diversification of migrants’ origins, socioeconomic backgrounds andreasons for migrating have led to more social, cultural, ethnic and religious diversity in receiving societies.3
As a result, the impact of migration and diversity on social cohesion has become an important concern.4 Thisis illustrated by inclusion policies adopted by some States to frame the relationship between migrants andreceiving communities and preserve social cohesion. These inclusion policies have taken multiple forms overtime in different countries, reflecting societal values, including attitudes on immigration and diversity.
While the question of how to live together in increasingly diverse communities has become central, thechallenges in addressing migrants’ inclusion have been compounded by the many opinions and voices on the
topic. Alongside migrants and States, a wide array of actors – such as civil society organizations, communities
and local authorities – now play increasingly important roles in migrants’ inclusion. In addition, virtually
everyone today has the ability to express publicly their opinions on immigration and migrants’ inclusion.5
The politicization of migration for electioneering purposes has elevated the issues to become a matter ofpublic concern. Due in part to negative portrayals made by political parties and reported by the media,6migrants have in some countries been presented as a challenge to national identity, values, economic stability
and security, as well as, more broadly, a threat to social cohesion.7 Despite migrants’ important social and

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

Céline Bauloz, Senior Research Officer, Migration Policy Research Division, IOM; Zana Vathi, Reader in Social Sciences, Edge Hill
University; and Diego Acosta, Professor in European and Migration Law, University of Bristol.
While this chapter focuses on destination countries, the process of migrants’ inclusion also occurs in transit countries, as well as incountries of origin for returning migrants. On migrants’ reintegration, see Newland, 2017.
Appave and David, 2017.
Demireva, 2017.
See, for instance, the survey on attitudes of Europeans towards migration and inclusion carried out in 2017 in the 28 member Statesof the European Union (European Commission, 2018).  
Crawley, McMahon and Jones, 2016. On narratives of negativity in the media, see most notably Allen, Blinder and McNeil, 2017.
Appave and David, 2017; Papademetriou, 2012.

186

Migration, inclusion and social cohesion: Challenges, recent developments and opportunities

economic contributions (see chapter 5 of this report), anti-immigration sentiment has resulted in instancesof intolerance, discrimination, racism, xenophobia and even acts of violent extremism towards migrants,
especially in countries where nationalism, patriotism and populism have been on the rise.
Despite these challenges, States have recently reaffirmed the centrality of migrants’ inclusion and social
cohesion by making them a stand-alone objective in the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular
Migration.8 The Global Compact on Refugees likewise promotes the inclusion of refugees in the receiving
country through durable solutions, such as local integration.9
In order to better understand what migrants’ inclusion entails and the challenges and opportunities it may
bring, the remainder of this chapter is organized into three main parts. The first part introduces the notionsof inclusion and social cohesion, before turning, in the second part, to inclusion outcomes and obstacles. The
third part then explores what “the situation on the ground” is, most notably through the role played by local
actors and by migrants themselves. The conclusion discusses some implications for policy responses that may
help further foster migrants’ inclusion and social cohesion.

Inclusion and social cohesion: Key concepts and definitions
Defining “migrants’ inclusion” and “social cohesion” is a difficult task, as there are no universally recognizeddefinitions. The ambiguity of these notions is exacerbated by the frequent use of various closely related terms,
and the difficulty in distinguishing them (see appendix A for an illustrative list and suggested definitions ofthese concepts).10
In broad terms, social cohesion can be defined through the notions of “solidarity”, “togetherness”, “tolerance”
and “harmonious co-existence”.11 It is not necessarily related to migration and migrants, but is more generally
about the bonds tying a community together through trust and common social norms. While these bonds canbe undermined by disparities in wealth and income, poverty, or intercommunal, ethnic or racial tensions,the impact of migration, and especially of diversity, on social cohesion has been increasingly questioned.12
However, empirical evidence has so far not been conclusive. If some studies suggest a negative impact ofdiversity in countries such as the United States of America, research in the United Kingdom and, moregenerally, in Europe, finds that income inequality and deprivation have a greater impact on social cohesion
than does diversity.13
While the impact of migration and diversity on social cohesion is not clear-cut, social cohesion and migrants’
inclusion are closely related. Social cohesion cannot be achieved if part of the population, including migrants,
is excluded in a given neighbourhood, community, city and/or country.14 As a result, and despite the lack of a

8 UNGA, 2018a: Annex, Objective 16.
9 UNGA, 2018b: paras. 97–99.
10 The choice of the terms “inclusion” and “social cohesion” in this chapter is in line with the terminology used in the Global Compact
for Migration (UNGA, 2018a) and with the Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (UNGA,
2015).  
11 Demireva, 2017. See also Fonseca, Lukosch and Brazier, 2018; Forrest and Kearns, 2001.
12 Zetter et al., 2006.
13 Demireva, 2017.
14 See Jenson, 1998, where inclusion is listed among the different dimensions of social cohesion.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

187

universal definition, inclusion can be summarized as consisting of social cohesion and migrants’ incorporationin the various societal areas, such as education, health, employment, housing, and civic and politicalinvolvement.15

Who is a migrant? An inclusion perspective
As noted in chapter 2 of this report, there are no universally agreed definitions of a migrant, but
multiple understandings depending on the policy and analytical contexts. For instance, the United
Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) defines a migrant for statistical
purposes as “any person who changes his or her country of usual residence”.a
When talking about inclusion, the understanding of who is a migrant is often broader and extends tomigrants’ descendants born in the receiving country. Although they have not migrated themselves,migrants’ descendants may still be perceived as migrants by the receiving society and self-identify
as such. This is especially the case of so-called “second-generation migrants”, who may embrace
both the identities of their receiving country and of their parents’ country of origin.b These multiple
identities are well illustrated in the testimony of Jenan, who was born in the United States to two
migrant parents:  
Being the daughter of two immigrants, I feel I have to work twice as hard as my friends
whose families have been here for generations just so I can prove to my family it was worth
it for them to come here and to make this journey and start their lives all over again. Being achild of immigrants, it means balancing two different cultures. Growing up I had a hard time
accepting that I was part of these two different worlds that are so conflicting.ca UN DESA, 1998.
b Vathi, 2015.
c Available at https://iamamigrant.org/stories/united-states/jenan.

Against this background, inclusion entails a process of mutual adaptation between migrants and receiving
communities. The degree of migrants’ inclusion depends on the individual concerned and the context inwhich adaptation takes place. Factors affecting migrants’ process of inclusion include their demographic andpersonal characteristics (such as age, gender, level of education and language ability), social networks, andability to exercise agency.16 Inclusion remains a highly personal and individualized experience, as it differs
among migrants and family members, and can be different for various “groups” of migrants, such as refugees,
high- or low-skilled migrant workers, victims of trafficking or migrants’ descendants.17 Likewise, the context
influences one’s degree of inclusion, in terms of both geographical location and timing. Each country, society
and community will necessarily approach inclusion differently, as it depends on their respective historical,
15 Faist, 2018. For another definition, see Charsley and Spencer, 2019. This chapter focuses on the inclusion of migrants without
prejudice to the fact that some nationals may face similar inclusion challenges.   
16 Castles et al., 2002; Fokkema and de Haas, 2011; Charsley and Spencer, 2019.
17 On the difference between the inclusion of refugees and other migrants, for instance, see Castles et al., 2002. See also Bauböck andTripkovic, 2017; and Vathi, 2015 concerning different migrant generations.

188

Migration, inclusion and social cohesion: Challenges, recent developments and opportunities

economic, sociocultural and political contexts. Their resulting attitudes towards migration and diversity canchange over time, determining in turn the type of migration and inclusion policies States will adopt.18
As a psychosociological process, inclusion is inherent to the migration experience.19 Although research
focuses primarily on the “Global North”, inclusion transcends any North–South divide because it concerns all
countries. The fact that some countries have not adopted inclusion policies, as seen mostly in the “Global
South”, does not necessarily imply that migrants’ inclusion – or exclusion – does not occur in practice. It
simply means that the State has not set a nationwide strategy for migrants’ inclusion. This may be because
inclusion is not among the priorities of policymakers. For example, this is the case in West African countries,
where other socioeconomic challenges are more pressing or resources are insufficient.20
Nonetheless, as acknowledged in the Global Compact for Migration, inclusion policies can constitute important
tools for countries to support migrants’ inclusion and foster social cohesion.21 By contrast, the absence ofinclusion policies may be costly, not only for migrants who may face discrimination and be marginalized, butalso more broadly for social cohesion, with a heightened risk of tensions, riots and civil unrest.22 As part of(im)migration or stand-alone policies, migrants’ inclusion can take different forms to frame how it shouldtake place in a particular country according to its own values. The most prevalent national policy models of
inclusion have been those of assimilation, multiculturalism and integration which, as summarized in table 1,
can be differentiated according to the expected degrees of adaptation by migrants and of accommodation by
the society.

18
19
20
21
22

Castles et al., 2002; see also Silver, 2015; Landau and Bakewell, 2018.
See most notably Berry, 1997.
Gagnon and Khoudour-Castéras, 2012.
UNGA, 2018a: para. 32(c).
Gagnon and Khoudour-Castéras, 2012.

189

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

Table 1. Summary of the main inclusion models23
Inclusion model

Assimilation

Multiculturalism

Integration

Degree ofadaptation by
migrants

High

Low

MediumDegree ofaccommodation
by society

Examples of policies

Low

White Australia
policy, 1901–
1966a

Restricting “nonwhite” immigration
and assimilating“white” immigrantsb

High

Canada,multiculturalism
policy, 1971–
presentc

Recognizing that“multiculturalism
reflects the culturaland racial diversity ofCanadian society”dMediumEuropean Union
Action Plan on
the Integrationof Third-Country
Nationals, 2016eConsidering
integration as a“dynamic two-way
process”f

Source: (a) National Museum Australia, n.d.; (b) Ibid.; Berndt, 1961; (c) Government of Canada, 2018; (d) Ibid., 1985; (e) European
Commission, 2016; (f) Ibid.

Assimilation considers diversity as a risk for social cohesion and requires the highest degree of adaptation
by migrants and a low degree of accommodation by the receiving society. It consists of a one-way policy
where migrants must fully embrace the receiving society’s national identity and values, to the detriment of
their original ones.24 By contrast, multiculturalism values diversity and expects a low degree of adaptation
by migrants – who can retain their cultural identities – and a high degree of accommodation by the receivingsociety.25
While assimilation has been referred to as a “melting pot”, multiculturalism has often been associated witha “salad bowl”: a melting pot contains ingredients that melt together and become indistinguishable, whereasa salad bowl is made of diverse ingredients which co-exist side by side harmoniously. While assimilation was
already the rule in Latin American countries, such as Argentina, during the mass migration of Europeansin the nineteenth century and beginning of the twentieth century,26 these two models were particularly
prevalent in traditional immigration countries during the twentieth century. In broad terms, the focus wasplaced on assimilation from the 1920s to the 1960s, and shifted to multiculturalism in the 1970s due to the

23
24
25
26

This summary table notably builds on the work of Berry, 1997 and 2006.
IOM, 2019, in appendix A.
Castles, de Haas and Miller, 2014.
See, for instance, Acosta, 2018; Bailey, 1979; Bjerg, 1988; and Sánchez Alonso, 2002.

190

Migration, inclusion and social cohesion: Challenges, recent developments and opportunities

inability of the assimilationist model to accommodate increasingly diverse societies.27 Although it is still
followed by some States, including Canada,28 some have disavowed multiculturalism since the mid-1990s
because it has been considered unable to counter migrants’ exclusion and perceived as a threat to national
identity and values.29
As a result, different models have been embraced to restore a balance between diversity and unity, claimed
by some to have been lost because of multiculturalism.30 At the national level, the model predominantly
relied on today is that of integration, which stands in between assimilation and multiculturalism. It expects
medium degrees of adaptation by migrants and accommodation by the receiving society.31 Although nocommonly agreed definition exists, it is generally accepted to be a two-way process of mutual adaptation
between migrants and the societies in which they live.32 At the local level, an interculturalist approach toinclusion has developed, which emphasizes the importance of contacts and bonds between individuals ofdifferent backgrounds, both migrants and nationals. It relies on the idea that diversity is an advantage andaims to create mutual understanding and a culture of diversity to combat discrimination and inequalities.33
This policy narrative finds its origins in Quebec in the 1980s in response to the Canadian multicultural policy,
and has since been taken up in an increasing number of cities and neighbourhoods, in countries such as
Spain or Italy.34

Inclusion outcomes: Challenges and policy responses
Measuring the level of migrants’ inclusion in receiving societies (so-called “inclusion outcomes”) is complex
given the various individual and contextual factors influencing inclusion (see text box below). It is neverthelessimportant to identify potential obstacles and design and/or re-evaluate policy responses to more effectively
support migrants’ inclusion.

Measuring migrants’ level of inclusion through indicators
Indicators of integration have been developed to measure the degree of migrants’ inclusion in certain
countries and rank these countries according to the effectiveness of their inclusion policies. Thesemost notably include:
•

27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34

The Migrant Integration Policy Index 2015 (MIPEX 2015), co-financed by the European Fundfor the Integration of Third-Country Nationals, European Union (EU), and led by the Barcelona
Centre for International Affairs and the Migration Policy Group (2015);a andCastles, 2004; Castles and Davidson, 2000.
Joppke, 2014.
Kymlicka, 2012; Joppke, 2010. But also see Modood, 2013.
Zapata-Barrero, 2017.
Bivand Erdal and Oeppen, 2013; see also Favell, 2005.
IOM, 2019.
Zapata-Barrero, 2017.
Ibid. On interculturalism in Italian cities, see for instance Caponio and Donatiello, 2017.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020•

191

The immigrants’ indicators developed in 2012 by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation
and Development (OECD), with the latest edition Settling In 2018: Indicators of Immigrant
Integration jointly produced with the EU.b

Inclusion being highly contextual, these indicators reflect a particular understanding of what
“successful integration” means.c Both sets of indicators were devised in the context of traditional
destination countries. Thus, they may not be applicable in other geographical locations, including in
the increasing number of States worldwide that have also become countries of destination.
Comparisons between the countries covered through rankings or indexes also remain delicate, as
the understanding of inclusion and the objectives of inclusion policies differ even among traditional
destination countries. A multiculturalist inclusion policy will not have the same objectives as one thattends to be more assimilationist. It is thus difficult to compare how effective inclusion policies are
between countries with different inclusion objectives.d
Although not focused on inclusion, the Migration Governance Indicators also provide a useful toolfor States to assess the comprehensiveness of their migration policies, including their inclusion
policies. The Migration Governance Indicators are an IOM initiative, implemented with the supportof the Economist Intelligence Unit, to support States in implementing the Migration Governance
Framework, adopted by IOM Member States in 2015 (Council Resolution No. 1310 of 4 December
2015 on the Migration Governance Framework).e With its 90 indicators, the Migration GovernanceIndicators help States identify potential gaps in their migration policies, future priorities, and goodpractices for well-managed migration policies, including with respect to migrants’ rights and theirwell-being, which are key dimensions for migrants’ inclusion.  
a
b
c
d
e

Huddleston et al., 2015.
OECD and EU, 2018. For previous editions, see OECD, 2012; OECD and EU, 2015.
Castles et al., 2002.
Entzinger and Biezeveld, 2003.
See https://migrationdataportal.org/overviews/mgi#0.

This section explores migrants’ inclusion outcomes and challenges in some key policy areas of inclusion,
namely, language, education, labour market inclusion, family reunification, political participation andnaturalization. The focus on these specific policy areas is without prejudice to the importance of others, suchas health or housing. While health is subject to a specific chapter in this report (see chapter 7), housing is
also an important aspect of migrant inclusion because its affordability and quality influence migrants’ wellbeing and social inclusion.35 If housing inclusion can be assessed on the basis of access to homeownership forsome migrants,36 for others, such as refugees, mere access to decent housing is already an issue, as illustrated
by the so-called migrant “crisis” in Europe in 2015–2016, which has been considered by some as a “housingcrisis”.37
35 Phillips, 2006.
36 See, for instance, Darden, 2015.
37 Penny, 2016.

192

Migration, inclusion and social cohesion: Challenges, recent developments and opportunities

As detailed in appendix B, all the policy areas examined in this section reflect human rights to which allindividuals are entitled, including migrants, with the principle of non-discrimination constituting a central
pillar of migrants’ inclusion. However, migrants’ inclusion outcomes in these different policy areas remain
dependent on their immigration status. While legal residence is a major first step towards inclusion, the typeof permit dictates additional rights and entitlements, such as access to work and study. As it will appear, andsimilarly to human rights, all these policy areas are also interrelated, as each may impact on one another.
Despite the emphasis sometimes placed on labour market inclusion,38 this reflects the need for holistic
inclusion policies, covering all dimensions of migrants’ inclusion.

Language
Language is considered one of the most central aspects for migrants’ inclusion by both the receiving society
and migrants themselves. In Europe, for instance, 95 per cent of Europeans are of the opinion that a certain
command of the national language is important for migrants to integrate.39 While language can facilitate
inclusion prior to departure, without or with insufficient knowledge of the language upon arrival, migrants
often identify language barriers as one of the first challenges they face. For instance, after migrating from
Cambodia to Thailand for a work opportunity, Sophal notes: “The first three months proved to be very difficult
due to the language barrier. I couldn’t communicate with people and I was not familiar with the food.”40
In addition to facilitating social interactions, language is important for helping migrants navigate a newenvironment, including access to health care, housing and other services. It also improves their access to
education, increases their likelihood of being employed, and leads to better self-reported health outcomes.41
With such a pivotal role for migrants’ inclusion, language often constitutes an important area of government
policy. National or local authorities sometimes support language acquisition through language courses, which
can be mandatory for migrants. These language courses are at times freely available to migrants together withcivic/social orientation courses (for example, in Sweden and Canada).42 In addition, language proficiency canbe a requirement for entry or stay depending on the residence permit sought (such as family reunification)and for naturalization. For instance, as reported by the MIPEX 2015, countries with language requirementsfor permanent residence increased from one EU country in 1990 to 18 in 2014.43
While States’ support to language acquisition is key, language requirements – on which are conditioned entry,
stay or naturalization in a country – may be counterproductive for migrants’ inclusion. In fact, countries
with lower language requirements turn out to be the most favourable for migrants’ inclusion. Language tests
can indeed deter migrants from applying for a particular status, rather than motivating them to master the
language.44 These tests can also exacerbate vulnerability faced by some migrants who are unable to pass them

38 Castles et al., 2002.
39 European Commission, 2018. The survey was undertaken in the 28 member States of the European Union from 21 to 30 October
2017, with some 28,080 residents interviewed.
40 See http://iamamigrant.org/stories/cambodia/sophal. On the importance of and barriers to language learning for refugees, seeMorrice et al., 2019.
41 Chiswick, 2016; Aoki and Santiago, 2018.
42 Regarding Sweden, see Wiesbrock, 2011. Concerning Canada, see https://settlement.org/ontario/education/english-as-a-secondlanguage-esl/linc-program/what-is-the-language-instruction-for-newcomers-to-canada-linc-program/.
43 Huddleston et al., 2015.
44 Ibid.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

193

due to different factors, such as age, literacy, as well as health, family or economic reasons. For instance,
evidence supports that age is negatively correlated with one’s ability to learn a new language.45
Research highlights a paradox in focusing on national language acquisition in societies that increasingly
promote multilingualism.46 In certain cities of the United States, for instance, such as Miami, Spanish may
be more important than English to work in some sectors.47 In some communities, research has found thatmoving away from language assimilation to a multilinguistic approach in schools supports migrant students’
educational outcomes and, ultimately, decreases the likelihood of discrimination and improves their sense ofinclusion.48

Education
Along with work prospects, migration can be motivated by migrants’ willingness to access higher quality
education in another country.49 Education has a positive influence on migrants’ employment and social
participation in the receiving society, which tends to view migrants more positively when they have attained
higher educational qualifications.50 For migrant children, access to primary education is a fundamental humanright, regardless of their migration status (see appendix B). However, migrants’ educational outcomes arestill lower than those of their native counterparts, especially for first-generation migrants. The educational
performance of migrants depends on a range of factors, including their language skills, socioeconomic andcultural backgrounds, and age at migration.51
While policy responses are important in improving migrants’ education levels, the MIPEX 2015 notes that“[e]ducation emerges as the greatest weakness in integration policies in most countries”.52 Beyond countries
covered in MIPEX 2015, there more generally remain issues in migrants’ access to education. This is especiallystriking for refugee children. Four million refugee children were out of school in 2017 out of the 7.4 millionof school age under UNHCR mandate – more than half of all refugee children worldwide.53 As for migrantchildren, their full inclusion in national education systems is important, including for those whose education
tends to be left to the humanitarian sector in countries with high numbers of refugees. With 1 million
refugees of school age in 2018, Turkey has committed to include all Syrian refugee children previously
attending temporary education centres into its national education system by 2020.54
Challenges in accessing education also exist for other migrant children. Administrative formalities in somecountries may pose obstacles for migrants to enrol their children at school, especially if they lack somedocumentation or are in an irregular situation. Schools’ obligations to report irregular migrant children to
the authorities or provide government authorities with access to children’s data may further deter migrant
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54

Isphording, 2015.
Ros i Sole, 2014; Krüger Dias and Plaza Pinto, 2017.
Lewis, 2013.
Somers, 2018; Panagiotopoulou and Rosen, 2018.
Hagelskamp, Suárez-Orozco and Hughes, 2010; Bakewell and Bonfiglio, 2013.
See UN CESCR, 1999; UNESCO, 2018.
Filsi, Meroni and Vera-Toscano, 2016; Corak, 2011; UNESCO, 2018.
Huddleston et al., 2015.
UNHCR, 2018.
UNESCO, 2018.

194

Migration, inclusion and social cohesion: Challenges, recent developments and opportunities

children from attending school due to fear of deportation.55 To ensure migrant children’s enrolment andattendance, some countries have established firewalls between immigration authorities and schools.56 In
Germany, for example, the obligation for schools to disclose pupils’ data to the police was abolished in 2011.57
Simplified formalities for school enrolment, including for migrant children lacking certain identification
documents, have also been put in place in some countries, such as Thailand.58
Challenges for migrant children’s education go beyond access to school. Other obstacles to improve theireducation outcomes include the lack of education tailored to their needs and, less commonly, their segregationfrom natives in classrooms.59 The composition of classrooms plays a role, as a high concentration of migrantchildren negatively influences their educational outcomes. Research also suggests that digital technologies
could help reduce the gap in educational achievements between migrant and native children by supporting
migrant children in doing their schoolwork at home, including through access to educational material in theirnative language.60
More generally, migrant children may experience prejudice and discrimination at school. Schools can,however, serve as spaces for promoting tolerance and social cohesion. An increasing number of countries areintegrating diversity into their curricula, but teachers still need support and training to teach effectively indiverse classrooms,61 including through induction or mentorship programmes.62

Labour market inclusion
With 164 million migrant workers worldwide in 2017, representing 59.2 per cent of all international migrants
and 70.1 per cent of those of working age, labour market inclusion is a key policy area for States.63 Its
importance is increasingly emphasized in terms of migrants’ economic contributions to receiving and origin
societies (see chapter 5 of this report). It has, for instance, been estimated that, while migrants contributed
9.4 per cent of the global gross domestic product (GDP) in 2015, better inclusion, including in terms of
employment, could add an additional USD 1 trillion per year to the global GDP.64 For migrants, just as it is fornon-migrants, labour market inclusion brings greater economic security, and enhances their well-being andsense of belonging in receiving societies.65
Labour market inclusion consists of different dimensions, ranging from access to employment and generalor targeted support, to protection of migrant workers.66 Among these, access to employment is an importantfactor. Migrants’ employment rates are commonly lower than those of non-migrants. In the European Union,

55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66

Ibid.
UN HRC, 2018.
FRA, 2011.
IOM, 2011.
UNESCO, 2018; De Paola and Brunello, 2016.
Rodrigues, 2018.
UNESCO, 2018.
PPMI, 2017.
ILO, 2018. See Huddleston et al., 2015.
McKinsey Global Institute, 2016.
Huddleston and Dag Tjaden, 2012.
Huddleston et al., 2015.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

195

for instance, the unemployment rate of migrants was 13.3 per cent in 2017, compared with 6.9 per cent for
the native-born.67 Nevertheless, substantial differences exist between countries and groups, as labour market
inclusion depends on the socioeconomic situation and policies of each country, as well as on migrants’demographic and individual characteristics (such as age, gender, language skills or qualifications) andthe circumstances of their migration. Overall, for example, refugees and those who migrated for family
reunification have a lower likelihood of finding a job than other migrants.68 To improve the employment rateof refugees, Switzerland launched a new Artificial Intelligence pilot programme in 2018. This programme
relies on an algorithm that determines in which area of the country a particular asylum seeker should beplaced to maximize his/her employment likelihood.69
General and targeted support for migrants is important for improving migrants’ access to employment.
In addition to language training, vocational training has been found to be effective in improving access,especially if it encompasses a practical on-the-job training component.70 Other tools considered effective
include job search assistance programmes and wage subsidy programmes (that is, subsidized employment in
the private sector).71
The inability to have qualifications recognized or skills validated also remains an issue, as it restricts accessto certain jobs and leads to overqualification in lower-skilled positions.72 Working below skill level may also
increase the risk of distress for migrants and result in lower psychosocial well-being.73 This issue is not only
linked to the absence of recognition programmes, but also to the lack of awareness and information aboutsuch programmes or to their cost and complexity.74 The establishment of a one-stop shop for recognition insome countries, such as in Denmark, can be valuable to simplify and centralize recognition programmes under
one roof.75

The feminization of migration: Calling for a gender-sensitive approach to inclusion
The feminization of migration is reflected in the increasing number of female migrantsa and changing
migration patterns. Female migrants are not only migrating as part of a household, but exercise
increased agency in migrating on their own, as migrant workers, students or refugees, for instance.
This feminization of migration has, however, not been accompanied by more gender-targeted policies
for migrant inclusion, which would reflect the particular obstacles faced by female migrants.b Thesebarriers are particularly apparent when it comes to labour market inclusion. In the European Union,

67 Eurostat, 2018. In the United States of America, however, the unemployment rate of migrants (defined as foreign born) was lower(4.1%) than that of the native-born (4.4%) in 2017 (United States Department of Labor, 2018).
68 Lens, Marx and Vuji, 2018; Canganio, 2014.
69 Stanford University, 2018.
70 Bilgili, Huddleston and Joki, 2015.
71 Kluve, 2010; Card, Kluve and Weber, 2010; Butschek and Walter, 2014.
72 See OECD, 2014; Huddleston and Dag Tjaden, 2012.
73 Espinoza-Castro et al., 2018.
74 IOM, 2013; Huddleston et al., 2015.
75 IOM, 2013.

196

Migration, inclusion and social cohesion: Challenges, recent developments and opportunities

for instance, 54 per cent of women born outside the EU were employed in 2017, compared with
73 per cent of men born outside the EU and 68 per cent of women born in the reporting country.c
Among employed women migrants, 40 per cent were overqualified for their positions,d with a highnumber engaged in domestic work.e Refugee women are even worse off in terms of labour market
inclusion, given their more precarious status and situation.f
Lower educational levels and the younger age of female migrants may in part account for thedifference in employment rates between female migrants and their native-born counterparts.g
Compared with male migrants, female migrants may also have childcare responsibilities, which they
may accommodate by not working or taking on part-time or even informal employment.h This impacts
not only their labour market inclusion, but also their potential to act as sponsors of relatives forfamily reunification, because they may not have the minimum salary required to do so.i The influenceof cultural norms may also play a role for female migrants coming from countries where female
economic participation is low.j
The adoption of policies addressing the particular structural obstacles and inequalities faced byfemale migrants can improve their inclusion, not only in the economic sphere but also in other policy
areas.k Such policies can also protect female migrants from experiencing vulnerable situations thatmay put them at heightened risk of violence, abuse and exploitation.la See chapter 2 of this report.  
b Integration of migrant women: A key challenge with limited policy resources. European Commission. Available at https://
ec.europa.eu/migrant-integration/feature/integration-of-migrant-women.
c Ibid.
d Ibid.
e ILO, 2015; IOM, 2017a.
f Liebig and Rose Tronstad, 2018.
g Barslund and Laurentsyeva, 2018.
h Kontos, 2011.
i Huddleston and Pedersen, 2011. See the section below on family reunification.
j Barslund and Laurentsyeva, 2018.
k Integration of migrant women: A key challenge with limited policy resources. European Commission. Available at https://
ec.europa.eu/migrant-integration/feature/integration-of-migrant-women.
l See Hennebry, 2017.

Family reunification
Family reunification is a central component of the right to family life. On this basis, nationals and migrants,
including refugees, can act as “sponsors” of family members living abroad in order for them to be reunited.
Although not all migrants want to be reunited with their families in the receiving country,76 for those whowish to do so, family reunification can play an important part in their inclusion. Family reunification is not
only about improving family life, but also social inclusion (through engagement with schools or community-

76 See Mazzucato and Schans, 2011.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

197

based associations) and political participation.77 Evidence also indicates that family reunion enhances
migrants’ labour market inclusion.78 According to a longitudinal survey of immigrants in Canada, family
members play a particularly important role in supporting and facilitating migrants’ entry and inclusion into
the labour market, especially during the first four years after arrival.79
Family reunification has become an important component of many States’ policies, especially in Westerncountries. Family migration accounted for 38 per cent of all permanent migration in OECD countries in 2016,
representing 1.8 million family migrants, of which 1.6 million were registered under family reunification andthe remainder as accompanying migrant workers.80 Family reunification is often limited to certain types offamily members and subject to specific conditions.81 It is usually restricted to the immediate family members(such as spouses, children below the age of 18 and dependent relatives), which may not reflect the social
configurations of migrants’ families.82 The sponsor is often required to provide proof of sufficient financial
means to support his/her family members.83 As this income requirement may raise difficulties for refugees,some countries have exempted them or lowered the minimum salary required.84
While these conditions typically relate to migration management, other requirements for family reunificationthat are adopted for the declared purpose of ensuring migrants’ inclusion can be counterproductive. Preentry language tests that sponsored family members are sometimes required to pass to be able to reunitewith migrants in the receiving country are a case in point.85 These tests can be prepared with prior language
courses, but they are usually expensive, not easily accessible in rural areas of the country of origin and havea disproportionate negative impact on some family members, such as the elderly or refugees, who are lesslikely to succeed due to their vulnerable situations.86 Rather than improving the educational achievements
and labour market inclusion of sponsored migrants, they may discourage migrants from applying for family
reunification or delay family reunion. Delays can undermine the potential benefits for migrants’ inclusion,as family reunion will raise more difficulties for families when occurring after a long period of separation
between sponsors and their relatives.87

Political participation
Migrants’ participation in the political life of their receiving countries can take different forms, ranging
from voting in local, national or regional elections and standing as candidates in local elections, to joining
associations and political parties or being consulted through local, national or regional consultative bodies.88
Compared with other policy areas of inclusion, such as language or employment, less attention has been
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88

Huddleston and Dag Tjaden, 2012; Block, 2015; Bauder, 2019.
Spitzer, 2018.
Li, 2007.
OECD, 2018a; see also Hooper and Salant, 2018.
Block, 2015.
Huddleston et al., 2015; Mustasaari, 2015; Spitzer, 2018. Spouses also include couples in same-sex partnerships in some countries.
Huddleston et al., 2015.
Nicholson, 2018.
Huddleston et al., 2015.
Huddleston and Pedersen, 2011.
Oliver, 2013; Huddleston et al., 2015; Spitzer, 2018.
Huddleston et al., 2015; Martiniello, 2006.

198

Migration, inclusion and social cohesion: Challenges, recent developments and opportunities

devoted to political participation in policymaking and research.89 However, migrants’ political participation
can help States maintain the legitimacy of their democratic systems, realize migrants’ inclusion and promotesocial cohesion.90 It gives migrants the opportunity to have a say on policies that concern them and canincrease their feeling of belonging in the receiving society.91
Migrants are not significantly less politically active than nationals. Their level of political participation
depends on a range of factors, including contextual/structural and individual ones. The degree of politicalparticipation that migrants can exercise depends first on the receiving country.92 While most countries do
not currently give migrants the right to vote (especially in Africa and Asia), some offer voting rights innational elections (see text box below), and an increasing number provide them with the right to vote inlocal elections (for example, in Europe, the Americas, New Zealand and the Republic of Korea). By contrast,
the right to stand in elections is more limited, even for countries offering the right to vote. In addition todiffering political opportunities across countries, migrants’ political participation is influenced by the cultureof political participation in the receiving country and the level of participation and democratic tradition in
migrants’ countries of origin.93

Countries where migrants can vote in national elections
Offering voting rights to migrants in national elections is much more unusual than in local ones. Only
five countries in the world enfranchise migrants in national elections, regardless of their nationality:
Chile, Ecuador, Malawi, New Zealand and Uruguay.a The length of residence required to participate
in national elections varies from 1 year in New Zealand to 15 years in Uruguay. Beyond these fivecountries, many others entitle migrants only of certain nationalities to vote in national elections.
This is the case in the United Kingdom (where Commonwealth as well as Irish citizens can vote),most Commonwealth countries in the Caribbean (for other Commonwealth citizens), Ireland (where
United Kingdom nationals can vote), and reciprocally between Brazil and Portugal.ba Arrighi and Bauböck, 2016.
b Ibid.

Individual factors that influence migrants’ political participation include migrants’ demographic and personal
characteristics, especially as the level of participation increases with age and the level of education. The
duration of residence and naturalization also positively impact on migrants’ political participation, andsecond-generation migrants are thus often more active than the first generation.94
While it is difficult to measure the impact of policies on migrants’ political participation, MIPEX 2015 suggeststhat countries with inclusive naturalization policies tend to have stronger political participation policies.95

89
90
91
92
93
94
95

Huddleston and Dag Tjaden, 2012.
Huddleston, 2017; Thorkelson, 2015.
Bilgili, Huddleston and Joki, 2015.
Huddleston et al., 2015.
Bilgili, Huddleston and Joki, 2015.
Ibid.
Huddleston et al., 2015.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

199

In general, however, there remains a clear discrepancy between the high diversity of receiving societies
and migrants’ representation at different political levels.96 Beyond the State, political parties thus have aparticular role to play in increasing migrants’ political representation and diversity.

Naturalization
Naturalization is the process and acquisition of nationality by a non-national. Migrants can become
naturalized if they meet legal criteria and apply through appropriate channels. Although naturalization
is often considered a milestone for migrants’ inclusion in the receiving country, it is not an end in itself
because inclusion remains an ongoing process.97 That said, naturalization often provides migrants’ full accessto entitlements in receiving countries (such as voting and candidacy rights). Evidence demonstrates thatnaturalization increases migrants’ labour market and social inclusion,98 their level of political participation,99
and their sense of belonging in the receiving country.100
Given the importance of naturalization for migrants and their inclusion, it comes as no surprise that a large
share of migrants are or want to become citizens of their receiving countries.101 However, not all migrants
want to be naturalized, as it depends on a range of individual and contextual factors. Most notably, migrants
from developing countries have a greater propensity to naturalize, because it ensures security to remain
and eliminates the risk of being forced to return to their countries of origin, especially when these arecharacterized by a lower level of development, political instability or a non-democratic regime.102
The most significant factor influencing migrants’ likelihood to naturalize remains the receiving country’s
citizenship policies: the more inclusive such policies are, the higher the likelihood of naturalization willbe.103 In contrast to migration/inclusion policies, all countries have adopted nationality laws regulating theacquisition of nationality by descent, birth and/or naturalization. As citizenship is closely linked to national
identity, naturalization can be politically controversial in some countries.104 In countries that do not allow
individuals to hold dual nationality, migrants may have to relinquish their nationality of the country oforigin to obtain that of the receiving country, which may deter them from naturalizing.105 Naturalization
can be even more politically delicate with large flows of migrants, including refugees, although the United
Republic of Tanzania has succeeded in naturalizing more than 170,000 Burundian refugees since 2007.106
While a few countries grant citizenship to migrants in exchange for financial investments (such as Antigua andBarbuda, and Malta),107 in most countries, naturalization is subject to specific conditions. These requirements

96 Huddleston, 2017; Huddleston and Dag Tjaden, 2012.
97 Long et al., 2017; Bauböck et al., 2013.
98 Gathmann and Keller, 2016; OECD, 2011.
99 Hainmueller, Hangartner and Pietrantuono, 2015.
100 Bauböck et al., 2013; Huddleston and Dag Tjaden, 2012; Bakkaer Simonsen, 2017.
101 Huddleston and Dag Tjaden, 2012.
102 Bilgili, Huddleston and Joki, 2015; Logan, Oh and Darrah, 2012; Dronkers and Vink, 2012.
103 Huddleston et al., 2015; Bilgili, Huddleston and Joki, 2015.
104 Long et al., 2017.
105 Reichel, 2011. This also depends on whether dual nationality is allowed by the country of origin.
106 See Long et al., 2017; Kuch, 2018.
107 Long et al., 2017. For Malta, see the Citizenship by Investment Program: www.maltaimmigration.com/.

200

Migration, inclusion and social cohesion: Challenges, recent developments and opportunities

commonly include a minimum duration of legal residency, knowledge of national language(s) and, sometimes,
culture, evidence of good character and the payment of fees for the naturalization process. The length ofresidence required differs from one State to another. While it is on average of 7 years in countries coveredin MIPEX 2015, it goes as high as 35 years in the Central African Republic.108 In addition to the high fees
sometimes required for naturalization, the most contentious requirement relates to mandatory language andcivic tests that migrants must pass in some countries.109 These tests sometimes require knowledge about thereceiving country that even some nationals may not possess.110

Situation on the ground: The role of local actors and migrants
While States can foster migrants’ inclusion through national measures and policies, inclusion happens firstand foremost “on the ground”. This section first presents the role of the local level, especially cities, where
everyday practices may be disconnected from national inclusion policies. While the local level is key forrealizing migrants’ inclusion, the section also highlights the role of migrants themselves, who are essential
actors of their own inclusion.

The role of local actors
As inclusion primarily occurs at the local level, local actors can play an important role in supporting andfostering migrants’ inclusion. These local actors are of a different nature and can range from local communities,
including local resident and diaspora communities, and local civil society organizations to local authorities.
Community centres provide spaces for interactions between locals and migrants in a given neighbourhood,and give access to a wide range of services and activities within the community. The Neighbourhood Houses
in Greater Vancouver, for instance, provide support for employment, day and after-school care, activities forseniors, parent groups or sociocultural events.111 In Europe, civil society organizations were important inassisting and sustaining longer-term initiatives for the inclusion of the increased number of migrants whoarrived in 2015–2016 in countries such as Austria, Germany and Sweden. This is notably illustrated by theEuropean Prize for Civil Society, which rewards initiatives taken by organizations, including local non-profit
foundations and associations, in the field of identity and integration, and which in 2016 received a total of
284 applications from organizations in 26 EU member States.112
Alongside the involvement of local communities and civil society organizations, the role of local governments,
especially cities, in migrants’ inclusion has attracted increased attention due to migration patterns andprocesses of urbanization. Urban areas are the main destinations for migrants across the world, given the highreturn for migrants’ human capital.113

108 Huddleston et al., 2015; Manby, 2016.
109 Long et al., 2017. As of 2015, half of the countries included in MIPEX 2015 required migrants to pass citizenship tests (Huddleston
et al., 2015).  
110 Banulescu-Bogdan, 2012; Bauböck et al., 2013; Long et al., 2017.
111 Schmidtke, 2018.
112 EESC, 2017.
113 Duncan and Popp, 2017.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

201

Cities have an important role to play as spaces of inclusion, because they are the main sites of migration/
inclusion policy implementation. They are the ones giving life to a greater or lesser extent to States’international obligations and commitments, especially with regard to housing, health, employment andeducation.114 Some cities deliver services to all migrants, regardless of their migration status, ensuring accessto housing, health, employment and education. For instance, some cities, such as New York, have ID cards
granted to all residents (“nationals” and migrants alike, including irregular migrants), which facilitate accessto numerous services and serve as means of identification.115
Some cities also increasingly rely on innovative and pragmatic solutions to improve migrants’ inclusion.
For instance, this is the case in European cities, such as in Austria or the Netherlands, which have taken
initiatives driving policy changes at the national level.116 Some cities in Flanders, Belgium, have developed
Centres for General Welfare to respond to the increasing number of migrants and care for their needs. These
centres combine a variety of services centralized under the same roof, such as housing, health care andpsychosocial support for migrants.117 A similar one-stop shop model has been applied in Lisbon, Portugal, to
improve migrants’ access to public services that are key for their inclusion.118
Cities may also positively impact on migrants’ inclusion through multicultural urban planning, when
undertaken to strengthen the inclusion and resilience of diverse communities.119 However, urban planningfor migrants’ inclusion may raise more difficulties in informal urban spaces that have developed with rapid
urbanization, such as (peri-urban) slums.120 More generally, slums often escape the reach of national andlocal authorities, resulting, for instance, in lack of access to basic services for residents, including migrants.
As illustrated in the text box below, in the specific context of Africa, these informal settlements havepredominantly been formed in cities of the Global South, although peri-urban areas are developing in the
Global North as well, such as in Lisbon, Athens and Rome.

Migration and inclusion in the context of urban transformation in Africa
Urbanization is a significant process in Africa. In 1995–2015, Africa had the highest rate of urbanchange of all continents, recorded at 3.44 per cent, with an urban growth 11 times quicker thanin Europe.a Across the continent, rural–urban migration rates are high, with increasing rates ofinternational migration as well. For example, in 2013, 72.3 per cent of the resident population of the
Dakar area was born outside the region.b However, countries were relatively unprepared to plan for
the impact of rural–urban migration. In 2016, 67.8 per cent of the entire urban population in Africa
lived in informal urban settlements. Compared with State-led urban planning, local initiatives appear
to have the highest impact on urban space. There is thus a growing recognition of the need for a more
coherent urban governance and national development plans in African countries.c

114 Robinson, 2014; Crawford, 2016; OECD, 2018b.
115 Medina, 2015.
116 Scholten et al., 2017.
117 Ibid.
118 One-Stop Shop: Mainstreaming Integration. Cities of Migration. Available at http://citiesofmigration.ca/good_idea/one-stop-shopmainstreaming-integration/.
119 UN-Habitat, 2016a.
120 Duncan and Popp, 2017.

202

Migration, inclusion and social cohesion: Challenges, recent developments and opportunities

Research in West Africa shows that migrants are not disadvantaged compared with non-migrants,
and that inclusion in urban areas concerns locals as much as migrants.d Other research is pointing
to gated communities as one of the key phenomena of urbanization in Africa. After first appearing
in South Africa, these gated communities have rapidly spread across the continent. Current research
is focusing on the influence of these communities on achieving inclusive and sustainable urban
transitions.e They also raise the question of their impact on overall community cohesion, including for
migrants’ inclusion, as they reinforce segregation by increasing social differences between migrants
and non-migrants.f
a
b
c
d
e
f

UN-Habitat, 2016b.
Okyere, 2016.
Oyefara, 2018.
Beauchemin and Bocquier, 2003.
Klaufus et al., 2017.
Ibid.

Despite the role played by cities, their importance for migrants’ inclusion, including in policy development,
has yet to be duly acknowledged at the national level.121 Some cities have developed their own policies andactions to foster inclusion, in recognition that inclusion needs to be supported at different governancelevels within a country. From this perspective, the interculturalist approach taken by some cities has been
depicted as “a policy rebellion of cities against the state domination of policy in recent decades”.122 Far fromindividual instances of rebellion carried out by a few cities, the idea of interculturalist cities has gained
traction over the last decade. In 2008, for instance, the Council of Europe launched the Intercultural Cities
programme for supporting cities in capitalizing in diversity.123 At the time of writing, the programme totalled
135 participating cities in country members of the Council of Europe, as well as in Australia, Canada, Israel,
Japan, Mexico, Morocco and the Unites States of America. Participating cities are indexed according to theirintercultural policies, governance and practices.124 Research on the results of the Intercultural Cities Index
suggests a positive correlation between the scores cities obtain and local well-being: the more intercultural
policies are, the better the quality of life is.125 While some national governments consider municipalities
as key actors in policymaking and governance of migrants’ inclusion, as is the case in Turkey,126 in othercountries, the proactive role of cities has led to frictions between city and national levels. This has been
the case, for instance, with sanctuary cities that have adopted their own policies and measures to protect
migrants, including those in an irregular situation.127 These policies have at times been adopted in reaction
to restrictive national migration and citizenship policies, and have established cities as spaces of inclusion.128
121 Ibid.
122 Zapata-Barrero, 2017.
123 About Intercultural Cities. Council of Europe. Available at www.coe.int/en/web/interculturalcities/about.
124 For the list of participating cities, see www.coe.int/en/web/interculturalcities/participating-cities. On the Intercultural Cities Index,
see www.coe.int/en/web/interculturalcities/about-the-index.
125 Joki and Wolffhardt, n.d.
126 Duncan and Popp, 2017.
127 Lippert and Rehaag, 2013.
128 Bauder and Gonzalez, 2018; see also Pearson, 2015.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

203

While cities are active players in the global governance of migration,129 national governments are key inscaling up initiatives developed by cities and sharing good practices globally. The role of cities in organizing
appropriate services to care for migrants’ needs is increasingly recognized by States in global initiatives, suchas in the New Urban Agenda following the Habitat III Conference in Ecuador in 2016.130 Through a whole-ofgovernment approach, the importance of the local level is also explicitly acknowledged and mainstreamed
throughout the Global Compact for Migration.131 Objectives 15 and 16 are of particular relevance, as theyboth emphasize the role of the local level (including local authorities) for providing migrants’ access to basic
services and empowering them and societies to realize full inclusion and social cohesion (see chapter 11 of
this report).

Recognizing migrants’ agency
Beyond the State and local levels, migrants play a crucial role, not just as passive subjects of inclusion
policies, but also as active actors of their own inclusion. Migrants’ entrepreneurship is perhaps one of themost obvious illustrations of their agency for their economic inclusion. Beyond success stories such as thatof Silicon Valley in California, where half of the high-tech companies were founded by migrants,132 there exist
many examples of migrants’ entrepreneurship (see chapter 5 of this report). For instance, Syrian refugeeowned companies have developed in response to refugees’ lack of formal employment opportunities and theneed to make a living.133
Migrants are not only agents of their own inclusion but also actively support other migrants, while striving,
more generally, for social cohesion. Among many other examples of migrants’ initiatives, a school establishedby Congolese refugees in a Ugandan refugee camp has been depicted as a success for migrant children’s
inclusion. Since its creation in 2009, some 800 pupils have progressed to secondary school and 40 study inuniversities around the world. As the founders put it, “we realize that through education you can never becalled a refugee forever”.134 Technology has also been used by migrants to support the inclusion of othermigrants in receiving countries through YouTube videos to counter xenophobia and discrimination135 or withthe development of smartphone applications, as illustrated in the text box below.

129 See also the Global Mayoral Forum on Human Mobility, Migration and Development, Available at www.migration4development.
org/en/events/global-mayoral-forum; and the Global Parliament of Majors Initiative, Available at https://globalparliamentofmayors.
org/.
130 Duncan and Popp, 2017.
131 UNGA, 2018a.
132 Wadhwa et al., 2007. Among the 126 companies that reported for this study, 52.4 per cent indicated that they had been founded bymigrants.  
133 MEDAM, 2018. For more illustrations, see UNCTAD, IOM and UNHCR, 2018.
134 Onyulo, 2018.
135 IOM, 2018.

204

Migration, inclusion and social cohesion: Challenges, recent developments and opportunities

Migrants’ use of technology for inclusion
Today, tech innovations are used to foster migrants’ inclusion, as illustrated by the many smartphone
applications developed to help migrants find their way in their country or connect with diaspora
communities. The potential of these “apps” has not escaped migrants’ attention, as evidenced, forinstance, by the video game Survival, available on Android and iOS.
Survival was developed by young migrants, refugees and Spanish
people in the Gibraltar Strait, with the support of the Alliance ofCivilizations of the United Nations and Omnium Lab Studios.a
Through this game, they share their experience of migration in theform of an “odyssey of social inclusion, going through all stages ofthe Migration trip”.b The objective of this game app is to “educate
the player about the reality of thousands of people who are facing the tragedy of migration”, putting
him/her “in the shoes of these people, to try to change the focus, the perspective with which thisproblem is analysed in our social contexts”.ca Available at http://omniumlab.com/trabajos/detalle/survival.
b Available at https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.omniumlabstudios.peaceapp.survival&hl=en.
c Ibid.

Migrants’ inclusion in communities and countries does not require relinquishing one’s identity or ties with
communities and countries of origin. Migrants increasingly act as transnational actors,136 as explained by
Daniel from Guatemala, who has been living for 30 years in Costa Rica:

My home could be a Guatemalan territorial space but with windows and doors open to
Costa Rica. My home became a place where both visions and cultures can grow and live
together.
That is the biggest challenge of living in another country: living a little here and a little there.
You live the two visions of the world every day, one from the home country and the other one
from the host country. Expressions, food, culture, world vision: the two countries intersectin everyday life.137
Migrants’ transnational lives can nonetheless be at odds with expectations of migrants as “settlers”, and canresult in their allegiance to the receiving country being called into question.138 They may be perceived asa threat to social cohesion, with the risk of being discriminated against and excluded. However, migrants’discrimination and exclusion can entail a high cost for both migrants and receiving societies. For instance,
migrants’ exclusion can affect their own well-being, as illustrated by a study on the effects of discrimination

136 See Castles, 2003; Levitt, 2004; Vertovec, 1999.
137 Available at http://iamamigrant.org/stories/costa-rica/daniel-matul-0.
138 Appave and David, 2017.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

205

at work on the well-being of Russian and Estonian migrants in Finland. Perceived discrimination accordingly
predicts negative outcomes in terms of general and mental health for both groups of migrants.139 Migrants’
exclusion can also negatively impact on their contributions to trade, skills and labour supply, cultural transfer
and exchange, which all consist of major benefits for receiving societies (see chapter 5 of this report).
More generally, migrants’ exclusion constitutes a risk for social cohesion. On rare occasions, social exclusion
can act as a driver of radicalization to violent extremism.140 Although the likelihood remains low as terrorist
attacks have not been primarily perpetrated by migrants,141 such consequences and costs entailed by migrants’social exclusion are arguably too high and have to be addressed. These constitute an additional factor to betaken into account to strengthen migrants’ inclusion, in order to reduce the risk of radicalization for thewell-being of societies and communities.
The various costs of exclusion and migrants’ agency support the need to more fully involve migrants in theformulation of migration/inclusion policies. These policies could benefit from better understanding how
migrants view their inclusion process, what their needs are and what potential policy responses could more
effectively support their inclusion.142 More active involvement of migrants at the policy level would also be inline with the Global Compact for Migration, which emphasizes the need to empower migrants to achieve fullinclusion and social cohesion.143

Migrants’ views to inform inclusion policies: The potential of migrant surveys
While research increasingly incorporates migrants’ voices to better understand the impact of
migration on their identities and sense of belonging, more insights would be needed on migrants’views of their inclusion process, needs and aspirations to inform and evaluate the effects of inclusion
policies on migrants’ lives.
Migrant surveys are useful tools to get a sense of migrants’ views on their inclusion, as illustrated
by the multiple references to the Immigrant Citizens Survey in this chapter. Piloted by the King
Baudouin Foundation and the Migration Policy Group, the survey was conducted with 7,473 migrantsborn outside the European Union and residing in 15 cities in seven EU member States. While themain findings of the survey are reproduced in appendix C, the survey concludes by pointing outthat “surveyed immigrants today are generally as satisfied with their lives as most people in the
country where they live”. This positive note should not, however, obscure the challenges to inclusion
identified by migrants in the survey, and can hopefully motivate similar endeavours in the future, as
attitudes towards migrants are likely to have considerably evolved since the survey was concluded
in 2012.
See Huddleston and Dag Tjaden, 2012. The main findings of the Immigrant Citizens Survey are reproduced in appendix C.

139 Jasinskaja-Lahti, Liedkind and Perhoniemi, 2007.
140 Koser and Cunningham, 2017.
141 Duncan and Popp, 2017.
142 Mustafa, 2018.
143 UNGA, 2018a.

206

Migration, inclusion and social cohesion: Challenges, recent developments and opportunities

Conclusion
This chapter offers an overview of what migrants’ inclusion entails in policy and practice, the factors andobstacles thereto, and how it is approached by different stakeholders. However, it also illustrates the difficulty
to address the question of migrants’ inclusion at the global level, as it intrinsically remains a national issue.
This is reflected in the Global Compact for Migration, where the actions linked to Objective 16 on empowering
migrants and societies to realize full inclusion and social cohesion remain largely aspirational (see chapter 11of this report).
While there cannot be a one-size-fits-all approach to inclusion, due to its highly personal and contextual
nature, three main policy implications can be drawn from this chapter to foster migrants’ inclusion and social
cohesion:•

The adoption of holistic inclusion policies has the potential to improve the effectiveness of policy
responses in the field of inclusion. As seen in this chapter, despite the emphasis sometimes placed onlabour market inclusion, the different policy areas are closely interdependent, as inclusion outcomes in
one specific policy area will likely impact on others. Conversely, the absence of holistic inclusion policies
may be costly for both migrants and receiving societies. Single policy responses in one specific policy
area will likely be ineffective in improving migrants’ overall inclusion if not complemented by measuresin other areas and supported by a coherent policy strategy. The risk is not only for migrants to end
up being excluded and marginalized, but to create social tensions undermining social cohesion in thereceiving society.

•More inclusive policy responses in a wide range of related policy areas leads to deeper and moresustainable inclusion outcomes. While this may sound logical, it is particularly striking with regard tolanguage requirements, political participation and naturalization. By contrast, more restrictive policies
have the risk of being counterproductive, especially when used for migration management purposes.
Conditions for family reunification that are meant to ensure that reunited family members will integrate
in the receiving society, especially pre-entry language tests, can in practice limit the number of migrants
benefiting from family reunification at the expense of supporting the inclusion of migrant sponsors andtheir relatives.

•

The important role already played by local actors and migrants calls for further strengthening theirinvolvement in developing and (re-)evaluating national inclusion policies. Increased involvement
and empowerment of cities would help in mitigating tensions between local and national levels, becauseof discrepancies in how inclusion is approached. As the spaces where inclusion primarily occurs, cities
and other local authorities are also the best placed to inform about the challenges of inclusion andgood practices that can be implemented. As for migrants, their involvement in policymaking has so far
not reflected how active they have been in practice for their own inclusion and that of other migrants.
If their voices are increasingly heard today, their inclusion needs and aspirations are yet to be morethoroughly explored and taken into account to improve the effectiveness of inclusion policies.

208

Migration and health: Current issues, governance and knowledge gaps

JO VEAREY
CHARLES HUIKOLITHA WICKRAMAGE

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

7209

MIGRATION AND HEALTH: CURRENT ISSUES,
GOVERNANCE AND KNOWLEDGE GAPS1

Introduction
There is a dynamic and complex relationship between migration and health. Migration can lead to greater
exposure to health risks, such as those migrant workers working in conditions of precarious employment
with limited access to affordable health care. Migration can also be linked to improved health – for instance,
after moving from a context of persecution and fear of violence to a safe environment. In this chapter,
we examine the four key aspects of migration and health: (a) the health of individual migrants (“migrant
health”); (b) the ways in which migration can affect the health of populations (“public health”); (c) healthcare systems responses; and (d) the global governance of migration and health.
The first aspect – migrant health – can be defined as the differences in health found between migrants andpopulations at both origin and destination, and across different migration settings, such as labour migration,international and internal displacement, or irregular migration. Whether individual migrants will experience
improvements or declines in their health status will depend partly on their interactions with the multiple
factors that determine their health before, during and after their migration journey. Such factors – known as
the social determinants of health – include access to safe transit, quality housing and health care.
The second issue – public health – focuses on how migration can affect the health of populations, including
the ways in which healthy migrants can promote social and economic development and progress towards theglobal target of universal health coverage (UHC), which aims to ensure access to affordable and quality healthcare for all.2 However, if poorly managed, migration can negatively affect populations’ health. For example, amigrant mother struggling to access documentation may be unable to access timely health care for her child– including vaccinations – for fear of arrest, detention or deportation. This could contribute to the spreadof communicable diseases, such as measles, across and within borders, with negative health effects for theentire population.
The third issue concerns systems responses to migration and health. The development of migrant-sensitive
health-care responses and the monitoring of migrant health, through a Migration and Health in All Policies(MHiAP) approach, can address the health needs of migrants. Poorly managed, inadequate or discriminatory
immigration and health system responses can have multiple negative consequences for the health of migrants
and the communities with which they interact.
The fourth issue is the global governance of migration and health. This involves a focus on the ways inwhich migration and health can be mainstreamed into global governance processes, including identifying key
strategic opportunities to do so.
1
2

Jo Vearey, African Centre for Migration and Society, University of the Witwatersrand and Centre of African Studies, University of
Edinburgh; Charles Hui, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa; and Kolitha Wickramage, Global Migration Health Research andEpidemiology Coordinator, IOM Manila.
UHC2030, 2017.

210

Migration and health: Current issues, governance and knowledge gaps

The chapter examines these four key issues. It starts with a brief overview of definitions and determinants.
It then provides an overview of the factors that determine the health vulnerabilities and resilience factorsof diverse migrant groups. Systems responses, and an overview of current approaches to the governance of
migration and health, are then outlined. Key evidence gaps are highlighted, and the chapter concludes byemphasizing the importance of investing in effective migration and health governance, and how current
approaches could ideally be strengthened.

Migration and health: Key facts•

Good health encompasses mental, social and physical well-being.a The field of migration andhealth encompasses health concerns arising from human mobility, such as the transmission of
infectious diseases, and should engage with all aspects of well-being in the context of migration
and with all who are affected, including families of migrants and the public health of communities
with whom migrants interact during all phases of the migration journey.b•

People who move are often healthier than those who stay behind and may display what is
known as the “Healthy Migrant Effect”. This means that those who move tend to be healthierand live longer than people living in both the communities they leave and those to which they
arrive.c Health vulnerabilities and resilience factors are dynamic and change over time, and thiselevated health status – if migration is not managed properly – can be eroded due to the poor
living and working conditions experienced post-migration.d•

Migrants are not automatically vulnerable to poor health outcomes. It is the conditions
associated with different phases of the migration journey (pre-migration, transit, arrival andreturn) that may negatively or positively affect health.e•

Many migrants struggle to access health care. Despite human rights norms on the right tohealth, and promotion of UHC for all, States are only obligated to provide a minimum basic
package of emergency medical care to irregular migrants.f Even regular migrants sometimes
face legal barriers, racism and corruption, which inhibits health-care access.g Plus, migrants
often underutilize health-care services and delay seeking health care.h•

Healthy migration can benefit the health of communities. For example, ensuring the good
health of migrant workers can – through remittances sent home – enhance the socioeconomic
status of family members, therefore promoting access to health care and education.

•

Health-care providers face challenges in managing care for migrants, including: language
and cultural barriers, resource constraints within health systems to deliver services, and thecontradiction between professional norms/ethics and domestic laws that limit migrants’ rightto health care.

•

Strategic leadership and investment in building alliances between migration management
systems and the health sector is needed. Multisectoral action is needed to support alliancebuilding between immigration and health actors across multiple governance groups: the State,civil society – including migrant groups – the private sector and academia.i

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020•

Investment in the field of migration and health supports social and economic development.
Investment in monitoring and mitigating health risks is key to maintaining the health of migrants
which, as a result, supports progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals and global
health targets.

•

Migration and health research capacity needs to be built globally, particularly within lowand middle-income countries. Existing research output focuses disproportionately on a
few categories of migrants and health concerns, and on migration to and from high-income
countries.j

a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j

211

WHO, 1946.
Wickramage et al., 2018b.
Aldridge et al., 2018.
Ibid.
IOM, 2004.
Lougarre, 2016.
Migrating out of Poverty, 2017.
Suphanchaimat et al., 2015
Khan et al., 2016; Vearey et al., 2019; Wickramage and Annunziata, 2018.
Sweileh, 2018.

Definitions and determinants
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines good health as a “state of complete physical, mental, andsocial well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity”.3 This recognition of mental and social
well-being, in addition to physical well-being, is critical, and emphasizes the importance of viewing healthholistically. The state of a person’s health is shaped not only by one’s access to health services, but by amultitude of factors, which are termed the “determinants of health”. Figure 1 shows how the determinantsof health can be applied to migrants across the migration cycle. Individual determinants are factors suchas age, sex and genetic predisposition to disease, and the epidemiological profile of a given context andthe disease exposures associated with it. Structural determinants are usually politically mediated – suchas legal frameworks and societal attitudes towards migrants – and can result in a range of inequalities insocioeconomic status. For migrants, structural determinants of health include the conditions associated withthe different phases of their migration journey – pre-migration, movement, arrival and integration, and (forsome) return.

3

WHO, 1946.

Source: Adapted from Gushulak, Weekers and MacPherson, 2009; IOM, 2008.

Return phase• Duration of absence.
• Reintegration with family, household, community at origin. Family
conﬂict and harmony pertain to multiple determinants (e.g. household
factors such as level of debt, to others, such as reshaping of decisionmaking power in migrant household).
• While some migrant groups – such as migrant workers – may return tohousehold settings that have beneﬁted from remittance ﬂows andincrease ﬁnancial and social capital that promote positive healthtrajectories, others – such as irregular migrants or those traﬃcked that
return – may be more vulnerable, with the cumulative tolls theirmigration journeys have taken on their physical and psychological wellbeing.

Arrival and integration phase• Domestic migration policies and legal frameworks
often govern migrants’ access to health services (basedon their legal status).
• Epidemiological proﬁle, environmental, political
exposures at destination.
• Health risk behaviours and vulnerabilities among
migrants and their families may change over time.
• Language and cultural values.
• “Othering”, racism, social exclusion, discrimination,
exploitation may inhibit health access.
• Linguistically and culturally sensitive service provision.
• Family/partner separation and stress.

Well-being of
migrants andtheir families

Movement phase• Duration, circumstances and condition of journey.
• Single or mass movement.
• Violence, exploitation and other abuses.
• Travel conditions and mode (especially for irregularmigrants).

Cross-cutting aspects
Gender, age, socioeconomic status, genetic factors

Pre-migration phase• Pre-migratory factors beyond individual genetic and biologicalcharacteristics include: epidemiological proﬁles at origin (e.g.
endemicity, infectious and chronic disease patterns), environmental,
political and personal exposures and events, such as trauma stemmingfrom protracted conﬂicts, human rights violations and interpersonal
violence.
• Health status is inﬂuenced by health sector at destination (health service
equity, coverage, quality, access) and health protection/insurance
schemes that are aﬀordable, portable, etc.
• Linguistic, cultural and geographic proximity to destination.

Figure 1. The determinants of migrant health throughout the migration cycle

212
Migration and health: Current issues, governance and knowledge gaps

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

213

The various legal frameworks associated with different phases of the migration journey are important structural
determinants of migrant health. This is because a migrant’s legal status in a country can determine, forexample, the extent to which they can access safe working conditions as well as the quality and affordabilityof health care. As illustrated in figure 1, there are multiple determinants of health – both individual andstructural – that can have both positive and negative effects on health. An irregular migrant, for example, isunlikely to find work in the formal sector, and has to rely on the precarious informal sector, where work can
be both unsafe and – often – illegal. As a result, irregular migrants may experience greater vulnerabilities
to poor health, including increased exposure to infectious diseases, violence and injury. They are likely toface many challenges in accessing quality health-care services, and have very limited (if any) access to social
protection services.

Migrant health
The field of migration and health explores the patterns in health found between migrants and the hostpopulation, and across different migrant groups, including in contexts where the host population may be
struggling to meet its own mental, social and physical well-being needs.4 Exploring these patterns is importantfor several reasons. Firstly, the development of public health strategies over many decades recognizes the needfor inclusiveness – the need to incorporate whole societies when addressing communicable disease control,
such as through immunization programmes. The exclusion of subpopulations – such as migrant groups – must
be avoided.5 There is a significant burden of tuberculosis (TB), HIV, hepatitis B, hepatitis C and vaccinepreventable diseases in migrant populations. Addressing this important group in surveillance, screening andlinkage to care is crucial to meet the public health targets of countries and regions.6 Secondly, some healthrelated interventions developed for specific subpopulations, such as migrant groups, can provide or lead tohealth benefits for the whole population.7 Thirdly, ensuring the best possible health of migrants before,
during and following their migration journeys enables them to maximize their inclusion and contributions totheir host society, facilitate their support to families of origin, and minimize potential health-related costs
borne by both the destination country and migrants themselves.8 Even in acute displacement situations, suchas large-scale refugee flows, immediate health issues (along with food and shelter) are of primary concern,and dedicated resources are needed to meet these critical needs for the good of individuals, local communities
and the broader society.9
Understanding health vulnerability and resilience is central to the field of migration and health. Migrants are
not a homogenous group, nor are their needs, health vulnerabilities and resilience factors. Gender is a key
dimension that particularly needs to be considered (see the text box below).

4
5
6
7
8
9

Lee, Sim and Mackie, 2018; Thomas, 2016.
Thomas, 2016.
European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, 2018.
Chung and Griffiths, 2018; Thomas, 2016; Wild and Dawson, 2018.
Lu and Zhang, 2016; Wickramage et al., 2018b.
Abbas et al., 2018; Griswold et al., 2018.

214

Migration and health: Current issues, governance and knowledge gaps

Gender dimensions in mortality and abuse in “low-skilled” labour migrants
Globally, there is a higher proportion of male (58.4%) than female (41.6%)a international migrant
workers. Males dominate manufacturing and construction jobs, while female migrant workers
work mainly in service sector jobs (nearly 74%), such as domestic services – often in conditions ofprecarious employment.b Systematic reviews indicate a range of health vulnerabilities of female
domestic workers, including poor access to sexual and reproductive health services.c Poor work andliving conditions, particularly restrictions on mobility and non-payment of wages, further exacerbate
difficulties encountered by female domestic workers.
There is also limited empirical research on female migrant worker abuse, despite the phenomenon
being widely reported in the media. Studies have shown that female migrant worker abuse manifests
in multiple ways, including physical, sexual, emotional, psychological, spiritual and verbal abuse, andin terms of financial exploitation.dabcdILO, 2018.
ILO, 2015.  
Benach et al., 2011; Malhotra et al., 2013; Senarath, Wickramage and Peiris, 2014.
Benach et al., 2011; Malhotra et al., 2013; Murty, 2009; Senarath, Wickramage and Peiris, 2014; IOM, 2017b.

Health vulnerability can be defined as the degree to which an individual is unable to anticipate, cope
with, resist and recover from the impacts of diseases or epidemics.10 While most often associated with low
socioeconomic status, health vulnerability can also arise when people are isolated, insecure and defencelessin the face of risk, shock or stress, including during and following migration journeys. Health resilience, on
the other hand, results from individuals having access to the resources needed to cope with a threat to healthor to resist the impact of a health hazard. Such resources can be physical or material, but they can also befound in the skills or attributes of individuals and their social networks.
Some migrants are healthier than the communities they leave and the communities to which they arrive,
displaying levels of resilience to the health challenges encountered.11 However, these health benefits canrapidly wear away, and migrants may struggle to access positive determinants of health, resulting in arange of health vulnerabilities that are more pronounced than those of the local population. For example,
prenatal and postnatal health complications are often worse in migrant women. Not only are experienceswith pregnancy-related health care more likely to be negative, there is an increased risk of mental healthdisorders, maternal mortality and premature births.12 A systematic review of perinatal health outcomes andcare among asylum seekers and refugees reported that perinatal mental health disorders such as postnatal
depression were more frequent in migrant women than in women from host countries. The study also reported
a twofold relative risk of mortality of migrant women related to preeclampsia/eclampsia and thrombosis.

10 Grabovschi, Loignon and Fortin, 2013.
11 Spallek et al., 2016.
12 Heslehurst et al., 2018.

215

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

As outlined in table 1, those migrants with the greatest health vulnerabilities are those in situations thatdiminish their capacity to anticipate, cope with, resist and recover from the changes and challenges associatedwith the different phases of the migration process. Some migrants can be exposed to trauma, exploitation
and abuse during perilous journeys. They may experience psychosocial stressors, nutritional deficiencies,
dehydration, exposure to infectious diseases, a lack of health-care services or continuation of treatments,and face the unhealthy consequences of certain settings, such as immigration detention centres or informal
and illegal work environments. The literature on these issues is predominantly from high-income destination
countries, focusing on specific health issues, categories of migrants, and source countries.13 Some literature
combines different migrant groups together into descriptive studies, and most do not have comparisons withthe host populations. For these reasons, it can be difficult to generalize from the limited data, but many ofthese health issues are consistent across studies, as summarized in table 1.

Table 1. Summary of main health concerns of selected migrant groups in vulnerable situations

Irregular migrants

•
•
•
•

Limited/no access to health-care services
More limited ability to pay for preventative and primary health care
Limited/no access to safe and legal work
Fear of deportation has multiple effects on emotional well-being and mental
health, and impacts willingness to seek health-care servicesa

Migrants indetention• Conditions of detention are often punitive, jail-like conditions with limitedaccess to medical care
• Indefinite nature of detention contributes to the extreme distress, andcognitive, physical and emotional deterioration• Dramatically increased rates of depression and suicidal thoughts• Child migrants may be held in detention alongside their parents or
separated from their families, and experience a lack of education or play
opportunitiesb

Child migrants andunaccompanied
minors• Preventative health interventions such as immunizations may be interrupted• Social isolation and separation from family members seriously limits ability
to seek health care when needed• Persistence of mental health disorders even after settling• Age determination processes used as for immigration application resolution
are controversial and fraught with imprecision and ethical challengesc

Children “leftbehind”• Potential benefit of remittances that can allow for money to purchase foodand for educational benefit• Increased risk of anxiety, depression, suicidal ideas, substance abuse andgrowth disordersd

13 Sweileh et al., 2018.

216

Migration and health: Current issues, governance and knowledge gaps

Adult caregivers“left behind”• Elderly caregivers take on a disproportionate burden of care for the children
left behind, with negative psychosocial and physical health consequences• Left-behind elderly caregivers experienced higher levels of depression,loneliness, cognitive impairment and anxiety, and had lower scores on
psychological health compared with older parents with no migrant childrene

LGBTI migrants• Migration can be undertaken to leave violence, discrimination orpersecution• Trauma associated with need to continuously prove gender and sexual
identity for asylum claims• High levels of depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, suicidality andsubstance abusef

Survivors of humantrafficking• High levels of physical and sexual violence, and workplace injury• High rates of depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder,
attempted suicide• Chronic threats, excessive work hours, poor living conditions and severe
curtailment of freedomsg

Source: (a) Hacker et al., 2015; Martinez et al., 2015; Winters et al., 2018; (b) Filges et al., 2015; Robjant, Hassan and Katona, 2009;Sampson et al., 2015; (c) ISSOP, 2018; Jensen, Skårdalsmo and Fjermestad, 2014; (d) Fellmeth et al., 2018; (e) Graham,
Jordan and Yeoh, 2015; Siriwardhana et al., 2015; Migration Policy Institute, 2015; Thapa et al., 2018; (f) White, Cooper andLawrence, 2019; (g) Kiss et al., 2015.
Note:

Migrant groups are not mutually exclusive (can be overlapping). What is meant by “irregular migrant” is discussed inchapter 2 of this report.

Public health
The second aspect related to migration and health is on how migration can affect the health of populations(public health). As outlined above, migrants can face challenges in addressing their mental, social andphysical well-being needs. Migrants who have limited or no ability to access positive determinants of health(see figure 1) can experience poor health outcomes, with various consequences for public health. Thissituation could itself be the result of difficulties faced in accessing a secure income, perhaps associatedwith challenges involved in obtaining the necessary documentation to work legally. Should they be unable
to access timely testing and treatment, chances for onward transmission of the disease to others within thecommunity would increase, as would the likelihood of unnecessary costs being incurred by the host healthcare system as a result. It is important to recognize that popular representations of migration and health tend
to be exaggerated by the media, sometimes as part of anti-immigrant political agendas, in which migration ispositioned as a threat to public health.
Regardless of the setting, if migrants access health care only when they are very sick, additional costs willburden the health-care system. In contrast, health-care services – both preventative and curative – that areeasily accessible enable the health needs of migrants to be addressed before they become very sick, reducing
overall costs to health-care systems. When considering infectious diseases, delays in seeking treatment orchallenges encountered when attempting to continue treatment for chronic infectious diseases such as TB

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

217

and HIV can have negative effects for populations, as the potential for onward transmission of infection
may increase. This is particularly true in the case of movement across international borders, where delays inseeking care are associated with multiple factors, including the fear of engaging with public services when
one is without legal status, or the outright denial of access to care by health-care providers. The emergenceof “sanctuary cities” in countries with restrictive immigration regimes has in part stemmed from a needto ensure that health-care services are available regardless of a person’s migration status. The “sanctuary
cities” movement is based on human rights principles and health equity approaches that prioritize accessto health care for undocumented migrants.14 For instance, no significant differences in reports of physician
communication, or in measures of diabetes management between undocumented and documented immigrants,
existed among Mexican immigrants receiving care in two immigration sanctuary areas in the United States
where people seeking health services are not asked about immigration legal status, nor is immigration status
reported to immigration officials. Undocumented immigrants achieved comparable clinical outcomes andreported similar experiences of health care as documented immigrants and United States-born Mexicans.15
Some groups of migrants – including refugees, asylum seekers and irregular migrants – may be particularly
vulnerable to infectious diseases and experience worse health outcomes than the host population, or comefrom locations where certain infectious diseases are of high prevalence; these groups can benefit from targeted
screening and interventions.16 Their journeys from one place to another – including forced movements fromconflict zones with severely compromised health-care services – may result in interruptions in vaccination
schedules, with potentially negative public health implications for both individual migrants and communities
affected by migration.17
Migration, both within a country and across national borders, is a key consideration in the control of infectious
diseases. One such example is the case of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa in 2014 (see text box below).
Another example relates to interventions to address malaria. These require careful consideration of migration,
which has been shown to affect diagnosis and negatively impact access to treatment and continuity ofcare. This may contribute to the spread of antimalarial drug resistance.18 Additionally, the reintroduction ofmalaria in countries reaching elimination through inbound migration presents further challenges to crossborder malaria control.19 Recognizing its importance in the control of infectious diseases, migration has beenenshrined within the International Health Regulations and key disease control programmes in global health.20
For example, the WHO framework for the global post-2015 “End tuberculosis (TB) Strategy” has identified
migration and cross-border issues as a priority action area for countries with a low incidence of TB.21

14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21

Aboii, 2016.
Iten et al., 2014.
European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, 2018.
Hui et al., 2018.
Lynch and Roper, 2011.
Cotter et al., 2013; Jitthai, 2013; Pindolia et al., 2012.
Lönnroth et al., 2015; Wickramage et al., 2013; WHO, 2015.
Lönnroth et al., 2015.

218

Migration and health: Current issues, governance and knowledge gaps

Migration and disease control – The case of Ebola
Internal migration and cross-border mobility for purposes of formal/informal trade, cultural events,
employment, education and health remain an essential part of life for many communities in West
Africa, where the free movement of people, goods and services is considered key for regional
integration, prosperity and development.a The Kissi Triangle cross-border region at the intersection
between Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, critical for trade and commerce, became the epicentre
for the spread of the Ebola virus in 2014. The Forécariah–Kambia axis between Guinea and Sierra
Leone was another corridor of human mobility that sustained transmission of the virus. During themonth of July 2015 alone, four of the seven transmission chains of positive Ebola virus disease (EVD)
cases identified in Kambia (Sierra Leone) were linked with positive EVD cases in Forécariah (Guinea).
Communities residing on both sides of the border share strong familial ties. Cross-border movement
is a part of these communities’ daily lives and takes place mostly through unregulated border crossing
points. Restrictions to human mobility were enforced by authorities in some settings to inhibit crossborder movements with the rationale of containment of the spread of EVD. The impact on trade andon the economy in the West African region was estimated at USD 1.6 billion (12% of the combinedGDPs the three most affected countries).b Health systems weakened through decades of conflict, anddeficits of human resources for health and disease surveillance along mobility pathways, undermined
effective disease control measures. The need to adopt evidence-informed methods to determine
corridors of population movements and for understanding the primary drivers of human mobility isvital for targeted disease prevention, detection and response efforts, especially at border areas, whilesafeguarding countries’ trade and economic interests.
IOM, with the support of government authorities and local communities, started mapping crossborder and in-country population flows between Guinea and Mali as early as December 2014.
This information was then mapped against epidemiological data, enabling further analysis ofvulnerabilities of travellers along their mobility continuums. Similar initiatives were subsequently set
up at the Forécariah–Kambia border between Guinea and Sierra Leone, as well as at the Liberia–
Sierra Leone border. Mobility mapping has since been expanded to include several sea landing points
along the shores of Freetown and Port Loko, as well as internal movement between Kambia and Port
Loko Districts in Sierra Leone. In all these locations, health screening and installation of infection
prevention control measures were established, boosting the surveillance and response capacity ofthese three worst-affected countries and their neighbours.
a IOM, 2016.
b World Bank Group, 2015.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

219

Health systems responses
The third aspect of migration and health is how health-care systems respond to migration and health. The
health-care system is itself a determinant of health and, depending on the policies and legal frameworks ofindividual States, migrants may not be granted adequate, equitable and affordable access to health services,
and/or local health systems may not have sufficient capacity to manage migrant health needs. For example,
in countries of protracted crisis, migrant children fleeing conflict settings and seeking asylum with theirfamilies are more likely to have not met their vaccination targets due to disruptions in health-care delivery incountries of origin. Where health services are available, certain migrant groups may find it difficult to express
symptomology and understand treatment instructions due to language barriers. Different cultural constructsof illness causation, such as those concerning mental health, challenge effective clinical management.22 They
may also have difficulty with navigating unfamiliar health and welfare systems – especially when comingfrom countries with severely disrupted health systems.
A systematic literature review of reported challenges in health-care delivery to migrants and refugees in highincome countries identified three main topics of challenges in health-care delivery: communication, continuityof care and confidence.23 Communication is critical for obvious diagnostic and treatment trajectories. The
availability of trained interpreters from migrant communities was described as a key aspect in providing
migrant-sensitive care. Training of such interpreters to ensure an ethical and professional approach to medical
consultations was also highlighted. Continuity of care related to factors such as migrant understanding of
the health-care system, integration and case management across different parts of the health-care system.
Confidence was the third most common topic mentioned and related to trust in the health-care provider,ensuring cultural sensitivity in care provision and the ability to have agency. Studies indicated that, incases where no trustful relationship was established, patients resorted to using traditional medicine andtrusted “their own resources” from their community for treatment. Conversely, a systematic review thatinvestigated the perceptions, attitudes and practices of health providers in the provision of health-careservices for migrants found they were challenged not only by language and cultural barriers, but also by
resource constraints within their workplaces, and incoherence between professional ethics and domestic
laws that limited migrants’ right to health care.24 Health-care providers used innovative means to ensure careprovision in managing such clinical cases with civil society groups.
A key component of improved systems responses is the development of “migrant-sensitive health systems andprogrammes which aim to incorporate the needs of migrants into all aspects of health services, financing,policy, planning, implementation, and evaluation”.25 As outlined in appendix A, this includes measures to:ensure culturally sensitive and linguistically diverse health service provision; enable access to primary healthcare; include non-citizen groups within national disaster preparedness and response plans; and establish
reporting mechanisms within routine health information systems to ethically harness data to plan for migrantneeds.26 Often, migrants/“non-citizens” are excluded within preparedness and response strategies at national
levels.27
22
23
24
25
26
27

Fortier, 2010.
Brandenberger et al., 2019.
Suphanchaimat et al., 2015.
Siriwardhana, Roberts and McKee, 2017.
Mladovsky, 2013; Pottie et al., 2017; WHO, 2010b.
Guinto et al., 2015; Wickramage et al., 2018a.

220

Migration and health: Current issues, governance and knowledge gaps

Migration and health indicators and metrics
Accurate data on the health status, outcomes, and social determinants of migration health are an essential
precondition for ensuring better monitoring and improving health and providing appropriate and accessible
health service. The World Health Assembly (WHA) resolutions on migration health (61.17, 2008; 70.15, 2017)
and the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration28 call on governments to better harness
migration health data in order to formulate evidence-informed policy and practice interventions. However, the
2nd Global Consultation on Migration Health (2017)29 and subsequent academic commissions30 have indicatedmigration health data availability, quality and linkage to be highly variable, especially in low-to-middleincome countries. Little progress has also been made by member States and international organizations on
advancing initiatives to improve migration health data collection and analysis at national, regional andglobal levels.
Sources of health data at country level are derived from multiple sources. First are health data derived frominstitutional registries or census-based data sources. These include, for example, birth and death registries
capturing vital statistics and disease-specific registries, such as those for cancer, tuberculosis and malaria. A
second source is through health survey data that may be collected periodically – for instance, demographic
and health surveys. Research data are another major source providing specific information about specificcommunities or disease gradients. The final category includes a diversity of sources, such as those data from
migration health assessments, health information systems at refugee camp settings, and big data projects
such as the Global Burden of Disease project.31
A narrative review of migration health data collection practices in Europe revealed that most European
Union countries do not collect data on migrant health in health-care utilization or disease registers, andthose that do use different categorizations and definitions, so that data are not always comparable acrosscountries.32 Health information systems, surveillance systems and disease registries do not systematically
capture migration variables.33 Migration modules have been tethered in only a few countries undertaking
demographic and health surveys, such as Colombia and Ecuador, which capture data by place of birth. An
exceptional case is that of Sweden, which in its annual survey of living conditions includes disaggregated data
based on migration or residence status. People are classified either as first- or second-generation migrant, or
non-migrant.34

28 Objective 1 of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration underlines the need to collect and utilize accurate anddisaggregated data as a basis for evidence-based policies; in addition, Objective 3 underscores the need to provide accurate andtimely information at all stages of migration. The Compact explains that investing in improved methods for migration data collection“fosters research” and “guides coherent and evidence-based policy-making and well-informed public discourse” – allowing foreffective monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of commitments over time.
29 IOM, 2017c.
30 Abubakar et al., 2018.
31 Available at www.healthdata.org/gbd (accessed 24 July 2019).
32 Rechel, Mladovsky and Devillé, 2012.
33 Giorgi Rossi et al., 2017; Riccardo et al., 2015.
34 Mladovsky, 2013.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

221

Principles of data protection and ethical considerations are paramount for the collection, analysis,
dissemination and linkage of migration health data – not only due to historical framing on race, ethnicity andhealth35 and potential for stigmatization, exclusion or, in the case of undocumented migrants, deportation.36
Efforts to capture the extent of migrant integration within health systems, and therefore capture measuresof health equity, are exemplified by the Migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPEX) Health Strand project(see text box below). MIPEX Health Strand offers a survey instrument designed to investigate the degree towhich policies affect migrant health and promote equity, allowing for comparison between different country
contexts.37

Migrant Integration Policy Index Health Strand
The Migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPEX) Health Strand is a survey instrument designed toinvestigate the degree to which policies affect migrant health and promote equity.a It captures four
dimensions considered critical for ensuring health equity: (a) entitlements to health-care coveragebased on domestic legal and policy frameworks; (b) accessibility to health services; (c) responsiveness,such as on issues of language and cultural sensitivity; and (d) measures to achieve change, such asdata collection and research to better inform services. Intersectoral application of the “Health in All
Policies” (HiAP) principle, as well as mainstreaming of migrant health policies, are also included. A
scoping review of available evidence on the association between health outcomes and integration
policies conducted in 2017b showed a majority of studies included MIPEX as a measure of nationalmigrant integration policies. Data showed that health disparities between migrants and citizens, andbetween migrant groups, were generally reduced in countries with a strong integration policy.ca IOM, 2017a.
b Siriwardhana, Roberts and McKee, 2017.
c Ingleby et al., 2018.

In the context of health systems, a MHiAP response – modelled on the WHO Health in All Policies (HiAP)
approach38 and drawing on the MIPEX Health Strand39 – aims to engage all the crucial governance actors andsectors involved in the field of migration and health. An example of this in action is the development of the
National Migration Health Policy and action framework in Sri Lanka (see text box below).

35
36
37
38
39

Bhopal, 1997.
Hiam, Steele and McKee, 2018.
IOM, 2017a.
Juárez et al., 2019; WHO, 2014.
IOM, 2017a.

222

Migration and health: Current issues, governance and knowledge gaps

Lessons from advancing a National Migration Health Policy and action
framework in Sri Lanka
Migration continues to be a catalyst to Sri Lanka’s development within the South Asian region. Sri
Lanka is both a labour-sending country (with over 2 million of its citizens working abroad), and alabour-receiving one – with a growing number of migrant workers from countries such as India andChina arriving to work on large-scale infrastructure projects, such as new highways, seaports andairports. Such development is projected to further increase population mobility into and within theisland. The end of a protracted civil war led to a return of Sri Lankan refugees from India and othercountries, with many more internally displaced persons returning to their places of origin.
Addressing the health challenges of a dynamic range of population flows therefore becomes
important. In recognizing the intersectoral nature of addressing migration and health, a participatory“whole-of-government” approach – which included civil society, the United Nations, academia andmigrant advocates – was adopted by the Government of Sri Lanka to advance a National Migration
Health Policy and Action Plan, which was launched in 2013. Sri Lanka is one of the few countries tohave a dedicated migration health policy framework inclusive of all migrant typologies.a The process
was led by the Ministry of Health under auspices of an interministerial mechanism with technicalpartnership from IOM. A hallmark of Sri Lanka’s policy development was an emphasis on an evidenceinformed approach to guiding interventions/policy formulary. A national Migration Health ResearchCommission was undertaken over a three-year period, engaging local and international researchers
to identify gaps in knowledge, conduct empirical research and gather data on migration healthacross inbound, internal and outbound flows. A pragmatic, action-oriented approach was adopted.
For example, a National Border Health Strategy was developed to enhance point-of-entry capacities
to enable better preparedness and response for health security risks, and capacities to addressenhanced psychosocial support for returning female migrant workers.
Key lessons for advancing the National Migration Health Policy include:(a) Invest in an evidence-informed approach;(b) Ensure intersectoral coordination;(c) Engage diverse stakeholders from civil society, academia, industry and migrants themselves via
participatory approaches;(d) Harness the network to be responsive to emergent issues (focus not only on policy formulary);(e) Embed an accountability framework;(f)Ensure global health diplomacy and engagement in regional and global processors.

An expanded case study is in appendix B.
a Wickramage, De Silva and Peiris, 2017.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

223

The migration of health professionals
Health worker migration in response to the global shortage of health professionals demands dedicated andeffective management, including building the capacity of health systems in origin countries, promotion ofgood practices and prevention of negative effects of health worker migration. There is a global imbalance
between the availability of health workers and the burden of disease. For instance, sub-Saharan Africa has
the lowest density of doctors and nurses, and the highest disease burden.40 Well-managed migration of healthworkers can play a key role in development overall, as well as in building capacity of health systems, notonly in receiving countries, but also in countries of origin.41 Global health tools such as the WHO Global Codeof Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel provide an evidence-based framework topromote good practices and prevent negative effects of health worker migration. As outlined in the WHO
Global Code of Practice, there are strategies for both sending and destination countries to decrease reliance on
foreign-trained health workers and mitigate the negative effects of health personnel migration on the healthsystems of developing countries. These may include, for instance: aligning government educational spending
with employment opportunities; not hiring directly from countries with the lowest health-care worker-topopulation ratios; and adopting innovative financing mechanisms, allowing local and private entities toprovide complementary funding to government subsidies to health worker training.

The global governance of migration and health
Governance is central to the development and implementation of any response to migration and health.42
Migration governance rests primarily upon the fulcrum of national sovereignty,43 and ensuring that positive
health outcomes require well-managed migration. However, there is often limited engagement from healthauthorities in high-level migration governance decisions beyond issues concerning global health security– including quarantine and border-health management – and migration is frequently forgotten in thedevelopment of health programmes.44 Many countries have explicitly stated before international human rights
bodies that they cannot, or do not wish to, ensure health protection, including the provision of essential
health services, to migrants, and especially to irregular migrants.45
A range of governance agendas on the domains of migration and health have developed in recent years,
providing important opportunities for garnering political support for intervention (see figure 2). These
agendas bridge the fields of migration governance, development and global health governance, and include:
the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration; the Global Compact on Refugees; the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs); UHC; World Health Assembly processes; disease prevention and control programmes(including for malaria, HIV and TB); and the Global Health Security Agenda.46 Effective governance requires
strategic leadership and investment to build alliances between migration management systems and the healthsector.
40 Crisp and Chen, 2014.
41 IOM, 2018.
42 By “governance”, we mean the ways in which an entity functions to develop and implement policy and practice, incorporating theState, civil society, the private sector and other key actors, such as international organizations.
43 Wickramage et al., 2018a.
44 Wickramage and Annunziata, 2018.
45 IOM, 2013.
46 IOM, 2017c; UHC2030, 2017; United Nations, 2015; WHO, 2007, 2010a; World Health Assembly, 2008, 2017.

224

Migration and health: Current issues, governance and knowledge gaps

The SDGs suggest multiple demands to bring the migration, development and health sectors together todevelop and implement unified and coordinated responses.47 Target 3.8 of the SDGs calls for universal healthcoverage (UHC) – a key SDG target providing a strategic opportunity to improve responses to migration andhealth which will, by ensuring the good health of migrant workers and the associated flow of remittances,indirectly benefit social and economic development.48 Migrants unaccounted for in UHC programmes are often
missed in discussions about UHC goals at the country level.49

Figure 2. Global agendas for advancing migration and health goals“Migration
governance”
agenda“Development”
agenda“Global Health”
agendaGlobal Compact for Safe, Orderly
and Regular Migration

Global Compact on Refugees

Sustainable Development Goals(SDGs)
World Health Assembly (WHA)
Resolutions relevant tomigration health

WHA 61.17, 2008;
WHA 70.15, 2017;
WHO Global Action
Plan 2018.

Global Consultations
on migration health

1st (Spain, 2010),
2nd (Sri Lanka, 2017),
Colombo Ministerial
declaration

International HealthRegulations (IHR)
Universal Health Coverage (UHC)
agendaDisease prevention and control
programmes (e.g. HIV, TB, Malaria)
Global health security (GHS)
agenda47 United Nations, 2015.
48 UHC2030, 2017.
49 Guinto et al., 2015.

Health enshrined within 14
objectives/sub-objective.
Objective 15 encourages
governments to “incorporate
the health needs of migrants
in national and local
health-care policies and plans

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

225

The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration – discussed in chapter 11 of this report – features
health as a cross-cutting priority with references to health and health-care access in several objectives. Key
health-related objectives within the Global Compact for Migration with commitments and actions relevant
to health are presented in appendix C. A number of experts have commented on weaknesses in the Global
Compact in its realization of the right to health of migrants, including its absence on reproductive health andaccess to safe maternity care, which directly impacts newborn and child health.50 Despite these limitations,
the Global Compact for Migration does provide the health community the opportunity to use it as a tool toadvance migrant-sensitive health policies and services within discussions on migration governance, where
health often remains left behind.51

Gaps in migration and health research
Globally, various research initiatives are underway to assist in developing improved understanding of – andresponses to – migration and health, with a focus on the implementation of evidence-informed interventions
to improve the health and well-being of both migrants and communities affected by migration.52 While thisfield of research is growing, efforts to improve understanding of migration and health, and examples of
migration and health programming, remain limited.53 As outlined in the text box below, the existing literature
on international migration and health is limited in scope. It focuses on (a) high-income receiving contexts ofEurope and North America; (b) specific health conditions such as mental health, HIV and TB; and (c) specificmigrant groups, including migrant workers, child migrants, unaccompanied minors and “left-behind” children,
women, refugees and (female) survivors of human trafficking.54 This highlights the need to improve research
capacity in low- and middle-income country contexts, where the majority of migration takes place globally,
and to increase the scope of research beyond the current focus on mental health and psychosocial wellbeing. Contextually relevant research agendas need to be set at the national and regional levels, throughconsultation with migrant communities, policymakers, practitioners, civil society and researchers.

50
51
52
53
54

Bozorgmehr and Biddle, 2018; Devakumar et al., 2018.
Wickramage and Annunziata, 2018.
Abubakar et al., 2018; Griswold et al., 2018; IOM, 2017c; Pottie et al., 2017; Wickramage et al., 2018b.
Ho et al., 2019; Sweileh et al., 2018.
Sweileh et al., 2018.

226

Migration and health: Current issues, governance and knowledge gaps

Global distribution of international migration and health research in peer-reviewed
publications
By international migrant category:•

Refugees and asylum seekers (25.4%)•

Migrant workers (6.2%)•

Human trafficking and smuggling (3.2%)•

International students (2.1%)•

Patient mobility across international borders (0.1%)

By country income classification (based on World Bank Classification)•

Low-income countries (0.8%)•

Middle-income countries (9.6%)•

High-income countries (89.6%)

By thematic research areas:•

Mental health and psychosocial well-being literature (47.0%)•

Communicable diseases (13.7%)•

Non-communicable diseases (8.9%)

Source: Sweileh et al., 2018.
Note:

A total of 21,547 documents were retrieved and reviewed. The variables are not necessarily exclusive, so percentages may
not total 100 per cent.

Conclusion: Investing in migration and health to support social andeconomic development
Investment – by way of both financial and human resources, and political will – by States in the developmentof evidence-informed migration and health interventions will not only address the health needs of individualmigrants, it will also improve public health and support efforts towards achieving UHC. This investment isparticularly important for low- and middle-income country settings, where significant levels of migration
take place.
Good health is a prerequisite for optimizing the benefits of migration (e.g. in the form of remittances);
investment in migration and health therefore contributes to social and economic development in bothmigrant sending and receiving areas.55 Policymakers, civil society, the private sector and researchers all have

55 Abubakar et al., 2018; IOM, 2017c; Onarheim et al., 2018; Trummer et al., 2016; Tulloch, Machingura and Melamed, 2016; Vearey etal., 2019; Wickramage et al., 2018b.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

227

important roles to play – globally, regionally and nationally – in understanding and responding to migrationand health, and migrants themselves must be involved in the development and implementation of policies
and programmes.56
To achieve this, investment in research capacity is first needed to improve understanding of the four key
aspects associated with the field of migration and health that were outlined in this chapter – migrant health,public health, health systems responses and global governance opportunities. Research is needed to generate
evidence-informed and context-specific interventions to address migration and health, which will, in turn,support UHC. Through partnerships with international organizations and academics, a new generation of
migration and health scholars can be supported to develop new research approaches and monitoring systems
to improve migration and health responses globally.57 Additional research beyond the current focus onrefugees and asylum seekers, and on mental health and psychosocial well-being, is needed to better inform
improvements in health systems and services.
At the global level, improvements in understanding of the implications of human mobility in order to supportand improve public health preparedness planning – including developing responses to infectious disease
outbreaks or other health emergencies – are needed, requiring investment in building research capacity,
particularly in low- and middle-income country contexts.58 Working within the framework of a nationalmigration and health policy process, the private sector can also support the development of programmes toimprove the health of, for instance, migrant workers. The role of the private sector has been overlooked in thegovernance of migration and health and, among many other innovative roles, this can include sponsorship forbuilding research capacity and interventions designed to address the health needs of migrant workers. Suchprogramming will benefit the health of both individual migrant workers and their families, both in the origin
and destination countries.
Frameworks that can provide guidance and indicate strategic opportunities to support migration and healthinterventions include: the 2008 World Health Assembly (WHA) resolution “Health of migrants”; the 2017
WHA resolution “Promoting the health of refugees and migrants”; the declarations made at two Global
Consultations on Migration and Health; the WHO (draft) Global Action Plan on the Health of Migrants; and the
Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, which features health as a cross-cutting priority.59
These can be used by academia, United Nations bodies, civil society and government actors to mobilize action,
including within the private sector. Policymakers – with the support of researchers – need to identify how
both the migration and health sectors can strengthen their engagement with migration and health through a
MHiAP approach. As the integration and inclusion of migrants and migration are a vital component of global
disease control programmes – such as those for TB and malaria – and global health security agendas, healthshould form a key pillar in the development of migration governance.
At regional levels, consultative processes to support the development of coordinated approaches to migrationand health are needed. This could be achieved through integrating health into existing regional consultative
processes on migration and development, and should include collaborations for disease surveillance and

56 IOM, 2017c; Wolffers, Verghis and Marin, 2003.
57 The Migration Health and Development Research Initiative (MHADRI) Available at https://mhadri.org/ (accessed 25 July 2019))
is a recently established global research network that seeks to address these issues and promote shared research activities andapproaches in migration health.
58 IOM, 2017c; Wickramage et al., 2018b.
59 IOM, 2017c; WHO, 2010b, 2017, 2019; World Health Assembly, 2008, 2017.

228

Migration and health: Current issues, governance and knowledge gaps

interventions to support continuity of care across national borders. To operationalize these suggestions,
States should consider identifying a national focal point that can drive the development of a nationalmigration and health policy, and lead engagements at regional and global levels. This would require anevidence-informed, intersectoral, participatory approach, the development and adoption of an accountability
framework, and centring of global health diplomacy. By investing in evidence-informed interventions, States
will be better equipped to develop responses to migration and health at the local, regional and global levels.
This will have positive impacts on the health of individual migrants, support efforts to achieve UHC by 2030,
and – ultimately – ensure that individuals, communities and States can access the social and economic
development benefits associated with healthy migration.

230Children and unsafe migration

JACQUELINE BHABHA
GUY ABEL

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

8231

CHILDREN AND UNSAFE MIGRATION1Introduction
Child migration is a significant contemporary phenomenon. It is likely to increase in both scale and salienceas the mobility of young people grows, a result of more affordable travel, climate change, growing technologymediated connectivity, increasing global inequality in the distribution of opportunity, security and access toemployment, and the diffusion of a global cultural commons.
Like the migration patterns of other age groups, child migration spans a broad range of phenomena. To startwith the term itself, a child is defined in international law as “every human being below the age of 18 years,
unless under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier”.2 Data on youth migration do notalways use this cut-off point, however, so reference is often made to “youth migration”. The broad term
“migration” can cover both international and domestic human mobility – movement that is of short duration
or lifelong – and both one-way and circular journeys. It can span the range from unproblematic family
relocation to traumatic forced displacement caused by the violence of war, attempts at ethnic cleansingor State disintegration. The migration of children includes both journeys where children accompany adultrelatives and situations where children need to undertake journeys alone; it includes situations that resultin enduring improvements to the quality of children’s lives, in terms of educational opportunity or familial
security, and situations where exposure to exploitation or risk leads to enduring trauma.
Child migration is not a new phenomenon, but one that has a history dating back to ancient times. Children,
both boys and girls, have always migrated with or following their families, to pursue opportunities or increase
their safety away from home. Much of this migration is unproblematic. After a period of adjustment to a newcontext, and with the exception of situations where enduring racial or religious discrimination prevents this,most children, along with their families, integrate into their new societies. This chapter, however, focuses onchild migration that does not conform to that pattern – migration that is unsafe, irregular, exploitative. And
it focuses on international migration. This is not to suggest that other aspects related to child migration are
not important. However, the urgent need to better understand unsafe international child migration, in its
various dimensions, stems from the fact that this aspect of child migration requires greater engagement andsupport from governments and international actors, to ensure children the protection they are entitled to.
Accounts abound over the centuries of the unmet protection needs of both male and female children separated
from their families by wars, famine and environmental disaster; of trafficked children transported from homeby exploitative masters (slave owners, religious orders, warlords); of unaccompanied children received after
forced exile by unfamiliar, even unrelated careers (foster families, refugee agencies, and educational or12Jacqueline Bhabha, Professor of the practice of health and human rights, School of Public Health, Harvard University; Guy Abel,
Professor in the School of Sociology and Political Science, Shanghai University.
1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, art. 1.

232

Children and unsafe migration

correctional institutions).3 But, despite this long history, the challenge of protecting the safety and bestinterests of migrant children has been neglected.
One reason for recent increased attention to the phenomenon is its current magnitude. As figures 1 and 2
show, there were 37.9 million migrants under the age of 20 in 2019, 14 per cent of the world’s migrants. This
reality has urgent implications for educational, child welfare and migration authorities.
Another factor galvanizing increased political will and public concern about child migration is the peculiarly
newsworthy and compelling nature of child suffering. The tragic September 2015 drowning of Alan Kurdi andthe international outrage provoked by the United States Government’s 2018 southern border family separation
policy exemplify this. So does the growing acknowledgement of the life-changing impact of aspects of the
migration process for very large numbers of child migrants.4 Policies that separate parents from their children
at borders or through deportation proceedings, as well as protracted administrative procedures that preventchildren from reunifying with parents for years, can be devastating for the health and well-being of affectedchildren.5 Dramatic impacts for children also flow from other migration-related contexts: the absence oflife-saving rescue procedures to pre-empt child drowning or fatal dehydration during migration journeys; 6
educational shortcomings in refugee camps;7 State inaction in the face of evidence of migrant child sexual
exploitation;8 and unmet physical and mental health needs for displaced children.9
This chapter examines unsafe international child migration, and the ongoing tension between migration
governance and child protection imperatives.10 The chapter starts by detailing the different types of childmigration globally, including their drivers, and issues related to the data on child migration. Next, it discusses
key protection challenges affecting child migrants before going on to address current issues and evolving
policies relating to them. The chapter then explores the main emerging challenges confronting child migrants.
It concludes by reflecting on achievements and priorities still in need of attention.

Types of child migration
Definitional confusion has long bedevilled discussion of child migration. Like the deficiencies related to datathat are discussed in what follows, not all aspects of this challenge are specific to children. Facile dichotomies
of forced versus economic migration are widely deployed in the migration field, and complicate the imperativeof foregrounding rights considerations for vulnerable populations who may be in urgent need of protection.
The dearth of child migration research from a child- rather than State-centric perspective contributes tothis.113

For a seminal overview of the migration history of unaccompanied children, see Ressler, Boothby and Steinbock, 1998. For three
specific histories of child migration, see Bhabha, Kanics and Senovilla (eds.), 2018. See also Humphreys, 1994.
4 IOM, 2017a.
5 For a study of the risks associated with different forms of family separation, see UNHCR, 2018.
6 IOM, 2019; INEE, 2018; Suárez-Orozco and Suárez-Orozco, 2018; Ní Raghallaigh, 2018.
7 Sirin and Rogers-Sirin, 2015.
8 Digidiki and Bhabha, 2017.
9 Watters and Delyn, 2018; Kohli, 2018; Human Rights Watch, 2018a.
10 See OHCHR, 2016.
11 Some notable exceptions, research driven by the child migrant’s perspective, include chapters in Part VI of Bhabha, Kanics andSenovilla (eds.), 2018.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

233

Like adults, children’s migration is not usefully divided into “forced” or “voluntary”, but rather viewed as a
combination of elements of compulsion and choice, which may change over time. Because of the large varietyof relevant situations, child migrants are now commonly referred to as “children on the move”, a phrase thathas the advantage of not precluding a transition from one migrant category to another, but the disadvantageof obscuring the challenges arising after settlement.
Children embark on a broad range of different types of migration. Some migration journeys are highly
gendered, such as the long-standing exploitative transportation of Nigerian girls to Europe to work in thesex industry, or the self-initiated migration of North African adolescent boys in search of opportunity. Manyother migrations, the majority, include both boys and girls, though sometimes in different ratios, depending
on country of origin. Much child migration, particularly outside the context of conflict or disaster, is safe andundertaken as part of a family unit. However, there is an increasing tendency for children to be involved in
migration that jeopardizes their safety and violates their rights. Examples of this type of migration include
not only the obviously life-threatening forced migrations across treacherous routes – such as the Eastern
and Central Mediterranean, where drownings are frequent – but also migrations where children are routinely
exposed to physical and/or sexual violence. Unsafe migration also includes situations where children rely on
exploitative intermediaries who take advantage of the need for migration assistance to extract labour or othertypes of services from children in their custody. The discussion focuses on these aspects of child migration.
Children may be internal or international migrants. Children whose migration is internal include internallydisplaced persons, seasonal migrants or rural-to-urban migrants.12 Internal migration may be cyclical, and it
may be a prelude to international movement. All three categories comprise large groups of children, some ofthem in very precarious situations.
International child migration includes children who travel for family reasons, for safety or survival, at thebehest of traffickers, for opportunity, and frequently for more than one of those reasons. This chapter focuseson unsafe child migration across borders. The following factors are particularly significant for understanding
children’s distinctive needs, particularly in relation to safety:(a) Who is the child travelling with?13 Is he or she accompanied by parents or caregivers (including customarycaregivers), travelling unaccompanied (alone), or travelling separated (in the company of extended
family members, strangers, traffickers or mere acquaintances)?14 A child might start the migrationaccompanied and then become separated from family, so that his or her needs change at different stagesof the journey.15(b) Whether or not the child’s migration is authorized (by a visa or other legal provision). Children travellingwithout a regular migration status are at higher risk of exploitation, detention and other harms.16 Again,a child’s legal status can change from regular to irregular during migration, as when an asylum claim
12 Khadria, 1995, 1996.
13 The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) first published disaggregated data on child asylum seekers andrefugees in 1994, and on unaccompanied and separated children in 2001.
14 UNHCR was the first agency to specifically focus on the needs of this population, through its Guidelines on Policies and Procedures in
Dealing with Unaccompanied Children Seeking Asylum (UNHCR, 1997). Others followed rapidly, including the European Union, withits “Resolution on Unaccompanied Minors who are Nationals of Third Countries”, and the national authorities, including Canada, theUnited States and the United Kingdom. See Bhabha, Kanics and Senovilla (eds.), 2018.
15 Kara, 2009; Peyroux, 2018.
16 Bicocchi, 2011; Kanics, 2018; Rozzi, 2018.

234

Children and unsafe migrationis refused but the child remains in the destination State without legal authorization. The converse isalso true, as when an undocumented child receives a legal status. An example is the procedure in the
United States, whereby an unaccompanied migrant child who has been abused, abandoned or neglected
is granted Special Immigrant Juvenile Status.17(c) Whether the child is migrating to escape child-specific persecution, such as recruitment as a child soldieror gang member, child abuse or child marriage. Timely access to legal representation and guardianship isa protection priority in this type of migration situation.18(d) Whether the child is migrating following a family decision or without family knowledge or support. Many
migrants from countries where adult responsibilities vest at an early age exercise their own decisionmaking agency. Afghan males, Eritrean male and female teenagers, and Central American boys and girls
are cases in point. Acting like adults, even though classified as “children” under international law, manyseek out opportunities to support themselves or their families by migrating.19 Children in West andCentral Africa also move to pursue religious education, and are entrusted to a religious leader or figure
who is meant to take care of their religious education and well-being, though often for lack of means end
up being their exploiter.20 There is no international uniformity about the age when a child’s decision has
legal force. Domestic standards vary, depending on the activity in question.21

Central American children fleeing gangs
Central American children have been fleeing extreme violence in their home countries for decades,
but the rate of this forced migration has increased rapidly since 2014. Though the majority of thesechild asylum seekers, both unaccompanied and in families, seeks protection in the United States,
asylum applications from the so-called Northern Triangle countries (El Salvador, Honduras andGuatemala) have increased dramatically throughout Central America.a Unaccompanied child asylum
seekers who make their claims in the United States have difficulty accessing a lawyer or guardian,despite the best efforts of a web of specialist organizations, including KIND, LIRS and the Young Center
for Immigrant Children’s Rights’ Child Advocate Program. As a result, large numbers of children areheld in detention, over 14,000 in November 2018, according to official government figures.ba UNHCR, 2018.
b Kopan, 2018.

17
18
19
20
21

Thronson, 2018.
IOM, 2017b; UNHCR, 2018.
Timera, 2018.
UNICEF, 2011.
Wide disparities exist between decision-making domains (for example, voting, driving, criminal, contractual and health care) andjurisdictions. For interesting discussions about child agency in relation to asylum decisions, see the United States Appeals Court
decision Polovchak v. Meese (1985); see also Gonzalez Ex Rel. Gonzalez v. Reno, United States Appeals Court (2000).

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

235

A self-initiated migration strategy can include entering into relationships with adults who facilitate crossborder movement in return for services rendered.22 Adolescents also adopt income-generating opportunities,
including in deeply exploitative situations of labour and sex trafficking, to generate resources for migration.23
Because of the absence of legal migration routes, many adolescents eager to exercise their mobility have nosafer alternatives.24 Europol reports that 28 per cent of identified victims of trafficking globally are children.25
States have obligations to address these hazardous situations, through robust search-and-rescue operations
and livelihood opportunities that might forestall perilous journeys.26

Afghan unaccompanied minor asylum seekers in Sweden
Afghanistan has been the site of violent conflict and ensuing population displacement for over 35
years. In 2015, Sweden received over 35,000 asylum claims lodged by unaccompanied minors;
66 per cent of these claims, totalling over 23,000, were from Afghans, the majority male and fleeing
political violence at home. Relying on information gleaned in the course of their long international
journeys (on average seven months long), many chose Sweden, with its educational opportunity andgenerous, rights-respecting approach to child migrants, as their destination of choice.a As asylum
seekers, in line with Sweden’s obligations under international law, they were initially permitted toremain within the country pending a decision on their case, and were thus lawfully present. For
those whose asylum claims were successful, a grant of refugee status converted their temporary
legal status into a permanent permission to remain, and related to that the opportunity to apply
for family reunification for immediate relatives (or for less closely related family members in provencompassionate cases).b For those whose asylum claims were unsuccessful, removal notices were
issued, converting the young Afghans’ status from that of temporary lawful residents to overstayers,
irregularly on the territory and thus liable to deportation. Some of these unsuccessful asylum
claimants have been granted subsidiary humanitarian protection, a status that is temporary andcarries with it limited family reunification options.c
Four changes in Swedish migration procedure in 2016, at the height of political concern about
the increasing numbers of arriving asylum seekers, accompanied this change of status, lowering
the chances of a positive outcome to the asylum claims lodged. In early 2016, age assessments
based on knee or teeth x-rays were introduced, leading to a rise in findings that young asylum
claimants were in fact over 18 years of age.d In June 2016, the practice of granting humanitarianleave to rejected unaccompanied Afghan asylum seekers was withdrawn, leading to the issuanceof deportation orders; in the same year, Sweden, alongside other European Union member States,
signed a readmission agreement with Afghanistan ensuring the safe reception of returnees; finally,  

22
23
24
25
26

Vacchiano, 2018.
Europol, 2018; Digidiki and Bhabha, 2017.
Bhabha, 2014.
Europol, 2018. See also Sigona, Chase and Humphris, 2017b.
IOM, 2019. The Mexican delegate to the Day of General Discussion acknowledged such responsibilities when reporting on her
country’s federal and local mechanisms designed to protect domestic children from perilous journeys and migrant children fromdangers at the northern and southern Mexican borders. See United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, 2012.

236

Children and unsafe migration

policies to more rigorously enforce deportation orders were enacted, to ensure that those withrejected claims were removed from Swedish territory.e

a
b
c
d
e

UNHCR, 2015.
Swedish Migration Agency, 2017. The authors are grateful to Jonathan Joseffson for his guidance on Swedish policy.
Ibid., 2019.
Dononi, Monsutti and Scalettaris, 2016.
European Commission, 2017a. There are currently no statistics on the ages of forced returnees.

Data issues in measuring the scale of child migration
Two propositions about child migration are widely accepted: that the scale of child migration is increasing,and that the data on child migration are incomplete. Figures 1 and 2 give a snapshot of the migration ofunder-20-year-olds since 1990. In the absence of data limited to children, these data, which extend from
2 years to beyond 18, must be relied on. They draw on census data, one of the most reliable sources, andshow a steady increase in absolute numbers, but a decline in the proportion of under-20s as a share of global
migration.

Figure 1. Global migrants under 20 years of age
40

35

30

20

15

28.4

27.7

27.8

29.8

31.9

34.5

37.9

10

5

Source: UN DESA, 2019a.

19
20

15
20

10
20

05
20

00
20

95
19

90

0

19

Migrants (millions)

25

237

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

Figure 2. Share of global migrants under 20 years of age
20%

Percentage of migrants under 20

15%

18.6
17.2

10%

16.0

15.6

14.5

13.9

13.9

5%

19
20

15
20

10
20

05
20

00
20

95
19

19

90

0%

Source: UN DESA, 2019a.

Concerns about the inadequacy of data – lack of sources and deficits in reliable, up-to-date and disaggregateddata – are not peculiar to the child migration context; they exist for the migration field as a whole, andare referenced throughout this report. But the data deficiencies regarding child migrants are of particularconcern, because they hamper timely and adequate protection and care for a group of migrants that may
be especially vulnerable and dependent on government support. Remarkably, only 56 per cent of refugeerelated data and 20 per cent of internally displaced person (IDP)-related data include age-disaggregatedinformation; even migrant stock data include information about age in only 80 per cent of countries.27 The
absence of age disaggregation is not the only concern. Others include broad gaps in data on gender, problems
relating to the double-counting of children who move between and within countries, and deficient methods
for ascertaining age.28
The most recent global estimate for the total number of child migrants is approximately 31 million.29 This isa “stock” figure, one that represents the total number of people under 18 born in a country other than the
one where they are living. Though it gives a snapshot of the magnitude of the issue, it is of limited accuracy
and use, because it does not describe which country the migrant children have come from, what their legal
status is, how long they have been where they are or what the children’s date of birth is.

27 UNICEF et al., 2018; UN DESA, 2019b.
28 IOM, 2016.
29 UNICEF, 2018b.

238

Children and unsafe migration

An additional complexity arises from the technical fact that a child, in international law, is defined as “anyhuman being below the age of 18”, whereas census data are based on the age groups 0–4, 5–9, 10–14 and 15–
19 years of age; the global figure just cited is based on a United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) estimationof the size of the last of these groups, which applies to people under 18.30 To this figure can be added others.
UNICEF has calculated – using United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and United Nations
Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) data, combined with evidence from the United Nations
Relief and Works Agency and Eurostat – that approximately one in eight migrants is a child, the majority ofthem being regular migrants who travel with a regular status and the necessary protection. However, large
numbers do not enjoy that safety. There are approximately 13 million child refugees, 936,000 asylum-seeking
children, and 17 million children who have been forcibly displaced inside their own countries.31

Figure 3. International migrants (millions) under 20 years of age, by region
AfricaAsia

Europe15

10

Latin America and the Caribbean

19

15

20

20

10
20

05

00

Northern America

20

20

95
19

90
19

19

15

20

20

10

05

20

00

20

20

95

90

19

19

19

15

20

20

10

05

20

20

00

95

20

19

90

0

19

Migrants (millions)5

Oceania15

105Source: UN DESA, 2019a.

30 United Nations, 1989; Singleton, 2018.
31 UNICEF, 2018b.

15

19
20

20

10
20

05
20

00
20

95
19

90
19

19

15
20

20

10

05

20

20

00
20

95
19

90
19

19
20

15
20

10
20

05
20

00

95

20

19

19

90

0

239

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

Figure 4. Share of international migrants under 20 years of age, by region
AfricaAsia

Europe30%

10%Latin America and the Caribbean

Northern America

20
15
20
19

20
10

20
05

20
00

19
95

19
90

20
15
20
19

20
10

20
05

20
00

19
95

19
90

20
15
20
19

20
10

20
05

20
00

19
95

0%

19
90

Percentage of migrants under 20

20%

Oceania

30%
20%
10%

19

20

15
20

10
20

05
20

00
20

95
19

90
19

19
20

15
20

10
20

05
20

00
20

95
19

90
19

19

15

20

20

10
20

05
20

00
20

95
19

19

90

0%

Source: UN DESA, 2019a.

These regional stock data graphs complement the global picture presented earlier, in figures 1 and 2. Theyshow that some regions (most dramatically, Asia) have experienced a sharp increase in the numbers of young
migrants. They also highlight large differences between the regions in the proportions of children within
their migrant stocks – nearly 30 per cent in Africa, compared with less than 10 per cent in Europe and North
America.
In addition to these sources, there is also a proliferation in the availability of new data mining techniques thathave the potential to generate better information in the future. They include geospatial mapping, satellite
nightlights and analysis of changing smartphone location in real time. A word of caution is in order, however.
The proliferation of and access to personal information, including biometric indicators, may generate risks
rather than protections for child migrants. So more rather than less data should not be a goal in and of itself,
unless privacy protections and other ethical concerns are carefully attended to. In particular, due diligence in
the implementation of “firewalls” to prevent the use of personal data for punitive or immigration enforcement
goals is an essential correlate of ethical and rights-based data collection.32

32 United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, 2005.

240

Children and unsafe migration

Data on vulnerable populations, such as displaced child migrants, are particularly useful when they are
specific and have the potential to contribute to policy challenges. One example is the following details on
the distribution of young Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, where over 50 per cent of the childpopulation is still out of school. In this context, up-to-date age and gender details can appropriate expansionof school programmes and skill training.

Table 1. IOM/UNHCR/education sector – Rohingya child and youth population in Cox’s Bazar
Refugee camps, Bangladesh, January 2019
Population

Total

Ages 3–5

Ages 6–14

Ages 15–18

Ages 19–24

Population in need

518,404

105,433

235,638

74,773

102,559

Currently enrolled inschool222,916

84,619133,638

4,048

611

Currently outsideschool192,084

20,814

102,000

70,725

101,948

Target goal for2019 (% of the total
population)

393,012(75.8%)

105,433(100%)

235,638(100%)

44,864(60%)

7,077(6.9%)

Source: UNHCR, 2019a.

Figure 5. Demographic breakdown of Myanmar refugees in Bangladesh
Percentage of population

Age group

60+
18–59
12–17
5–11
0–4
20%

10%

0%
Male

Source: UNHCR, 2019b.

10%
Female20%

241WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

Another example of specific age- and gender-disaggregated data that provide a useful basis for thedevelopment of protective child migrant policy concerns the extensive and rapid recent forced migration of
Venezuelans into neighbouring Latin American countries. The contrast in age distribution between Rohingya
and Venezuelan refugee populations in these figures is noteworthy. It illustrates significant differences in theage composition of the populations prior to their forced migration, with Rohingya estimated to have had oneof the highest birth rates of all ethnic groups in Myanmar.33
There are also likely to be differences related to the nature of the displacement events. For the Rohingya,
lethal ethnic violence prompted entire communities to flee for survival in a short period. For the Venezuelans,
economic crisis and ongoing instability initially compelled adults of working age to move in search ofalternative sources of income to support families left behind. However, over time, this has become a morepervasive displacement situation as the crisis has deepened and whole families, including children, have
moved.

Figure 6. Demographic breakdown of Venezuelans in Colombia
Percentage of population

Age group

60+
18–59
12–17
6–11
0–5
20%

0%
Male

20%
FemaleSource: Government of Colombia, 2018.
Note:

The split in child migrant age groups is estimated using the overall gender split reported for the total child data.

33 Bomquist and Cincotta, 2016.

242

Children and unsafe migration

Key child protection challenges affecting child migrants
Large-scale child migration inevitably places complex demands on States, obligated as they are to addressneeds and provide services as required by international and domestic legal standards. Following are some of
the key current challenges concerning child migration.

Education
States are mandated to provide education to all children in their jurisdiction without discrimination.34
For any migrant child, few State services are more important. Not only does education generate portable
individual skills and capital that impact central aspects of the life course, it also provides the context forsocial inclusion, peer group encounters and new cultural and language acquisition. Many examples exist ofinnovative educational provision directed at generating robust multicultural environments responsive todifferent pedagogic and emotional needs.35
This is a context where scarce resources and a perception that outsiders are being privileged can generate acuteresentment towards newcomers, unless investment also targets domestic populations in need.36 Challenges
also arise in identifying accurately the needs of migrant or refugee children, taking account of their prioreducational experience and their linguistic competencies.37

Bangladesh: Rohingya children’s access to education
As of October 2018, over 900,000 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar were living in 30 temporary
camps located in the Cox’s Bazar coastal region of south-eastern Bangladesh. According to UNICEF,
approximately 620,000 were between 4 and 14 years of age. They are being provided with a rangeof humanitarian services, including education in 1,898 learning centres that cater to the needs ofchildren their age. These centres provide access to non-formal educational activities for over 140,000
children. Impressive though this effort is, it still leaves almost 482,000 Rohingya children without any
educational access. The situation of adolescents and youths is particularly challenging: 98 per cent of
Rohingya aged 15 to 24 years have received no education at all; girls of all ages and disabled children
are also disproportionately disadvantaged.a Many of the children in the learning centres had beenout of school for at least two years prior to their admission to the centres, as a result of events in
Myanmar and the dislocations related to their exodus into Bangladesh.

34
35
36
37

United Nations, 1989.
Ensor and Goździak, 2016.
Theirworld, 2017.
Dryden-Peterson, Dayya and Adelman, 2017.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

243

Instruction is provided in classrooms where two female teachers, one from the host community andone Rohingya, cover a standardized curriculum delivered in English and Burmese. No instruction ispermitted in Bangla, the national language of Bangladesh (a local dialect of which, Chittagonian, is the
Rohingya language) because of the expectations that this population will not remain permanently.b
Instruction is divided into four levels, catering to children aged, respectively, 4–6 years (level 1); 7–8
years (level 2); 9–10 years (level 3); and 10–14 years (level 4).  As of January 2019, curricular materials
were only available for level 1 and 2 students.b
a UNICEF, 2018a; Strategic Executive Group, 2018.
b FXB Field Visit January 2019; contemporaneous notes on file with the author.

Guardianship
Whereas some State services, such as education, are essential for all migrant children, others only apply tosome. A case in point is the need for appointment of a guardian responsible for the child’s care where children
are unaccompanied or separated, or otherwise at risk, a measure called for by both international and regional
policies on child migration. Only a minority of States have incorporated this recommendation into theirdomestic legal obligations. Among them is Italy (see text box below).

Italy’s protection measures for unaccompanied minors
Italy promulgated a law in May 2017 on “Protection Measures for Unaccompanied Minors”, which
obliges the police to immediately report the presence of an unaccompanied minor to the relevant
judicial authority, who in turn has 48 hours in which to appoint a guardian.a The law requires
comprehensive protection to be speedily put in place for unaccompanied child minors. In practice,underfunding and other capacity deficits have resulted in frequent delays before a guardianis appointed (up to 11 months in some reported cases) and in the allocation of large numbers of
unaccompanied children per guardian (often public officials), complicating or even eliminating thedevelopment of the close and parental relationship envisaged. A case in point was the reported
allocation of 850 unaccompanied children to the same guardian, the Welfare Councillor of Palermo.
To address these staffing challenges, the 2017 law also calls for the compilation of lists of “volunteer
guardians”, selected and trained by the Regional Ombudsperson for Children, and then allocated as
mentors for individual children. Ensuring quality control and consistency in such a setting is difficult.
The challenge of securing individualized child protection arrangements for all migrant children who
need them thus remains a work in progress.
a Law no. 47/17, often referred to as the “Zampa law” after the name of the MP who introduced the bill to Parliament.

244Children and unsafe migration

Several acute child protection challenges have emerged where unaccompanied minors outside family care or
any institutional framework providing shelter have set up home in informal unauthorized camps created byrefugees and migrants, often as a prelude to further migration to join family members elsewhere.

Current issues and evolving policies
While the majority of children who migrate do so through safe migration processes as part of family units,
many other child migrants do not. Some continue to lack effective protection from harm and face sustained
human rights violations at all stages of their journeys, in the country of origin at departure, en route throughtransit regions and seas, on arrival at their temporary or permanent destination and, with growing frequency,
in the country to which they are returned if their migration journey is curtailed.
Many agencies have called attention to this substantial protection deficit, highlighting urgent challenges.38 Of
immediate concern as key priorities are the risk of exploitation and abuse, the negative impact of detention,
the effect of family separation, the inadequate access to education and health care, the lack of attention todrivers of forced child migration and, finally, discrimination. To these urgent issues could be added others
confronting millions of child migrants. One is the absence of adequate legal pathways for the exercise ofchild and youth mobility, a shortcoming of the contemporary migration framework that renders so muchchild migration unsafe. Another is the pervasive and underaddressed stigma surrounding undocumented
child migrants, whatever their length of residence at destination. Yet another concern relates to the absenceof safety and child protection guarantees in asylum seeker and refugee camps or shelters. Finally, there areserious deficits in access to guardianship and legal representation for unaccompanied and separated childmigrants.39
International initiatives to improve protection of child migrants
Alongside these continuing challenges, one finds a rich body of recent international work, setting out principles
and implementing policies that improve the circumstances surrounding child migration. At the international
level, there have been a number of developments regarding child migration. A landmark document is theinternational synthesis of rights relevant to child migrants set out in the United Nations Committee on the
Rights of the Child 2005 General Comment No. 6 (2005): Treatment of Unaccompanied and Separated Children
Outside their Country of Origin.40 The General Comment was followed by a second important international
effort regarding child migration, the 2012 Committee on the Rights of the Child Report of the 2012 Day ofGeneral Discussion: The Rights of All Children in the Context of International Migration.41 A practical outcome of
the Day of General Discussion was the creation of an Inter-Agency Group on Children on the Move focused on
mainstreaming child protection concerns into the migration agenda. The group produced a widely endorsed
set of recommended principles for child migrants targeting some of the key enduring protection challenges.42

38 For an example of the impact of these deficits in practice, see Human Rights Watch, 2018b.
39 Save the Children, 2017; UNHCR, 2018; Save the Children, Plan International and World Vision International, 2018; Harvard FXBCenter for Health and Human Rights and UNHCR, 2017.
40 United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, 2005.
41 Ibid., 2012.
42 OHCHR, 2016.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

245

Most recently, other initiatives have built on the conclusions and principles of the initiatives just described,
as well as the inter-agency position on migrant and refugee children for the two compacts and the work of theInter-Agency Working Group to end Child Immigration Detention.43 Two United Nations treaty bodies adopted
additional General Comments on the topic of child migration in 2017 and consolidated their efforts into thefirst Joint General Comment on the subject in the same year, namely the Joint General Comment No. 3 (2017)of the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families andNo. 22 (2017) of the Committee on the Rights of the Child on the General Principles regarding the Human Rights
of Children in the Context of International Migration.44 The Joint General Comment also stresses the importanceof according relevant State authorities – whether of origin, transit, destination or return – a leading role,“with clear decision-making power”, on policies and practices pertinent to migration-affected children.45
Central among such practices are the conduct of best interests assessments and determinations, individualized
procedures that need to be conducted by trained and accountable personnel, where appropriate at different
stages of the decision-making procedure. UNICEF consolidated much of this policy work by releasing a “sixpoint plan to keep refugee and migrant children safe” in 2017.46
Together these initiatives have created a useful action framework for States. By highlighting needs for
specially targeted protection measures – including access to free legal representation, integrated services
including in relation to education, and to protections from exploitation and trauma – these frameworks havegiven a welcome impetus to policy reform. They have stimulated measures that take note not just of thevulnerability and dependence, but also the resilience and agency of young migrants, including States’ duties
to “prepare and accompany children through the journey to adulthood, rather than threatening them withabrupt change as soon as they reach the age of maturity”.47
However, effective implementation of these recommendations has been mixed. All the documents justreferenced stress the imperative to issue birth registration and concomitant proof of identity for all children
in the territory, because these documents provide critical tools for reducing statelessness, exploitation andabuse of child migrants, and for increasing access to State facilities such as health care and education.48 But
many groups of migrant and refugee children continue to lack these documents. They include Syrians born inexile, and Rohingya in Myanmar and abroad.49
Integration of migrant children outside of family care within the national childcare or child protection
agency is still not the norm. Research has identified a policy and practice gap in the protection and support
apparatus related to the transition to adulthood, with obvious implications for both mental health and wellbeing.50 There are, however, some examples of good practice, such as Italy and Turkey.51

43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51

Inter-Agency Working Group to End Child Immigrant Detention, n.d.; Bhabha and Dottridge, 2017; Theirworld, 2019.
United Nations Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families, 2017.
Ibid.
UNICEF, 2017a.
OHCHR, 2016.
UNICEF, 2013; Bhabha, 2011.
Blitz, 2011.
Chase, 2017; Sigona, Chase and Humphris, 2017a.
Law 47/2017 (the so-called Zampa Law) heralded an innovative volunteer guardian programme, run by the Italian Ombudsperson forChildren and Adolescents, to train volunteer guardians as both legal and humanitarian mentors for up to two migrant and refugee
children; AGIA, 2017.

246

Children and unsafe migration

European States have made considerable, if uneven, progress in instituting access to legal representation for
unaccompanied and separated children, and in reducing the reliance on detention, but this is not the case inother jurisdictions, such as the United States.52
Much of the agenda laid out by these normative frameworks remains to be implemented. Several recent
mass forced exoduses of children have demonstrated the dearth of services available. Mental health needs
among millions of displaced Syrian children are acute and mainly unattended to; educational needs among
Rohingya refugee children in Bangladesh are challenging and not fully met, particularly for the older cohortsof children.53 Another area where the gap between normative exhortation and implementation is evident
is protection of migrant children following repatriation. Returned children rarely encounter reintegration
assistance, or the rehabilitative services called for by standard-setting initiatives.54

Regional initiatives to improve protection of child migrants
Several significant regional initiatives on child migration have been developed in recent years. Three are
noteworthy – those in the European Union, in West Africa and in Latin America – and are discussed in turnbelow.
The European Union has witnessed large-scale flows of child migrants in recent years. In 2015, for example,
31 per cent of the refugees arriving in the European Union by sea were children, and in early 2016 theproportion of children among sea arrivals in Greece was up to approximately 40 per cent.55 European
institutions have been at the forefront of some of the most impactful policy and practice advances in respectof migrant and refugee children.
The European Court of Human Rights has played an important if cautious role, providing a critical forumof last instance for particularly egregious State behaviour.56 It has prohibited the placement of asylumseeking children (including where accompanied by their parents) in reception conditions likely to generate“a situation of stress and anxiety, with particularly traumatic consequences”, an all-too common occurrence,
particularly in Southern Europe;57 it has ruled against the detention of migrant children, even for shortperiods, where alternative and less restrictive strategies should have been considered, or where the detention
conditions, when inflicted on children, whether in terms of length of time in custody or level of provision
within the institution, amount to inhuman or degrading treatment;58 and it has, albeit in a limited fashion,
prevented family expulsions with far-reaching consequences for the care or well-being of affected children.59
European Union measures are also noteworthy. On 12 April 2017, the European Commission adopted a“Communication on the protection of children in migration”, articulating a comprehensive programme ofprotective action for child migrants at all stages of their migration.60
52
53
54
55
56
57

Crea, 2018; International Detention Coalition, 2018.
Save the Children, 2017; Ruhani, 2017.
Harvard FXB Center for Health and Human Rights and IOM, 2019.
European Commission, 2018.
Smyth, 2018; the following discussion on the court’s jurisprudence relies on this chapter.
Tarakhel v. Switzerland, Application No. 29217/12, Judgment of 4 November 2014; V.M. and others v. Belgium, Application no.
60125/11, Judgment of 7 July 2015.
58 Rahimi v. Greece, Application No. 8687/08, Judgment of 5 April 2011; Application No. 39472/07, Judgment of 19 January 2012;
Mayeka and Mitunga v. Belgium, Application No. 13178/03, Judgment of 12 October, 2006.
59 Kaplan v. Norway, Application no. 32504/11, Judgment of 24 July 2014.
60 European Commission, 2017b.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

247

But adequate or integrated responses to this ambitious programme are still elusive. “Reconciling childprotection and migration control goals, already difficult at national level, may become all the more difficult
across borders. In practice transnational cooperation frequently focuses first and foremost on which Stateshould have the child within its jurisdiction, rather than centring on a proper joint assessment of the bestinterests of the child”.61 Integration across all European Union member States in respect of child protection
obligations has not been effective so far.62
West Africa is another region with a well-established system of cross-border free movement of persons,promoted in part by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), a regional grouping of 15
West African States founded in 1975. The region has a long tradition of mobility, driven by a range of factors,
including economic self-improvement, environmental hardship, conflict and escape from abuse of harmful
traditional practices (including early marriage and witchcraft). Rates of child migration are high: a 2016
UNICEF report notes that 1 in 45 children in the world today are on the move, with Africa home to 1 in 5 ofthese child migrants.63 In this region, most migration is intraregional, and children travel as much as adults,
many of them unaccompanied or separated, often considered de facto adults with attendant responsibilities.
While some of this child movement is self-initiated and generative of opportunities and life enhancements,
a significant portion is coerced or abusive, and places child migrants in situations of high risk and scarce
protection.64
Child protection implementation for migrants has lagged far behind norm-setting standards. Domestic socialand child protection structures are minimal, and transnational mechanisms are practically non-existent.65 By
contrast with the European Union, ECOWAS has not promulgated any coordinated protective transnational
measures for child migrants. Early protective efforts in the region, taking note of widespread child trafficking,resulted in misplaced efforts to stop child migration, described by experts as “an attempt to pour water
uphill”, as most intercepted and returned children embarked on migration again within weeks.66
From 2005 onwards, ECOWAS has collaborated with partners in the region in forming the West African Network(WAN), specifically geared to generating protective interventions and effective referral mechanisms for the
benefit of child migrants in the region, particularly those travelling unaccompanied. WAN reports delivering
assistance to over 6,500 child migrants since its inception.67 WAN’s work has included early identification ofvulnerable child migrants and provision of emergency support where needed, as well as the consistent use ofbest interests assessments, which consider alternatives to migration, family and community support measures
to assist reintegration where appropriate.68
A third region where child migration has been the focus of multi-State attention is Latin America. Among
various regional initiatives, the most notable is the Inter-American Court of Human Rights 2014 Advisory
Opinion on the needs of children in international migration.69 The opinion draws attention to the urgent

61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69

O’Donnell, 2018.
For a useful overview, see European Commission, 2018.
UNICEF, 2016b.
Timera, 2018; Vacchiano, 2018.
Geissler and Laganju, 2018.
Dottridge and Feneyrol, 2007.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Inter-American Court of Human Rights, 2014.

248

Children and unsafe migration

and unmet need for international protection, and describes applicable procedures relevant to the treatmentof both asylum-seeking and irregular child migrants, highlighting principles such as the non-detention ofchildren based on an irregular migratory situation. Mexico has taken a lead in implementing protective
services for unaccompanied child migrants, including those returned by the United States. Measures todecrease the reliance of detention are being considered (see the text box below on recent progress).

Two examples of recent progress in protecting child migrants
1.

Mexico: Implementation of a 2014 law that includes child migrant protections, including theappointment of 300 dedicated child protection officers, who assisted 130,000 child migrants,
50 per cent of them unaccompanied, in 2017. It has developed a model of alternative, noncustodial care and a family foster care pilot for the placement of child victims of violence, and isin the process of designing a national action plan to increase alternatives to detention. Mexico
is collaborating with Save the Children on a regional project to improve local conditions andeducational access in the Northern Triangle countries.a At the same time, externalization ofUnited States migration control is generating hazardous situations at Mexico’s northern borderfor minors attempting to lodge asylum applications in the United States. A limited quota system
for asylum applicants forces thousands, including unaccompanied minors, to spend months indangerous limbo on the Mexican side of the border, out of the reach of effective child protection
services.b2.

Turkey: Since 2014, successful implementation of the Law on Foreigners and International
Protection, which permits access to protection, education and health care for children underinternational or temporary protection on equal grounds to Turkish children. This has resulted
in improved access for migrant and refugee children to education and to needed healthservices and medicines.c Despite these positive developments, however, Syrian refugee children
continue to face challenges in securing the health and educational opportunities they need. The
Temporary Education Centres established for Syrians, an important transitional step in securing
schooling for Syrian children in Arabic, were not initially accredited and delayed adaptation toand inclusion in the host community. Recruitment of Syrian doctors and teachers has eased
the language challenges facing the refugees, but some have no access to appropriate service
providers or linguistic support. In addition, some of the Turkish teachers recruited to meet theincreased school population were inexperienced and lacked the skills or support needed to
manage complex classrooms with highly traumatized children.d

a
b
c
d

Information received by the Mexican Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, thanks to Mirela Shuterqui.
UNICEF, 2016a; Campoy, 2016.
Aida, 2018.
Aras and Yasun, 2016; Çelik and Ìçduygu, 2018; Uyan-Semerci and Erdog�an, 2018. The authors are grateful to Deniz Yilmaz
for these references.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

249

Emerging issues
At its important convening in September 2016, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) issued alandmark statement, the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants, announcing the launch of two
non-binding Global Compact processes, one for refugees and one on migration.70 It stated: “We will protect
the human rights and fundamental freedoms of all refugee and migrant children, regardless of their status,and giving primary consideration at all times to the best interests of the child. This will apply particularly tounaccompanied children and those separated from their families”.71
A central goal of the Global Compact for Migration is to advance the important Sustainable Development
Goal (SDG) on migration. This SDG, identified as SDG Target 10.7, calls on States to “facilitate orderly, safe,and responsible migration and mobility of people, including through implementation of planned and wellmanaged migration policies”.72
The Initiative for Child Rights in the Global Compacts, a multi-stakeholder effort to highlight child migrantissues, identified several priority areas for making SDG Target 10.7 a reality for children. Among them isthe meticulous generation of accurate, targeted and disaggregated empirical data to anchor the process ofevaluating compliance with the Global Compact for Migration’s child migrant protection goals.
An emerging child migration issue is the growing political heft of an organized movement of child migrants
themselves. In the spring and summer of 2017, a group of young Afghan migrants led protests in Sweden’scapital Stockholm against the Government’s threat to deport them back to Afghanistan, culminating in a
1,000-person-strong demonstration in the city centre.73 The protests were successful, forcing the Government
to withdraw deportation notices issued to some of the unaccompanied Afghan asylum seekers whose claims
for protection had been denied. Another instance is the United States-based “Dreamers” organization, a groupof young migrant activists who have embarked on “a gesture of civil disobedience that defied immigration
enforcement policies and sought to re-shape legislation on citizenship”.74 A very large constituency of children
and young people, many of them United States residents since infancy, this group has succeeded in bringing to
public attention the compelling merits of their case for legalization. Deeply affected in all areas of their lives
by their irregular migration status, the group has organized public events drawing attention to the pervasive
consequences of being undocumented.75 Broader alliances demanding legalization for undocumented youths
have also developed, including United We Dream, a national youth-led advocacy network that brings together
over 50 affiliates. The future of the so-called “DACA-mented” youths – those who have benefited from former
President Obama’s “Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals (DACA)” executive order deferring deportationand permitting employment for 800,000 eligible undocumented children and young people – remains deeply
uncertain.

70
71
72
73
74
75

UNGA, 2016.
Ibid.
SDSN, 2019.
The Local, 2017.
Terrio, 2018.
Ibid.

250

Children and unsafe migration

Deportation and forced removal of unaccompanied child migrants and refugees is an issue of growing concern.76
This large-scale repatriation process, a consequence of vigorous regional border enforcement policies,
particularly in Europe and North America, externalizes the protective responsibilities owed child migrants tojurisdictions poorly able to shoulder them. Human rights organizations have drawn attention to significant
child protection concerns related to these policies, including the absence of any systematic scrutiny of thebest interests of children or the likely risks back home.77 In 2017, UNICEF reported that 9 per cent of theestimated 400,000 migrants stranded in Libya were children, 14,000 of them unaccompanied.78 By May 2018,
Amnesty International reported the existence of over 33 active detention centres in Libya with over 7,000
migrants (many of them children) detained in them. In the absence of relocation opportunities in Europe orelsewhere, the European Union, the African Union and United Nations agencies have directed their efforts to
the repatriation of migrants wishing to exit from the detention facilities and return home. IOM has facilitatedthe return of over 23,000 migrants from Libya, including a small number of children. Efforts are being madeto ensure that assessments of the best interests of repatriated children are conducted prior to return, and toaddress the lack of support to returnees or their families once they arrive in the country of return.79
A final emerging issue, and one that may dwarf the others, is the growing impact of climate-related mobilityon the lives of children and their families (see chapter 9 of this report). In addition to the general issues, a
few child-specific points arise. Children rarely make decisions about how or when to move in climate-related
mobility contexts, nor are they generally involved in any way in the programming of such moves. Thisparticipation failure can exacerbate the feeling of disorientation and loss associated with forced uprooting
from one’s home, one’s peer group and one’s anchoring sense of belonging.

Conclusion
The focus of this chapter has been on the subset of international child migrations that generate protection
concerns, migrations that require greater public engagement and support.
Increased attention to the scale and modalities of contemporary child migration has generated policy reforms,
several of them detailed above, that are beginning to result in improved protections for child migrants andrefugees. For example, many countries to which large numbers of unaccompanied children have migrated
have instituted guardianship schemes and free legal representation services. And indeed, even where policy
implementation is still incomplete or inconsistent, there is a growing consensus about minimum standards
that should apply to child migrants. Thus, it is widely accepted that child migrants should not be subject todetention, that the agency, participation and resilience of child migrants should be attended to as much as
their vulnerability and dependence, that migrant and refugee children should be mainstreamed into domestic
educational and child protection services, and that unaccompanied and separated children should be thefocus of dedicated measures. Both early childhood development and adolescent child welfare experts aregradually including the special considerations relevant to child and refugee migrants in their programing andtraining.80

76
77
78
79
80

Chase and Sigona, 2017.
UNICEF, 2018b.
UNICEF, 2017b.
Harvard FXB Center for Health and Human Rights and IOM, 2019.
Bernard van Leer Foundation, 2013; UNFPA, 2018.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

251

However, considerable implementation gaps remain, illustrated by recent incidents described above, suchas family separation and child migrant detention in the United States, and the need to expand educational
provision for Rohingya refugee children in Bangladesh. Very large numbers of forcibly displaced children, both
inside the borders of their own countries and in camps adjacent to them, continue to lack access to basic
services such as primary health care and education, and to experience repeated threats to their physical andmental well-being. Exploitation and exposure to violence en route remain common incidents of contemporary
child migration. Overall, the imperative of attending to the needs and rights of child migrants, and ofdeveloping a child-centric approach to research and planning, is still imperfectly realized, and data that arenecessary to demonstrate the urgency of this situation remain inadequate.
This chapter has pointed to several hopeful developments, including the more vigorous engagement of arange of actors in the improvement of child migrant protection, the production of useful guidelines for policy
development, the growing intersectoral convergence of professionals working with child migrants, and theincreasing activism and leadership developing within the child migrant community itself.
Finally, it bears repeating that serious protection challenges remain, challenges that are likely to persist
unless concerted steps are taken to counter some worrying trends. Among them, most critical perhaps, isthe persistent evidence of violence targeting migrant communities including young migrants, whether in thecourse of their journeys or on arrival in their new host countries. Children who have survived the challengesof life in refugee camps or perilous border crossings need inclusive measures, stability and opportunity ifthey are to overcome the searing legacy of the past. For those who enjoy the benefits of supportive familial
or community settings, this may well ensue, provided their societies engage actively with the prevention of
xenophobic aggression and the diffusion of hate – in the classroom, football field or housing complex. For
those child migrants who have travelled alone, more may be necessary to ensure resilience, to ensure that
their voices are heard, and to support their prospects of success. Child welfare and migration governancesystems need to converge and build the capacity to collaborate with greater consistency, to facilitate theinclusion of migrant children into domestic child protection structures, to incentivize greater knowledge ofand understanding towards children’s needs and rights in the migration system, and to thoroughly implement
non-discrimination obligations in respect of all migrant children within the jurisdictions.

ROBERT OAKESSOUMYADEEP BANERJEEKOKO WARNER

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

9253

HUMAN MOBILITY AND ADAPTATION TO
ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE1

Introduction
Millions of men, women and children around the world move in anticipation or as a response to environmental
stress every year. Disruptions such as cyclones, floods and wildfires destroy homes and assets, and contributeto the displacement of people. Slow-onset processes – such as sea-level rise changes in rainfall patterns
and droughts – contribute to pressures on livelihoods, and access to food and water, that can contribute todecisions to move away in search of more tenable living conditions. Advances in meteorological and othersciences which inform about the dynamics and pace of climate change indicate that disruptions ranging fromextreme weather events to large scale changes in ecosystems are occurring at a pace and intensity unlike
any other known period of time on Earth.2 Anthropogenic climate change is expected to increasingly affectmigration and other forms of people moving to manage these changing risks.3
This chapter provides an up-to-date overview of environmental change and the spectrum of human mobility.
It first explores different perspectives on environmental change and migration, ranging from the view thathuman mobility including migration is a security issue, that it is an issue of protection, and that it is amatter of adaptation and managing risks associated with environmental change. The chapter then provides
examples of environmental migration from empirical research around the world. It then summarizes recent
developments in the international policy sphere on the topic. The conclusion draws out the implications forresearch, policy and practice.

Understanding the links between environmental change and migration
The mechanisms through which environmental impacts contribute to migration are complex.4 Over the last
decade, it has become accepted that links between the environment and migration are rarely linear. Some
literature frames the issue as a normal and neutral social process and other articles refer to the “migrancy
problematic”.5 Economic, political, cultural and demographic factors interact with environmental drivers toshape intentions of people to move or stay in a given location. These interactions can contribute to building

1
2
3

4
5

Robert Oakes, United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security; Soumyadeep Banerjee, International
Organization for Migration; and Koko Warner, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Secretariat.
NASEM, 2016; IPCC, 2014.
Since the end of the twentieth century there have been estimates of the future numbers of people who will move due to climatechange (Myers, 1993; Stern et al., 2006). While policy circles may embrace such estimates, academia has been critical of theassumptions necessary to produce models, in particular the lack of consideration given to non-migratory adaptation measures(Gemenne, 2011). Nonetheless, these approaches, and the numbers they generate continue to influence media and policy discourses(Rigaud et al., 2018).
Siddiqui et al., 2019.
Castles, 2010; Hall, 2015.

254

Human mobility and adaptation to environmental changepressure – sometimes referred to as tipping points – after which remaining in situ becomes less attractive
than leaving.6 Whether and when these intentions are manifested into actions is partially dependent on thematerial ability to move,7 with some immobile populations labelled as “trapped”.8 Immobility is not necessarily
related to material conditions, and also relates to psychological and cultural limitations and preferences.9
Numerous terms have been used to describe people who move as a result of environmental and climatechange. This chapter uses terms such as “human mobility” in the context of climate change, which refers
to a broad spectrum of people movement. It covers migration, displacement and planned relocation, as wellas “environmental migrants”, including in relation to extreme events and other environmental stressors.
Three main framings of environmental migration and human mobility in the context of climate change
have emerged in academia, the media and in policy circles: (a) irregular migration related to environmental
change and resource shortages as a border security issue, particularly for areas of destination; (b) protectionof environmental migrants; and (c) environmental migration as a form of adaptation and climate risk
management (see table 1), reflecting the political sensitivities of migration.

Table 1. Three different ways of framing interactions between
environmental change and migration
Securitization

6
7
8
9

Protection

Adaptation and climate
risk management

Key concepts

Irregular migration

Human rights

Adaptive capacity;
Remittances;
Averting, minimizing andaddressing the adverse
impacts of climatechange.

Migrants as:

Factor of instability in theface of resource shortages(climate as a threat
multiplier)

Lacking agency

Agential.

Normative
implications

National borders should
be controlled to reducerisks to society, resources,
and culture in areas ofdestination

If people move theymust be able to
do so in dignified,safe conditions
within protection
frameworks

Human mobility can beone of a spectrum of
responses to climate
impacts and risks.

McLeman, 2018.
Black et al., 2011.
Black and Collyer, 2014.
Ayeb-Karlsson, Smith and Kniveton, 2018; Oakes, 2019.

255

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

Policy arenas

Examples in reports
and literature

IPCC AR5 chapter onhuman security andmigration;
UNSG Climate as a threat
multiplier.

Platform on Disaster
Displacement;
Global Compact on
Refugees.

UNFCCC Cancun
Agreement;
UNFCCC Task Force on
Displacement;
Global Compact for
Migration.

Kelman et al., 2015;
Nansen protection
framework.

McLeman and Smit, 2003;
IPCC special report onland and climate change;
IPCC AR6.

Notes: UNFCCC is the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change; IPCC is the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change; AR5 is the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report; AR6 is the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report; UNSG is the United Nations
Secretary-General.

The first type of framing tends to emphasize environmental migrants as part of a wider “threat multiplier”
landscape as either explicitly or implicitly a threat to security in areas of destination,10 and has been argued
as being related to a focus on national borders and resource control.11 In policy, these ideas can translate intoborder security discussions and measures. The second framing tends to represent environmental migration asa phenomenon associated with vulnerable people moving in adverse circumstances and who need protection.
Protection approaches share commonalities with approaches that highlight human rights related to rights
to work, education, health care, food and water, and other rights that environmental shocks can disrupt.
Protection approaches place the needs of the affected people who may be moving at the centre. The protection
framing is evident in the work of the Platform on Disaster Displacement.12
The securitization and protection framings have been critiqued as they have not sufficiently acknowledged
the agency of the people affected by environmental change, emphasizing threats without fully acknowledging
opportunities that may also play a role in environmental migration. The third type of framing views humanmobility ranging from migration, displacement, and planned relocation as a set of possible adaptive responses
to climate impacts and risks. In climate policy, human mobility appeared for the first time in the Cancun
Adaptation Framework and currently features in a dedicated workstream on human mobility as well as the
Task Force on Displacement. This framing recognizes the possibility of reducing exposure and vulnerability
to physical disruptions associated with climate and other environmental stressors.13 It also emphasizes the
pursuit of approaches to avert, minimize and address displacement related to the adverse effects of climatechange. The following section briefly sets out the evolution of the framing of migration as a form of adaptation.

10
11
12
13

Baldwin, 2013; Bettini, 2013.
Piguet, Kaenzig and Guélat, 2018.
PDD, 2016.
Adger, Campos and Mortreux, 2018.

256

Human mobility and adaptation to environmental change

Understanding migration as a possible response to climate impacts
and risksThough outcomes are context specific, some understanding has emerged over the last decade of theopportunities migration presents in the face of environmental disruptions.14 When voluntary migration isconsidered, people may be able to protect or use their assets and health, decide on who in the household
moves and how, as well as when and where they will go. In this manner, migration is part of a suite ofadaptation measures, which people use to deal with climatic and environmental change and reduce poverty
and boost resilience.15 Where households are more resilient, younger, better-educated migrants improvethe condition of the household through remittances used to pay for education, health care or livelihood
diversification. Where households are in a more precarious position, migrants might be the household heads
and outcomes can be described as surviving through securing food, or cash to acquire food.16 The distinction
between voluntary and forced migration is somewhat arbitrary and has been described as more accurately
resembling a continuum from entirely voluntary to entirely forced.17 In responding to environmental issues,even “voluntary” migration can involve some degree of pressure. Supportive policies and legal pathways
therefore act as an enabling factor for migration in these situations, with the effect of facilitating safe,
orderly and regular migration that is better able to be managed.
Once adaptation possibilities (both in situ and ex situ strategies) and community resilience have been
exhausted, an entire community may have to relocate as a last resort.18 The resulting change in circumstancesmeans that the consequences of the move could be considered adaptive under certain circumstances. In thecase of planned relocation, outcomes may be adaptive if processes are participatory and include acceptanceamong both areas of origin and areas of destination from an early stage, and when suitable livelihood
opportunities are available for people who may move.19

Critiques and nuances
The questions of framing environmental migration and human mobility in the context of climate change
as part of a threat multiplier (security) discourse, as a protection framework issue, and as an issue of risk
management has a significant subjective element. Migration has been explained as a failure to adapt or a
strategy of last resort.20 The ”environmental refugee” literature that emerged further reinforced this framing
which depicted the prospect of climate change causing large-scale movements to urban areas and fromdeveloping to developed countries.21 The term “adaptation” has been critiqued as some uses emphasize therole of individuals and households over responsibility to the political and economic structures that foster

14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21

Ionesco, Mokhnacheva and Gemenne, 2017.
ADB, 2012.
Warner and Afifi, 2014.
Hugo, 1996.
ADB, 2012.
Brookings Institution and UNHCR, 2015.
Baro and Deubel, 2006; Adamo, 2008; Penning-Rowsell, Sultana and Thompson, 2013.
El-Hinnawi, 1985; McLeman, 2016.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

257

vulnerability.22 The concept of migration as adaptation has been challenged as ignoring political economic
realities,23 and some literature claims that the migration as adaptation framing obscures the discourse aboutclimate change and migration along ethnic and racial lines.24 The emphasis of positive outcomes in the
migration as adaptation framing has been criticized by some scholars as not reflective of migrants’ realities.25
Further, planned relocation processes have proven to be complex, and can also affect the relationship between
governments and subnational jurisdictions in urban and rural areas, so are sometimes not considered as
adaptation to climate change.26
Moving may reduce vulnerability in the short-term, but contribute to further problems in the medium-term,
as populations may recreate exposed and vulnerable conditions in new sites.27 Migration for work may help
migrant-sending households to manage environmental shocks and stressors in the short-term. However, it
could expose migrant workers, and thereby migrant-sending households, to shocks and stressors in themedium- or long-term.28 Consideration of the “who” and “when” of adaptation reveals that adaptation isexperienced subjectively; in the last decade there has been an increase in research which highlights the
subjective nature of climate risk,29 and subjective barriers to both climate change adaptation and potentially
adaptive migration.30

Data and knowledge on environmental mobility
Research on environmental mobility is still developing and while advances have been made in thetwo decades there are various data and knowledge gaps that persist.a Increasingly reliable figures
for the number of new internal displacements related to rapid onset environmental disruptions areproduced each year. But there are difficulties in obtaining reliable numbers of migration when it is notforced; for example, it is difficult to compute reliable estimates for the numbers of people moving in
anticipation of or response to slow-onset processes such as desertification or sea-level rise.b There isalso a need for the assessment of the economic and other costs associated with migration.c Researchon this theme continues to be about the Global South and by researchers from the Global North.dThere is scope for South–South and South–North capacity-building and improved integration ofresearch and local knowledge.
a
b
c
d

22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30

Ionesco, Mokhnacheva and Gemenne, 2017; PDD, 2016.
IDMC, 2019.
Ibid.
Piguet, Kaenzig and Guélat, 2018.

Ribot, 2011.
Felli and Castree, 2012; Bettini, 2014;
Baldwin, 2017.
Ransan-Cooper et al., 2015.
Arnall, 2019.
Adger et al., 2015.
Banerjee, 2017.
Adger et al., 2013.
Grothmann and Patt, 2005; Adams, 2016; Oakes, 2019.

258

Human mobility and adaptation to environmental change

Evidence of migration and environmental change
The following section presents examples of migration and environmental change drawn from around theworld. It builds on the three ecological zones identified in the Foresight Report (i.e. mountainous, dryland
and coastal) which face disruption related to climate change.31 The examples address a variety of adaptive
responses to these environmental disruptions, ranging from migration for work to diversify income to national
policy to promote anticipatory forms of migration (table 2).

Table 2. Examples from empirical research
Ecology

Geographicalfocus

Migration pattern

Geographicalfocus

Migration pattern

Mountains

Himalayas andCentral Asia

Circular migrationand pastoralists

Peru

Circular migration

Drylands

SenegalInternationalmigration for
remittances

MexicoMigration
possibly
beneficial tohealthCoastal areas andislands

Pacific Islands

Migration with
dignity

United States ofAmerica

Plannedrelocation

Kenya

Resilient cities
to cope withurbanization

Bangladesh

Urbanization
bringsemployment
and agency for
women

Urban areas

Mountains
A diverse range of human migration pathways in the context of environmental change have been documented
in mountainous regions: displacement, labour migration, planned relocation and transhumance.32 Changes
in climate adversely affect transhumant movements between summer and winter pastures of herders inhigh mountains.33 Herders in Afghanistan, Nepal and Pakistan perceive negative changes in vegetation
composition as a result of erratic snowfall patterns and a decrease of rainfall.34 Livestock deaths due to heavy
snowfall and water scarcity in traditional water sources along migration routes have been reported across

31
32
33
34

Black et al., 2011.
IDMC, 2016; Brandt, Kaenzig and Lachmuth, 2016; Liu et al., 2018; Namgay et al., 2014.
Namgay et al., 2014.
Shaoliang, Ismail and Zhaoli, 2012; Joshi et al., 2013; Gentle and Thwaites, 2016.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020259

the Hindu Kush Himalayan region.35 At the same time, an increase in temperature, with its effects on snow
cover, have had some positive impacts such as an early start of seasonal migration from winter to summer
pastures and lengthening of residence in summer pasture.36 Pastoral communities also face complications fromother factors which interact with climate change, such as conflict with sedentary communities, institutional
barriers, market forces and inadequate policy support.37 Different adaptation measures have been adopted
by pastoral communities to manage environmental shocks and stressors. In the Himalayan region, herders
have incorporated changes in their movement (such as shifting grazing areas, change in routes and reducing
the length of stay at different locations on the route), and in a few cases have relocated families or entire
villages. Herders have also adopted in situ measures such as stall-feeding animals, changing types of livestock,
temporary ban on livestock sale, and digging ponds to store water.38
Migration for work, particularly circular and seasonal migration, is a traditional strategy of mountain people
to manage the risks posed by environmental hazards to farming and livestock rearing. Transitioning fromfarm-based income to labour migration and associated remittances was one of the ways in which communities
in Naryn River Basin in Kyrgyzstan, particularly those located in the downstream region, responded to changes
in water supply.39 Remittances finance relief during disasters and support recovery and reconstruction in theiraftermath. Migrants and diaspora in the United States of America were actively involved in sending money
to support their families and relief efforts after the 2015 earthquake in Nepal.40 The extent of remittances’positive or negative impacts on recipient households and origin communities varies from one context toanother.41 For example, the effect of remittances on vulnerability to extreme weather events is non-linear.
Remittance-recipient households in drought affected rural communities in South-west China have lessadaptive capacity than non-recipient households. However, remittance-recipient households that received
remittances over longer periods were found to have improved adaptive capacity.42 In Tajikistan, families
have a high dependency on migrant remittances and also largely lack understanding of possible adaptation
responses that lower their capacity to adapt to environmental and climate stressors.43
In many mountain regions, migration for work is a gendered process. Women left behind bear the responsibilityof taking care of children and the elderly, managing household assets and responding to new challenges.44
Factors such as social and cultural norms, access to information and institutional issues act as barriers toadaptation for women.45 In Nepal remittance-recipient households are more likely to invest a part of theirsavings in flood preparedness if women left behind have access to capacity-building interventions that aim tostrengthen autonomous adaptation measures such as precautionary savings and flood preparedness.46

35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46

Shaoliang, Ismail and Zhaoli, 2012; Gentle and Thwaites, 2016.
Joshi et al., 2013; Shaoliang, Ismail and Zhaoli, 2012.
Shaoliang, Ismail and Zhaoli, 2012; Gentle and Thwaites, 2016.
Aryal, Maraseni and Cockfield, 2014; Banjade and Paudel 2008; Moktan et al., 2008; Ingty and Bawa, 2012.
Hill et al., 2017.
Shivakoti, 2019.
Barnett and Webber, 2009; de Haas, 2012.
Banerjee et al., 2018.
Babagaliyeva et al., 2017.
Resurrección et al., 2019.
Jones and Boyd, 2011; Singh, Osbahr and Dorward, 2018; Achandi et al., 2018.
Banerjee et al., under review.

260

Human mobility and adaptation to environmental change

Drylands
In drylands around the world, environmental change is increasingly contributing to human migration.47 In
particular, changes in rainfall are contributing to pressures on livelihoods, including those supported byagriculture, pastoralism and fisheries. These factors have a potentially serious and difficult-to-predict impact
on different ethnic groups. For example, insufficient information exists about indigenous communities inAustralia, their responses and the way that local knowledge may contribute to different forms of adaptation,
including migration.48 In Central America, a significant relationship has been found between changes inrainfall in dry Mexican states and human flows to the United States.49 Other authors have highlighted therelationships between food security, migration and violence in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.50
There is evidence of diaspora investment into dryland areas. In the Senegal River Valley, migration is related
to environmental change and water extraction.51 The new mosques and schools that have been built in the
Podor Department in the Senegal River Valley are illustrations of diaspora funding to contribute to community
resilience and development.52 A joint project of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and theUnited Nations Convention to Combat Desertification was successful in encouraging investment by diaspora
communities in sending areas of Burkina Faso, the Niger and Senegal. This money was used for investments
in sustainable land management and to formalize networks between communities in Milan, Italy, and areasof origin.53
Movements from the Senegal River Basin to Saint-Louis, in part driven by drought and water extraction in thelast quarter of the twentieth century may have seemed adaptive initially. But, after the end of a dry cycle,
newly settled areas of the city, which were previously subject to flash floods, were once more inundated.54 One
response to this risk has been the creation of an early warning mobile app through which users are informedof likely flood risks when mobile signals are attenuated due to atmospheric water.55 This shows the need toconsider the combination of slow- and rapid-onset hazards. Migration from densely populated areas to moresparsely populated agricultural frontiers in Dagara, Ghana, contributed to reducing the pressure on the landin sending areas and resulted in increased remittances which facilitated the purchase of bullock and ploughs.
On the other hand, it also facilitated the continuance of potentially unsustainable agricultural practices insending areas.56 International movements related to environmental change may increase due to reduced costs
and development of (regular and irregular) routes and of networks to support cross-border movements.57

47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57

Rigaud et al., 2018.
Carson et al., 2014.
Nawrotzki, Riosmena and Hunter, 2013.
IOM and WFP, 2016; IABD et al., 2017.
Madgwick et al., 2017.
Ibid.
IOM, 2014; IOM and UNCCD, 2019.
Diagne, 2007.
Ouedraogo et al., 2018.
Van der Geest, 2011.
Donato and Massey, 2016.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

261

Slow-onset processes
Dry regions are at risk of slow-onset processes, such as land degradation and desertification, changes
in rainfall and drought. It may be possible to evacuate from a cyclone, return home and continue witha livelihood such as fishing. When a livelihood is dependent on rain-fed agriculture, in situ adaptation
may be more problematic when precipitation or access to water slowly decreases over time. As such
mobility related to slow onset processes can take on a more permanent profile with related impacts
on livelihoods, health and human rights. The longer lead time relative to sudden-onset hazards canalso provide scope for all forms of adaptation, in situ and through mobility. On the other hand, slowonset processes may also erode people’s ability to move and this can make people more vulnerablewith respect to the impacts of sudden-onset hazards.aa Black et al., 2011.

Coastal areas and islands
Historically, migration has been a way of life in many islands around the world, and these processes areaccelerating under the influence of a changing climate.58 Coastal and island communities face increasing
exposure to the impacts of tropical storms and sea-level rise.59 In addition, many coastal regions and islands
are adversely impacted by a shortage of freshwater sources, compounded by changes in rainfall patterns andsalinization caused by flooding.60 The prospect of disappearing land, islands and freshwater poses serious
challenges and a range of human mobility patterns are emerging in this context, including a range of solutions
to protect the well-being of those moving.61
In Pacific small island developing States (SIDS), research has shown that migration (related to anticipatedclimate impacts) results in remittances, more opportunities for younger people and is complementary to otheradaptive measures.62 Because migration is not an option available to all, moving and flows of remittances canrecreate or enhance vulnerabilities and inequalities, as was the case in Tonga.63 Coastal fishing communities
can have their homes and livelihoods affected by climate change. Declining fish populations and biodiversity
related to overfishing and increased sea temperatures have forced artisanal fishers in Senegal to fish further
out in sea or seek work as fishing labourers. Some fishers could fund building homes away from the encroaching
ocean with the money they had made from international migration.64
Deltaic regions provide fertile land and access to water for irrigation, fisheries and trade. Climate change has
put them at risk of sea-level rise and flooding as they are located at meeting points of rivers and coasts. This
58
59
60
61
62
63
64

Kirch, 2017.
IPCC, 2014.
Oakes, Milan and Campbell, 2016.
Van der Geest et al., 2019.
Shen and Gemenne, 2011; Goldsmith, 2015; Ash and Campbell, 2016.
Le De, Gaillard and Friesen, 2013.
Zickgraf, 2018.

262

Human mobility and adaptation to environmental change

is contributing to flows of migration and, in Viet Nam, migration from the Mekong Delta was found to berelated to higher incomes and employment.65 In Jamalpur, Bangladesh, dry spells and drought have impacted
farming and people have responded by switching livelihoods and moving, often to the capital, Dhaka. Often itis the young who move and the remittances they send can contribute to the development of new livelihoods
and enterprise facilitated through the purchase of a water pump.66

Perceptions of adaptive mobility in the Marshall Islands
The Republic of the Marshall Islands is exposed to a variety of environmental risks as livelihoods andinfrastructure are affected by sea-level rise, heat stress and drought. As the impacts of climate change
increase, the Marshallese may have to decide whether to stay on their islands or to move. The UnitedStates is the most popular destination as the Marshallese can work and live there under the Compact
of Free Association. A recent study suggests that environmental pressures are already contributing
to the decision to move to the United States.a For example, a respondent in a field interview stated:“If more people leave there will be less people and more jobs open then my husband will
be able to find a job.”
Another participant explained the tangible benefits of migration in the context of challenging
environmental and economic conditions:“By going abroad for a short time this can prevent the migrant or the person moving fromlosing his or her lands and houses”.
When asked about the potential threats to Marshallese culture for migrants in the United States,
another participant responded:“I disagree because I see Marshallese on Facebook singing Marshallese songs and dancing
Marshallese dances.”a Van der Geest et al., 2019.

In Haiti, the “Migration, Environment and Climate Change: Evidence for Policy” (MECLEP) project foundthat seasonal migration might have a beneficial impact on household vulnerability.67 Accordingly, the new
migration policy of Haiti developed within the project recognizes the positive outcomes of migration and how
it can lead to adaptation through the transfer of skills, money and knowledge. Migration has been integrated
into urban development, adaptation and disaster risk reduction programmes. Questions related to migrationand environmental change have now been added to the census.68

65
66
67
68

IOM, 2017.
Ayeb-Karlsson et al., 2016.
IOM, 2017.
Ibid.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

263

Relocation of some coastal and island communities has begun. One study projects that over 400 towns,
villages and cities in the United States, including a large number of coastal indigenous communities, willneed to relocate by the end of the century as a result of environmental change.69 Isle de Jean Charles inLouisiana will be the first community to receive federal funds and support for relocation. Residents haveworked with local non-governmental organizations to plan a new sustainable community and settlement
using modern technology and innovative use of wetlands and parklands to protect against flooding while
maintaining fishing livelihoods. A significant challenge will be to incorporate the history, traditions andculture of the Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw tribe.70 The full involvement of affected communities in decisionmaking on matters including access to resources, where the new settlement will be sited and when and how
the project develops plays an important role in community relocation.71

Migration with dignity
Pacific small island developing States (SIDS) leaders have coined the term “migration with dignity”
to envisage a situation in which people have control over whether, when, where and how they can
move, or stay if that is their wish. The idea centres on boosting education standards so that migrants
can compete in the international labour markets and on strengthening networks with the diaspora
in the region to create new opportunities and support new arrivals.a It is hoped that such flows ofpeople could reduce the strain on households and environmental resources, and provide financial
and social remittances to enable other forms of adaptation.
In the absence of overarching global frameworks to promote and ensure adaptive forms of migration,
innovative, more flexible arrangements will be necessary.b Regional frameworks can build on existing
bilateral agreements. Such plans could be successful with the support of regional economic powers
willing to open borders to migrants. For example, countries in South America have introduced a nonbinding agreement on the protection of persons displaced by disasters across borders and migrants
in countries affected by disasters.cState-level planning for environmental migration is also emerging. Fiji’s Planned Relocation Guidelines
state that relocation is a last resort, to be considered “after all other feasible adaptation options havebeen explored”.d Should it occur, it needs to ensure long-term economic sustainability, support andservices, and the protection of the rights and well-being of vulnerable groups. The Guidelines describe
the steps that should be taken, such as consultations with all affected stakeholders, including people
moving, host communities and those choosing not to move.e

a
b
c
d
e

Voigt-Graf and Kagan, 2017.
Barnett and McMichael, 2018.
CSM, IOM and PDD, 2018.
Government of Fiji, 2018.
Ibid.

69 Maldonado et al., 2013.
70 King, 2017.
71 Ibid.

264

Human mobility and adaptation to environmental change

Urban areas
While it is important to consider areas of origin, it is also vital to analyse areas of destination when assessing
the outcomes of environmental migration. For example, after three years of drought in Mexico, increased
flows of people from rural to urban areas have been documented.72 Such movements can be adaptive or
maladaptive. Cities are often situated in areas prone to hazards, such as on the low-lying coastal areas or inareas of geological hazards, such as landslides, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. In cases where-migrants
settle in areas exposed to hazards, such as in slums on hillsides or in flood-prone regions, these populations
may be more exposed and vulnerable to environmental and climatic disruptions in the future. It is possiblethat more environmental hotspots will emerge in the future with a population subject to a triple jeopardy of
population growth, increased vulnerability and exposure to more severe and frequent and climate events.73
Urban settings can magnify the differences in the experiences of women and men, highlighting the gendered
aspects of migration and environmental disruption. Women are considered to be more vulnerable thanmen before, during and after moving, with implications for their safety and security, psychological needs
and access to services and property rights.74 Migration in the wake of disasters can also increase risks oftrafficking.75 However, migration, and even displacement, can also bring opportunities for women. In thePhilippines, women took on roles as camp managers in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan.76 Women leaving
environmentally marginal areas in Bangladesh have the potential to find employment in the Dhaka garment
industry where they are perceived favourably by potential employers in comparison to men. Women must
weigh benefits of being able to send remittances to sustain families against possible stigma of migration.
These factors make women less likely to move in the context of environmental impacts.77
Minority migrant groups in urban settings are most affected by risks to critical infrastructure.78 They areoften portrayed as a vulnerable group in the face of a hazard (see chapter 10 of this report). However,recent research has shown that linguistic minority immigrants and refugees might be resilient because of
the challenges they have experienced in the past.79 For example, urban residents who have left Pacific SIDS,
where they experienced floods and cyclones, were better placed to cope with new urban risks in destination,such as the Wellington earthquake.80
States are beginning to plan for resilient and transformative settlements. Kenya’s National Adaptation Plan
explicitly mentions that climate change places a strain on urban infrastructure. The Plan states that droughts
drive urbanization which places people – especially vulnerable groups such as children, persons with disabilities
and the aged – in marginal lands prone to flooding. It therefore recognizes the need for climate-resilient urban
development.81 In Bangladesh, State actors are planning to encourage people to move to climate-resilient andmigrant-friendly urban centres. These urban areas need to be developed through a combination of bottom-up
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81

Nawrotzki et al., 2017.
Hugo, 2011.
Sierra Club, 2018.
IOM, 2016.
Sherwood et al., 2015; Ionesco, Mokhnacheva and Gemenne, 2017.
Evertsen and Van der Geest, 2019.
Garschagen and Sandholz, 2018.
Uekusa and Matthewman, 2017.
Ibid.
Government of Kenya, 2016.

265

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

participatory processes to address the local needs and contexts and top-down planning and support.82 This
concept fits into Bangladesh’s Seventh Five Year Plan, which focuses on “transformative adaptation”.83

Policy frameworks
As outlined in chapter 11 of this report, there have been substantial developments in global migration
governance in recent years. However, an overarching framework has not yet fully emerged to provide policy
guidance where human mobility and environmental stressors, including climate change, intersect. A numberof different global governance mechanisms exist, having emerged in different contexts and with varying
emphasis on the mobility aspects of climate change. The chapter briefly describes two key mechanisms that
seek to address environmental change, migration and aspects of adaptation and climate risk management:
the United Nations Framework Climate Change Convention’s climate negotiations and the recently adopted
Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration. Beyond the Global Compact for Migration, there are,however, much more international considerations of, and policy approaches to, this highly topical issue. A
summary of international policy aspects beyond these two mechanisms is outlined in appendix A.

Global climate change negotiations and human mobility
Human mobility – migration, displacement and planned relocation – has been framed as an issue of climate
risk management under the UNFCCC, particularly in the work conducted under the adaptation and loss anddamage work streams. The framing of risk management has evolved between the 13th Conference of theParties (COP13) in 2007 and the 24th Conference of the Parties (COP24) in 2018. Figure 1 highlights decision
milestones and progress.

Figure 1. Emergence of human migration as a risk management topic
in international climate policy
Bali Action
Plan

COP13
2007

COP16
2010

COP18
2012

Considerationof means toaddress loss
and damage

CAF para 14(f) introduces
migration, displacement,
and planned relocation
for the ﬁrst time ininternational climate
policyRecommends work toenhance understanding
migration, displacement,
and human mobility in thework on loss and damage

Source: Warner, 2018.

82 ICCCAD, 2018.
83 GED, 2015.

Activity 6

Warsaw International
Mechanism and its
Executive Committee
establishedCancun Adaptation
Framework

COP19
2013

COP21
2015

COP22
2016

COP23
2017

Paris Agreement Excom includes
human mobility increates Task
ﬁve-year rolling
Force onwork plan
Displacement

COP24
2018

Recommendations
for integrated
approaches toavert, minimize andaddress
displacement

266

Human mobility and adaptation to environmental change

The first time that the issue was recognized in international climate policy was at COP16 (2010) when Parties
to the UNFCCC adopted the Cancun Adaptation Framework.84 It included paragraph 14(f), which laid out therange of movements people may take, what measures should be taken, and at what level these actions could
be taken:

14. Invites all Parties to enhance action on adaptation under the Cancun Adaptation
Framework … by undertaking, inter alia, the following: … (f) Measures to enhance
understanding, coordination and cooperation with regard to climate change induced
displacement, migration and planned relocation, where appropriate, at national, regional
and international levels
In 2013, at COP19, Parties to the UNFCCC established the Warsaw International Mechanism to explore
arrangements to manage residual risks, including those related to human mobility.85 Ongoing work under the
UNFCCC process, including the Warsaw International Mechanism, aims to bolster the capacity of countries
to make risk-informed decisions about pre-emptive activities, planning, and contingency arrangements that
affect where and how people live.
At COP21, a turning point occurred when the Paris Agreement established a Task Force on Displacement under
the Warsaw International Mechanism, mandated to develop recommendations for integrated approaches toavert, minimize and address displacement related to the adverse effects of climate change.86 The Task Force iscomprised of States, technical experts from different groups under the UNFCCC, United Nations organizations
and representatives from civil society. The Task Force produced comprehensive recommendations that touched
upon the whole human mobility spectrum, such as encouraging countries to integrate climate change andmigration concerns when formulating national laws, policies and strategies, and supporting the facilitation ofregular and safe migration pathways.87 In parallel, the Warsaw International Mechanism also endorsed a fiveyear work programme where one work stream relates to migration, displacement and human mobility.88
COP24 adopted the Task Force on Displacement recommendations in 2018 and extended the Task Force mandate
for another two years.89 The text box below summarizes the types of recommendations addressed to countries,
United Nations agencies and stakeholders.

84
85
86
87
88
89

UNFCCC, 2010.
UNFCCC, 2013.
UNFCCC, 2015.
Ionesco and Traore Chazalnoel, 2018.
UNFCCC, 2017.
UNFCCC, 2018.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

267

UNFCCC Task Force on Displacement
Recommendations were made by the Task Force to countries parties to the UNFCCC as well as United
Nations and other stakeholders. They were ultimately adopted at COP24. The following are examplesof recommendations made by the Task Force.
Countries:•

Laws, policies, strategies to avert, minimize and address displacement;•

Research, data collection, risk analysis including community participation;•

Strengthen preparedness (early warning, contingency planning, evacuation planning, resiliencebuilding, innovative approaches like forecast-based finance);•

National planning processes;•

Find durable solutions;•

Facilitate safe, orderly, regular migration and mobility of people.

United Nations agencies and stakeholders:•

Provide support (finance, technology, capacity-building) including to affected communities;•

Enhance regional, subregional and transboundary cooperation;•

Develop and share good practice (understanding risk, accessing support, assistance andprotection, international legal instruments and normative frameworks);•

Invite the United Nations Secretary-General to conduct a system-wide strategic review andfacilitate integrated approaches to avert, minimize and address displacement in the envisagedhigh-level panel on internally displaced persons.

Note: The full decision text is available at https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/resource/cp24_auv_ec%20wim.pdf.

Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration
Ahead of deliberations on the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, the United Nations
Agenda for Sustainable Development made mention of migration, although the connection between migrationand the environment was not explicitly stated. That said, the Agenda for Sustainable Development and its
related goals for 2030 have paved the way for linking migration and the environment in future frameworks. Of
particular note is the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, which is a legally non-binding
agreement by States that is directly linked to target 10.7 of the Agenda for Sustainable Development:

268

Human mobility and adaptation to environmental change

10.7 Facilitate orderly, safe, regular and responsible migration and mobility of people,
including through the implementation of planned and well-managed migration policies.
The Global Compact for Migration sets out 23 objectives in a comprehensive approach to optimize the benefitsof migration while addressing its risks and challenges, including those relating to climate stressors anddisaster. The Global Compact states that migration is “a source of prosperity, innovation and sustainable
development”.90 Nonetheless, when environmental migration is mentioned, it is mainly presented in thecontext of vulnerability as opposed to beneficial outcomes. Four objectives of the Global Compact for
Migration are especially relevant to climate and disaster risks. In particular, Objective 2 is about minimizing
the adverse drivers that compel people to move and includes a standalone section dedicated to climate change
and disasters. In that respect, the text recognizes that climate change adaptation and resilience measures incountries of origin need to be prioritized to minimize the adverse drivers of migration. However, the text also
acknowledges that adaptation in situ or return of migrants might not be possible in some cases and mentions
the need to consider planned relocation and visa options (Objective 5 on enhancing availability and flexibilityof pathways for regular migration). Objective 7 of the Global Compact for Migration aims to address andreduce vulnerabilities in migration. Finally, Objective 23 commits to international and regional cooperationin the context of disasters.
Overall, the Global Compact for Migration articulates a comprehensive set of potential responses to address
the adverse drivers of migration and make migration a choice rather than a desperate necessity. However,
due to the non-legally binding nature of the Compact, some States may decide to only take limited action toaddress environmental migration challenges.

Conclusion
This chapter has provided an overview of three prominent framings of environmental migration and humanmobility in the context of climate change: securitization, protection, and adaptation and climate risk
management. The chapter has also highlighted existing evidence of patterns of human movements – ranging
from migration, displacement and planned relocation – in different settings, principally mountainous areas,
drylands, coastal zones and urban areas. This evidence illustrates some of the trade-offs people make as theyweigh the realities and potential risks of staying or moving away in the face of environmental and climate
stress. It has also highlighted the relevance of context, as it relates to environmental settings but also how
different communities are able to demonstrate resilience as well as adaptive capacities.
The chapter has also reviewed two key mechanisms in international policy where discussions about
environmental migration and human mobility in the context of climate change are taking place (withadditional material in the appendix). There has been growing recognition in recent years of the need tobetter integrate migration into global climate and environmental mechanisms, and for climate changemechanisms to incorporate human mobility aspects. Significant steps have been taken to ensure that theissue of human mobility in the context of environment and climate change receives greater consideration
at the international level. And yet, its inherent sensitivities – as reflected, for example, in the different
framings discussed above – means that there is still more work to be done in the development of cohesive

90 UNGA, 2018: annex, preamble para 8.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

269

policy approaches. Nevertheless, the ultimate success of these frameworks and guidelines relies on the degree
to which recommendations are implemented by States and other actors through migration, development, risk
and environmental policies in addition to mainstreaming into other programming.
In conclusion, climate science suggests that the magnitude and frequency of extreme weather events arerising, exposing more people and their assets to adverse impacts. The places people currently live and work inare under increasing pressure from environmental and climate change. Migration, displacement and planned
relocation are capturing increased attention from research, policy and practice as people attempt to moveaway from stress and risk, and towards safety or opportunity. In this context, measures are needed with thefollowing characteristics:•••

people are enabled to choose whether, when, and with whom to move (existing networks and dignified
options appropriate to cultural contexts and preferences);
people who move can access livelihood opportunities and remit resources that enhance adaptation; andpeople who move can do so in a dignified, safe and regular manner.

The literature and cases examined in this chapter indicate a need for research, policy and practice on which
adaptive options can help people move towards well-being even in the face of growing environmental andclimate risks.
The importance of environmental, climate change and disaster drivers will continue to be a key area for future
research and policy developments in the international migration governance debate. The reality of how slow
and sudden-onset hazards impact people’s livelihoods and influence their migration strategies, as much as thesignificance of the political questions around migration and climate change issues will continue to position
environmental migration at the forefront of these debates.

270

Migrants caught in crises: Contexts, responses and innovation

NASSIM MAJIDI
HEAVEN CRAWLEYLORENZO GUADAGNOCAMILLE KASAVANWORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

10

271

MIGRANTS CAUGHT IN CRISES: CONTEXTS,RESPONSES AND INNOVATION1Introduction
The situations of people who have moved from their countries of origin only to find themselves caught
in a crisis that threatens their security and ability to thrive are of growing concern to the international
community. While crises affect both nationals and non-nationals, the ability of migrants to cope with theirimpacts may be reduced, due to conditions of vulnerability associated with migrants’ legal, economic andsocial status, as well as practical challenges, such as linguistic differences, geographic displacement andeven cultural context, which can limit access to timely and understandable information, services, resources
and safety. While not all migrants are equally affected in times of crisis, they are often among the mostvulnerable, at increased risk and in need of specific support.2
Addressing the needs of migrants living in places affected by crisis has become a priority of policy forums
at both global and regional levels. Recent initiatives and policy processes include regional dialogues on
migration in Africa, the Americas, and Central and South-East Asia; the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk
Reduction 2015–2030; the Paris Agreement; and the World Humanitarian Summit. The Migrants in Countries
in Crisis (MICIC) Initiative and the development of the set of Guidelines to Protect Migrants in Countries
Experiencing Conflict or Natural Disaster3 provide concrete examples of efforts to improve current practice.4
The situation of migrants in crisis contexts is also acknowledged in the 2018 Global Compact for Safe, Orderly
and Regular Migration, where it is highlighted as an essential element for the achievement of objective 2 onminimizing the drivers of forced migration, and objective 7 on reducing migrants’ vulnerability.
Despite the existence of relevant policies, questions remain on the effectiveness of current efforts to address
migrants’ vulnerability and support their capacity before, during and after crises. This is due, in part, tothe fact that, although there is growing recognition at regional and global levels of the need to respondto the particular situation of migrants in crisis contexts, the needs and safety of migrant populations may
not be a priority for affected countries. Moreover, in some cases, migrant-specific crisis response measures
have focused primarily on returning migrants to their countries of origin. While evacuations or returns may
in some instances be the only life-saving option for migrants caught in crisis contexts, this focus can comeat the expense of other effective support mechanisms that may better meet migrants’ immediate post-crisis
recovery and longer-term interests and needs.5 Ensuring appropriate responses requires a clear understandingof migrants’ interests and priorities across different geographical and sociopolitical contexts.

1
2
3
4
5

Nassim Majidi, Founder and Director of Samuel Hall; Heaven Crawley, Professor, Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations, Coventry
University and Lorenzo Guadagno, International Organization for Migration; and Camille Kasavan, Samuel Hall.
MICIC, 2016. For the purposes of this chapter, migrants include tourists, business travellers, foreign students, temporary workers andpermanent residents, as well as asylum seekers and refugees.
MICIC, 2016.
Martin, 2016.
The focus on evacuation of migrants to their countries of origin as a response to crisis, in a global context of return as the “go-to”
policy response (Shaw, 2018), reflects a limited interest in, and use of, alternative responses that are more cognizant of migrants’capacities and aspirations.

272

Migrants caught in crises: Contexts, responses and innovation

Reflecting these concerns, this chapter focuses on the experiences of migrants in crisis contexts, and the
local, national and international responses to address their conditions and needs. This is important forthree main reasons: (a) to better understand the ways in which migrants are affected by situations of crisis
that occur in the countries in which they live or through which they are travelling; (b) to reflect on theeffectiveness of efforts that focus on the needs of migrants in crisis contexts; and (c) to identify the ways
in which actions by a range of stakeholders involved in any crisis situation can ensure that the needs andinterests of migrants are taken into account.
The chapter is organized into four sections: (a) the next section draws on the framework provided by the
MICIC Initiative to examine the varying contexts, responses, gaps and lessons learned in crisis preparedness,
emergency response and post-crisis recovery; (b) the section that follows provides an overview of existingdata on migrants in countries at risk of or affected by crisis, and assesses data needs and gaps; (c) innovative
responses for supporting migrants caught in crises are discussed in the section that follows; and (d) the final,
concluding section reflects on policy and practice implications.

Guidelines to Protect Migrants in Countries Experiencing Conflict or National
Disaster
The MICIC Initiative, a State-led process launched in 2014, was designed to engage a wide audience on
the topic of protecting migrants in crisis contexts. Through a series of multi-stakeholder consultations,the Initiative developed a set of voluntary Guidelines to Protect Migrants in Countries Experiencing
Conflict or National Disaster. Published in 2016, the Guidelines represent a non-binding collection ofprinciples, recommendations and practices that can guide efforts by all stakeholders to reduce thevulnerability of migrants in times of crisis.

Cycles and steps in crisis management, as defined in the MICIC framework

Collect
and share
information
on migrants

4

5

2
1
Track
information
on crises

Establish
clear referral
procedures

Establish
migrant-sensitive
communication
mechanisms

6

3

CRISIS PREPAREDNESS

Empowermigrants
to help
themselves

12

Involve migrants
in contingency
planning

7

11

Establish
coordinationagreements

10
Build capacity
for emergency
response andrecovery8

EMERGENCY RESPONSE

Incorporate migrants
in preparedness andemergency response
systems

9
Provide timely andaccurate informationon accessing
assistance

Provideassistancewithout
discrimination
Facilitate
migrants’movement
to safety

13
Evacuate andON
TI
relocate migrantsACwhen needed
S
SI

PO

-C
ST

RI

14
15

Supportmigrants’recoverySupport therecovery of hostcommunities

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

273

Key contexts and crisis phases
Crises – defined as situations “in which there is a widespread threat to life, physical safety, health or basic
subsistence which is beyond the coping capacity of individuals and the communities in which they reside”6– are associated with a wide range of phenomena. They can be triggered by environmental hazards, conflicts
and terrorism, as well as complex emergencies, failures of political and economic management, epidemics andpandemics, and global financial cycles.
In recent years, flooding in Bangladesh and Thailand, major hurricanes in North America, conflicts in Libya
and Yemen, as well as political and economic crisis in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, have created theneed for emergency assistance and urgent protection of migrants. Each of these places hosted migrants prior
to and during the crisis, including permanent residents, temporary workers, business travellers, tourists andstudents, as well as asylum seekers and refugees.
The issue of migrant vulnerability in crisis contexts has been brought to the attention of the international
community following large humanitarian emergencies. Lower-intensity (but often higher-frequency) events –such as urban fires and accidents, localized landslides and episodes of violence – can also disproportionately
affect migrants, who may be living in areas more susceptible to these hazards. Experience from all crisis
events shows that patterns of marginalization and exclusion increase migrants’ vulnerability to most hazards.
Different crises, whether large- or small-scale, affect migrants in different ways (see appendix A), and will
result in different operational interventions or actions.

Taking specific operational contexts into account: The example of health crises
Health crises have their own unique markers, which include clear protocols and preparedness
procedures as defined by the World Health Organization (WHO). Migrants are rarely included in
relevant planning mechanisms, with significant impacts on migrant and host communities alike. Thishas human rights as well as health implications, and means that health-care practitioners need tohave an understanding of the social dimensions of human mobility. Shared learning between healthcare and humanitarian practitioners, as well as migrant communities, is a priority.aa See key informant interviews with Hui (2019); and Wickramage (2019).

Migrants may experience greater obstacles accessing protection and support, particularly where an individual
has limited social networks. Depending on the circumstances, numerous other factors (such as gender, age,race and ethnicity, sexual orientation or disability status) compound vulnerability and the ability to copein crisis contexts. At the same time, and as discussed in this chapter, migrant and local capacities before,
during and after crises can inform and strengthen response beyond a vulnerabilities-centric approach, to one
geared to understanding migrant capabilities. Recognizing the diversity of migrant profiles and supporting
migrants to respond to crises are essential to reducing risks. Migrants may find themselves facing situations
in which they are more vulnerable or more empowered. When the 2011 Brisbane floods occurred in Australia,

6

Martin, Weerasinghe and Taylor, 2014.

274

Migrants caught in crises: Contexts, responses and innovation

for instance, the role of culturally and linguistically diverse community leaders in immigrant and refugeecommunities was essential, as they acted as gatekeepers and communicated emergency responses to thedisaster to their communities.7 While in Thailand, restrictions on mobility stemming from administrative
barriers limited the mobility of many migrant workers affected by floods, who had to choose between staying
in flooded, risky areas or face possible loss of legal status, arrest and deportation.8

Coordination, planning, and preparedness
Effective coordination, planning and preparedness require clear identification of the roles of various
stakeholders. This begins with the fundamental obligation of States under international human rights law toprotect the life and dignity of everyone – both citizens and non-citizens – living within their borders.
Countries of origin most often respond to the needs of their nationals caught in crises abroad throughconsular assistance. The rights and responsibilities of consular services to exercise their consular prerogatives
in times of crises are delineated in the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations (1963). In practice, however,
the ability of States to act effectively in these contexts depends on resources, capacity, political will, effectiveplanning and preparation.

The right to consular protection
The responsibility of consular services to assist their citizens abroad is a recognized norm, enshrinedin the national laws of at least 45 countries.a The Vienna Convention on Consular Relations does
not explicitly obligate States to provide support to nationals affected by crises abroad. However,article 5 of the Convention lists a number of functions States can exercise in another State’s territory,
including (a) the protection of the interest of its nationals, and (e) the disaster assistance a State canprovide to its nationals abroad. Article 36 also obligates host countries to allow consular officials tocommunicate with – and provide support and protection to – their nationals, to the extent allowed
under the national laws of the host country.
a Warren, 2018.

Beyond consulates, other institutions in migrants’ countries of origin can provide support in crisis contexts.
For instance, the Government of the Philippines has integrated measures to protect its nationals abroad in its
policies, institutional structures and mandates, which may directly and indirectly support migrants caught incrisis.9 Key to the country’s system is the Overseas Preparedness and Response Team, established in 2011 andcomprising representatives of several ministries. The team’s objective is to develop preparedness strategies
aimed at supporting Filipinos abroad, including destination-specific contingency plans in case of crisis, tobe updated every six months.10 This is complemented by a variety of programmes and services that aim tosupport the ability of migrants to address challenges they may face.
7
8
9
10

Shepherd and Van Vuuren, 2014.
Guadagno, 2015.
Battistella, 2012.
Government of the Philippines, 2011.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

275

Philippine consular support for migrant workers caught in conflict
The preparedness arrangements of the Philippines’ consular authorities were tested during theconflict in the Syrian Arab Republic. Due to escalating violence, a rapid response team composed ofstaff from the Foreign Affairs, Labour and Interior ministries was deployed to assist the embassy inDamascus in repatriating 8,000 Filipino workers.a For example, Ruth Pana, 29, domestic worker fora Syrian family, fled her employer’s house because she was fearful of being caught in the crossfire
between government troops and rebel forces in 2012. When her employer and his family moved toa rented house, she contacted the Philippine Embassy, which sent a car that took her into the care ofFilipino personnel until she and the others were repatriated. Pana said her employer initially did notwant her to leave, saying she was still under contract, but then relented.b
a Government of the Philippines, 2011.
b Teves, 2012.

Where States cannot respond effectively, international organizations have sometimes stepped in to fill gaps
and support the implementation of support mechanisms for migrants. This was seen most clearly in Libya
during the conflict that broke out in 2011. Between 1.5 million and 3 million migrants, mostly from subSaharan Africa, were estimated to be living in the country at the time of the civil war,11 and most were unable
to access services provided by Libyan or home country authorities when the conflict escalated, as there were
no contingency plans for migrants. Bordering countries promptly opened their borders to migrants escaping
Libya, and non-governmental and international organizations also supported relief efforts, notably in theform of international evacuations to home or third countries.12 Coordination of these operations was initiallydeveloped on an ad hoc basis. In March 2011, IOM and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees(UNHCR) coordinated evacuation efforts and set up the Humanitarian Evacuation Cell. This Cell sought tosupport the management and use of assets and in-kind contributions received from 19 countries for theevacuation of migrants, totalling an estimated USD 23 million, and was supported by the European Union(EU) Monitoring and Information Centre, which assisted in transmitting requests for assets and in collecting
offers from EU member States. The ad hoc nature of these operations highlighted the need for stronger
preparedness mechanisms to manage large-scale international evacuations out of crisis areas.
Civil society organizations (CSOs) are also key service providers in crisis contexts, often acting as a bridge
between migrant communities and State actors.13 During the 2006 war in Lebanon, for instance, CSOs
supported migrant domestic workers, forming a consortium to work with the Lebanese Government to address
the needs of this group. CSOs made the case for better cooperation and coordination with intergovernmentalorganizations and State actors, which were their main allies during the crisis.14 In the United States, civilsociety efforts such as the California Farm Worker CARE Coalition have also played a role in ensuring that
migrant workers had access to information and support during the California wildfires (see box below).

11
12
13
14

Mainwaring, 2012.
Aghazarm, Quesada and Tishler, 2012; Zampagni et al., 2017.
MICIC, 2017.
Mansour-Ille and Hendow, 2017.

276

Migrants caught in crises: Contexts, responses and innovation

California Farm Worker CARE Coalition: Civil society coordination
Following the 2007 California wildfires, the California Farm Worker CARE Coalition developed astructure to better coordinate and communicate with (and assist) migrants in emergencies. The
structure leverages existing community networks, and peer educators known as promotoras, andincludes local response organizations, other domestic NGOs and media (including Spanish language
media). As part of this work, the Coalition has built the capacity of its members to prepare for andrespond to emergencies, and has developed a formal emergency preparedness plan that is now
integrated in official crisis management arrangements.aa Martinez, Hoff and Núñez-Alvarez, 2009; Martinez, 2017.

Emergency responses and lessons learned
The effectiveness of responses is to a large extent dependent on the preparedness of key stakeholders, and theirability to include and coordinate plans with migrant communities. Regardless of the level of preparedness,many crises require flexibility, ad hoc arrangements and quick decision-making. The availability of and rapid
access to crisis funding, information and flexible migration policies can significantly affect the effectivenessof response efforts targeting migrant populations.
Responses to the needs of migrants in the contexts of large humanitarian crises have mostly been financed
through traditional funding streams. Evidence from past crises suggests that these can be narrowly or politicallyfocused. In the 2011 Libyan context, for instance, there is evidence that funding was used primarily forevacuation and returns to home countries, rather than on supporting those migrants who wished to remain,or providing options to stay in safe third countries.15 Moreover, these traditional funding streams may bedifficult to access, or slow to activate, significantly impacting on the lives and well-being of migrants. Again,
there is evidence that administrative and bureaucratic obstacles delayed and limited the timeliness of support
operations during the crisis in Libya. By November 2011, IOM had formally received USD 111 million from donors
and USD 23 million in in-kind donations.16 At the height of evacuation operations, up to USD 4 million wererequired every day to charter planes to destinations as far away as Bangladesh or Viet Nam.17 Administrative
issues delayed access to the funding and, in turn, evacuations.18 Following the experience of large-scalemigrant evacuations in response to the Libya crisis, IOM set up a Migration Emergency Funding Mechanism,with Member States’ support, to cover the cost of international transport for migrants affected by crisis. The
purpose of the fund is to jump-start the emergency response while waiting for donor funding to be received,in order to avoid the delays similar to those experienced during the evacuations from Libya.
There have been efforts by international organizations such as the World Bank and IOM to improve direct
cash assistance. In 2011, the World Bank granted a loan of USD 72 million to the Government of Bangladesh

15
16
17
18

Perchinig, Rasche and Schaur, 2017.
Aghazarm, Quesada and Tishler, 2012.
Ibid.
Ibid.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020277

to repatriate and provide transitional assistance to over 36,000 Bangladeshi migrant workers who escaped thecrisis in Libya.19 The assistance was provided directly to returnees, through a one-time cash grant to cover
immediate basic needs and partial expenses associated with the initial restoration of livelihoods.20
At the national level, India has established Community Welfare Funds, which levy small fees from consular
services to support Indian nationals caught in crisis or other emergency situations abroad.21 These funds
allow consulates to have rapid access to resources in emergency cases, which in turn allows for the launchof rapid responses.22 This has been further strengthened through the institutionalization of State capacity
to repatriate nationals in times of need. In addition to emergency response services such as repatriation,
the funds can fund a range of support services aimed at addressing migrant vulnerability and capabilities,
including providing boarding and lodging for migrants in need, emergency medical care and provision of legal
assistance.23
New avenues for cooperation could usefully be developed between the private sector and other non-traditional
actors, including diaspora populations, providing material support, communications resources, translation or
shelter to migrants in crisis contexts.24 The role of private sector actors in supporting migrant resilience andtheir capacity to face crisis effectively was highlighted during the MICIC Initiative’s consultations.25 In 2016,
IOM moved forward with private sector partnerships, including partnerships with media or partners within
the technology sector working on effective information sharing.26 Such partnerships may serve as models forbetter integration of community and private sector actors in backing or initiating activities that may directly
or indirectly better support migrants’ capacity to handle a crisis. Research is needed to ensure that bestpractices are successfully identified and adapted to specific contexts. Diaspora populations may also have an
important role to play in improving emergency response capacity and coordination, notably through theirprovision of more reactive funding streams.27
Access to services, information and social networks is also critical in times of crisis, for ensuring migrantsafety and decision-making. However, access to information for migrants can be challenging, and is often
hampered by a failure to take account of migrants in emergency communication plans, as well as their limited
language skills, local knowledge and lack of opportunity of access to local social networks.
This problem could be seen during the 2011 floods in Thailand. Emergency services in Thailand were informedby census data that was unable to adequately capture a large population of migrants with irregular status.28
In addition, limitations on migrant worker movement, as well as conflicting information from the Government
concerning support to migrants, was a source of confusion and uncertainty for migrants and national aid
workers.29 Migrants’ awareness, access to knowledge and preparedness for the floods thus depended on theirlevel of integration in their host society, especially their ability to speak and understand Thai.30
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30

Munier, 2017.
Ibid.
Khadria, 2009.
MICIC, 2016.
Government of India, 2012.
MICIC, 2015.
IOM, 2016.
Ibid.
Samuel Hall, 2018.
Bravi et al., 2017.
Ibid.
Perchinig, Rasche and Schaur, 2017.

278

Migrants caught in crises: Contexts, responses and innovation

The existence of migrant groups and community networks can mitigate the negative impacts of a crisis.
This can be seen, for example, in the case of Japan during the 2011 earthquake. Prior to the earthquake,the Bayanihan Kesennuma Filipino Community collective was already an active group, bringing together
Filipino women living in Kesennuma (mostly married to Japanese men), who provided guidance and support
to newcomers. The strength of these existing networks meant that the group was able to ascertain the status
and safety of families and individuals during the earthquake, provide information to the Embassy of thePhilippines, and support response actions and aid distribution.31
In addition, there is clear evidence that migration status can also have a significant impact on the abilityof migrants to deal with crisis, and that flexible immigration and visa policies enable migrants to both keep
themselves safe in times of crisis and more easily recover from its impact. For example, the Government of
Tunisia led the way in allowing the movement of migrants and other affected persons out of Libya in 2011.
Thousands of migrants who were unable to return to their countries of origin were assisted by Tunisianinstitutions, civil society and the population, with the Tunisian Red Crescent playing a central role.32 Similarly,
the Government of Djibouti has played a key role in facilitating the evacuation of migrants trapped in Yemenen route to Gulf States during the conflict.33 Moreover, flexibility of visa and work permit policies can ensurethat migrants who have lost documents are able to renew them.

Post-crisis actions: Reintegration and reconstruction
Policy revisions and reflections after a crisis ensure that lessons are learned and can enhance response
capacity and preparedness. The MICIC Initiative itself reflected a growing global concern to address thesituation of migrants in times of crisis.
A critical gap in post-crisis action concerns the support that is provided to returnees and host communities.
Although repatriation is common in many crisis scenarios, returns can challenge the absorption capacity andresilience of households, communities and societies in the country of origin. It is notable that no long-term
positive examples of reintegration were identified during the review undertaken for this chapter. Indeed,most literature points out that migrants often receive little or no long-term assistance after being returnedto their countries following a crisis.34 The majority of reintegration efforts – where they existed – wereshort-lived, with longer-term crisis responses hindered by lack of funding and the absence of future-oriented
perspectives.35
The failure to institute effective reintegration structures raises important questions about the extent towhich it is appropriate to focus on return when addressing the needs of migrants in countries facing crisis.
Returns are often a highly visible sign of action, but they are also expensive and politically sensitive. Returns– if combined with a long-term reintegration strategy, and made to a location where conditions are safe andamenable to the pursuit of a dignified life – can be appropriate. However, returns may also render migrants
considerably worse off. For instance, Cameroonians and Chadians who were working in the Central African

31
32
33
34
35

MICIC, 2017.
Zampagni et al., 2017.
Veerassamy, 2017.
Kleist, 2017; Hendow et al., 2018; Zampagni et al., 2017.
Ibid.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

279

Republic in 2012 were mainly self-employed business people working in trade, and generally better off than
the average local population. Most returned to their countries of origin because of the 2012 crisis, fundedby donor States. However, the return and reintegration support that was available was often lacking. The
returnees who had previously found success working in urban areas in the Central African Republic werefrustrated to find themselves in rural surroundings upon return. When assistance to returnees dried up due
to donor interests shifting to the insurgency in the Lake Chad region and resulting displacement, Chad was
unable to continue to support returnees, and the reintegration support effectively ended.36

Thailand: Migrants’ involvement in emergency management as a driver ofintegration
Although migrants caught by the floods in Thailand were a particularly vulnerable group, they also
were active members of their communities, providing relief and clean up services where needed
and supporting preparedness, response and recovery efforts. This, in turn, made them feel more
integrated in their host community. As one male migrant commented: “Do you know, I even helped
the soldiers and Thai citizens make dams against the flood? I lived like a Thai citizen and felt like I had
a responsibility to support neighbours to prevent the flood.”
Local Thai CSOs reported the involvement of migrants in supporting the communities they lived in,including support for host community members: “In Samut Sakhon, some groups of migrant workers
tried to form support networks and mobilized monks to collect alms as a fund for relief supplies. These
were mostly Burmese, but they did it to support all flood victims, not just their compatriots.”
Source: The above is an abridged extract of the Thailand Case Study (Bravi et al., 2017).

At the same time, there are examples of migrants choosing to stay, sometimes successfully, in their hostcountries, despite the existence of crisis. In some cases, this resulted in a strengthened sense of community,
due to the involvement of migrants in response and recovery efforts. In Lebanon, for example, those in the
migrant community who remained found themselves turning to each other for support and information
after the 2006 war.37 Once migrants started to work together with their embassies and with NGOs to support
domestic workers affected by the conflict, they better understood the importance of coordination andcommunity solidarity. Migrant workers reportedly went from feeling helpless and disconnected prior to andduring the crisis, to being a largely connected and stronger force on the ground.38 After the crisis, migrant
domestic workers maintained strong networks and established the Domestic Workers’ Union. In this particularcase, the lack of international or government support for migrants was seen as the trigger for building more
active grassroots support networks within migrant communities themselves, as they worked to create activist
groups and build their own resilience and coping mechanisms.39

36
37
38
39

Zampagni et al., 2017.
Mansour-Ille and Hendow, 2018.
Ibid.
Ibid.

280

Migrants caught in crises: Contexts, responses and innovation

Learning from migrant and local capacities
There is much to learn from migrants at all stages of crisis management, from preparedness planning topost-crisis reflection. Afghan, Somali and Iraqi refugees were able to contribute and be an integral part ofcommunity rebuilding after the 2011 Canterbury earthquakes in New Zealand.40 Likewise for Filipino migrants
in the wake of the 2011 Tohoku disaster, affected migrant women spoke about the empowerment and theincreased social capital they gained in the aftermath of the disasters, as they participated in reconstruction
efforts.41
During the 2011 floods in Brisbane, Australia, migrant representatives acted as intermediaries between local
authorities and their communities. They supported response efforts through translation and appropriate
information dissemination, supporting relief agencies in identifying affected persons in need of support, andadvocating with local authorities on behalf of their fellow nationals to ensure that official assistance received
was adequate and culturally appropriate.42 Furthermore, following the 2015 Hurricane Stan, efforts by theGovernment of Mexico to have a line of direct communication with local stakeholders and representatives from
migrant and host communities marked a clear shift in approach, leading to the Reducing the Vulnerabilityof Migrants in Emergencies project. The IOM-led project mainstreams migration in national disaster response
policies and plans, while also creating a space for participation of migrants in policymaking.43
These examples highlight the opportunities that exist to re-centre conversations at the local level and on
migrant capabilities, and ways to actively include civil society in conversations related to crisis response. It
remains the case, however, that more can be done to ensure that recommendations of the MICIC Guidelines44
are implemented beyond the national level at the subnational and local levels.45

Using data to address challenges
Data on population mobility (such as those available in the UN DESA and World Tourism Organization (WTO)
databases46) highlight the fact that global mobility trends are wide ranging: when combined with data on
hazard exposure or risk, these can support planning, preparedness and effective response measures. As can beseen in table 1, crisis affects countries regardless of development levels, with both developed and developing
countries exposed to significant risks of crises that can affect migrants. Correlating data on migrant stocks,
hazard exposure and risk levels allow for the identification of countries where crisis may particularly affectmigrant populations.
Table 1 correlates data on migrant stocks, hazard exposure and risk levels to show that crises may affectcountries regardless of development levels, and that in both developed and developing countries, potential
crises may affect large numbers of migrants. All countries can therefore benefit from more immediate androbust inclusion of migrants in emergency preparedness and disaster risk reduction planning: the existingdata can inform these decisions at the national or regional levels.

40
41
42
43
44
45
46

MICIC, 2017.
Ibid.
Multicultural Development Association of Queensland, 2011; Shepherd and Van Vuuren, 2014; MICIC, 2017.
MICIC, 2017.
MICIC, 2016.
MICIC, 2017.
Available at, respectively, UN DESA: www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/publications/database/index.asp; and UNWTO:
www2.unwto.org/content/data (both accessed 16 July 2019).

Very high human development

High human development

108

83
88

ThailandUkraine

Libya

78
80

74

MexicoVenezuela (Bolivarian Republic of)67

SerbiaLebanon

63

60

Iran (Islamic Republic of)64

57

Malaysia

Costa Rica

49

Russian Federation

Turkey34
44

United Arab Emirates

Chile

22
28

Israel

Italy

17
19

Belgium

Japan

4.5

3.1

6.4

4.1

6.0

7.0

4.8

5.9

6.3

7.0

5.1

6.3

6.7

5.8

4.8

4.5

8.4

1.6

7.0

5.0

12
13

Canada5.7

Exposure tonatural hazards,
2018

3

HDI rank, 2018

United States of America

Australia

Country

10.0

9.0

4.1

7.0

5.7

9.0

3.9

8.0

0.1

5.5

1.1

6.9

2.0

0.1

1.7

4.1

0.6

5.5

6.6

0.4

0.1

Exposure tohuman hazards,
2018

Table 1. International data on migrants and crises

High

High

MediumHigh

MediumHigh

MediumMediumLow

MediumLow

Medium

Low

Low

Low

Low

Low

Low

MediumLow

Low

Risk class,2018818,216

4,964,293

3,635,085

1,863,873

1,375,690

1,060,707

820,3125,876,829

417,7682,682,214

3,430,380

11,640,559

939,992

8,587,256

6,273,722

1,956,346

2,498,891

1,981,919

50,661,149

7,960,657

7,549,270

Internationalmigrants, 2019

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020
281

Medium human development

6.0
7.6

116
127

Indonesia

Tajikistan

4.9
5.6

137
142

Congo (the)

Kenya

2.6
4.1

155
157

Syrian Arab Republic

Nigeria

2.9
3.1

173
176
178

Ethiopia

Democratic Republic of the Congo (the)

Yemen

3.3
High exposure tonatural hazards
Low exposure tonatural hazards

187
Low humandevelopment
Very highhumandevelopment

South Sudan

A high value means:

A low value means:

Notes:

Low exposure to
man-made hazards

High exposure to
man-made hazards

10.0

7.0

8.0

10.0

9.0

9.0

6.4

9.0

10.0

10.0

8.0

4.8

6.5

4.3

6.6

6.4

5.0

6.2

7.0

5.3

Exposure tohuman hazards,
2018

Low levelsof riskHighlevels ofrisk

Very HighVery HighHigh

Very HighVery HighVery HighHigh

Very HighVery HighVery High

High

High

High

High

High

High

MediumMediumMediumMediumRisk class,2018

Low number of
migrant residents

High number of
migrant residents

865,552

512,230

468,230

385,628

963,833

1,253,083

2,549,141

1,223,092

1,256,408

867,848

3,257,978

490,802

1,044,854

402,142

2,185,613

5,154,737

274,071353,135

504,053

4,224,256

Internationalmigrants, 2019

This is a non-comprehensive list of countries included both in the Human Development Index (HDI) and Inform Risk Index. Inform’s “hazard exposure” indices express
on a scale from 0 to 10 the likelihood that a given country is affected by either a natural hazard (such as an earthquake, flood, tsunami, cyclone or drought) or a humanhazard (such as conflict or violence). The risk classification is based on consideration of each country’s hazard exposure, vulnerability (resulting from such factors as
inequality, aid dependency and composition of the country’s population) and capacities (resulting from governance levels, quality of local infrastructure and accessto health, among others). The following thresholds are defined to assign each country’s risk index (from 0 to 10) to a given risk class: 0–1.9 = very low; 2.0–3.4 = low;
3.5–4.9 = medium; 5.0–6.4 = high; 6.5–10 = very high.

3.4

182
186

Mali

Chad

3.3

3.8

2.6

167
170

Sudan

Côte d'Ivoire

5.3

7.2

149
150

Nepal

Pakistan

3.2

8.2

130
136

India

Bangladesh

7.8

5.5

115

Egypt

4.7

Exposure tonatural hazards,
2018

113

HDI rank, 2018

South Africa

Sources: UNDP, 2018; UN DESA, 2019; IASC, 2018.

Low human development

Country282
Migrants caught in crises: Contexts, responses and innovation

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

283

Figure 1. Migrant routes in Mexico, cyclone risk and past earthquakes

This map is for illustration purposes only. The boundaries and names shown and the designations used on this map do not imply official
endorsement or acceptance by the International Organization for Migration.
Sources: IOM, 2018; USGS, 2019; and UNISDR, 2019.

Figures 1 and 2 provide examples of how information on key hazards can be superimposed onto data relating
to migrant stocks and flows in Mexico and Libya, respectively. These kinds of mapping exercises allow theidentification of high-risk areas within countries, which are also characterized by a significant presence of
migrants (including those in transit). Since migrants’ presence is not always captured comprehensively andin a timely fashion by census and population statistics, this kind of local-level disaggregated migration data,
where they exist, can be integrated into assessments for a more accurate picture of hazard exposure and risk.
Effective crisis management should build on precise, local-level information. Disaggregating migration andrisk data at the subnational level is essential for informing emergency management in ways that better include
migrants. Focusing on the more localized administrative level (such as within a district or municipality) can
help improve the effectiveness of crisis management measures. This level of data correlation and analysis
enables relevant institutions to: (a) tailor warnings and emergency communications to the to the specific andappropriate requirements of migrant populations; (b) stockpile or deliver food and non-food items that may
be essential to specific migrant groups; and (c) deploy multilingual or culturally competent personnel in crisis

284

Migrants caught in crises: Contexts, responses and innovation

areas with high migrant presence. When informed by specific and localized data, responses can effectively
address the specific needs of at-risk and affected migrant communities.

Figure 2. Migrant presence and transit through Libya, and occurrence of violenceThis map is for illustration purposes only. The boundaries and names shown and the designations used on this map do not imply official
endorsement or acceptance by the International Organization for Migration.
Sources: IOM, 2019 and ACLED, 2019.

There are, however, challenges to collecting robust, reliable and comparable data,47 and official migration
statistics are likely to be conservative estimates that do not fully capture the extent of movements. Foreignembassies, missions and consulates rarely have comprehensive information about their nationals abroad. Dataon asset, livelihood and other material and opportunity losses incurred in crises are often not categorized or
disaggregated. This makes it difficult, if not impossible, to quantify (a) the true loss suffered by migrants,(b) their vulnerability in comparison with other affected groups, and (c) any extraordinary losses unique tomigrants.
47 Global Migration Group, 2017.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

285

Gathering data through key informants
Surveying key community informants is an effective way to gather information on numbers,
demographic and socioeconomic profiles, and characteristics of migrants in a given area. It helps
avoid challenges and sensitivities linked with the collection of individual data, and allows for the
inclusion of particularly hard-to-reach groups, such as transit or irregular migrants. Networks of
key informants provide the data for IOM’s assessments of presence and movements of migrants
in Libya and refugees in Cox’s Bazar (Bangladesh) – which are then used to inform humanitarian
interventions, preparedness planning and urban development. Similarly, the City of Bergen (Norway)
collects information on its neighbourhoods and their population through a network of trained “street
mediators”, and uses this to deliver local public services in a more inclusive manner.aa Displacement Tracking Index, Available at www.globaldtm.info/; MICIC, 2017.

In the absence of comprehensive and up-to-date datasets, it is important to utilize a variety of information
sources and data collection mechanisms. Academic institutions, international organizations, civil society andprivate sector actors provide some of the most detailed and useful stand-alone data sets, but taken together,
these may still be patchy or disconnected. Significant resources may be required to systematically gather,
update and safely store relevant, appropriate and timely data.
It should also be noted that loss data do not always capture longer-term well-being impacts, particularly
as they relate to a less effective, slower recovery – which may be particularly relevant for migrants, who
are often excluded from longer-term financial, housing and livelihood assistance after crises. In addition,
whenever migrants are affected in a crisis, loss estimates should also account for impacts suffered in distantlocations. The impacts migrants suffer may be felt by: (a) their families and communities in countries oforigin, in the form of psychological impacts, missing remittance transfers and inability to pay off debts;
and (b) people in places migrants return to or move to as a consequence of a crisis, in the form of increased
pressures on labour markets and availability of services, land and housing.48
Information on migrants’ language proficiency, preferred communication channels, cultural sensitivities
relevant to the provision of emergency services, levels of trust towards responders, and existing capacities atthe community level would allow for stronger and more inclusive crisis planning and response. The limited
degree to which these kinds of data currently exist and inform crisis management is one of the elementscompounding migrants’ vulnerability in times of crisis.

Innovative responses and ways forward
One of the key components of innovation is finding ways to enable people to work together. Innovations canlead to partnerships that support the implementation of guidelines and principles outlined in international
protection frameworks and non-binding agreements. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and

48 Pailey et al., 2016.

286

Migrants caught in crises: Contexts, responses and innovation

Development (OECD) Oslo Manual 2018: Guidelines for Collecting, Reporting and Using Data on Innovation49
provides a framework for identifying the range of innovations that can be adapted to support migrants incrisis contexts (table 2).

Table 2. The OECD guidelines on innovation adapted for responses to migrants caught in crisis
Product

Product innovation increases the type of and access to products and services for
migrants caught in crisis, including products that may increase access to informationand support networks.
Examples:• Developing new – or improving accessibility to – existing tools that support
migrant decision-making in crisis situations. This may include subscriber
identification module (SIM) cards or virtual information delivery systems (suchas apps or crowdsourced platforms, and translation platforms), or the creation of
migrant support groups.

Process

Process innovation is needed for migrants to access two-way communication
channels, in particular for migrant groups who are most marginalized frommainstream services and support, such as irregular migrants or domestic workers.
Examples:• Developing new funding streams that can support individuals, households andcommunities.
• Inclusion of migrants in crisis preparedness, emergency response andmonitoring.
• Ensuring flexibility of immigration and visa policies in emergencies.

Organizational

Organizational innovation refers to the way an organization evolves in its mandate,mission and methods.
Examples:• Creation of new operational frameworks, such as IOM’s Migration Crisis
Operational Framework and the Migration Emergency Funding Mechanism.
• Increased involvement of and coordination with non-traditional actors (such asprivate actors and companies, diasporas, student networks, trade unions andfaith-based organizations).

Outreach andvisibility

Innovation in outreach refers to the way uptake of solutions by migrants and hostcommunities are enhanced for greater inclusion and protection.
Examples:• Awareness-raising campaigns advocating for migrant inclusion and against
xenophobia, including, for example, essay writing contests and dissemination on
public platforms.
• Context-specific campaigns (for example, IOM’s “Aware Ramadan” campaign oninternal displacement).
• Original and innovative uses of media and other platforms to communicate
information both to and from migrants.

49 OECD and Eurostat, 2018.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

287

This section focuses on innovative responses that aim to better connect migrants with information, services
and social networks, as these have been shown to deliver better outcomes and can be delivered without
requiring government support or elaborate systems of financial assistance. There are two interventions thatprovide a foundation for improved communication and mobilization: (a) improvements in knowledge and dataon migrants living in the contexts of crisis, and (b) the use of technology in responding to crisis.
The establishment of regular data standards in tandem with expansion of data collection is necessary toensure effective and long-term analysis of the impacts of policies and practices intended to address the needsof migrants in crisis contexts. Information is needed about the number of migrants present in a specific area –especially at the subnational level – in order to enhance preparedness and response. More rigorous analysis isalso needed on the impacts of crises in migrant communities. Although some reports exist on these impacts,50
they remain the exception rather than the rule, and stand as good practices to be scaled and replicated.
For example, in north-eastern Nigeria, questions on language and communication needs were included in
IOM’s Displacement Tracking Matrix surveys as a way to fill the information gap that existed concerning thelanguages spoken and understood by those displaced by conflict.51
Technology has the potential to assist migrants affected by crises. At a 2018 Techfugees Global Summit in Paris,
25 start-ups from across the world presented social enterprise initiatives for addressing the needs of migrants.
The use of these technologies needs to be mainstreamed into global, regional, national and local crisis
response policy and practice, with attention paid to sensitization programmes, culturally friendly trainings
and workshops, to ensure uptake. Trust-building during the preparedness phase, through community-led
efforts, can ensure that migrants have the impulse, during emergencies, to rely on technologies that they
are familiar with.52
Innovative initiatives that may be scaled to assist migrants in crisis and address current limitations include,
but are not limited to, the following:Translation and digital information services: Translators Without Borders has developed freely downloadable
multilingual glossary apps accessible online and offline, and has worked with Refucomm to test the
distribution of mother tongue information on legal and asylum procedures via micro-SD cards to recently
arrived migrants in Greece.53 Other apps, such as IOM’s MigApp, help migrants make informed decisions
throughout their migration process (for example, on health and travel requirements, visa application processes
and remittances), and provide migrants a platform to share their experiences.54 Accessible digital translationand information initiatives can bridge the information gap migrants experience due to language barriers andlack of tailored communications.
Enhancing accessible communication media: Sri Lanka’s SIM card scheme for workers going abroad is one
model for ensuring access to communication options for migrants. The existence of hotlines in countriesof destination to recover and communicate information that can support migrants is another example. The
Sendai International Relations Association set up one such multilingual information hotline in 2011.55
50 See, for example, the literature examining unmet needs of immigrant communities in the Metro New York area after Hurricane Sandy(Make the Road New York, 2012; New York Women’s Foundation, 2015).
51 Translators Without Borders, 2017b.
52 Ogie et al., 2018.
53 Translators Without Borders, 2017a.
54 IOM, n.d.
55 UNISDR, 2015.

288

Migrants caught in crises: Contexts, responses and innovation

Crowdsourcing platforms to address discrimination against migrants: The African Centre for Migration andSociety at Wits University in Johannesburg and the technology website iAfrikan launched a crowdsourcing
platform called Xenowatch to monitor efforts related to violence against migrants. People can reportxenophobic threats or violence to Xenowatch online, by SMS or email. Reports are verified, anonymized anddocumented on a map using the Ushahidi platform, and shared with the police and UNHCR. Crowdsourcing
platform initiatives are a real-time resource for organizations to advocate for and enhance migrant rights,
security, inclusion and community engagement.56

Looking ahead and policy implications
Migrants may face particular challenges in accessing documentation, information, resources and assistance incrisis situations, and may be exposed to additional precariousness and to discrimination.57 Responses have notsystematically addressed this range of challenges before and during crises, and further information and dataat the local levels are needed in order to support effective planning and preparedness. However, information
without funding, political will and the participation of migrants would not suffice to support preparedness.
In most of the examples reviewed, cooperation sprang up spontaneously or as a result of a top-down decisionby governments or international organizations. The role and inclusion of grassroots organizations, employers,technology partners and the diaspora in situations of emergencies and post-crisis recovery merit greaterattention than they have received to date. At the governance level, the implementation of the MICIC Initiative
can inform and accompany the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration.58 The inclusion ofhuman rights frameworks, such as the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights(OHCHR) Principles and Guidelines, supported by practical guidance, on the human rights protection of
migrants in vulnerable situations,59 can strengthen initiatives and facilitate discussions between State andnon-State actors.
Our analysis in this chapter has a number of implications for future policy and practice in this area. These
support the 15 guidelines of the MICIC Initiative, emphasizing that:•

Before, during and after crises, stronger preparedness and post-crisis actions are needed. Most largescale interventions in assistance to migrants in crisis have taken place in an unplanned manner. Instead,more systematic efforts are required to build on and develop capacities of emergency management
actors, foreign embassies, consulates and missions, as well as local institutions and migrants themselves.
Involving non-traditional stakeholders and migrants in the response and coordination mechanisms is key
to enhancing flexible, effective funding and response.

•

Funding schemes need to be diversified and strengthened to support greater preparedness and coordination.
Flexible and diverse funding can provide new avenues for support systems that can integrate migrants
in a non-discriminatory manner. This includes the exploration of linkages with the private sector anddiaspora networks, engaging with and sensitizing donors, while also scaling up initiatives for flexible
donor and government financing of emergency funds for crises response.

56
57
58
59

Alfred, 2016.
Hendow et al., 2018; MICIC, 2015.
ICMPD, 2017.
OHCHR, 2018.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

289•

Post-crisis reflections can be enhanced, with responses beyond return to be explored, including local
integration and resettlement. Returns are not the only solution and should not necessarily be thepreferred one, given that there is often a lack of support after return. Where migrants are returned,
long-term efforts to measure reintegration and monitor protection outcomes are critical to ensuring that
migrants do not return to situations of greater harm or find themselves back in crisis situations.

•

Addressing gaps and shortages of data will enable more effective coordination, preparedness,
communication and provision of assistance. While anecdotal evidence may be available, larger data gaps
prevent effective coordinated responses, whether between governments of origin and destination, orother stakeholders. The lack of impact evaluation data impedes the ability to identify fully what makes a
response effective, while the lack of local level, disaggregated data does not allow for an understandingof the loss experienced by migrants. Enhancing transnational learning can lead to the scaling up of
successful practices.

•

Developing a road map for innovations in response to migrants caught in situations of crisis, whichtakes into account the above recommendations, can support the elaboration of specific responses,
stronger processes, organizational effectiveness and outreach that are more inclusive, both of migrants’vulnerabilities and their capacities.

•

Finally, and fundamentally, human rights considerations and the humanitarian imperative to save lives
should inform the development of emergency preparedness frameworks, and operational protocols andpractices, during disasters. Supporting humanitarian and human rights-based responses requires cooperationof State- and non-State actors, who may hold differing priorities and agendas. It is important to ensure that
responses in crises situations are primarily and substantively human rights-based, rather than based onpolitical considerations or populist expediency. In order to uphold international human rights obligations,
it is crucial that respect for the human rights of all migrants, irrespective of status, should be on par withthe maintenance of the rights of citizens.60 Greater flexibility on visa policies and removal of administrativeand security restrictions are known to improve migrant protection and community resilience. These should
be recognized as exceptional measures needed in times of crisis. Support for coordination, negotiation anddiplomacy with relevant countries affected by crisis is necessary in order to ensure that rules are madeflexible to empower migrants to have a broader range of options and make informed decisions.

60 Ibid.

KATHLEEN NEWLAND
MARIE MCAULIFFECÉLINE BAULOZWORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

11

291

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN THE GLOBAL
GOVERNANCE OF MIGRATION: AN UPDATETO THE WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 20181

Introduction
By their very nature, international migration and displacement are transnational issues concerning origin anddestination States, as well as States through which migrants may travel (often referred to as “transit” States)
or in which they are hosted following displacement across national borders. And yet, somewhat paradoxically,
the majority of migration governance has historically remained with individual States, their policies andregulations on migration typically made at the national level.2,3 For the most part, migration governance has
been closely associated with State sovereignty. States retain the power of deciding on the entry and stayof non-nationals because migration directly affects some of the defining elements of a State.4 Bilateral andmultilateral arrangements are features of migration governance, and there are several global arrangementsin the form of international treaties in which States have reached agreement on the application of humanrights and the related responsibilities of States in specific areas. The 1966 International Covenant on Civil
and Political Rights and the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees (Refugee Convention) are
two significant examples, notable for being widely ratified. Other migration conventions have not been so
broadly accepted, such as the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers
and Members of Their Families, which still has no traditional countries of destination among its States
parties. Beyond this, there have been numerous multilateral and global initiatives, dialogues and processeson migration over several decades (see Appendix A for a tabular summary). The Global Compact for Safe,
Orderly and Regular Migration (Global Compact for Migration) is another milestone, as the first internationallynegotiated statement of objectives for migration governance striking a balance between migrants’ rights andthe principle of States’ sovereignty over their territory. Although it is not legally binding, the Global Compact
for Migration was adopted by consensus in December 2018 at a United Nations conference in which more than
150 United Nations Member States participated and, later that same month, in the United Nations General
Assembly (UNGA), by a vote among the Member States of 152 to 5 (with 12 abstentions).
In the absence of a coherent international regime on migration, unexpected large-scale migration events ofsignificance, as well as seismic geopolitical events,5 can have dramatic impacts on global migration governance,
operating as “calls to action” within the international community. Such events have also brought into sharp

1
2

3
4
5

Kathleen Newland, Senior Fellow and Co-Founder, Migration Policy Institute; Marie McAuliffe, Head, Migration Policy Research
Division and Céline Bauloz, Senior Research Officer, Migration Policy Research Division, IOM.
Several political systems, such as federations, also have aspects of migration, particularly those related to integration, regulated at
the subnational level (for example, the provincial level, such as in Australia, Canada, Switzerland and the United States). Increasingly,
aspects of international migration are also managed at the city level (see, for example, Duncan and Popp, 2017; and the World
Migration Report 2015 on migrants and cities).
McAuliffe and Goossens, 2018.
For example, a permanent population and a defined territory, as per article 1 of the 1933 Montevideo Convention on the Rights andDuties of States.
By seismic, the authors mean large-scale transnational conflict, or profound events, such as the attack on the World Trade Centre on
11 September 2001.

292

Recent developments in the global governance of migration: An update to the World Migration Report 2018

relief some of the gaps that exist within a fragmented global migration governance framework, and the needfor more action to develop a much more coherent international approach to migration for the betterment ofStates, societies and migrants. In 2015 and 2016, for example, the mass movement of more than 1 million
people to and through Europe (including Syrian and other refugees) provided some of the impetus for the New
York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants (New York Declaration), adopted at the United Nations General
Assembly in September 2016.6 The making of the New York Declaration signalled an important point in thehistory of global migration governance. All 193 United Nations Member States unanimously affirmed theirsupport for upholding the rights of migrants and refugees, and committed to a process of intergovernmental
negotiations in order to reach agreement on a Global Compact for Migration7 as well as on a Global Compact on
Refugees.8 Importantly, the two compacts build upon years of structured dialogues, initiatives and cooperation
between States, regionally and at the international level.
The World Migration Report 2018 included a chapter on global governance of migration, which provided thebackground and context to the adoption of the New York Declaration. It was the first chapter in Part II on
complex and emerging migration issues, and was designed to provide a critical overview of existing global
governance architecture and recent developments.9 The key elements of that chapter included:••••

Discussion of the concept of “governance”;
The benefits and barriers to global migration governance;
Norms and institutions;
Efforts to improve global governance (2001–2016).

Chapter 5 of the World Migration Report 2018 also laid the foundation for the remaining chapters in Part
II of the 2018 report by providing a context for governance at the global level, in part by highlighting the
key thematic areas in migration that have been the subject of international cooperation in recent times. We
encourage readers interested in foundational aspects and contemporary developments of global governance of
migration to refer to this chapter in the World Migration Report 2018.
So much has happened in the sphere of global migration governance in the two years since the publication of
the World Migration Report 2018 that the editors felt it important to have an update on the topic for readersof the World Migration Report 2020. This chapter provides a descriptive analysis that is specific to a point
in time10 – the implementation and evolution of the system will continue well into the future. In picking
up from where the World Migration Report 2018 left off, the next section walks through the development
and adoption of the two global compacts. The third section offers a brief analysis of the complementarity,
coherence and gaps between the two global compacts. The fourth section outlines an assessment of how the
global compacts affect global migration governance architecture. The final section then looks to the future
by outlining the implications of these recent developments as well as the challenges for implementationof the global compacts. The chapter builds on information from the policy sphere, academic commentaries
and opinion pieces. At the time of writing, very little new academic research had been published on the

6
7
8
9
10

UNGA, 2016.
UNGA, 2018a.
UNGA, 2018b.
Martin and Weerasinghe, 2017.
This chapter refers to information and events up until the end of June 2019.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

293

adoption and implementation of the two global compacts, which is a reflection on the time frames involvedin academic peer-reviewed publications (see chapter 4 of this report). We expect new academic publications
on the compacts will increase from the last quarter of 2019.

The development and adoption of the global compacts
The two global compacts sprang from a widespread sense of crisis, as the world faced large-scale movements
involving people in several locations throughout the world. These events – most spectacularly in the
Mediterranean, but also in the Gulf of Aden/Red Sea and the Bay of Bengal – led to the making of the New
York Declaration. The Mediterranean crisis was notable not only for the huge numbers of people involved, butalso for its visibility, unfolding as it did within sight of major Western news outlets. The movements broughthome to the governments of wealthy European States (the intended destinations of migrants) that eventhese States, with all their legal and financial resources, could not cope with flows of this magnitude without
cooperation among themselves and with countries of origin and transit.11
The United Nations Summit on Refugees and Migrants in September 2016, convened in the shadow of thecrisis, produced a Declaration of commitment on the part of States, the most significant elements of whichwere pledges to negotiate the two global compacts. The initial conception was of a single compact that would
cover both refugees and migrants. Several obstacles to this plan presented themselves, including a fear that,on the one hand, a dual-purpose compact would dilute the protection to which refugees are entitled under
the Refugee Convention and, on the other hand, that equating refugees and migrants would entail stronger
obligations toward migrants than States were willing to accept. Most destination countries, by and large,
would have been content to have one global compact that dealt only with refugees, but other States, mostnotably countries of the Global South, insisted on a Global Compact for Migration as well. Both compacts
were envisaged as being legally non-binding, unlike an international treaty that obligates all State parties
to implement its provisions.12
In addition, conceptual discussions and debates on the various definitions of “refugees” and “migrants”, asthey relate to the New York Declaration and during the development of the two compacts, were prominent.13
While the New York Declaration noted that “refugees and migrants have the same universal human rights andfundamental freedoms”,14 a distinction between the two was upheld, as summarized in the Global Compact
for Migration:

Migrants and refugees are distinct groups governed by separate legal frameworks. Only
refugees are entitled to the specific international protection as defined by international
refugee law.15

11 See, for instance, European Commission, 2015.
12 There is a question as to whether the Global Compact for Migration could be interpreted as “soft law” (Chetail, 2019; Allinson et al.,2019).
13 See, for instance, Klein Solomon and Sheldon, 2018.
14 UNGA, 2016: para. 6.
15 UNGA, 2018a: para. 4.

294

Recent developments in the global governance of migration: An update to the World Migration Report 2018

As a result, the two compacts embrace a residual understanding of “migrants”, as people living outside theircountries of origin who are not refugees (figure 1): “a diverse, residual category of people who are united by
the feature of not being refugees”.16 By contrast, the United Nations Population Division uses an inclusive
definition whereby any person residing outside his or her country of origin is a migrant.17

Figure 1. What does “migrant” mean?
Inclusive definition of migrants

Residual definition of migrants

migrants

migrants

refugees

refugees

Source: Carling, 2017 (adapted).

The processes leading to the two compacts were very different. The Global Compact on Refugees was draftedby the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in the lead-up to the September 2016
United Nations Summit on Refugees and Migrants, and during UNHCR’s piloting of the Comprehensive
Refugee Response Framework (CRRF).18 UNHCR organized a series of thematic discussions with States andother stakeholders, and then entered into consultations with States (see figure 2). It received in total morethan 500 written contributions from United Nations Member States and other stakeholders throughout theprocess.19 UNHCR produced the final draft, which was adopted during the seventy-third session of the United
Nations General Assembly in December 2018 after a vote in the Third Committee, with 176 in favour, 1 against(the United States of America) and three abstentions.20,21

16
17
18
19
20
21

Carling, 2017.
UN DESA, 1998.
On the development of the New York Declaration and the CRRF, see Ferris, 2016.
See www.unhcr.org/595259bd4, accessed 1 June 2019.
Eritrea, Liberia and Libya.
Türk, 2018.

295

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

Figure 2. Summary of the compacts and United Nations Network process timelines
United Nations General Assembly, September 2016
- New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants- IOM becomes a United Nations-related organization

Global Compact on Refugees

Global Compact for Migration

Jan. 2017 – Thematic
Dec. 2017 consultations

April 2017

June 2017

April 2017 – Informal consultation phase; 6
Nov. 2017 thematic sessions

NGO consultations

United Nations Network on Migration

United Nations resolution on
the modalities of the Compact
process

Dec. 2017 – Stocktaking
Jan. 2018 consultations

Dec. 2017 – Stocktaking phaseJan. 2018

Dec. 2017

Secretary-General initiates
internal United Nations
consultations

Feb. 2018 – Formal
July 2018 consultations

Dec. 2017

Secretary-General's report(Making migration work for all)published

May 2018

Executive Office of SecretaryGeneral decision on proposed
model

Feb. 2018 – Intergovernmental negotiation
July 2018 phase

June 2018

Deputy Secretary-General
briefs Member States on United
Nations Network

July 2018

Final Global Compact for
Migration text welcomes
Secretary-General decision toestablish the Network

Oct. 2018

United Nations framing meetingon the Network

Nov. 2018

Network Terms of Reference
adoptedDec. 2018 General Assembly
adoption of the
Global Compact on
Refugees

Sept. 2016 – Dec. 2018
Application of CRRF

Dec. 2018 International conference to adopt   Dec. 2018 Secretary-General  launches
the Global Compact for Migration
Network at international
and then General Assembly
conference
endorsement of the Global
Compact for Migration
Jan. 2019 United Nations Network in place;
successor to the United Nations
Global Migration GroupThe Global Compact for Migration process, by contrast, was firmly in the hands of States, although with theclose involvement and support of the Office of the Special Representative of the United Nations SecretaryGeneral for International Migration. Two States, Mexico and Switzerland, were appointed as co-facilitators of
the process, and they took responsibility for drafting the Compact. The first stage of development consistedof six months of consultations at the global, regional and country levels, followed by a stocktaking exercise.

296

Recent developments in the global governance of migration: An update to the World Migration Report 2018

The co-facilitators produced a first draft of the Compact, and chaired six rounds of informal consultations
at the United Nations over the course of six months.22 The final version of the text was formally agreed at
the end of the final round in July 2018, and was adopted at a special conference in Morocco in December
2018, five months after the conclusion of negotiations. The United Nations General Assembly in New York
formally endorsed the outcomes of the Intergovernmental Conference to Adopt the Global Compact for Safe,
Orderly and Regular Migration, with the results of the General Assembly vote as follows: 152 States infavour, 5 against and 12 abstentions. The United States withdrew from the process before intergovernmental
negotiations commenced and voted against the Compact at the General Assembly (along with the Czechia,
Hungary, Israel and Poland). The countries that abstained were Algeria, Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, Chile,
Italy, Latvia, Libya, Liechtenstein, Romania, Singapore and Switzerland.23
The rise of nationalism, far-right political parties and anti-migrant sentiment, especially in destination
countries, contributed to several countries withdrawing support for the Compact, which at times involved
rhetoric based on misrepresentation of the Compact and its effects.24 For example, the former Immigration
Minister of Canada under the Conservative Harper Government, Chris Alexander, publicly denounced comments
made by opposition leader Andrew Scheer on the impact of the Compact by stating: “Scheer’s statement isfactually incorrect: this Compact is a political declaration, not a legally binding treaty: it has no impact on
our sovereignty”.25

The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration
The Global Compact for Migration has four major elements. The first consists of the early paragraphs thatset out the Compact’s vision of better cooperation among States to improve the governance of internationalmigration.26 They reiterate the principles on which the Compact is built, one of which is that it “reaffirms
the sovereign right of States to determine their national migration policy and to govern migration within
their jurisdiction, in conformity with international law”.27 The preamble to the Compact acknowledges therelated human rights instruments, other agreements and the outcomes of prior United Nations meetings on
migration.
The second element is the heart of the document, which consists of 23 objectives that offer a fairly
comprehensive approach to international cooperation on migration (see box below). Each objective has
several associated actions from which countries will draw in order to realize their commitment to the statedgoal. This is central to the Compact, which reaffirms the sovereignty of States over their migration policies.28

22 See UNGA, 2017a setting out the modalities for the intergovernmental negotiations of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly andRegular Migration.
23 A number of countries were not in the room for the vote (Afghanistan, Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Benin, Botswana, Brunei
Darussalam, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the Dominican Republic, Guinea, Kiribati, Kyrgyzstan, the Federated Statesof Micronesia, Panama, Paraguay, Sao Tome and Principe, Seychelles, Slovakia, Somalia, Timor-Leste, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago,
Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Vanuatu).
24 Kaufmann, 2017; Mudde, 2019; Zalan, 2018.
25 Zimonjic, 2018.
26 UNGA, 2018a: paras. 1–15.
27 Ibid.
28 Makooi, 2018.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

297

Global Compact for Migration’s 23 objectives for safe, orderly and regular migration1.

Collect and utilize accurate and disaggregated data as a basis for evidence-based policies.

2.

Minimize the adverse drivers and structural factors that compel people to leave their countryof origin.

3.

Provide accurate and timely information at all stages of migration.

4.

Ensure that all migrants have proof of legal identity and adequate documentation.

5.

Enhance availability and flexibility of pathways for regular migration.

6.

Facilitate fair and ethical recruitment, and safeguard conditions that ensure decent work.

7.

Address and reduce vulnerabilities in migration.

8.

Save lives and establish coordinated international efforts on missing migrants.

9.

Strengthen the transnational response to the smuggling of migrants.

10. Prevent, combat and eradicate trafficking in persons in the context of international migration.
11. Manage borders in an integrated, secure and coordinated manner.
12. Strengthen certainty and predictability in migration procedures for appropriate screening,assessment and referral.
13. Use migration detention only as a measure of last resort and work towards alternatives.
14. Enhance consular protection, assistance and cooperation throughout the migration cycle.
15. Provide access to basic services for migrants.
16. Empower migrants and societies to realize full inclusion and social cohesion.
17. Eliminate all forms of discrimination and promote evidence-based public discourse to shapeperceptions of migration.
18. Invest in skills development and facilitate mutual recognition of skills, qualifications andcompetences.
19. Create conditions for migrants and diasporas to fully contribute to sustainable development inall countries.
20. Promote faster, safer and cheaper transfer of remittances, and foster financial inclusion of
migrants.
21. Cooperate in facilitating safe and dignified return and readmission, as well as sustainable
reintegration.
22. Establish mechanisms for the portability of social security entitlements and earned benefits.
23. Strengthen international cooperation and global partnerships for safe, orderly and regularmigration.

The Global Compact for Migration’s 23 objectives can be thought of as falling into three “baskets”: (1) specificand relatively straightforward measures; (2) specific but contested issues; and (3) very broad and aspirational
goals.

298

Recent developments in the global governance of migration: An update to the World Migration Report 2018

Table 1. Global Compact for Migration objectives by category
1. Specific and relatively
straightforward measures

2. Specific but contested issues

3. Very broad andaspirational goals

Improving migration data andresearch (Objective 1)

Opening wider legal pathways
for migrants (Objective 5)

Reducing the negative drivers of
migration (Objective 2)

Providing accurate and timely
information at all stages of
migration (Objective 3)

Managing borders in an
integrated, secure andcoordinated manner(Objective 11)

Addressing and reducing
vulnerabilities in migration(Objective 7)

Ensuring that migrants haveproof of their legal identity(Objective 4)

Using detention only as a lastresort, and seeking alternatives(Objective 13)

Empowering migrants andsocieties for full social inclusionand cohesion (Objective 16)

Providing access to basic
services for migrants(Objective 15)

Eliminating all forms of
discrimination and promoting
evidence-based public discourse(Objective 17)

Investing in skills development
and mutual recognition(Objective 18)

Creating conditions for migrants
and diasporas to fully contributeto sustainable development(Objective 19)

Facilitating fair and ethicalrecruitment and conditions fordecent work (Objective 6)
Saving lives and coordinating
efforts on missing migrants(Objective 8)
Strengthening the transnational
response to smuggling(Objective 9)

Facilitating return andreintegration (Objective 21)

Strengthening international
cooperation and global
partnerships (Objective 23)

Preventing, combating anderadicating trafficking inpersons (Objective 10)
Strengthening migration
procedures (Objective 12)
Enhancing consular services for
migrants (Objective 14)
Facilitating remittance transfers(Objective 20)
Supporting portability of social
security entitlements andearned benefits (Objective 22)
Some of the objectives are relatively straightforward with wide support, and are subject to immediate
implementation – indeed, implementation has already begun on some, including on data collection andresearch, ethical recruitment and remittances, among others. Others – such as enhanced legal pathways
for migration, better border management, and cooperation on return and reintegration – are specific but
contested and will require further negotiation, commitment of resources and summoning of political will.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

299

Others, such as those in the third category in table 1, are very long-term propositions, notwithstanding
the high degree of agreement on the need for positive change on these issues.29 Their goals are quite farreaching, so they will indeed take time to realize. For example, the protection of migrants in vulnerable
situations (Objective 7) now extends beyond traditional vulnerability categories (for example, women andgirls, children and trafficking victims) to more broadly cover vulnerabilities arising “from the circumstances inwhich they travel or the conditions they face in countries of origin, transit and destination”.30 The realizationof some of these objectives is also closely interlinked with the implementation of other initiatives related
to development, environment or, more generally, the protection of migrants caught in crises. For instance,
Objectives 2 and 19 explicitly refer to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Addis Ababa
Action Agenda on financing for development.31
The third element of the Global Compact for Migration deals with implementation. It is clear that States havethe primary responsibility for implementing the 23 objectives of the Compact. To support their efforts, a“capacity-building mechanism” was envisaged, consisting of a knowledge platform, a connection hub and astart-up fund for projects.32 Importantly, in this section, States pledge to work on implementation with otherstakeholders, including migrants, civil society, the private sector, trade unions, local authorities and others.
The Compact also welcomes the Secretary-General’s decision to establish a United Nations Migration Network,
coordinated by IOM, to foster effective, coordinated support to States from the many United Nations entities
that work on migration issues. The Secretary-General is asked to draw on the Network to prepare a biennial
report to the General Assembly on United Nations activities to support implementation of the Global Compact
for Migration. The final paragraph on implementation recognizes that State-led processes, such as the Global
Forum on Migration and Development and the regional consultative processes on migration, have importantroles to play in furthering international cooperation on migration.
Finally, the fourth element of the Global Compact for Migration relates to follow-up and review.33 Progresson implementation of the Compact’s objectives will be examined every four years in the General Assembly,
starting in 2022, in an “International Migration Review Forum”, which will replace the High-level Dialogue
on International Migration and Development.34 Regional reviews are to take place every four years alternately
with the Review Forum, starting in 2020. The Compact foresees contributions to these reviews from otherState-led processes, such as those mentioned above, as well as IOM’s International Dialogue on Migration. It
also encourages States to institute national-level reviews.

29
30
31
32
33
34

Newland, 2018.
UNGA, 2018a: para. 23.
UNGA, 2018a.
Ibid.
Ibid.
UNGA, 2019.

300

Recent developments in the global governance of migration: An update to the World Migration Report 2018

The Global Compact on Refugees
The New York Declaration explicitly recognized the pressing need for more cooperation in distributing the
responsibility of hosting and supporting the world’s refugees, who are mainly situated in neighbouring
countries (most of which are low- or middle-income countries). The Declaration states:

To address the needs of refugees and receiving States, we commit to a more equitable
sharing of the burden and responsibility for hosting and supporting the world’s refugees,
while taking account of existing contributions and the differing capacities and resourcesamong States.35
Unlike the proposed Global Compact for Migration, involving intergovernmental negotiations to reachagreement on a Member State document, the New York Declaration envisaged the Global Compact on Refugees
emerging from a process led by UNHCR. The emphasis would be on the further development and practicalimplementation of an existing response to refugee issues, the CRRF, with a particular focus on responding tolarge movements of refugees (including in protracted situations). The CRRF, therefore, as outlined in Annex
1 of the New York Declaration, is central to the Global Compact on Refugees. The key elements of the CRRF,
developed by UNHCR in close coordination with stakeholders and implemented in multiple countries36 during
the Global Compact on Refugees process (see table 2), included reception and admission, support for ongoingneeds, support for host countries and communities, and durable solutions. The core CRRF objectives are to:(1) ease pressure on the host countries involved; (2) enhance refugee self-reliance; (3) expand access tothird-country solutions; and (4) support conditions in countries of origin for return in safety and dignity.37
In addition to the CRRF, the Global Compact on Refugees includes a Programme of Action that builds on the
CRRF and sets out measures for States and other relevant stakeholders designed to ensure better responses torefugee displacement (table 2).

Table 2. Thematic areas of focus in CRRF and Programme of Action
Programme of Action
CRRF pillars

Reception andadmission

Areas ofsupportReception andadmission

Indicative sub-areas
Early warning, preparedness and contingency planning
Immediate reception arrangements
Safety and security
Registration and documentation
Addressing specific needs
Identifying international protection needs

35 UNGA, 2016: para. 68.
36 The 16 roll-out countries included: Afghanistan, Belize, Chad, Costa Rica, Djibouti, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Honduras, Kenya,
Mexico, Panama, Rwanda, Somalia, Uganda and Zambia. The United Republic of Tanzania was initially a roll-out country but later
withdrew.
37 See CRRF Global Digital Portal, Available at www.globalcrrf.org (accessed 2 June 2019).

301

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

Programme of Action
CRRF pillars

Support for
immediate andongoing needs

Supportfor host
countries andcommunities

Durablesolutions

Areas ofsupportMeeting needs
and supporting
communities

SolutionsIndicative sub-areas
Education
Jobs and livelihoods
HealthWomen and girls
Children, adolescents and youths
Accommodation, energy and natural resource management
Food security and nutrition
Civil registries
Statelessness
Fostering good relations and peaceful coexistence
Support for countries of origin and voluntary repatriation
Resettlement
Complementary pathways for admission to third countries
Local integration
Other local solutions

Providing adequate funding for host countries and to resettle refugees are two concrete expressions ofresponsibility-sharing, but they have both proved challenging throughout the Global Compact on Refugees
process and will likely continue to be so in the future. It has been difficult to secure funding to enable thefull roll-out of the CRRF, with inadequate donor support hampering the implementation of the framework
in several countries, including Uganda and Ethiopia.38 Likewise, the very small number – compared with theneed for refugee resettlement places and other durable solutions for the displaced – will remain challenging
for the CRRF/Global Compact on Refugees.39 While neither of these challenges is in any way new to theinternational refugee system, or to UNHCR as the mandated United Nations agency and its chief guardian, theGlobal Compact on Refugees process has served to highlight the enduring difficulties in these two matters,
while attempting to garner more support from the international community to enable more practical results
to be realized.
To address these two challenges and, more broadly, support Member States’ commitments, the Global Compact
on Refugees sets up different follow-up, review and implementation mechanisms. A Global Refugee Forum is
to be convened every four years, with the first one scheduled for December 2019. The objective of this Forumis, first, for United Nations Member States to make formal pledges and contributions in the form of financial,material or technical assistance or resettlement places and complementary pathways for admission, andthen report on key achievements and good practices.40 This global arrangement for international cooperation

38 Siegfried, 2017; see also Hansen, 2018.
39 Angenendt and Biehler, 2018.
40 UNGA, 2018b; see also UNHCR Global Refugee Forum, Available at www.unhcr.org/global-refugee-forum.html (accessed 2 June2019).

302

Recent developments in the global governance of migration: An update to the World Migration Report 2018

is complemented by national arrangements that can be established by host countries to coordinate themeasures taken by relevant stakeholders working toward achieving a comprehensive response.41 To avoid
future “refugee crises”, a Support Platform can also be activated upon the request of the host country(ies)or country(ies) of origin in two cases:•

A large-scale and/or complex refugee situation where the response capacity of a host State is or is
expected to be overwhelmed; or•

A protracted refugee situation where the host State(s) require(s) considerable additional support, and/or
a major opportunity for a solution arises (for example, large-scale voluntary repatriation to the countryof origin).42

Led by a group of States, Support Platforms can initiate solidarity conferences for a particular situation inorder for States and relevant stakeholders to contribute financially, materially and technically, or provide
resettlement places and complementary pathways for admission.43
The non-binding nature of the Global Compact on Refugees and the focus on implementation and action haveresulted in some commentators pointing to worrying signs for the likelihood of sustainable change, given that
States will be able to pick and choose the approaches that are more attractive to them at a time when thecurrent geopolitical climate on refugees and displacement is unfavourable.44 Other concerns have related to
the focus on the Refugee Convention as the core of the Global Compact on Refugees, or the relative neglectof related rights expressed in other key instruments, as well as aspects of displacement not covered by theexisting refugee regime.45

Complementarity, coherence and gaps between the two global
compacts
Notwithstanding the high profile of the 2016 New York Declaration, and the related commitment of all States
to finalize the two global compacts, the content of the compacts did not spring out of nowhere. There has
been a much longer lead time in developing the ideas and approaches in the compacts than may first appear.
As highlighted in the introduction to this chapter, the two compacts build upon years of structured dialogues,
initiatives and cooperation between States, regionally and at the international level. The Global Compact for
Migration in particular builds on recent global and regional migration initiatives and processes,46 including

41
42
43
44
45
46

UNGA, 2018b.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Angenendt and Biehler, 2018; Hathaway, 2018.
Aleinikoff and Martin, 2018; Chimni, 2018; Gammeltoft-Hansen, 2018.
For an historical overview of previous global migration initiatives and processes, see Newland, 2010; Martin and Weerasinghe, 2017;
Betts and Kainz, 2017.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

303

by addressing thematic areas where States’ interests have converged47 (see appendix B for more detail). As for
the Global Compact on Refugees, it focuses on “translat[ing] [the] long-standing principle [of] international
cooperation enshrined in the preamble of the 1951 Refugee Convention into concrete and practical action” for“predictable and equitable burden- and responsibility-sharing”.48 The Global Compact on Refugees reinforces
and strengthens previous efforts, including, for instance, by answering the repeated calls for international
cooperation made by the UNHCR Executive Committee,49 as well as by consolidating UNHCR-led initiatives for
specific cases of ad hoc responsibility-sharing.50
The two global compacts are not mutually exclusive, but have been designed to complement one another inrecognition of the “many common challenges and […] similar vulnerabilities” of migrants and refugees.51 The
two compacts are considered by UNHCR and IOM to be functionally coherent when it comes to the common
challenges they seek to address.52 The Global Compact for Migration is broader in scope than the Global Compact
on Refugees, “addressing migration in all its dimensions”. Thus, it complements the more limited focus of the
Global Compact on Refugees on the specific challenges of large movements of refugees, including situations ofprotracted displacement.53 Offering a “360-degree vision of international migration”,54 the Global Compact for
Migration addresses issues throughout the migration cycle, be it upon departure from the country of origin;during migrants’ journeys, including in transit countries; upon arrival and stay in the country of destination;
or upon return to the country of origin. In their early drafts, neither global compact addressed displacement
associated with the impact of climate change and environmental degradation. Some stakeholders hoped that
protection of people displaced by these forces would be included in the Global Compact on Refugees, but
States did not agree. The final text of the Global Compact for Migration did, however, include a subsection
on “natural disasters, the adverse effects of climate change and environmental degradation” under Objective
2 (Minimize the adverse drivers and structural factors that compel people to leave their country of origin).55
The different scope and purposes of the two compacts avoided contradictions between them and achieved
general coherence. But the two left another important area of potential overlap unresolved: mixed flowsof refugees moving onward from countries of first asylum with other migrants in large-scale movements.56
The unplanned arrival of large numbers of people, including some who have solid claims for international
refugee protection and some who do not, places huge demands on national asylum systems and humanitarian
institutions. Even those who are not refugees may be in desperate need of assistance and protection, such as
unaccompanied children, and the Global Compact for Migration addresses their needs in Objective 7 (Address
and reduce vulnerabilities in migration). But neither compact comes to grips with the phenomenon of“secondary movements” by refugees.

47 Neither the Compact on Refugees nor the Global Compact for Migration deals with internally displaced persons (IDPs) – of whomthere are twice as many as there are refugees. Some participating Member States in the Second Thematic Consultation held at
United Nations Headquarters in New York in May 2017, had argued for IDPs to be included in the Global Compact for Migration, butothers were opposed to it. Acknowledging the international and internal migration linkage, the moderators, co-facilitators and theSpecial Representative of the Secretary-General, however, clarified that IDPs were not within the mandate of the Global Compact for
Migration (Khadria, 2017).
48 UNGA, 2018b: paras. 2 and 3. See the fourth preambular paragraph of the 1951 Refugee Convention.
49 Dowd and McAdam, 2017.
50 Such as the 1989 International Conference on Central American Refugees and the 1989 Comprehensive Plan of Action for Indochinese
Refugees. On these actions plans, see Betts, 2006; Newland, 2011.
51 UNGA, 2016: para. 4.
52 Türk, cited in Leone, 2018.
53 CRRF, annexed to UNGA, 2016; and UNGA, 2018b.
54 UNGA, 2018a: para. 11.
55 Ibid: paras. 18(h)–(l).
56 See, for instance, Ndonga Githinji and Wood, 2018.

304

Recent developments in the global governance of migration: An update to the World Migration Report 2018

One of the key lessons from the 2015–2016 movements to and through Europe is the number of refugees
who were able to travel on from the first country they reached after being displaced from their countriesof origin, in search of greater safety or more promising prospects. In Europe in 2015–2016, the volume ofsecondary movements was partly due to geography (particularly the close proximity of Turkey and Greece)
and crowded conditions in first countries of asylum, but also because of more fundamental changes intechnology (including that used by smugglers), “mobile money” and information exchange.57 The story of
Paolina Roccanello (see below) highlights just how much the world has changed since the end of the Second
World War: while refugees had at that time a limited capacity to move by themselves beyond the confines ofEurope, this is no longer the case.

Migration before appification
The world has changed fundamentally in the almost 70 years since the largest refugee crisis
in Europe following the aftermath of World War II when the Refugee Convention was being
developed.a Back then, there was no Internet, there were no mobiles or fax machines, and postal
services were slow and often disrupted. Telegram and telephone communication was limited
and costly. Paolina Roccanello arrived in Melbourne in April 1947 from Italy with her mother on
the SS Misr in the shadow of the war.b They were lucky to be reunited with her father who hademigrated to Australia eight years before, expecting his family to follow soon after. For all their
war-time separation they received only one of his letters, which had taken five years to reachthem. Such were the times.
After World War II refugee movements beyond war-torn Europe were regulated by States (including
under the United Nations). The UN coordinated repatriation, returns and resettlement of refugees
to third countries. In today’s terms, movements were slow, highly regulated and very selective.
Information for refugees was largely the monopoly of states and opportunities for migrating to otherregions were limited to formal channels. Things are very different now.
a Nebehay, 2015.
b Huxley, 2007.
Excerpt of McAuliffe, 2016.

Some refugees are now able to migrate on their own, exercising a degree of self-agency.58 Contrary to the“binary construct” between forced and voluntary migration,59 refugees often move for mixed motivations,meaning that:

They may have left their home countries because of conflict or persecution, but they havechosen a destination country because of the economic opportunities it affords. They may
well fit the refugee definition and cannot be returned home.60
57
58
59
60

McAuliffe, Goossens and Sengupta, 2017; Triandafyllidou, 2017.
On self-agency, or “free will”, see Akesson and Coupland, 2018; McAuliffe et al., 2017.
Ibid; see also de Haas, 2011; Faist, 2000; Massey et al., 1998.
Martin, 2014.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

305

Many people (including refugees) are unable to move directly to their preferred destinations, for lack ofvisa access, for instance, and may first travel through one or more transit countries to reach their preferred
destination, or end up in countries that are not their first choice of destination.61 While this complex
reality of “mixed motive” migration is becoming more common and raises challenges to States in termsof secondary refugee movements, it is largely beyond the ambit of the two global compacts. As previously
noted, and despite its broad scope, the Global Compact for Migration is limited to migrants in the “residual”
sense – that is, migrants who are not refugees.62 The Compact refers to “mixed movements”, which do not
explicitly acknowledge that many people have mixed motives for migration, but rather concern the mixed
nature of movements involving migrants and refugees.63 Before the Global Compact for Migration’s text was
finalized, it referred to the provision to migrants of “information on rights and obligations in migration laws
and procedures, including on access to the right to seek asylum or other adequate forms of protection”,64
indicating that some migrants may have a claim to refugee status. That language was dropped from the final
text, indicating the sensitivities and complexities of this issue. This grey area is one that has the potential
to result in confusion or even gaps.65 That said, the frameworks of the compacts do not prevent cooperation
between States on mixed motive migration, and specific parts of the Global Compact for Migration encourage
cooperation that would assist in addressing this issue (for example, Objective 5: Enhance availability andflexibility of pathways for regular migration). Similarly, the Global Compact on Refugees seeks pathways
beyond conventional resettlement of refugees to move from host countries in order to pursue, for example,
educational or career opportunities. In addition, there already are many measures in place to accommodate
this increasingly important aspect of migration – one of the most pertinent being regional free movementagreements with eligibility based on nationality rather than policy category or reason for migrating.

How do the global compacts influence the global migration
governance architecture?
Despite their common origin in the 2015 migration crises and the New York Declaration, the two global compacts
occupy quite different positions in the architecture of global migration governance. The Global Compact on
Refugees is grounded in established international law, specifically in the widely ratified Refugee Convention.
Although migrants are entitled to the same protections that apply to others under international human rights
law (as are refugees), there is no equivalent to the Refugee Convention for migrants. Consequently, and eventhough it is not legally binding, the Global Compact for Migration represents more of an innovation in global
governance of migration than does the Global Compact on Refugees.
The Global Compact on Refugees is all about implementation: how to create mechanisms of burden- andresponsibility-sharing that will strengthen the refugee regime by giving more support to host countries andfostering refugee self-sufficiency. While the Global Compact on Refugees does not aspire to change refugee
law, it does represent a substantial change of emphasis for UNHCR. The refugee agency has traditionally seen
its role primarily as the guardian of the Refugee Convention, overseeing States’ fulfilment of their obligations

61
62
63
64
65

Legomsky, 2003; McAuliffe and Jayasuriya, 2016; McAuliffe et al., 2017.
UNGA, 2018a; Carling, 2018.
UNGA, 2018a.
Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, 2018b: Objective 12, para. 27(e).
Carling, 2018.

306

Recent developments in the global governance of migration: An update to the World Migration Report 2018

to protect refugees and seeking durable solutions that allow refugees to stop being refugees. It has also
assumed a major role in marshalling humanitarian assistance. The Global Compact on Refugees places muchgreater emphasis on support for host country governments and communities, recognizing the service they
provide, not only to refugees, but to the international community as a whole – which should be the basis formuch more robust solidarity expressed as burden – and responsibility-sharing.
The system the Global Compact on Refugees lays out for achieving greater solidarity with refugee hosts
presents a further shift of the refugee regime by giving actors other than States a more central role. Nongovernmental humanitarian organizations have long played a major part in protecting and assisting refugees,
but the Compact envisages more active engagement with the private sector, subnational authorities andother stakeholders. The addition of a regular review event is an additional architectural element, whichshould make it harder for prolonged refugee situations, or those that do not make the headlines, to drop off
the international agenda. The uneven distribution of resources among host countries has undermined thestability of the refugee regime. The inclusion of an academic network signals a positive move toward evidencebased responses to coincide with greater involvement of non-State actors in the implementation of the CRRF.
However, some have raised concerns about the nature, scope and focus of the network, raising questions
about how it would be managed and what value it would add.66
While acknowledging the importance of non-State actors through its whole-of-society approach, the Global
Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration frames the construction of cooperation on migration among
States, but the roof and walls and floors will have to be added by States in the course of implementation.
Since there has never been such a construct, it is difficult to foresee how heavily States will invest in bringing
the Global Compact’s objectives to life. With 23 objectives and 187 specific actions, implementing the Global
Compact for Migration will not be easy. No country has the capacity to work on all the recommended actions,and almost all will find some actions they would prefer not to take. The strength of the Compact is that it has
something for everyone; that inclusiveness is fundamental to the compromises the Compact struck in orderto get near-universal agreement.

Institutional architecture
The global migration governance chapter of the World Migration Report 2018 provides an overview of theinternational institutional arrangements, with particular reference to three agencies involved in migration –IOM, UNHCR and the International Labour Organization (ILO) – as well as the United Nations’ Global Migration
Group and the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for International Migration.67
The last two years have seen significant change in institutional settings within the United Nations system,
most of which relates directly to supporting States’ implementation of the Global Compact for Migration. The
mandate of the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for International Migration
came to an end at the end of 2018 and has not been renewed; IOM has entered the United Nations system, and
the Global Migration Group has been succeeded by the United Nations Network on Migration. The reformationof the institutional architecture was instigated by the Secretary-General following the consultation andstocktaking phases of the Global Compact for Migration, and highlighted specifically in his report Making
Migration Work for all, in which he stated:
66 Crisp, 2018; Chimni, 2018.
67 Martin and Weerasinghe, 2017.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

307

I will initiate internal consultations on how best to configure the United Nations system,
including IOM, to coordinate the actions of the Organization on migration. I am determined
to ensure that the system is fully positioned to respond promptly and effectively insupporting implementation of the global compact, once it is adopted. In conducting these
consultations within the system, I will place a premium on drawing on existing expertise,
ensuring operational deliverables in response to the needs of the Member States andensuring efficiency.68
One major outcome of the consultations within the United Nations system initiated by the Secretary-General
was the recommendation to create a United Nations Network on Migration. It was accepted by the SecretaryGeneral and endorsed by the United Nations Executive Committee in May 2018, and formally launched by
the Secretary-General on 9 December 2018, the eve of the Intergovernmental Conference to Adopt the Global
Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration.69 It has been presented as part of broader United Nations
reforms. The Network is a successor to the Global Migration Group, and has the following features:•

A clear focus on ensuring effective and coherent system‑wide support to the implementation of the
Global Compact for Migration;•

Direct reporting to the Secretary‑General on its activities, who will, in turn, report to the Member States
as required;•Core membership and an extended membership, with the former comprising those United Nations entities
with clear mandate‑driven relevance and capacity, and now referred to as the Executive Committee;•

Working groups based on the Global Compact for Migration and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development, and responsive to the needs of Member States;•

Periodic meetings of the Network’s extended membership, together with other stakeholders, for
information‑sharing and agenda‑setting;•

IOM as Network coordinator and Secretariat.70

The Network’s Executive Committee comprises IOM, the United Nations Department of Economic and Social
Affairs (UN DESA), ILO, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), theUnited Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), UNHCR andthe United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), with the Director General of IOM as the Network
Coordinator. The extended Network membership includes the Executive Committee entities plus an additional
30 United Nations entities.71 The Network, therefore, is larger than its predecessor, the Global Migration
Group, which grew over time to include 22 entities. However, the establishment of an Executive Committeeof eight, together with a single Coordinator and reporting arrangements that involve the Secretary-General,
indicate that the emphasis on deliverable achievements and United Nations coherence have featured heavily
in the thinking underpinning the Network’s construction.
68
69
70
71

UNGA, 2017b: para. 74.
UNGA, 2018a.
United Nations, 2018.
United Nations Network on Migration, 2018.

308

Recent developments in the global governance of migration: An update to the World Migration Report 2018

At a time when nationalism is on the rise in key locations, and the support for multilateralism has beenchallenged, the pressure on the Network to succeed will be great. The focus on clearer management andcoordination processes that underpin the Network is in contrast to those processes of the Global Migration
Group, as articulated in their respective terms of reference.72 But coordination is not the main function of the
Network; rather, it is to support Member States in implementing the Global Compact for Migration. On many of
the issues for which that support will be needed, no single United Nations entity has the necessary expertiseand capacity; these entities will need to join forces in implementing actions and projects, collaborating in
Network working groups, to bring their combined capacities to bear. Some projects will be supported by the
Migration Multi-Partner Trust Fund, which was established on 8 May 2019 by the principals of the eight
United Nations entities of the Network’s Executive Committee and launched on 16 July 2019. The Fundis embedded in the United Nations Migration Network to support Member States’ implementation of the
Global Compact for Migration, primarily at the country level.73 Notwithstanding these fundamental changes
to how the United Nations responds to and coordinates on Global Compact for Migration implementation, thecore principles guiding the operation of the Network remain as they were for the Global Migration Group –specifically, the focus on migrants’ rights and well-being – but with the additional focus on implementation
within communities of destination, origin and transit.74

The current phase in the evolution of migration global governance:
Implications for the future
The global compacts mark a new phase in international cooperation to manage and respond to the movementof people. Although they are not legally binding, they represent a near-universal consensus on the issues
that require cooperation, and on actions to move toward achieving the objectives laid out in the compacts.
The Global Compact on Refugees, if implemented consistently, will reinforce the willingness of States tohost refugees, by breaking their sense of abandonment when their burdens are not shared with others. If
the commitment of other States and a wider group of stakeholders is consolidated through Comprehensive
Refugee Response Frameworks for all host countries, the fundamental condition for protection – access toterritorial asylum in another country – will be immeasurably reinforced.
United Nations Member States crafted the Global Compact for Migration with an eye to the long term, but
it already has one accomplishment to its credit: it has brought one of the last outstanding global issues
into the United Nations in a formal, negotiated manner. For decades, the international system has had
standards and institutions to facilitate cooperation and the maintenance of order on issues of finance andtrade, arms control and refugees, and many other issues. More recently, it has developed a framework fordealing with climate change. But international migration remained a patchwork of unilateral, bilateral andregional policies, long considered too divisive for general debate within the United Nations as a stand-alone
issue beyond its interrelationship with development. With the Global Compact for Migration, a framework ofcommon expectations and obligations has at long last emerged.

72 GMG, n.d.; United Nations Network on Migration, 2018.
73 See the terms of references: UNDP, Multi-Partner Trust Fund Office, 2019.
74 United Nations Network on Migration, 2018.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

309

The very first draft of the Global Compact for Migration identified a “coherent UN system” as necessary for
effective implementation. As mentioned, the Compact welcomed the Secretary-General’s decision to replace
the Global Migration Group of United Nations agencies, with a United Nations Migration Network with clearer
and consistent leadership from IOM and a small group of United Nations entities that have movement of people
as an important part of their mandate or capacities. The agreement that brought IOM into the United Nations
system as a related organization in 2016 gives the United Nations system unprecedented capacity to help its
members address migration issues. The United Nations has also strengthened its capacity by establishing the
Network on Migration. With this structure in place as of December 2018, the United Nations system should
be positioned to offer coherent and comprehensive support to States as they set about implementing theircommitments to safe, orderly and regular migration.
While the Global Compact for Migration may not be legally binding on States, it can be construed as a“political commitment” creating an expectation of implementation.75 The Compact is the first agreementthat has been negotiated intergovernmentally at the global level, and heralds a significant step forward ininternational cooperation. The negotiations followed a series of thematic consultations and a stocktaking
exercise that in many ways were similar to previous international and regional dialogues, meetings andother events on international migration over recent years. The intergovernmental negotiations phase,
however, represented the first time that States sat side-by-side to negotiate and agree upon a specific text oninternational migration. The significance of this cannot be overstated; it has taken place in an environment
increasingly challenged by toxic political discourses that can at times result in misrepresentation of key facts
on migration, confounding and confusing members of a public concerned about the impact of seemingly
uncontrolled migration on their lives and the future of their communities.
One of the challenges will be how the United Nations and its Member States deal with the expected shifts
in political support and changing commitments to implementation of the global compact. Unlike processes
related to the adoption and implementation of treaties (as well as withdrawal), which are necessarily longand involved, support for the non-legally binding compacts is first and foremost political. It is likely that, as
governments at the national level change over time, which they inevitably will do, there will be a “moving
feast” of State support, particularly in relation to key destination countries. Implementing positive andconstructive policies and practices on international migration as complexity increases and fragmentation
becomes more deeply embedded will take leadership and unwavering commitment on the part of the vast
majority of States, the United Nations system and the many other actors involved. The most likely forms ofcooperation among States on the specific issues addressed in the two compacts were identified by the lateSpecial Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for International Migration Peter Sutherland
as being coalitions of States with strong, overlapping interests in a given issue.76 It is possible to imagine
States with different starting points converging on actions to tackle a problem such as lack of legal identityof migrants, or obstacles to return, and readmission in safety and dignity. Such “mini-multilateralism” mayemerge as a preferred mode of collaboration on an issue that has eluded effective cooperation among States
for too long. This type of approach produced the Migrants in Countries in Crisis Guidelines.77 Commentators
are urging all parties and onlookers to maintain reasonable expectations as Global Compact for Migration
implementation will undoubtedly involve long-term, incremental advances.78 Nevertheless, “even small
75
76
77
78

Chetail, 2019.
UNGA, 2017a.
See the chapter in this report on migrants in countries in crises for more detail.
Gallagher, 2018.

310

Recent developments in the global governance of migration: An update to the World Migration Report 2018

progress under the umbrella of this ‘new deal’ for migrants will help to move us forward – towards a world
where the movement of people across international borders is safer, better regulated and widely embraced as
mutually rewarding for everyone involved”.79

79 Ibid.

313WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

Appendices
Chapter 3
Appendix A. United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs: Regions andSubregions
Please note that this table reflects the UN DESA geographic regions and subregions and does not imply official
endorsement or acceptance by IOM.

AfricaEastern Africaa

Middle Africab

Northern Africac

Southern Africad

Western Africae

BurundiComoros

Algeria
Egypt

Botswana
Eswatini

Benin
Burkina Faso

Libya

LesothoCabo Verde

EritreaAngolaCameroon
Central African
Republic
Chad

MoroccoNamibia

Côte d’Ivoire

Ethiopia

Congo (the)SudanSouth Africa

Gambia (the)Djibouti

Kenya
Madagascar
Malawi
Mauritius
MayotteMozambiqueRéunionRwandaSeychelles
SomaliaSouth Sudan
UgandaDemocratic
Republic of theCongo
Equatorial Guinea
GabonSão Tomé and
Príncipe

Tunisia

Ghana
GuineaGuinea-Bissau
Liberia
Mali
Mauritania
Niger (the)NigeriaSaint Helena
SenegalSierra Leone
Togo

United Republicof Tanzania
ZambiaZimbabwea Eastern Africa has been combined with the Southern Africa subregion in the chapter, although the countries/territories/
areas within remain the same.
b This subregion has been renamed “Central Africa” in the chapter and combined with Western Africa.
c This subregion renamed “North Africa”.
d This subregion has been combined with Eastern Africa.
e This subregion has been renamed “West Africa” and combined with Central Africa (UN DESA Middle Africa) in the chapter.

314

Appendices

Asia
Central Asia

Eastern Asia

South-Eastern Asiaf

Southern Asia

Western Asiag

Kazakhstan

China

Brunei Darussalam

Afghanistan

Armenia

Kyrgyzstan

China, Hong
Kong Special
Administrative
RegionCambodia

Bangladesh

Azerbaijan

Tajikistan

China, Macao
SpecialAdministrative
RegionIndonesia

BhutanBahrainTurkmenistan

Democratic
People's Republicof Korea

Lao People’s
Democratic Republic

India

Uzbekistan

Japan

Malaysia

Iran (Islamic
Republic of)Georgia

Mongolia

MyanmarMaldives

Iraq

Republic of Korea

Philippines (the)NepalIsraelSingapore

Pakistan

JordanThailandSri Lanka

KuwaitCyprus

Timor-Leste

LebanonViet Nam

Oman
Qatar
Saudi Arabia
Syrian Arab
Republic
TurkeyUnited ArabEmiratesYemen

f This subregion renamed “South-East Asia”.
g This subregion renamed “Middle East”.

315

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

EuropehEastern Europei

Northern Europe

Southern Europe

Western Europe

Belarus

Channel Islands

Albania

Austria

Bulgaria

Denmark

AndorraBelgium

Czechia

Estonia

Bosnia andHerzegovina

FranceHungary

Faroe Islands

Croatia

Germany

PolandFinlandGibraltar

Liechtenstein

Republic of Moldova

Iceland

GreeceLuxembourg

Romania

Ireland

Holy See

MonacoRussian Federation

Isle of Man

Italy

Netherlands (the)Slovakia

LatviaMalta

Switzerland

UkraineLithuania

Montenegro

NorwayNorth Macedonia

SwedenPortugal

United Kingdom ofGreat Britain andNorthern Ireland

San Marino
SerbiaSlovenia
Spainh Some countries in this subregion, particularly members of the European Union, may have been included both in thediscussion of South-Eastern and Eastern Europe, as well as the subregional discussion on Northern, Western, and Southern
Europe within the chapter.
i Northern, Western and Southern Europe are combined in the chapter, excluding the following countries in Southern Europe:
Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia and North Macedonia, which have been included in SouthEast Europe in the chapter, under the subregion South-Eastern and Eastern Europe.

316

Appendices

Latin America and the Caribbean
Caribbean

Central Americaj

South America

Anguilla

BelizeArgentina

Antigua and Barbuda

Costa Rica

Bolivia (Plurinational State of)

Aruba

El Salvador

BrazilBahamasGuatemala

Chile

Barbados

Honduras

Colombia

Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba

MexicoEcuadorBritish Virgin Islands

Nicaragua

Falkland Islands (Malvinas)

Cayman Islands

PanamaFrench Guiana

Cuba

GuyanaCuraçaoParaguay

Dominica

Peru

Dominican Republic

Suriname

GrenadaUruguay

Guadeloupe

Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of)

Haiti
Jamaica
MartiniqueMontserrat
Puerto Rico
Saint Kitts and Nevis
Saint Lucia
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Sint Maarten (Dutch part)
Trinidad and Tobago
Turks and Caicos Islands
United States Virgin IslandsjThe subregion “Central America” has been combined with Mexico and the Caribbean in this chapter.

317

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

Northern America
BermudaCanadaGreenlandSaint Pierre and Miquelon
United States of America
Oceania
Australia and New
ZealandMelanesia

Micronesia

Polynesia

Australia

Fiji

Guam

American Samoa

New Zealand

New Caledonia

Kiribati

Cook Islands

Papua New Guinea

Marshall Islands

French Polynesia

Solomon Islands

Micronesia (Federated
States of)

Niue

Vanuatu

Nauru

Samoa

Northern Mariana
Islands

Tokelau

Palau

Tonga
TuvaluWallis and Futuna
Islands

Legend:RegionSubregioni
Country/territory/areaii,iii
Note:
i

For methodology as well as explanatory notes, see International Migrant Stock 2019: Documentation, available atwww.un.org/en/development/desa/population/migration/data/estimates2/docs/MigrationStockDocumentation_2019.pdf.

Subregions utilized within the chapter may differ from those utilized by UN DESA’s Statistical Division either by name, or bycountries/ territories/areas included within.
ii “The names of countries or areas refer to their short form used in day-to-day operations of the United Nations and notnecessarily to their official name as used in formal documents. These names are based on the United Nations Terminology
Database (UNTERM), which can be found at: https://unterm.un.org/UNTERM/portal/welcome The designations employed
and the presentation of material at this site do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of theSecretariat of the United Nations [or the International Organization for Migration (IOM)] concerning the legal status of any
country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.” For further
information, see https://unstats.un.org/unsd/methodology/m49/.
iii The entities included in this table, from which the previous chapter draws upon, include countries, as well as territories,
areas and special administrative regions. Please note that this table is not intended to be fully comprehensive.

318

Appendices

Chapter 4
Appendix A. A brief overview of academic publishing
The scholarly dissemination system rotates around a well-established gravitational centre: publication, withsome forms of publication (such as academic journals) having much greater credibility and weight thanothers (and within that, individual academic publishers have different standings). Publishing the results ofresearch in academic journals is without any doubt the paramount objective of today’s scholars.1 Journals
alone constitute about 40 per cent (books 16%) of the revenues of the broader scientific, technical andmedical publisher’s market, the size of which has been estimated at USD 25.2 billion in 2013.2 Throughacademic publishing, scholars formally share their findings within the scientific community. This exchange
enables other researchers to learn about the latest advancements, to design new studies for filling current
knowledge gaps, to compare their findings with the ones of their peers and perhaps to avoid reinventing thewheel. Moreover, publication constitutes “...a permanent record of what has been discovered, when and bywhom – like a court register for science”.3 The world’s first academic journal – Philosophical Transactions of theRoyal Society – appeared as early as of 1665, as an expression of the Royal Society’s policy of promoting the
progress of science through open sharing of results and ideas supported by empirical evidence. Since then,
the number of active scholarly peer-reviewed English language journals had reached 28,100 in 2014,4 andit has been calculated that the global scientific output doubles every nine years.5 Many scholars today are
overwhelmed by the mass of academic literature, and it is becoming impossible to find the time to read every
piece of literature, even on the narrowest topic.
Publications are the core of career advancement for academics, whereas researchers working in appliedresearch settings are not necessarily working under the same degree of pressure to publish. Overall, theacademic reward system is responsible for the very significant increase in the number of publications but,arguably, a quantitative increase does not automatically lead to an increase in the average “quality” ofpublished academic research.
Measuring quality is a complex and debated issue. In terms of the major form of output (journal articles), we
can say that an article’s quality is evaluated mainly qualitatively before publication, and mainly quantitatively
after publication. The type of qualitative evaluation that occurs before publication in academic journals iscalled “peer-review”. The term “peer” refers to the fact that the people performing reviews of the submitted
article are meant to be of equal (or greater) expertise on a topic. Peer review in academia is almost always
unpaid. Peer review of journal articles “...has traditionally been seen as part of the professional obligations of
the researcher”,6 and a large scale-survey amongst 40,000 research papers authors found that most of themconsidered peer review as “...essential to the communication of scholarly research”. Ninety-one per cent of
the respondents stated that “...the review process improved the quality of the last paper they published”, and86 per cent declared that “...they enjoy reviewing and will continue to review”.7 The most tangible incentive for
1
2
3
4
5
6
7

Other means of scholarly communication include books, conference presentations, seminars, email lists and so forth.
Ware and Mabe, 2015.
Sense About Science, 2005.
Ware and Mabe, 2015.
Van Noorden, 2014.
Ware and Mabe, 2015.
Mulligan, Hall and Raphael, 2013.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

319

reviewing is perhaps earning recognition: journals usually publish a yearly “reviewers thanksgiving” documentin which they list the names of people who served as reviewers.8 Being on those lists can improve a researcher’sCV, especially if s/he plans to seek funding/job in that specific field. Reviewers thoroughly examine themethods, results and conclusions before submitting their recommendation (accept/revise/reject) to thejournal’s editor. The review process iterates until the editor is satisfied with the manuscript, which can finallyenter the production pipeline (copy-editing, typesetting, online publication and possibly printing). Overall,
the peer-review process lasts from a few weeks to several months, with considerable variance among disciplines
and journals. After publication, abstracts are free of charge, while access to the full text may require accessthrough academic libraries (that typically pay subscriptions to the publishers), or require pay-per-view fees.
The “open access” publishing model grants free full-text access to anyone, courtesy of the author’s institution
having paid publication fees to the publisher.
The peer-review process examines a piece of writing before publication using mainly a qualitative approach,while a quantitative approach dominates the assessment of material after publication. Citation – the act of
quoting – is the single unit at the base of bibliometrics (the statistical analysis of written publications).
Crudely put, the more the citations, the higher the impact, the better the supposed quality of a paper/
article/book. Basic citation metrics for any publication can be obtained using Google Scholar, the most usedsearch engine by academics worldwide. For instance, a search for “migration” in Google Scholar returned 3.8
million results and the following first page:9

Figure 1. Example of Google Scholar search results

8
9

See for instance http://iovs.arvojournals.org/article.aspx?articleid=2277067.
Search results may vary depending on user settings (e.g. whether logged in to Google or not) and geographic ISP location.

320

Appendices

You can see at a glance (figure 1, bottom-left) that the book “The age of migration: International population
movements in the modern world” has been cited by more than 8,000 other publications. By clicking on “Citedby 8219” you can see all the citing publications since the first edition (1993). If you click on the author’s name
(S. Castles) you will see the author’s citation indices.
Building on raw citation counts, various so-called “impact metrics” can be calculated at the publication level,author level, journal level and so forth. For instance, a journal’s Impact Factor (the citations/publications
ratio) is widely used as a proxy for the relative importance of a journal, while the h-index10 provides a measureof a single author’s impact (though it can be also calculated for a department, institution or country). The
citations/publications ratio most commonly involves examination of a two-year publishing cycle over three
years. For example, for Journal X’s 2015 impact factor, 122 citations of articles published in 2013 and 2014 are
divided by the total number of articles published in 2013 and 2014 (166), so that the 2015 impact factor for
Journal X is 0.735 (or 122 citations divided by 166 articles).
The debate on the usefulness of impact metrics is still open, the aim being finding the right balance between
research funders’ needs of measuring the impact of their spending, and academics’ desires for fair evaluation
systems of their work (and consequent funding). Recently, alternative impact metrics (altmetrics) have beendeveloped, taking into account, for instance, number of mentions in news articles and blogs, Twitter, Facebook
and so forth.
The pressure to achieve within an academic reward system that values publication in peer-reviewed journals
is acknowledged as having some serious downsides,11 including in relation to quality. The “publish or perish”
culture has been found to stifle research innovation,12 lower research publication standards,13 encouragepeer-review fraud14 and negatively affect the ability of researchers to work on applied research tailored topolicymakers.15 At the same time, academics are under pressure to undertake innovative research, publish in
the top journals and present evidence to policy audiences and ultimately influence policy.16

10 The h-index is the number of publications that have at least h citations. For instance, Author X has written 4 publications: A (citedby 27 others), B (cited by 14 others), C (cited by 2 others), and D (not yet cited). Author X’s h-index is 2 at present. In the future, theh-index may be 3, if publication C will be cited at least 1 more time.
11 Smith, 2006.
12 Foster, Rzhetsky and Evans, 2015.
13 Colquhoun, 2011.
14 Prosser Scully, 2015
15 Cherney et al., 2012.
16 Ibid.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

321

Appendix B. Contributions from academic journals 17

International Migration 18
Chief Editor: Howard Duncan
2017 and 2018 were years during which the international community, with a degree of co-operation rarely seenin the field of migration, agreed to two sets of guiding policy principles, the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly,
and Regular Migration and the Global Compact on Refugees. Never before have we witnessed such a testament
to the global importance of migration nor such a widespread ambition to better management of internationalmigration of all kinds and its effects on the migrants, their societies of destination, and their homelands. These
agreements were borne out of a sense of crisis with a particular focus on the Mediterranean region; we now wait
to see if the hope they inspire will bear tangible fruit. The owner of International Migration, the International
Organization for Migration, was heavily involved in the effort to achieve these agreements, especially the
Global Compact for Migration. Since the previous World Migration Report, the IOM has become a member of theUnited Nations family of organizations and, with a membership now of more than 170 states it is a truly global
institution. This journal, appropriately, can also claim a global status in that its authors are from around theworld and with authors from no single country dominating its contents. International Migration is pleased byits global reach which has been achieved despite the challenges associated with publishing double-blind peerreviewed material from less developed countries.
The journal continues to regard its audience as both the global academic and policy communities, and it willretain its requirement of policy-related content in the articles it publishes. In 2017, International Migration
took a further step in this direction by introducing a series of occasional interviews with senior policy officials,
notably national Ministers responsible for managing migration. Three such interviews have appeared over thecourse of 2017-2018 with contributions from migration Ministers from Canada, Germany, and Australia. In
keeping with our global aspirations, Ministers responded not only to questions about their country’s domestic
migration policies but about their approach to the discussions at the United Nations on the Global Compacts.
Migration policy, like migration scholarship, can be fraught with controversy; these interviews did not shy
away from contentious issues.
The previous two years have seen numerous special issues and special sections of regular issues, most of themproposed to us from members of the academic community. Topics and geographical coverage were widespreadand included:
•
•
•
•
•
•

Interculturalism in Times of Crisis (Bello and Bloom)
Cultivating the Migration-Food Security Nexus (Crush and Caesar, eds.)
Peace Processes and Durable Returns (Stefanovic and Loizides, eds.)
Blessed Be the Ties: Health and Healthcare for Migrants and Migrant Families in the United States (Ervin,
Hamilton and Lopez-Carr, eds.)
Labour Migration in Europe: Changing Policies – Changing Organizations – Changing People (Laubenthal,ed.)
Subjective Perceptions Related to Migration (Amit and Blum, eds.)

17 The contributions in this appendix have been submitted by each journal’s respective chief editor(s), and have not been edited.  
18 Articles cited in the journal editor’s contribution can be found at: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/14682435.

322

•
•

Appendices

Migration and Social Class (Bonjour and Chauvin, eds.)
Precarity, Illegality, and Temporariness: Implications and Consequences of Canadian Migration Management(Hari and Liew, eds.)

Some selected thematic trends
The academic literature on migration responds in part to trends in migration phenomena and policy as well as
to shifts in migration-related theory and previously published literature. Normally, there is a discernible timelag between the onset of a phenomenon and the appearance of scientific literature, this owing to the timerequired for research and then for publishing. The literature on the Syrian refugee crisis is now beginning toappear in significant amounts, and we can expect that the literature on the United Nations’ Global Compacts
will start appearing in 2019. But looking back only slightly, to 2017 – 2018, we see discussions of earlier trends
and phenomena, some of which we have selected here.
Migrant vulnerability
To a large degree, the UN Global Compacts illustrate the current global concern over protecting the human rightsof migrants. Although there is clear recognition of the benefits that migrants bring to both their destination andhome societies, states are now being asked to foreground migrants’ needs and to provide supports, especially as
they relate to human rights. In tandem with this, many scholars looked at the vulnerabilities of migrants overthe past two years, whether the vulnerabilities concern human trafficking (Rocha-Jiminez et al.), earnings
gaps as compared to nationals (Wu et al.), discrimination in other forms (Gong), slave-like working conditions(Palmer), disparities in health care provision (Geeraert), the special vulnerabilities of refugees and women andchildren (Pavez-Soto and Chan), and even the vulnerabilities of migrant entrepreneurs who find themselves incompetition with locals (Pineteh).
Families and migration
When Oded Stark and David Bloom published their now iconic article, “The New Economics of Labour Migration”,
in 1985, they not only created a new way of looking at migration economics but they launched continuing
investigations into the relationship between migration and development, the role of remittances in migration,
how people make decisions to migrate, and the role of their families in these decisions. The emphasis on
families in the migration literature continues to grow, and International Migration has been among thosejournals to feel this emphasis. A major interest is with those family members who are left behind, the emotionaldifficulties they may face, as described by Fuller, despite modern ICTs; the effects on schooling as described by
Yabiku and Agadjanian and, separately, by Kuépié; and the effects on marriages themselves which, as shownby Davis and Jennings and separately by Silver, et al., can be deeply troubling. But migration can itself be
for marriage, and this phenomenon has received a great deal of attention, especially in Asia and especiallyin South Korea where marriage migration represents a high proportion of all migration to that country. The
multicultural families that result are the object of Kim and Kilkey’s study on integration outcomes for foreign
brides to South Korea; Kim and Kilkey looked at the country’s policy on multicultural families, regarding it
as designed with the country’s future population size in mind; and Cho considers cultural aspects of marriage
migration to that country. The population prospects might not be as rosy as some hope, however, if what Mora,
Fernandez, and Torre found regarding fertility rates of migrants to Spain and the US.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

323

Migration and development
One of the more enduring areas of recent scholarship has been on the relationship between migration anddevelopment, a field that has been greatly stimulated by the discussion within the international community.
The core feature of these studies remains remittances, both their effects and the propensity of migrants tosend them. Diaspora philanthropy was the emphasis of Koff’s study, while Petreski, Petreski, and Tumanoska
considered the effects of remittances on household vulnerability. Urama et al. looked at the effects ofremittances on the homeland labour supply; Akcay and Karasoy linked remittances to calorie consumption;
Arouri and Nguyen found a strong connection to poverty reduction; Kumar et al. saw a strong correlation withlong-term economic growth; Valatheeswaran and Khan noted the positive effects on the education of children
left behind; and Agwu, Yuni, and Anochiwa found that remittances help close the gap between the lower andmiddle income segments of society.
Emerging areas of study: immigrant entrepreneurship; climate migration, cities
As we signal the economic benefits of migration to destination societies, most thought has been given to
migrants as employees. Less attention has been given to migrant entrepreneurs, but it appears that it is a
growing area of interest to scholars. Chavan and Taksa looked at Indian entrepreneurs with high human capitallevels in Australia and suggested how policy could enhance even more their benefits to the Australian economy.
ICT entrepreneurs in Italy are the subject of Brzozwski, Cuccelelli, and Surdej’s exploration of transnational
entrepreneurship. Less happily are the fortunes of Somali entrepreneurs in South Africa whose presence is seen
as a threat, this forcing them to adopt specially-tailored defensive mechanisms.
It is no surprise that more scholars are writing of climate migration, some with an emphasis on atoll islandstates whose very existence could be threatened by climate change. Yamamoto and Esteban look at migration
policy as an adaptive response to the effects of rising sea levels on these states. In a ground-breaking study,
Rahaman et al. looked at the health effects on climate migrants living in slums which may become even more
densely populated in areas near to where climate change will bring about more urbanization.
Cities are overwhelmingly the destination of most migrants and a great many articles refer to cities as amatter of course. One article from the last two years that received a great deal of attention was that by
Bauder on Sanctuary Cities in which he compared self-described sanctuary cities in the United States, theUnited Kingdom, and Canada and how they accommodate their undocumented populations. The concept of the
sanctuary city he found to be highly ambiguous, and he parses the concept in its different locations in the
search for commonalities and found that the ideas in one locale are often transferred to others whether bymodern telecommunications or by travelling activists.
This brief survey does not claim to offer a comprehensive account of the issues covered by International
Migration’s authors. Although there are evident common themes, our authors also presented innovations andcovered less often seen themes including migrants in private militaries, brain drain from developed economies,
the relationship between natural disasters and human trafficking, slave like conditions faced by migrants inthe fishing industry, and the relationship between attitudes towards migrants and the willingness to accept
risks in life. We appreciate the work that our authors have done to stimulate our collective thinking about
international migration, a subject of endless possibilities.

324

AppendicesInternational Migration Review 19
Chief Editors: Jamie Winders, Pieter Bevelander, Cynthia Feliciano, Filiz Garip and Matthew HallInternational Migration Review (IMR) focuses on the interdisciplinary study of international migration. It
publishes 30 to 40 articles a year, along with shorter research notes and book reviews. Led by an interdisciplinary
editorial team from economics, sociology, and geography and guided by an international and interdisciplinary
editorial board, IMR seeks to publish articles that both are grounded in rich empirics and push the boundaries
of how, where, and from what perspective we examine the complexities of international migration. Theinterplay between the two ‘I’ words associated with IMR – interdisciplinary and international – guides what
we, as editors, seek in publications. Among the manuscripts submitted to IMR, we prioritize those that havereach beyond specific disciplines, perspectives, or methodological approaches and that situate their findingsvis-à-vis wider international trends.
A close examination of IMR publications since 2016 (about 100 articles) identifies a number of trends.20 First,
in terms of geography, around 80% of articles focus on North America or Western Europe, with a significantly
smaller percentage focused on Asia (just over 10%) and an even smaller number on Latin America, the Middle
East, or Africa. This uneven geographic coverage reflects one of the main shortcomings of migration studies– limited attention to migration dynamics beyond North America and Western Europe. It also highlights thechallenges that scholars writing about the wider geography of international migration face in attempts tosituate their work in relation to hegemonic perspectives about two global regions.
Second, if we look at the populations studied in IMR, beyond a general focus on international migrants,
we find equal attention to native-born and second-generation groups, a critical mass of articles focused on
immigrant youth, but far less work on refugees. Thus, the issue of generation is central to IMR articles, but thedistinctions and overlaps between different kinds of migrants (i.e., skilled migrants, refugees, asylum-seekers,etc.) receive less analysis. Not surprisingly, much of the research on North America examines some aspect of
Mexican migration, while much of the work on Western Europe analyzes the experiences of or attitudes toward
Muslim migrants, making these two groups – Mexican and Muslim migrants – the lens through which muchrecent scholarship has examined the complexities of international migration.
Third, methodologically, IMR articles draw primarily on survey data, especially longitudinal administrative
data and repeated survey data, approached in a range of ways. IMR also publishes rich ethnographic studies,
if in smaller number, as well as work based on interviews and focus groups. Although not common, studies
drawing on big data, satellite imagery, and field experiments round out a robust collection of methodologies
represented in the journal. Finally, IMR publications address a diverse set of topics, from migrant welfare
to immigrant health and stereotypes, but broadly speaking, pay particular attention to immigration policy,
public attitudes, education, family and household activities, wages and employment trends, legal status, andgendered dynamics and ideologies.
Beyond this overall picture, what have been IMR’s key contributions since 2016? Here, we highlight a few
such contributions that, in our view, epitomize IMR’s goal of pushing existing knowledge about internationalmigration in a new or different direction. Some of that ‘pushing’ carries both a political and a policy component.
Jean Beaman’s 2016 article on the second generation in France, for example, showed that the adult children of

19 Articles cited in the journal editors’ contribution can be found at: https://journals.sagepub.com/home/mrx.
20 This discussion is based on articles officially published in an IMR volume. It does not consider articles published ‘early view’ online
but not yet assigned to a journal volume.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

325

migrants from North Africa did not understand religious identity, especially Muslim identity, as incompatible
with a French identity. Instead, these young adults saw themselves ‘as French as anyone else,’ thus challenging
public and academic arguments about the mutually exclusive nature of religious and secular-national identity
in Europe.
In a related policy vein, Marie-Laurence Flahaux (2017) looked at Senegalese return migration, finding that
migrants were less likely to return to Senegal when the possibility of re-entering the host county was slim.
As Flahaux’s work suggests and as was corroborated in a study by Mathias Czaika and Hein de Haas (2017) ofglobal migration and visa data, migration restrictions tend to decrease circular migration and to make migrants
more likely to settle permanently in the host country, giving the political decision to tighten borders theunintended policy outcome of transforming circular migration into permanent settlement.
Other IMR articles jump into the interdisciplinary debate about assimilation, examining standard measures likemarriage and language patterns, as well as less common measures, such as norms about body size (Altman, Van
Hook and Gonzalez, 2017). Mieke Maliepaard and Richard Alba’s 2016 article on cultural integration amongchildren born to Muslim parents in the Netherlands examined this group’s gender norms, concluding that an
explanation of either assimilation toward a Dutch norm or maintenance of ‘traditional’ gender views was too
simplistic to understand this group’s complex, sometimes-contradictory gender ideologies and highlighting
the need to disaggregate internal dynamics within ethnic communities. Ayumi Takenaka and her co-authors(2016) took these ideas a step further in their examination of immigrant economic mobility in Japan. As theynote, standard explanations of assimilation do not fully explain immigrant economic success or failure in
Japan, demonstrating the need for a more diverse geographic base for migration theories.
Another key theme in IMR publications is interpersonal contact. Benjamin Schulz and Lars Leszczensky’s 2016
article on friendship dynamics between native-born and immigrant youth in Germany found that among theimmigrant backgrounds studied (Yugoslavian, Southern European, Turkish, and Polish), different relationships
between national identification with Germany and share of native friends emerged, driving home the need to
critically interrogate group differences among immigrants. Judith Koops and her co-authors (2017) tweaked
this model to study contact not only between ethnic minorities and the majority population but also among
different immigrant groups, finding different patterns between these two sets of dynamics and arguing forattention to interactions among minority ethnic groups in the study of international migration.
Although many IMR articles focus on the national scale, others make strong arguments for attention to local
dynamics. Andrew Felenon’s article (2017) analyzes health outcomes among Mexican immigrants in the UnitedStates, documenting a survival advantage among Mexican immigrants in new destinations and challenging
universal claims about immigrant enclaves’ protective health effects. Amrita Pande (2018) takes an evenfiner-scaled approach in her study of domestic migrant workers in Lebanon, which argues for attention to the‘intimate’ spaces of daily life which these migrant workers use to resist and complicate dominant images ofdomestic workers and their lived realities.
A number of IMR articles tackle foundational concepts like citizenship, examining how residential concentrationand naturalization rates are linked (Abascal 2017) or offering synthetic overviews of citizenship scholarship in
migration studies (Bloemraad and Sheares 2017). Others grapple with popular concepts like “crisis” in public
discourse around international migration, highlighting the political work such terms do while also showing
how a ‘crisis’ might feel quite ordinary to migrants already experiencing chronic and slowly unfolding ‘crises’of their own (Bylander 2018).

326

AppendicesMoving forward, we hope that IMR will continue to seek rigorous, innovative, and interdisciplinary research.
Expanding the geographic coverage of IMR publications is a clear goal, as is attention to newer themes likeforced and climate-related migrations, the impact of new media in migrant experiences, and the incorporationof data science into migration studies. As much as the detailed and thorough empirical research that sits at
IMR’s heart remains a high priority, we also hope to see more agenda-setting pieces like Tomas Jimenez and his
co-authors’ recent discussion (2018) of the “next chapter” in the study of assimilation. The interplay between
empirical investigation and theoretical engagement, between testing theories and proposing them, forms thecore of interdisciplinary engagement and, we hope, will shape IMR’s trajectory until our next report.

Journal of Immigrant and Refugee Studies 21
Chief Editor: Anna Triandafyllidou
The JIRS is one of the few academic journals that has a double focus on both labour migrants and asylum
seekers/refugees, and a truly interdisciplinary focus that spans from social work and social policy, to migrationand ethnic studies, media and public discourses, to asylum policy and practice. The focus of the journal,
originally North American, has now shifted to pay more attention to Europe but also Asia Pacific and to someextent South and East Asia. There has been also a clear increase in recent years of articles focusing on the
Middle East and particularly on Turkey, and the Syrian conflict.
The contributions published in the journal can be organized along two main thematic axes.
The first thematic axis brings together a variety of quantitative and qualitative approaches for studying migrant/
asylum seeker arrival, settlement, and integration processes. These include articles looking at resettlement
policy and practice, and analyzing the work of non-governmental and governmental organisations and local
authorities in providing arrival support and integration. Interestingly we have published articles that look at
the challenges that social workers and civil society organisations face in their work but also papers that lookat the integration barriers that migrants and settled refugees face once at the destination country. There isclearly a focus on the gender dimension and particularly on the challenges faced by women, but also on issuesof parenting and on the special integration and belonging challenges faced by youth.
These research topics are valid across world regions and probably this is an important finding in meta-analysing
immigration related research. Thus for instance in 2018, we published papers on refugee resettlement in North
America and Australia (“My world is upside down” Transnational Iraqui Youth and Parent Perspectives on
Resettlement in the United States; Integration or Building Resilience: what should the goal be in refugee
resettlement?; ) but also on how migrants activate their networks to find their place in their new home countries(A grounded theory of Korean Immigrants’ experiences of re-establishing everyday activities in New Zealand;
A Study on Transnational Communication among Iranian Migrant Women in Australia; Negotiating Refugee
Empowerment in Resettlement Organizations (in the USA); or “Asking Around”: Immigrants’ Counterstrategies
to renew their residence permit in times of economic crisis in Italy).
The JIRS offers a unique virtual transnational space where different systems of reception and integration anddifferent populations coming into the host countries under a variety of regimes (labour or family migrants,asylum seekers or resettled refugees) may face similar challenges (including that of mental and physical21 Articles cited in the journal editor’s contribution can be found at: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/wimm20.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

327

health), learning the ropes in their new environment, activating their social capital resources, and eventuallycarving a place for themselves in their destination country, are discussed. The double background of the JIRS
from social work/community studies, and from sociology/ethnic studies pays well in bringing these different
topics together.
The second major topic that has occupied a salient position in our published research in both 2017 and 2018 is
the governance of irregular migration and asylum seeking. During this period we published three special issues
that actually develop different aspects of this theme.
Our second issue for 2017 was a Special Issue (guest editors, Alexandra Ricard-Guay, European University
Institute, and Thanos Maroukis, University of Bath) focused on human trafficking in domestic work looking
at severely exploited migrant women domestic workers in different European countries. Contributions to thisspecial issue highlighted the gaps in human trafficking research that has focused typically on sex workoverlooking ‘shadow’ areas such as live-in domestic work, au-pairs turned into slaves, and pointed to thegaps in national and European anti-trafficking legislation. Papers in this special issue showed how migrant
domestic and care work is part and parcel of welfare systems in the ageing European societies and analysedboth sociologically and legally the case of trafficking in domestic work. The findings highlighted howloose conditions surrounding domestic and care work in private homes can lead to vulnerability and severe
exploitation. Indeed we could speak of a ‘slippery slope’ where migrant live-in workers are not aware of theirrights and families who employ them are not aware of their obligations while the state fails both to monitor
and control this sizeable labour market sector. Thus extra working hours and low payment, may slowly becomeno payment at all, restriction of one’s privacy and liberty, severe physical and emotional abuse, thus raising acase of trafficking rather than simple exploitation.
During the same year we ran another special issue (guest editor Marie McAuliffe IOM research) focusing
on irregularity and protection in southeast Asia. Building on the crisis in the Andaman sea in May 2015,
contributions to this Special Issue pointed to the special features of irregular migration in southeast Asiaand most notably the reluctance or inability of several host and origin countries to register their minorities
and migrants and to provide them with a secure residence status. Indeed in southeast Asia the challenge of
irregular labour migration or asylum seeking is particularly complex as several minority groups and mostnotably the Rohingya face problems of statelessness. This Special Issue sadly coincided with the new Rohingya
crisis in summer and fall 2017 when Myanmar engaged into an ethnic cleansing strategy in the Rakhine stateleading nearly 700,000 Rohingya to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh.
Third but no less important, we ran in early 2018 a double special issue (guest editors Michal Krzyzanowski,
Orebro University, Anna Triandafyllidou, EUI, Ruth Wodak, University of Lancaster) analyzing the media
coverage and political discourses on the Mediterranean ‘refugee emergency’ of 2014-2016. This special issue
followed an imaginary path of discourses from Greece west and north along the Balkan route, to Central, Nordic,
Western and Eastern Europe. It looked at how the whole issue was presented in the media and particularly
how it was debate in Parliaments, by party leaders or in official Twitter accounts. Interestingly comparing theresults of our country cases we found significant convergence among a solidarity/humanitarian and control/
security frame which were at odds with one another. This tension was however solved with a discursive framingthat privileged viable and sustainable responses to the refugee flows. Thus humanitarianism was brought
together with realism, with ‘rationality’ being emphasized as the key quality of specific policy responses that
aimed at reducing the flows. The notion of crisis was present in all the different country discourses examined
and was used also among European countries to designate the ‘bad’ and ‘good’ Europeans.

328

Appendices

Indeed these three special issues reflect the salience of the governance of irregular migration and asylum
seeking issues not only among citizens and politicians but also within the academic community. The maindifference of course between the two discourses (the public and the academic) being that the latter seeks toprivilege in depth analysis that help us understand the causes, effects, dynamics of different phenomena, theirlegal and policy framework and of course the ways they can be portrayed as existential threats to the nonmigrants or indeed as ethical and political obligations in building a fairer world.
Interestingly and perhaps reflecting the zeitgeist and the rise of both migrant/refugee flows and of related
xenophobia and racisms, during these two years there has been in our journal a lesser attention to issues of
employment or labour market integration or for instance on highly skilled migration or brain drain/brain
circulation. Another thematic area that could attract more attention is intra-regional labour and asylum
related migration flows and what is termed (perhaps erroneously) South-South migration.

Journal on Migration and Human Security 22
Chief Editor: Donald Kerwin
In 2013, the Center for Migration Studies of New York (CMS) established the Journal on Migration and Human
Security (JMHS), an online, peer-reviewed, public policy publication. JMHS draws on the knowledge, expertiseand perspectives of scholars, researchers, public officials, faith communities, non-governmental organizations(NGOs), business leaders and others. Its theme of human security is meant to evoke the widely shared goals ofcreating secure, sustaining conditions in migrant source communities; promoting safe, legal migration options;and, allowing immigrants to lead productive, secure lives and to participate fully in their new communities.
Without sacrificing academic and analytical rigor, JMHS papers take a human-centered approach to migration
scholarship, focusing on (typically) at risk, vulnerable, and marginalized persons who are misunderstoodand often scapegoated in migration policy debates. JMHS requires that each published paper begin with an
executive summary and end with a series of policy recommendations. This increases the accessibility of JMHS
papers to policymakers, policy influencers, and the general public. JMHS promises potential authors that theirwork will be rigorously reviewed, published in a timely fashion (if accepted), and distributed through researchand university library databases, to JMHS’s extensive dissemination list, and to tailored lists of policymakers,
the press and others with a special interest in the topic. JMHS also publicizes its papers via social media, bothupon their release and subsequently in response to news hooks and relevant policy discussions.
Many JMHS papers receive extensive media coverage and attention by policymakers. This has included a set ofpapers – authored by Robert Warren and occasionally co-authored by Donald Kerwin – based on CMS estimatesof the US undocumented and other populations, derived from the US Census Bureau’s American Community
Survey. This series has documented the falling US undocumented population, their characteristics, and the factthat most newly undocumented residents enter the United States legally and overstay their visas, rather thanillegally cross a border. The latter point – elaborated in several JMHS papers – has been referenced in morethan a hundred discrete media outlets since 2017 and has become a staple of the public debate on the Trumpadministration’s proposed US-Mexico border wall.

22 Articles cited in the journal editor’s contribution can be found at: https://journals.sagepub.com/home/mhs.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

329

JMHS has also published exhaustive profiles on other populations targeted by the Trump administration,
including potential DREAM Act beneficiaries (undocumented persons brought to the United States as children),refugees, Temporary Protected Status (TPS) recipients, persons with a close family relationship to a US citizen
or lawful permanent resident (LPR) that would potentially qualify them for a visa, and long-term residents
who may be eligible to naturalize. These papers – which illustrate the deep and longstanding ties of thesegroups to the United States – have garnered substantial attention from national and local government officials,
policymakers, academics, researchers, the business community, NGOs, and the press. Although extremist groups
and politicians occasionally dispute (without evidence) CMS’s estimates, the JMHS papers in this series offer afactual basis and rare common ground in the US immigration debate.
In its short existence, JMHS has proven to be an invaluable tool in addressing – whether through special
collections or multiple papers on the same theme – public policy issues that raise human security themes.
In 2016, for example, CMS hosted a three-day conference in anticipation of the UN Summit to Address Large
Movements of Refugees and Migrants. The Summit culminated in the New York Declaration for Refugees andMigrants, which led to the adoption in 2018 of the Global Compact on Refugees and the Global Compact for
Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration. The special collection of JMHS resulting from its conference – entitled
Strengthening the Global Refugee Protection System – informed these processes. In particular, policymakers,
academics and other leading authors contributed papers on:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

New frameworks for displaced persons not traditionally seen as meeting the international refugee
definition (Susan Martin);
Ethical perspectives on refugee protection (David Hollenbach, SJ);The challenge of inclusive communities (George Rupp);
State responses to refugee influxes, with a focus on Lebanon (Ninette Kelley);
Refugee responsibility sharing (Volker Türk);Matching systems for refugees (Will Jones and Alex Teytelboym);
Safe and voluntary repatriation (Jeff Crisp and Katy Long);
The right to remain in one’s home community (Daniel Kanstroom);
The externalization of migration controls (Bill Frelick, Ian Kysel and Jennifer Podkul); and deterrence
strategies (Thomas Gammeltoft-Hansen and Nikolas F. Tan) as barriers to refugee protection;
Migrant smuggling research (Gabriella Sanchez);
Detention by non-state actors (Michael Flynn);
The perspectives of Central American child migrants (Susan Schmidt);
Lessons from the large-scale migration of Central American women and children (Karen Musalo andEunice Lee);
US refugee protection legislation (Tara Magner);
National security and refugee protection as complementary imperatives (Donald Kerwin);
Public opinion data (Brad K. Blitz);
Variations in refugee economic outcomes (Alexander Betts, Naohiko Omata, and Louise Bloom);
The need for egalitarian, redistributive, long-term development for refugees and their host communities(Leah Zamore); and,
Recommendations for the Global Compact on Refugees (Kevin Appleby).

This special collection followed an earlier JMHS collection consisting of 11 papers on reform of the US refugeeprotection system (writ large) which commemorated the Refugee Act of 1980 on its 35th anniversary. More

330

Appendicesrecently, in 2018, JMHS published a study on how 1.1 million refugees who resettled in the United States
between 1987 and 2016 integrated and fared over time, compared to non-refugees, the foreign-born, and theoverall US population.
Since January 2017, JMHS has extensively documented and critiqued the Trump administration’s immigration
policies. In January 2018, JMHS released a special collection of papers titled The US Immigration System:
Principles, Interests, and Policy Proposals to Guide Long-Term Reform, which covered:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

The national interests and values that should guide long-term reform of the US immigration system(Donald Kerwin);
Nativism and US immigration policies (Julia G. Young);
The future of citizenship (Peter J. Spiro);
Immigration federalism (Cristina Rodriguez);
The effectiveness of border enforcement (Edward Alden);
Restoring the rule of law to the removal adjudication system (Lenni B. Benson);
The merits of a subject-centered approach to legal non-compliance (Emily Ryo);
Post-deportation barriers to family reunification (Deborah A. Boehm);
The case for family unity (Zoya Gubernskaya and Joanna Dreby);
Creating cohesive immigration policies (Pia O. Orrenius and Madeline Zavodny);
Labor standards enforcement as an essential element of immigration reform (Janice Fine and GregoryLyon);
Economic development as an antidote to involuntary migration (John W. Harbeson);
Possible directions for the US agricultural sector and workers (Philip Martin);
The national interests served by US immigration policies, and how to replace an immigration systemcharacterized by illegality with robust legal immigration policies (Donald Kerwin and Robert Warren).

In addition, a subsequent paper by Ruth Wasem examines the history of US immigration governance, identifies
the many US immigration functions, and makes recommendations for reform.
JMHS also produced a special collection devoted to the US immigration enforcement system, The Law That Begot
the Modern US Immigration Enforcement System: IIRIRIA 20 Years Later. This collection covers the consequencesof immigrant detention, criminal prosecution, and removal on deportees, US families and communities. It
includes a study by Michael Coon on the impact of immigration enforcement by localities. More recently, JMHS
published a study on US deportees in Mexico and the family members of deportees remaining in the UnitedStates. This report has been the subject of substantial roll-out, public presentations, and Capitol Hill briefings.
Immigrant detention – both from a US and global perspective – has been regularly covered in JMHS, mostrecently in an influential paper on the privatization of detention by D. Gilman and L.A. Romero. CMS has
also begun to publish a series of papers — some of which will appear in JMHS — on the rule of law, access tojustice and due process in the US removal adjudication system. These papers are dedicated to Juan P. Osuna,
the former Director of the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), which oversees the US immigration
court system.
While this short summary has highlighted special editions and thematic sets of papers, JMHS also accepts
submissions on a range of issues which are poorly understood and often deliberately distorted in the publicarena. The journal’s growth and vitality will also increasingly be tied to papers with greater geographic andWORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

331

topical diversity. To that end, JMHS has published important work on the negotiation process for the Global
Compact on Migration, wage and income inequality among farmworkers, forced labor and human traffickingaround the World Cup and other major sporting events, Europe’s anti-smuggling initiatives, and different
national responses to the Syrian refugee crisis. At a time of rising nationalism and hostility toward immigrants,
JMHS plans to redouble its efforts to publish timely, fact-based, policy-relevant papers on human security
themes.

Migration Studies 23
Chief Editor: Alan Gamlen
Migration Studies is an international refereed journal dedicated to advances in theory, methodology andcomparative research concerning all forms of human migration. Published by Oxford University Press, eachyear it receives around 200 submissions from 70-80 countries. After blind peer review through a global editorial
board representing each major social science discipline and each major world region, Migration Studies publishes
around 20 full-length original research articles and half a dozen or so reviews of books, films and other media.
We occasionally publish Research Notes and Special Issues. In 2017-18 the journal was included in the corejournal collection of Oxford University Press journals available to many libraries around the world, which
increased its visibility. It was also assigned an official SSCI Impact Factor, a credential that lets professionalmigration researchers to trust the journal with their best research.
Advances in theory, methods, and comparative data
In 2017-18 Migration Studies has covered most aspects of migration, from emigrant decision-making in origin
places; to processes of movement through complex regulatory systems; to dynamics of immigrant adaptation;
to practices of transnationalism. It has contributed to longstanding discussions on issues the relationshipbetween forced and free migration, and the role of gender in migration dynamics, and to major contemporary
discussion of the so-called ‘European migration crisis’, and the current evolution of a global regime to govern
migration.
Migration research continues to focus heavily on the drivers of migration on one hand, and processes ofimmigrant adaptation on the other. In 2017-18, Migration Studies pushed forward scholarship on both fronts.
We published several large-scale analyses on migration determinants. Matthew Hayes and Rocío Pérez-Gañán
examined the under-researched case of North–South lifestyle and retirement migration to Ecuador, while
Maryann Bylander compared two South-east Asian migration corridors, challenging the theory that “the poorestof the poor are generally less likely to migrate”, and exposing the importance of “worker-borne costs” and levelsof formalization of migration processes. Marie-Laurence Flahaux and Simona Vezzoli revealed that the closureof formerly open Caribbean colonial borders caused a strong increase, not a decrease, in emigration – towards
a wider array of other destinations. Speaking to abiding concerns about the ‘failure’ of migration policies to
impact migration, Jan-Paul Brekke, Marianne Røed and Pål Schøne showed that restrictions during the 2015
European migration crisis both reduced asylum outflows and deflected them other countries. Examining the
integration strategies of Iranian students in Western Europe, Ahmad Karimi and Sandra M Bucerius argued that“the processes of immigration and integration begin long before emigration actually takes place”.

23 Articles cited in the journal editor’s contribution can be found at: https://academic.oup.com/migration.

332

AppendicesIn 2017-18 we also showcased work on various forms of immigrant adaptation, including several contributions
to longstanding debates on labor market incorporation. Sukanya Basu examined the wage-assimilation profilesof ‘new’ and ‘old’ immigrant cohorts from Asian countries. Christel Kesler and Mirna Safi compared barriers
to labor force participation and employment for immigrants France and the United Kingdom, while Ivana
Fellini found that the European ‘crisis’ has changed the dominant patterns of labor of incorporation in Italy
and Spain. Karsten Paerregaard studied immigrant entrepreneurship amongst Peruvian migrants, while María
Sánchez-Domínguez and Susanne Fahlén compared how different institutional contexts shape the ability ofimmigrant women in Spain and Sweden to move beyond and above ethnic niches.
Wider processes of immigrant reception and adaptation have also featured prominently. Several papers looked at
adaptation in terms of class and capital accumulation. Maja Cederberg showed the complexity of class positioning
among female migrants in the UK, and Suzanne Huot argued that immigrants experience “misrecognition” oftheir social and human capital, which drives them into specific occupations to compensate. Moving beyond
economic outcomes, Silvia Maja Melzer and Ruud J. Muffels spoke to the growing literature on migration andhappiness, using German panel data to examine subjective wellbeing in connection with east-west migration
after reunification. In contributions to the literature on contexts of reception, Timothy B Gravelle examined
why Canadians hold closed vs open views towards refugees and immigrants, while Roy Germano demonstrated
the use of video methods “to promote empathy, reduce xenophobia, and illustrate concepts in the study ofinternational migration”.
Migration Studies has published groundbreaking studies on processes of movement itself, including how it isregulated and shaped by policies at various levels. Cecilia Menjívar, Juliana E Morris and Néstor P Rodríguez
studied the far-reaching consequences of deporting Honduran migrants, while Nora El Qadim explored thesymbolic nature of visa policies between Morocco and Europe. Basia D Ellis and Henderikus J Stam revealed how
Polish migrants in Canada “learn to become ‘irregular’”, and Theresa Alfaro-Velcamp and colleagues exposed
the underground market for immigrant papers in Cape Town. Marianne Takle focused on the contribution of
migration statistics to the EU border control, and Sara Cosemans examined the phenomenon of post-colonial
East African Asian diasporic refugees. In a significant contribution to the literature on migration governance,
the journal ran a full special issue on migration regimes in November 2017, guest edited by Kenneth Horvath,
Anna Amelina, and Karin Peters.
In 2017-18 Migration Studies also showcased new work on the topic of transnationalism that has dominatedmigration research in recent decades. For example, using Mexican data, Ana Isabel López García ascertained thevarying effects of remittances on voter turnout in different migration contexts. Robtel Neajai Pailey studied
the evolution of dual citizenship in Liberia, and Ali Chaudhary compared the transnational orientation of
Pakistani immigrant organizations in London and New York. In a significant methodological contribution,
John Gibson and David McKenzie demonstrated the reliability of survey methods for researching remittances.
Building migration management capacity
Through scholarship that is policy relevant but not policy driven, Migration Studies is one of a range ofacademic journals contributing to building migration management capacity in communities and governments
around the world. The past several years have seen a worldwide proliferation of graduate programs and thinktanks specializing in migration issues. At the same time, the rising political salience of migration has createda growing need for policy makers, journalists and NGO professionals in other areas to gain working familiarity
with migration issues. In view of these trends, in the past two years Migration Studies has run two series

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

333

intended to contribute to the theory and practice of higher education on this topic. The first is a series called
Teaching Migration Studies, involving brief descriptions and reflections on the professional practice of teaching
about the topic in different parts of the world, written by senior scholars working in key graduate programs
that prominently feature migration and related issues. The second series is entitled Classics in Migration
Studies. Edited by Advisory Board member Robin Cohen, this series features reviews of canonical books andarticles in the history of migration scholarship, written by leading migration scholars from around the world.
Through efforts like this, Migration Studies has contributed to a growing international community of migration
experts. As well as concerning themselves with social scientific progress, many members of this community
are deeply engaged in public debates about migration, and are contributing to public life by informing andimpacting the thoughts and decisions of politicians, policy makers and practitioners of migration policy at every
level, from local NGOs, to municipal governments, to national governments and international organizations.
We are particularly pleased to have helped cultivate such community at a time when sound facts and rational
arguments about migration are so urgently needed in public debates in so many countries.
Challenges ahead
As a journal, Migration Studies faces several challenges going forward. First is the need to connect with thegrowing community of natural scientists studying migration using methods such as genomic analysis. Thesemethods enable previously unimaginable insights about the nature and history of human migration, but also
raise profound ethical questions. As the field of genomic migration research develops, it should happen incloser dialogue with critical social scientists, who may help prevent the emergence of a new eugenics.
Second, Migration Studies needs to engage more deeply with migration research in psychology and the healthsciences. Like the social sciences, these fields increasingly feature migration research, but because of theirdisciplinary position they largely remain ships passing in the night.
Third, Migration Studies faces the ongoing challenge of balancing disciplinary rigor and interdisciplinarity
relevance in an increasingly commercial academic environment. A major question facing all academic journals
is how to maintain scholarly standards as academic publishing continues to strain already-stretched researchers
by demanding their free labor – particularly as peer-reviewed outlets face competition for clicks from a vastarray of open source publications.
Finally, on a personal note, I would like to thank all the reviewers, authors, editors, advisors, production staff,
publishing team members, and everyone else involved, for the expertise, energy, and enthusiasm they havecontributed to the journal not only in the past two years, but since our founding in 2013 – itself the result of
several years of collective preparation. It has been a great honor to lead the journal throughout this period,
and as I prepare to hand over the reins to the next editor at the end of 2019, I am proud to reflect on thecontributions that the journal makes towards understanding one of the most important issues of our time.

334

Appendices

Refugee Survey Quarterly 24
Chief Editor: Vincent Chetail
The Refugee Survey Quarterly published 44 articles in 2017 and 2018, focusing on the challenges of forced
migration from multidisciplinary and policy-oriented perspectives with a broad range of academic backgrounds(such as sociology, political science, law, history, geography and economics). The diversity in scope andcontent of these articles is the result of an editorial re-orientation of the journal undertaken since 2010. While
the journal has been published by Oxford University Press since its creation in 1982, it was previously managed
by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). During that time, the journal primarily
published bibliographies and official documents on the protection of refugees, especially those produced by
UNHCR. It then included as well special issues dedicated to a particular theme and guest edited by experts in
the relevant area.
When UNHCR pulled out of the journal in 2010, the Refugee Survey Quarterly experienced a major turnaroundto become a genuine academic publication and, today, a reference journal in the field of forced migration.
In addition to the establishment of a rigorous blind peer review process, the journal started to welcome
submissions on an ongoing basis. An editorial strategy was also put in place to diversify the scope and content
of articles to better reflect the rapid developments in the field of refugee protection. This strategy has borne
fruit as illustrate the articles published in 2017 and 2018.
First, the objective has been to broaden the geographical scope of submissions. Prior to 2010, articles tended to
predominantly focus on refugee issues in the Global North, especially in Europe. A larger geographical coverage
was thus needed to better account for the obstacles raised to international refugee protection worldwide. It is
well-known indeed that the vast majority of refugees are hosted in the Global South, while some States haveemerged as new destination countries for the past decades. In addition to articles on Africa which are regularly
published in the Refugee Survey Quarterly, the 2017 and 2018 contributions included papers on Lebanon,
Jordan, Egypt, Syria and the Gulf countries, as well as on Latin America, such as El Salvador, Mexico and Brazil.
Particular efforts were also made in the past years to attract articles on Asia which tends to be underrepresented
in the refugee literature. These efforts seem to have responded to a real need from readers as one of the articles
published in 2018 and focusing on China has gathered almost 5,000 views and downloads at the time of writing(see L. Song, “China and the International Refugee Protection Regime: Past, Present, and Potentials”, in Vol.
37(2), 2018, pp. 139-161; in open access). Despite the diversification of the journal’s geographical scope, theRefugee Survey Quarterly of course continues to publish articles on more “traditional” regions of asylum, suchas North America and Europe.
Second, the editorial strategy for the past years has also been to widen the thematic focus of the journal.
Despite its name, the Refugee Survey Quarterly is not only about refugees. It is more generally concerned by
all aspects relating to forced migration. Beyond more traditional questions of resettlement, protection or
humanitarian assistance, the 2017 and 2018 contributions notably cover issues related to statelessness andinternally displaced persons. Contributions also tackle the question of protection against climate change anddisaster (see B. Burson, W. Kälin, J. McAdam and S. Weerasinghe, “The Duty to Move People Out of Harm’s Way
in the Context of Climate Change and Disasters, Vol. 37(4), 2018, pp. 379-407), as well as gender, displacement

24 Articles cited in the journal editor’s contribution can be found at: https://academic.oup.com/rsq.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020335

and peacebuilding (see K.E. Atkinson, “Policy and possibilities of humanitarian development: Displaced Womenand Peace-Building Features of the UNHCR”, Vol. 37(4), 2018, pp. 408-439; freely available).
The content of the Refugee Survey Quarterly has also logically broadened as asylum and migration havebecome increasingly blurred in the past decades in both policy and practice. For instance, the special issue
on “‘Undesirable and Unreturnable’ Aliens in Asylum and Immigration Law” tackles the question of asylumseekers refused international protection for security reasons, but who are nonetheless unreturnable to theircountry of origin, especially due to the protection afforded by the principle of non-refoulement (guest edited
by D.J. Cantor, J. van Wijk, S. Singer and M.P. Bolhuis, Vol. 36(1), 2017). The securitization of asylum wasalso the subject of other contributions, especially from the perspective of detention and its disastrous effects
on asylum-seekers, alongside articles on the impact of border controls on refugee protection. The limits anddangers inherent to such a security approach are well exemplified by several case studies focusing on Australia,
Canada and European States. Another interesting contribution analyses refugee policy in the United States asa reflection of its foreign policy when it comes to the resettlement of Iraqi and Afghan refugees (N.R. Micinski,“Refugee Policy as Foreign Policy: Iraqi and Afghan Refugee Resettlements to the United States”, Vol. 37(3),2018, pp. 253-278).
While the thematic coverage of the journal will continue to evolve with the new developments in forced
migration, the Refugee Survey Quarterly will remain dedicated to publish high quality and original articles on
issues of both academic and policy interest. In this regard, the journal is thankful to peer reviewers who havekindly offered their time and expertise, despite the increasingly demanding workload entailed by academic
positions. One of the main challenges for the years to come will be to further diversify the geographical originof contributors to the Refugee Survey Quarterly. While efforts have been made in this sense in the past years,
submissions are still dominated by scholars from the Global North. This is not peculiar to the Refugee Survey
Quarterly, but more broadly reflects the prevailing biases in academic research and publications.
In this field like in many others, the production of knowledge remains largely structured by the Western-centricpriorities of research funding that is financed by wealthy states and fuelled by the dominant discourse of thegoverning elites. This trend is further exacerbated by the enduring misperceptions spread by mass media, as
illustrated by the rhetoric – if not the obsession – about the so-called refugee crisis in Europe. While it may
have less implications in other fields, the geographical representation of researchers is particularly crucial
in migration to account for the multifaceted dimensions and challenges of such a worldwide phenomenon
that concerns every region of the world. There is more than ever a vital need for developing a more nuanced,
representative and comprehensive understanding of migration through independent and evidence-basedknowledge.

International Journal of Migration and Border Studies
Chief Editor: Dr. Idil AtakInternational Journal of Migration and Border Studies (IJMBS) is a peer-reviewed journal which offers a forum fordisciplinary and inter-disciplinary research concerning conceptual, theoretical, empirical and methodologicaldimensions of migration and border studies. The journal brings together a diverse range of international
scholars and practitioners to advance knowledge and improve practice. Over the past two years, the IJMBS
contributions spanned many geographic regions and countries documenting and critically analysing migration

336

Appendicesand border policies and practices as well as the experiences of migrants. IJMBS contributed knowledge inthree interrelated areas, in particular: the criminalisation of migrants; borders as sites of deterrence andcontainment; and strategies to promote mobility and the human rights of migrants.
The criminalisation of migrants
The IJMBS contributions typically dealt with the current global and national contexts where migrants’mobility has been constrained by restrictive measures. States have resorted to the criminalisation of migration
or crimmigration to deter and to punish asylum seekers and irregular migrants. The process involves anincreased reliance on the criminal law to enforce im­migration statutes. Violations of immigration law carrycriminal consequences without the implementation of procedural protections applicable to criminal law.
Problematic measures include arbitrary detentions, enhanced surveillance practices, interception strategies
and deportations. States have also tightened the criteria for granting refugee status with a view to limiting
the number of persons granted asylum with the pretext of deterring ‘abuse’. Against this background, IJMBS
explored important theoretical and empirical implications associated with crimmigration and how thisphenomenon is constructed and challenged in diverse settings. To illustrate, a historical lens was used in acontribution to examine the ideological roots pertaining to the Belgian policy of migrants’ deportation. Suchan approach demonstrated how framing the foreigner as an unethical subject legitimised the exceptional powerof deportation. Similarly, several authors adopted a comparative perspective to illuminate the commonalities
between histories, rationales, and implementation of criminalizing policies in different jurisdictions. One
such example is the safe country of origin criteria used in refugee status determination both in the European
Union (EU) and in Canada as a tool to delegitimize certain refugee claims and to reduce the number of‘undesirable’ asylum seekers.
A common theme across contributions is the impact of crimmigration on the human rights of migrants. Take
the Canadian immigration detention regime where there are no clear statutory time limits or meaningfulindependent oversight. This situation clearly aggravates the risk for arbitrary and inhumane detentionof migrants. The United States President Donald Trump’s travel bans offer another illustration of how
crimmigration violates individual rights like the right to privacy and the presumption of innocence. In
addition, these travel bans require states to provide information relating to their citizens and resident
foreigners to the United States authorities in return for being left off the list of banned countries. Indeed anumber of contributions in IJMBS highlighted that migration management has become a major dimension ofinterstate relations. Destination countries increasingly cooperate with source and transit countries to enable
them to efficiently control their borders and contain irregular migrants. Often characterised by an imbalanceof power between states, the externalisation of migration controls has been detrimental to migrants’ rights as
exemplified in the case of smuggled asylum seekers in Indonesia. The ‘illegality’ of this population has been
constructed as a result of Indonesia’s enhanced cooperation with Australia. This had a transformative effectnot only on Indonesian law but also on social attitudes towards asylum seekers in this country. Arrangementswith third-countries are also part of the current debates at the EU level, with the aim to confine refugees
in countries outside or on the periphery of the EU. In some instances, the strategic alliances between states
were embedded in systems of reciprocal conditionalities. An example is the proactive engagement of North
African and Sahel countries in the EU’s immigration control efforts. This engagement was largely motivatedby these countries’ own interests and expectations from the EU, such as military assistance, financial supportand regime legitimacy.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

337

Exclusionary borders and transit migration
Borders are complex spaces that involve discursive, spatial, and temporal dimensions. The evolving natureof borders has been a main focus for IJMBS which systematically examines how border controls operate
in practice. As highlighted in a contribution, border officials are confronted with tasks that entail both
discretionary decision-making and coercive measures where they have to balance a professional ethos with
their personal moral values.
Many IJMBS articles examined the shifting conception of borders as tools of governance and as boundaries
of belonging. A perfect illustration is the ‘anticipatory interdiction’ measures implemented by Canada to
manage the geopolitical ‘threat’ posed by asylum claimants from Mexico. Measures such as the United StatesCanada Safe Third Country Agreement, the Mexican visa imposition, and the safe country of origin scheme
formed a virtual border to effectively filter and exclude migrants from Mexico. In a similar vein, the EU bordercontrol regime generated exclusion and precarity of migrants during the so-called ‘European refugee crisis’ in
2015. As an IJMBS contribution put it, when over a million people reached Europe, intense political debate
on the ‘crisis’ has prevented public opinion from seeing how its root causes lie in the intrinsic weaknessesof the solidarity and responsibility sharing mechanisms in the EU. Indeed another article argued that the
EU’s political priority to counter migrant smuggling affected the provision of humanitarian assistance andaccess to rights for irregular immigrants and asylum seekers. Civil society actors, especially those criticallymonitor and politically mobilise for the rights of migrants in Europe, have faced prosecutions and criminal
convictions when assisting this population. Authors pointed almost invariably to the pressing issue of
ensuring transparency and accountability at the border.
The IJMBS contributed to the understanding of how the logics of borders are confronted by migrant realities
and everyday experiences. Research has documented the increasingly protracted nature of migrants’ journeys.
Being in transit has become the daily lived reality of many people on the move. Accordingly, special attention
was paid by IJMBS to the concept of transit as a space constructed through mobility restrictions regimes andthe above-mentioned systems of reciprocal conditionalities. In particular, there has been a mounting pressure
on the first countries of asylum to double efforts to locally integrate refugees they are hosting. Howeverthese countries struggle to meet the social and economic needs of refugees who often face discrimination.
As described in an article, the desire to move on with their lives and escape the interminable temporarinessin Turkey propelled some Syrian refugees to engage in secondary movements throughout the EU, despite
the risks of the journey. For similar reasons, the vast majority of one million refugees who landed in Greece
and Italy in 2015-2016, then engaged in secondary movements to escape the temporary status and the
exploitative economies of transit. Another contribution shed light on the situation of asylum seekers confinedin Indonesia and who hope to be resettled in Australia. It demonstrated that limbo in transit encouraged
migrants to agree to assisted voluntary return, in many cases, to places where they may face persecution.
Migrant agency, the limits of resistance and the way forward
The resilience and the agency of migrants are among priority topics explored in IJMBS. As demonstrated in
one of the contributions, young temporary migrants from China and Hong Kong, China in the United Kingdom
have been able to deploy strategies such as marriage and the use of sexual capital to prolong their stay inthis country. In other cases, migrants can manage their own migration trajectories through resourceful use of
new technologies. Mobile technology can serve to shape routes, destinations and facilitate the financing of
irregular migration. Sadly the IJMBS contributions also show the limits of resistance and the ways in which

338

Appendicesmigrant agency is harnessed by the state to justify further migration controls and denial of protection. A
typical example is the precarious situation of unaccompanied minors who travelled from Mexico and Central
America to the United States in 2014. The framing of children as ‘illegal migrants’ by the United States and
Mexican authorities allowed increased deportations. As well, border controls were implemented under theguise of assisting minors, who were cast as agentless victims.
Many of the IJMBS articles touched on the counterproductive effects of border control regimes. In addition
to the migrants’ human rights violations, the proliferation of migrant smuggling and human trafficking had
been a by-product of these regimes. As emphasized by an author, a meaningful attempt to address migrantsmuggling requires states to develop legal and safe avenues for accessing countries of asylum. Indeed, the2016 New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants called on states to ensure safe, orderly and regularmigrations. The recent global compacts signal a move towards more inclusive and principled approaches to thegovernance of human mobility. As the Global Compact on Refugees underlined it, refugee resettlement policies
are of key importance in this respect. An IJMBS special issue contributed to the debate by comparing andcontrasting refugee resettlement in four major receiving countries: Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and theUnited Kingdom. Policies were examined in several key areas of settlement support, including employment,
healthcare, education, social welfare and social security. The issue offered an in-depth discussion on whether
and to what extent resettlement policies are adequate. It also critically analysed the policy variance amongstates and between areas of settlement policy. Policy recommendations formulated in the contributions inspire
constructive change and inform policy makers and other stakeholders in the countries studied and globally.
Importantly, a comparative analysis of resettlement policies shows that more solidarity with refugees andcountries in the global South that are currently hosting them is possible.
Overall, the research published in IJMBS functions as a plea for the facilitation of human mobility acrossborders. It dispels the myth that migration can be regulated by deterrence-based policies. Contributions
provide evidence that such policies are counterproductive and highlight the need for an effective humanrights-based global framework that would enhance mobility.

Revue Européenne des Migrations Internationales 25
Chief Editors: Emmanuel Ma Mung and Véronique Petit
The European Review of International Migration (REMI) is a specialised journal on international migrationand inter-ethnic relations. Multidisciplinary (sociology, anthropology, demography, geography, history,
political science, etc.), it publishes in French, English and Spanish in-depth articles of empirical or theoreticalorientation, as well as research notes that present the first results of ongoing research. Each review number
includes a thematic issue which is supplemented by varia. A legal chronical since 2016 takes into account thegrowing importance of legal issues related to international migration and migration policy issues. This reborn
chronical is moderated by a group of specialised lawyers who are developing a network around issues such as
international migration law (conventions, protocols), reception and protection conditions for unaccompanied
minors, protection and promotion of the social rights of migrants, human rights as protection of migrants’rights, access to health, labour law for irregular migrants.

25 Articles cited in the journal editors’ contribution can be found at: https://journals.openedition.org/remi/.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

339

REMI celebrated its 30th anniversary by publishing a special issue entitled “Renewing the Migration Issues”(32/3-4 2016). This special volume brought together original and diversified contributions. In addition to
the classic articles, this issue features interviews with journal editors, researchers and artists. Through theseexchanges, the function of scientific journals in a rapidly changing world of publishing and research, the useof categories and concepts in understanding migration issues and inter-ethnic relations, as well as the placeof migration in multicultural societies are examined. Other articles deal with epistemological challenges byreporting on survey methods in an urban context (use of photography, sound recordings), the measurementof migratory flows, the mapping of migratory flows, the museography of migratory histories. Other articles
analyse more current and topical situations: the United States’ migration policy and the revival of the “Silk
Road” between Asia and Europe.
The issue of violence is a recurring theme in the latest dossiers. The importance of this issue reflects the
tragic consequences of migration policies in particular contexts or crises, and the emergence of work aroundmigrants’ journeys. The dossier “Speaking out against border violence. Putting into words migration to Europe”(33/2-3, 2017) coordinated by Cécile Canut and Anaïk Pian addresses border violence by adopting a language
approach. Considering language practices as an integral part of migration practices in the context of migration
to Europe, the articles analyse how the actors put into words death and violence at borders. Death is consideredin multiple dimensions: social death, physical death, disappearance, institutional and security arbitrariness,
etc. These language practices are understood at different sociological and political levels, whether it is theirproduction from institutional spaces (international organisations, political spaces at European or state level)or their reception by migrants, during their life in Europe or afterwards when they arrive there, or when they
return to their country after an expulsion. The language approach, corresponding both to a consideration of
the discourses produced on migrants and of the narratives taken by migrants in plural discursive frameworks.
This perspective makes it possible to think of the border object while offering a grid for interpreting sociospatial inequalities in the era of globalization.
The issue of violence and migration routes is also addressed through the refugee situation. Karen Akoka,
Olivier Clochard and Albena Tcholakova in the dossier “Recognised refugees and after? “ (33/4, 2017) question
the fate of refugees once they have obtained this status. Indeed, they start from the observation that researchon recognised refugees remains too rare in studies on asylum conditions in Europe. The vast majority ofacademic work focuses on the situation of candidates for refugee status before their application is recognisedor rejected. The articles presented in this dossier examine this “after” time. They question the widespread
image that makes refugee status a kind of outcome and invite us to question its effects in terms of social,
identity and political reconfigurations. Different case studies, referring to different populations and periods(Armenians, Africans, Cambodians, Tamils) shed light on the refugee status as an individual and collective
experience.
The experience of exile and life after it is also examined in the dossier “Living, thinking, writing in exile”(33/1, 2017) coordinated by the historian Ralph Schor, who strives to understand the paths and identity
choices of a particular category of exiles: writers and thinkers. Many of them left their homeland, voluntarily
in the case of those on an unprecedented intellectual adventure, or forced in the case of political refugees.
Articles in history or social science describe the living conditions of writers far from their country in order tounderstand the formation and expression of their thought. Some authors articulate a double corpus: discursive
data from interviews with authors and migrants of the same origin, and a corpus constructed from theirliterary works. These articles examine the literary and anthropological writing of migration, the narrative of
oneself and others, the expression of emotions and feelings, and the viewer’s perspective. Some varia articles

340

Appendicesfocus on the links between film and migration experiences in countries with a film industry. In what way
do cinema and photography open up new discursive spaces? A special richly illustrated dossier is devoted to
the links between photography, migration and cities (32/3-4, 2016). How cinema and photography reflectmigrants’ migratory experiences, imaginations, living, housing and working conditions? These articles also
show how images contribute to current events and the production of memory, instilling emotions, reflections,mobilizations and denunciations.
Contemporary situations are also examined through the lens of history, which makes it possible to grasp
ruptures and continuities and to develop comparative perspectives. This was the case in the dossier on“Romanian Roma migration in Europe: inclusion policies, strategies for distinguishing and (de)building identity
borders” coordinated by Mihaela Nedelcu and Ruxandra-Oana Ciobanu (32/1, 2016). It is also the perspective
adopted in the dossier “Migratory movements of yesterday and today in Italy” coordinated by Paola Corti and
Adelina Miranda (34/1, 2018) which critically reviews Italy’s migratory history, at a time when this country
is becoming increasingly present on the international scene due to policies of refoulement of foreigners atnational borders. The analysis of the Italian case suggests, in the wake of the migration studies, that it is notpossible to define the migration fields within which old and new protagonists move through the simple analysisof territorial trajectories. The research presented shows, on the one hand, that the adoption of a distantperspective is essential to relativize current analyses and, on the other hand, it shows the heuristic interest invarying the focus of the historical perspective on migration facts. Similarly, since it is no longer conceivable
to use categories that semantically reflect the typologies used by a political discourse that instrumentalize
them, it is useful to consider the various spatial-political scales - local, regional, national and international- while appropriating the subjective level to understand the complexity of the phenomenon. This historicalperspective is also present in the dossier “Training elites: mobility of students from Africa north of the Saharain the countries of the former socialist bloc” coordinated by Michèle Leclerc-Olive and Marie-Antoinette Hily
(32/2, 2016), which sheds light on a forgotten part of our history, examines collaboration between countries
in the name of an ideological project, and the “qualified migration” that these programmes generate between
these States. The presentation of these experiences leads to a discussion of the descriptive categories of these“mobilities” and “elites”.
Finally, the last dossier “Mental health in international migration” (34/2-3, 2018) coordinated by Véronique
Petit and Simeng Wang is the first dossier that REMI has devoted to mental health. It is published at a time
when migration policies in France and Europe, due to their deleterious effects, are undermining the rights,
access to healthcare and health of many migrants. Articles provide empirical researches describing the useof care and therapeutic relationships in mental health for migrants at different points in their migrationroute. The mental health perspective renews the reading of the social relationships in which the migrant isinserted. It also makes it possible to analyse the social conditions of production, expression and managementof psychological suffering at the micro, meso and macro- social levels. The methods of care (institutional,social, legal, health) for migrants diagnosed “as having mental disorders, psychological difficulties or in astate of suffering” link the effects of migration policies, the dynamics of reception and care of migrants, theorganisation of care systems and the production of subjectivities and self-expression.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

341

Chapter 6
Appendix A. Terms and definitions relating to migrants’ inclusion and social cohesion
Various terms have been used to refer to migrants’ inclusion in receiving societies and to social cohesion. The
choice of one particular term depends on the interlocutor (who/which stakeholder), the particular period oftime (when), and the historical, political, social, cultural and economic contexts of a particular host country
or society (where).
The table below provides an illustration of some of the terms often used, together with a potential definition.
These definitions are, however, only suggestions as to how these terms can be understood, as no universally
agreed definitions exist.

Acculturation“[A]cculturation comprehends those phenomena which result when groups ofindividuals having different cultures come into continuous first-hand contact withsubsequent changes in the original culture patterns of either or both groups.”
Source: Redfield, Linton and Herskovits, 1936, in Berry, 1997.  

Adaptation“The selective and often conscious attempt to modify certain aspects of cultural
practice in accordance with the host society’s norms and values.”
Source: Castles et al., 2002.

Assimilation“A one-directional policy approach to integration whereby an ethnic or social group– usually a minority – adopts the cultural practices of another – usually that of the
majority ethnic or social group. Assimilation involves the subsuming of language,
traditions, values, mores and behaviour normally leading the assimilating party to
become less socially distinguishable from other members of the receiving society.”
Source: IOM, 2019.

Cultural diversity“The diversity of forms of culture in a society composed of groups of people frommany different cultural backgrounds.”
Source: European Migration Network, 2014, in IOM, 2019.

Exclusion“This can refer to denial of access to certain rights, resources or entitlements
normally seen as part of membership of a specific society. Immigrants are often
included in some areas of society (e.g. labour market) but excluded from others(e.g. political participation).”Source: Castles et al., 2002.

342

Inclusion

Appendices“The process whereby immigrants or refugees become participants in particularsubsectors of society: education, labour market, welfare system, politicalrepresentation, etc. The emphasis is on active and conscious processes: that ispolicies of public agencies or employers, as well as on the role of the newcomers
themselves. This is seen as the antithesis of exclusion and social exclusion.”
Source: Castles et al., 2002.

Incorporation“Incorporation of immigrants is seen by some social scientists as a fairly neutralterm to refer to the overall process by which newcomers become part of a society.
It is seen as avoiding the normative implications of such terms as assimilation,
integration and insertion.”
Source: Castles et al., 2002.

Insertion“The process through which immigrants and refugees are brought into various
social subsectors. The term originates in the French Republican Model of individual
assimilation of immigrants, and carries the implication of being inserted into an
unchanged social institution – in other words, that the immigrant has to assimilate
to existing structures.”Source: Castles et al., 2002.

Integration“The two-way process of mutual adaptation between migrants and the societiesin which they live, whereby migrants are incorporated into the social, economic,
cultural and political life of the receiving community. It entails a set of joint
responsibilities for migrants and communities, and incorporates other related
notions such as social inclusion and social cohesion.”
Source: IOM, 2019.

Interculturalism“[A] technique for bridging differences and creating bonds and social capital. Thatis, it promotes relations between people who share certain characteristics (bonds),
as well as relations between individuals from different backgrounds (promotinginteraction between people across different religions, languages, etc.) who are
predisposed to respecting others’ differences […] It is a way, then, to avoid theconfinement and segregation of people, which may condemn them to a timelesssocial exclusion.”
Source: Zapata-Barrero, 2017.

Multiculturalism“A model of integration policies that welcomes the preservation, expression andsometimes even the celebration of cultural diversity. This approach encourages
migrants to become full members of society while retaining their cultural identities.
It combines the recognition of varied backgrounds, traditions and ways of seeing theworld with certain universalist values, such as the rule of law or gender equality, that
override cultural differences and guarantee the same rights for all. The integration
relationship is then best captured in the image of a mosaic enabling minority ethnic
groupings to live side by side with the majority constituency.”
Source: IOM, 2019, adapted from IOM, 2017b.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

Social cohesion

343“While there is no one universal definition, social cohesion is usually associatedwith such notions as ‘solidarity’, ‘togetherness’, ‘tolerance’ and ‘harmonious coexistence’ and refers to a social order in a specific society or community based on
a common vision and a sense of belonging for all communities; where the diversityof people’s different backgrounds and circumstances are appreciated and positively
valued; those from different backgrounds have similar life opportunities; and strong
and positive relationships are being developed between people from different
backgrounds in the workplace, in schools and within neighbourhoods.”
Source: IOM, 2019, adapted from Demireva (2017), citing Cantle, 2005.

Social exclusion“Social exclusion pertains to a situation in which an individual or group suffers
multiple types of disadvantage in various social sectors (e.g. education, employment,
housing, health).”Source: Castles et al., 2002.

Social inclusion“The process of improving the ability, opportunity, and dignity of people
disadvantaged on the basis of their identity, to take part in society.”
Source: World Bank, 2013, in IOM, 2019.

Transnationalism“Transnationalism broadly refers to multiple ties and interactions linking people andinstitutions across the borders of nation–states.”
Source: Vertovec, 1999.

344

Appendices

Appendix B. The legal framework of migrants’ inclusion
As introduced in chapter 6, the different key policy areas of migrants’ inclusion correspond to and are
grounded in some specific rights to which all individuals are entitled, including migrants. The figure in thisappendix provides an overview of some of the rights that are essential for migrants’ inclusion.
All these rights are based on specific international treaties, especially those part of international humanrights law and international labour law. Without prejudice to other relevant international and regional
instruments, these treaties include:

International human rights law

International labour law• The 1966 International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights• The Migration for Employment
Convention (Revised), 1949 (No. 97)• The 1966 International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights  

• The Migrant Workers(Supplementary Provisions)
Convention, 1975 (No. 143)

• The 1989 Convention on the Rightsof the Child• The 1990 International Convention
on the Protection of the Rights of All
Migrant Workers and Members ofTheir Families

While these treaties are only legally binding for the States that have ratified them, the two Covenants of1966 have now been ratified by virtually all States.26 Moreover, some of the rights in the figure below arecommonly recognized to be part of customary international law. They are thus legally binding on all States,
irrespective of their ratification of specific treaties or conventions. These customary rights most notably
include the main pillar of migrants’ inclusion: that is, the principle of non-discrimination, which ensures thatthe rights of all individuals, including migrants, are not nullified or impaired on the basis of “race, colour,
sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status”,
including migration status.27

26 For the status of ratifications of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, ratified by 172 States, see https://treaties.
un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?chapter=4&clang=_en&mtdsg_no=IV-4&src=IND; for ratifications of the International Covenant on
Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, ratified by 169 States, see https://treaties.un.org/pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=IND&mtdsg_
no=IV-3&chapter=4&clang=_en.
27 UN HRCttee, 1989: para. 7. However, as noted by the Committee: “Not every differentiation of treatment will constitute discrimination,
if the criteria for such differentiation are reasonable and objective and if the aim is to achieve a purpose which is legitimate underthe [International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights]” (ibid.: para. 13). On the customary law nature of the principle of nondiscrimination, see Chetail, 2019.  

345

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

principle ofnon-discriminationright to acquire anationality forchildrenright to vote fornationals but
possibility for States
to extend it to regularmigrantsright to respect
for family life, rightof children not to be
separated from theirparents, family
reunification, principleof the best interestsof the childright to education

Legal
frameworkof inclusion

freedom of religion

right to an adequate
standard of living(such as housing)right to work,
decent working
conditions,prohibition offorced/compulsory
labour, freedom of
association, rightto join/form tradeunionsright to health346

Appendices

Appendix C. Main findings of the Immigrant Citizens Survey
The Immigrant Citizens Survey28 was piloted by the King Baudouin Foundation and the Migration PolicyGroup, and conducted in 2011–2012 with 7,473 migrants born outside the European Union and residing in 15
cities in seven EU member States. Survey questions concerned six dimensions of inclusion, resulting in thefollowing key findings:
1. Employment• Problems on the labour market are often local, from few legal contracts in Southern Europe todiscrimination and distrust of foreign qualifications in Northern Europe.
• For immigrants, the major problem is job security.
• 25–33% of working immigrants feel overqualified for their job.
• Educated immigrants often get their foreign qualifications recognised if they apply, but few
apply.
• Most working-age immigrants want more training.
• Immigrants have greater problems balancing training, work, and family life than most people doin the country.
2. Languages• Immigrants generally speak more languages than the average person in their country of residence.
• For immigrants – like for most people – time is the major problem for learning a new language.
• Getting information on learning opportunities may be more difficult for immigrants than generalpublic.
• Wide range of immigrants participated in language or integration courses.
• Participants highly value courses for learning language and often for socio-economic integration.
3. Political and civic participation• Most immigrants are interested in voting (often as much as nationals are).
• Most immigrants want more diversity in politics – and many are willing to vote in support of it.
• Immigrants’ broader participation in civic life is uneven from city to city and organisation toorganisation.
• Whether immigrants know or participate in an immigrant NGO depends heavily on their local andnational context.
4. Family reunion• Only limited numbers of first-generation immigrants were ever separated from a partner orchildren.

28 Huddleston and Dag Tjaden, 2012.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

• The majority of separated families have already reunited in most surveyed countries.
• Most separated immigrants today do not want to apply for their family, some because of family
choices but others because of policy obstacles.
• Family reunion helps immigrants improve family life, sense of belonging and sometimes otherintegration outcomes.
5. Long-term residence• 80–95% of immigrants are or want to become long-term residents.
• Most temporary migrants in new countries of immigration also want to become long-term
residents.
• The average person applies not long after the minimum period of residence.
• Documents and powers of authorities cited as major problems for applicants in certain countries.
• Long-term residence helps most immigrants get better jobs and feel more settled.
6. Citizenship• Around 3 out of 4 immigrants are or want to become citizens.
• The few uninterested in citizenship often either do not see the difference with their current
status or face specific policy obstacles.
• Major reasons not to naturalise are difficult procedures in France and restrictions on dual
nationality in Germany.
• Naturalisation more common among established immigration countries and among facilitatedgroups in Hungary and Spain.
• Immigrants who are eligible for naturalization often take years to apply.
• Citizenship helps immigrants feel more settled, get better jobs, and even get more educated andinvolved.

Source: Extracted from Huddleston and Dag Tjaden, 2012.

347

348

Appendices

Chapter 7
Appendix A. Key priorities and actions for monitoring migrant health and developing migrantsensitive health systems

Monitoring migrant health• Ensure the standardization and comparability of data on migrant health.
• Increase the better understanding of trends and outcomes through theappropriate disaggregation and analysis of migrant health information in
ways that account for the diversity of migrant populations.
Priorities to address• Improve the monitoring of migrants’ health-seeking behaviours, accessto and utilization of health services, and increase the collection of data
related to health status and outcomes for migrants.
• Identify and map: (a) good practices in monitoring migrant health;(b) policy models that facilitate equitable access to health for migrants;and (c) migrant-inclusive health systems models and practices.
• Develop useful data that can be linked to decision-making and themonitoring of the impact of policies and programmes.
• Identify key indicators that are acceptable and usable across countries.
• Promote the inclusion of migration variables in existing censuses, national
statistics, targeted health surveys and routine health information systems,
as well as in statistics from sectors such as housing, education, labour andmigration.

Key actions• Use innovative approaches to collect data on migrants beyond traditional
instruments, such as vital statistics and routine health information
systems.
• Clearly explain to migrants why health-related data are being collected andhow this can benefit them, and have safeguards in place to prevent use ofdata in a discriminatory or harmful fashion.
• Raise awareness about data collection methods, uses and data-sharing
related to migrant health among governments, civil society andinternational organizations.
• Produce a global report on the status of migrants’ health, including
country-by-country progress reports.

349

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

Migrant-sensitive health systems• Ensure that health services are delivered to migrants in a culturally andlinguistically appropriate way, and enforce laws and regulations thatprohibit discrimination.

Priorities to address• Adopt measures to improve the ability of health systems to delivermigrant-inclusive services and programmes in a comprehensive,
coordinated and financially sustainable way.
• Enhance the continuity and quality of care received by migrants in all
settings, including that received from NGO health services and alternative
providers.
• Develop the capacity of the health and relevant non-health workforce
to understand and address the health and social issues associated with
migration.
• Establish focal points within governments for migrant health issues.
• Develop standards for health service delivery, organizational management
and governance that address cultural and linguistic competence;
epidemiological factors; and legal, administrative, and financial challenges.
• Develop frameworks for the implementation and monitoring of healthsystems’ performance in delivering migrant-sensitive health services.

Key actions• Develop methods to analyse the costs of addressing or not addressing
migrant health issues.
• Include diaspora migrant health workers in the design, implementationand evaluation of migrant-sensitive health services and educational
programmes.
• Include migrant health in the graduate, postgraduate and continuous
professional education training of all health personnel, including supportand managerial staff.

350

Appendices

Appendix B. Lessons learned in advancing a National Migration Health Policy and action
framework in Sri Lanka
Sustained economic growth and peace dividends since the cessation of protracted civil conflict in 2009 has
re-established Sri Lanka as a booming economy in the South Asian region. International migration continues
to be a catalyst to Sri Lanka’s development. Sri Lanka is both a labour-sending country (with over 2 millionof its citizens working abroad as labour migrants), and a labour-receiving one – with a growing number of
migrant workers from countries such as India and China arriving to work on large-scale infrastructure projects
such as new highways, seaports and airports. These developments will further increase population mobility
into and within the island. The end of war also led to a return of Sri Lankan refugees from India, with many
more internally displaced persons from other parts of the country, to their places of origin. Addressing healthchallenges of a dynamic range of population flows therefore becomes important.

Figure 1. Advancing a National Migration and Health Policy process in Sri Lanka
Ministry of Health
United Nations(IOM, WHO, ILO,UNHCR, UNFPA)

Ministry ofForeign Aﬀairs

CabinetApproved the National
Migration Health Policy
and Action Plan (2013)
Civil society andnon-governmentalorganizations

Executive decision-making. Comprisedof heads of Ministries. Meets 2–3 times
per year to decide on National Policy
Decisions forwarded by the MHTF.

National Steering
Committee on
Migration Health(NSC)

Ministry of Defence

National Migration
Health Policy Process

Academic Cluster

Migration Health
Secretariat

Housed within the Ministry of Health,acts as the dedicated communication,
coordination and evidence hub for the
Migration Health Agenda. Secretariat
supported by IOM.

Ministry of Social
Service and Welfare

National Migration
Health Task Force(MHTF)

Drives policy formulary and strategy.
Comprised of technical focal points
from Government Ministries, including
representative from UN, academia,
NGOs and civil society. Meets once
every 3 months (see outer circle).

National Migration Health Research Commission
Commissioned research studies on inbound, outbound, internal migration,
including health impacts on left-behind migrant families. Research ﬁndings
shared with MHTF for evidence informed decision-making/policy formulary.
3 year process.

Ministry of Child
Development andWomen’s Aﬀairs

Ministry of
Finance andPlanning

Ministry of Labour
and Trade

Ministry of
Economic
Development

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

351

In recognizing the intersectoral nature of addressing migration and health, an evidence-informed, “whole-ofgovernment” approach was adopted by the Government of Sri Lanka to advance the National Migration Health
Policy process. The process was led by the Ministry of Health with technical partnership from IOM. Sri Lanka
remains one of the few countries to have a dedicated National Migration Health Policy and Action Plan, which
was launched in 2013.

Six key lessons in advancing the National Migration Health Policy
1. Adopt an intersectoral, participatory approach
An interministerial mechanism was established, led by the Minister of Health, to galvanize the migrationand health agenda. The multisectoral coordination framework is comprised of three elements: (a) a dedicatedsecretariat within the Directorate of Policy and Planning to drive daily coordination; (b) a National Migration
Health Taskforce (MHTF) to drive technical cooperation; and (c) a National Steering Committee to drive legal
and executive level action. The MHTF enabled participation from civil society, the nongovernmental sector,
academia and intergovernmental organizations, and migrants themselves.
2. Adopt an inclusive approach
After extensive deliberation, the MHTF targeted migrant categories across all three migration flows: inbound,
outbound and internal. Inbound migrants include foreign migrant workers and returning refugees; outboundmigration encompasses categories such as labour migrants, international students and military; and internalmigrants include categories such as free trade zone workers, seasonal workers and internally displaced persons.
Considering the large numbers of migrant workers, the left-behind children and families of internationalmigrant workers were included as a dedicated fourth section for the policy.
3. Adopt a strong “evidence-informed approach”
A hallmark of Sri Lanka’s policy development was emphasis on an evidence-based approach to developing
policy formulary and guiding interventions. A country migration profile was developed during the formative
phase and a National Migration Health Research Commission was undertaken over a three-year period. Efforts
were made to undertake multidisciplinary research studies that were not only rigorous but adopted highethical standards. The findings were shared though a series of National Symposiums on Migration HealthResearch, with the participation of government agencies, migrant community representatives, civil society,development partners, United Nations agencies, the private sector and academia.
4. Adopt a pragmatic and responsive approach
An important feature of the policy development process was the imperative placed on responding to any
nationally important migration and health challenges the country would encounter, rather than remain astatic process, only for purposes of policy formulation. The utility of an interministerial taskforce in taking
practical action was recognized. For example, a National Border Health Strategy was developed to enhance
point-of-entry capacities to better prepare, respond to and mitigate global health security risks, and improvedisease surveillance and coordination at points of entry.
5. Embed an accountability framework
Tracking progress and sharing regular progress reports at the national, subnational and global levels is a key
aspect of policy implementation. Sri Lanka formally reported progress made against the four intervention
domains detailed in World Health Assembly resolution 61.17: Health of migrants, in 2010 and 2011. A
national report card on migration and health was also developed by the MHTF, and can been read in full at352

Appendiceswww.migrationhealth.lk. A recurrent challenge has been to sustain the coordination efforts both within the
Ministry of Health and between ministries and partners.
6. Ensure global health diplomacy and engagement
In a globalized world, individual member States cannot “do it alone” in effectively advancing their nationalmigration health agendas. Multilateral diplomatic efforts need to be made with both sending and receiving
countries, recognizing that health vulnerabilities diffuse across all phases of migration and across borders.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

353

Appendix C. Health in the implementation of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular
Migration
Objective 1: Collect and utilize accurate and disaggregated data as a basis for evidence-based policies
The action on developing country-specific migration profiles with disaggregated data in a national context
should include health data to develop evidence-informed migration policies. This can begin with practicalplatforms for connecting research experts, scholars and policymakers globally to strengthen information
systems to analyse trends in migrants’ health, disaggregate health information and facilitate the exchangeof lessons learned.
Objective 7: Address and reduce vulnerabilities in migration
The actions on addressing vulnerabilities in migration include provision of health care, and psychologicaland other counselling services, in particular for migrant women, adolescents, and for unaccompanied andseparated children across the stages of migration. This would also require addressing migrant experiences,including xenophobia, migration restrictions for migrants with health needs, and other policy gaps andinconsistencies, as well as efforts to enhance migrant resilience, through adequate information, educationand empowerment for self-help.
Objective 10: Prevent, combat and eradicate trafficking in persons in the context of internationalmigration
Protection and assistance for trafficked persons will require integration of measures for physical andpsychological health, including service delivery and capacity development. This will require cross-bordercooperation and partnerships to harmonize intersectoral policies and practices, and ensure continuity of careand health responses to particular health needs of women, men, girls and boys.
Objective 15: Provide access to basic services for migrants
This objective encourages governments to “incorporate the health needs of migrants in national and local
health care policies and plans, [...] including by taking into consideration relevant recommendations fromthe WHO Framework of Priorities and Guiding Principles to Promote the Health of Refugees and Migrants”,
which were developed in collaboration with member States, IOM and other United Nations partners. These
commitments are linked with governments’ plans for health-related SDG results (SDG 3 and others), including
strengthening migrant-inclusive health-care systems.
Objective 22: Establish mechanisms for the portability of social security entitlements and earned
benefits
Inclusion of health-related actions in this objective will require assessment and enhancement of financial
risk protection in health services, to reduce the burden of catastrophic health expenditures on migrants.
Social protection in health should be an integral component of reciprocal social security agreements on
the portability of earned benefits for migrant workers at all skill levels, for both long-term and temporary
migration.

354

Appendices

Chapter 9
Appendix A. Policy processes of significance for the governance of environmental migration
Beyond the UNFCC and the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, environmental migration
continues to be discussed in various thematic policy processes. This includes but is not limited to, the United
Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction,
the Human Rights Council (HRC) and the work under the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights(OHCHR), the discussions conducted by the tripartite constituents of the International Labour Organization(ILO), the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees(UNHCR) Executive Committee as well as IOM governing body mechanisms.29 All these global policy spaces
have devoted specific sessions to migration and displacement in the context of climate change, disaster andenvironmental degradation. Other processes – such as the small island developing States focused SAMOA
Pathway or dealing with key environmental issues such as oceans, ecosystems or water – are also incorporating
migration issues. The infographic below summarizes the main elements of the various policy forums andmechanisms.
Of particular note is the Platform on Disaster Displacement (PDD), which is a State-led initiative that seeks tobring migration and environmental change together to address the protection gap for persons displaced acrossborders, and in particular to implement the Nansen Protection Agenda adopted by 108 countries in 2015.30
The PDD focuses primarily on displacement and also has a work plan aimed at increasing adaptive capacity ofall people who may move in relation to environmental stresses like disasters and climate change. For example,
the PDD’s recently updated strategy promotes managing displacement risks through moving “out of harm’s
way in a dignified manner, through the creation of pathways for safe, orderly and regular migration”.31 The
PDD’s work plan states that migration can be a response to disaster risk.32

29 States have increasingly engaged at intergovernmental level on migration, environment and climate change within IOM’s
intergovernmental policy dialogues, including the International Dialogue on Migration (IDM) and the regular meetings of IOM’s
governing bodies (such as IOM Council), as well as regional policy discussions linked to regional migration consultative processes
supported by IOM. See, for example, IOM, 2007.
30 Nansen Initiative, 2015.
31 PDD, 2019.
32 Ibid.

• Dialogue, coordination, coherence, andParagraph 50: “avert, minimize andsynergies; andaddress displacement related to the• Action and support
adverse impacts of climate change”

Source: Figure created by IOM’s Migration, Environment and Climate Change Division.

Facilitation of knowledgetransfer and best practices
related to loss and damage

Migration in
knowledge transfer

The Task Force on Displacementfor Loss and Damage associated with Climate established under the WIM in the Paris
Change (WIM) created, to help developing Agreement; created a clearing house tocountries that are particularly vulnerable, gather and disseminate information
related to risk.
with three pillars:
Migrants acknowledged in Preamble.
• Enhancing understanding;

WIM reviewed and a 5-year
rolling work plan approved
by COP. Ban Ki-Moon andFrançois Hollande highlighted
the importance of humanmigration, and over 20 eventswere organized dedicated toaddressing human migration.

COP of solutions

Casablanca
Technical
Meeting

The 2-year workplan and the Task Force on Displacement
structure oftheWarsaw in relation to the three pillars ofInternational Mechanism (WIM) the WIM.
was approved by COP

IOM organized a technical meeting
Implementation of
document best practices,
Warsaw International tochallenges, and lessons as well as
Mechanismto develop recommendations for

Task Force on Displacement

COP agreed on their role in addressing
loss and damage.
Paragraph7(vi):“advance
theunderstanding of and expertise on loss
and damage, which includes ... how
impacts of climate change are affecting
patterns of migration, displacement andhuman mobility.”

Migration in loss anddamageWarsaw International
Mechanism

Work programme on Loss and Damage
created: paragraph 14(f) calls for Parties
totake“measurestoenhanceunderstanding,coordination
andcooperation with regard to climate change
induced displacement, migration and planned
relocation, where appropriate, at thenational, regional and international levels”
to enhance action on adaptation.

Migration in adaptation

Summary of migration and displacement in global policy processes“Recommendations from the report oftheExcom/WIMon
integrated
approaches to averting, minimizing andaddressing displacement related to theadverse impacts of climate change”,
adopted by the UNFCCC Parties inDecision 10/CP.24.

Task Force on Displacement
Recommendations

TFD
Stakeholder
Meeting

On behalf of the Task Force on
Displacement, IOM and PDD
organized a stakeholder meeting
to take stock of progress under
the different areas of the Task
Force's workplan and inform thedevelopment of the integrated
recommendations
that
were
presented at COP24 in Katowice,
Poland.

Launch of clearing
house for risk
transferWORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020
355

356

Appendices

National policy developments
A 2018 mapping conducted under the Task Force on Displacement workplan highlights that national policies
on migration on the one hand, and climate change on the other hand, increasingly consider environmental
migration issues.33 Out of 66 countries and territories reviewed, 53 per cent made reference to climate change
and environmental factors in their national migration and displacement frameworks. Out of 37 countries andterritories having submitted national climate change adaptation policies, plans or strategies, 81 per centreferred to human mobility.
Different dimensions of human mobility are touched upon (migration, displacement and planned relocation),through a variety of thematic lenses (such as security, urbanization, labour, adaptation and health). This
demonstrates an increased level of integration of the environment-migration nexus in national policies, inline with the greater awareness witnessed at the global level. However, gaps remain in terms of national
policy coherence, although efforts are made to create synergies between climate/environmental and humanmobility communities.
The full report is available at https://environmentalmigration.iom.int/iom-pdd-task-force-displacementstakeholder-meeting

33 IOM, 2018.

357

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

Chapter 10

On 22 March 2016, three suicide bombings occurredin Brussels. The attacks hit a metro station and the
airport of a city with a population comprising over
60 per cent of foreign-born residents and hostingtens of thousands foreign travellers and workers
every day.
32 people were killed and some 350 injured in thebombings. Of the 32 victims, 19 were foreigners,
including citizens of the United States, theNetherlands, Sweden, India, China, Liberia, Morocco
and Peru.

In early 2014, the Ebola virus spread from Guinean
rural areas to cities, then to Liberia and Sierra Leone.
During the following two years, the virus killed over
11,000 people, including in Mali, Nigeria and the UnitedStates.
In a region characterized by intense population
mobility across porous borders, migration represented achallenge to rapid containment of the outbreak,resulting in the enforcement of sanitary controls atentry points, and in some cases in flights being
suspended or border closed. Following the outbreak,African migrants experienced scapegoating andxenophobia all over the world.

Main sources
Fort Mac Fire: https://bit.ly/2A6jnk3, https://bit.ly/2ryEruA.
Criminal violence in Mexico: París Pombo et al (2016) Migrantes en México, vulnerabilidad y riesgos. IOM.
Terrorist attacks in Belgium: https://bbc.in/2Gfq0pE, https://bit.ly/2BdZrLG.
West Africa’s Ebola epidemics: https://bit.ly/2Ld9QvD, https://bit.ly/2RVVfaA.
Complex emergency in Yemen: https://cnn.it/2lkVvRK, https://bit.ly/2UHvaxK.
Xenophobic attacks in South Africa: https://nyti.ms/2C9D8s5, IOM (2009). Towards Tolerance, Law, and Dignity: Addressing Violence against
Foreign Nationals in South Africa.
Tohoku triple disaster: Duncan (2013) Immigrant integration as a factor in disaster preparedness: The case of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake in Japan.
Migration Policy Practice, 3(2):9–14.
Financial crisis in Thailand: Chantavanich, S. et al., 2010 Rapid Assessment on the Impacts of the Economic Downturn on Workers in Thailand.
ARCM, Institute of Asian Studies, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand.
Christchurch earthquakes: Marlowe, J. 2015 Belonging and disaster recovery: Refugee-background communities and the Canterbury earthquakes.
British Journal of Social Work, 45(suppl. 1): 188–204.

Xenophobic attacks

For over a decade, Mexico has been plagued by a
low-intensity war among criminal organizations, andbetween these organizations and Mexican security
forces. The conflict has caused at least 200,000 victims
since 2006, with many more people witnessing
violence and violations of human rights.
Criminal groups have also become increasingly
involved in the migration business, as migrants
transiting through Mexico cross areas under theircontrol: they regulate schedules and trajectories of theflows and extort migrants and smugglers. Data show thatno less than 10 per cent of migrants are robbed or
extorted money while in transit through the country, andmany may also be kidnapped, abused or killed.

Public healthemergency

Criminal violence

Complexemergency

Between May and June 2016, fires swept the areaaround Fort McMurray, triggering the evacuation ofaround 90,000 people. No victims were reported in thedisaster, but residents faced profound, long-lastingsocial and economic impacts.
Migrants working in the area faced specific insecurity:
many had no friends or family to support withaccommodation, and those on temporary work
permits risked losing their regular status as theiremployers’ businesses shut down. In addition, many
migrant workers sending remittances back home had
little savings and no access to unemployment benefits,
and were left with limited options to cope.

Terroristattacks

Fires

Appendix A. Different crisis situations, different impacts on migrants

358

Appendicesd from Guineannd Sierra Leone.
virus killed overa and the United

e against

hquake in Japan.
Thailand.

ury earthquakes.

Xenophobic attacks

ense population
on represented af the outbreak,itary controls at
in flights being
ng the outbreak,pegoating andStarting in 11 May 2008, episodes of xenophobic
violence sparked in South Africa, first in the Gauteng
province, then in Durban, Cape Town and otherareas of the country. Migrants and minority
citizens were targeted in mob attacks, theirbusinesses damaged, and 62 people (of which 41
foreigners) killed.
Tens of thousands foreign residents found refugein community centres and police stations. Many left
the country or contacted their foreign posts and
IOM for repatriation assistance. By 27 May, it wasestimated that some 27,500 Mozambicans had
returned home, while tens of thousands ofZimbabweans,
Mozambicans and Congolese
faced eviction or deportation in the months
following the events.

On 11 March 2011, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake struck
Japan, triggering a tsunami that caused a failure at
the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant. Affected areas
hosted an estimated 700,000 foreign residents andvisitors. 23 of them were killed and 173 injured.
Non-Japanese speaking people had little access to
official, updated information on the disaster, which led
to confusion and widespread fears. Following
recommendations disseminated through informal
sources and even embassies and home country media,
some 470,000 foreigners left Japan in the aftermath ofthe disaster, including from areas deemed not at risk.
This, in turn, caused intracommunal tensions withJapanese citizens.

The 2008 financial crisis affected workers all over theworld. In Thailand, more than 50,000 workers were laid
off as businesses slowed down activities. 9 Million
people became eligible for an assistance handout. The
estimated 500,000 migrants working in the country atthat time were not entitled to receiving it, in addition
to being often underpaid, having no savings or having
contracted debt, and not being able to rely on family
members and local networks to cope with economic
hardship.
The crisis also led to tensions with Thai nationals overshrinking income opportunities, work permits not
being renewed, no new permits being issued andundocumented migrant workers being deported.

Earthquake

Starting in early 2015, Yemen has been torn by a power
struggle among factions, which has since developed ina full-blown civil war, and was compounded in 2016 by
a famine and in 2017 by a cholera outbreak. Traditionally a country of transit and destination for migrant
workers and refugees from the Horn and the middle
East, despite the ongoing crisis Yemen has still
witnessed some 100,000 arrivals in 2017 alone.
In addition to being trapped in the country and being
affected by the ongoing crisis, migrants face abuse,torture, kidnapping for ransom, arbitrary detention,
forced labour and death at the hand of traffickers
and armed groups.

Economic crisis

Complexemergency

red in theforeigners,
ates, the, Morocco

Natech disasters occurredn and therising overnd hostingd workers

Between 2010 and 2011, Christchurch was hit by aseries of earthquakes that killed 185 and heavily
damaged the city. In the aftermath of the disaster,
service providers progressively built their capacity toassist and communicate with local migrant andrefugee residents, which still faced significant obstacles in accessing translated information and culturally
appropriate basic services.
While many migrants showed exceptional resilience inthe face of the events, newly settled communities, andthe more marginalized individuals within the different
migrant groups were among the least able to copewith and recover from the disaster.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

359

Chapter 11
Appendix A. Timeline of main multilateral initiatives, processes, agreements and declarations
devoted or relevant to migration 34
1985

Launch of the Intergovernmental Consultations on Migration, Asylum and Refugees
(IGC)

1990

Creation of the Central American Commission of Migration Directors (Comisión
Centroamericana de Directores de Migración (OCAM))

1993

Launch of the Budapest Process
Cairo International Conference on Population and Development

1994

Start of negotiations on Mode 4 on the movement of natural persons of the General
Agreement on Trade in Services during the Uruguay Round
Launch of the Regional Conference on Migration (RCM or Puebla Process)1996

Launch of the Inter-governmental Asia–Pacific Consultations on Refugees, Displaced
Persons and Migrants (APC)
Launch of the Pacific Immigration Directors’ Conference (PIDC)
Inclusion of Mode 4 commitments (on the movement of natural persons) under theThird Protocol to the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS)

1998

Launch of the International Migration Policy Programme

1999

Appointment of a Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants by the United
Nations Commission on Human Rights
Launch of The Hague Process on Refugees and Migration
Launch of the Migration Dialogue for Southern Africa (MIDSA)

2000

Launch of the South American Conference on Migration (SACM)/Lima Process
Adoption of the United Nations Millennium Declaration (Millennium Development
Goals)

34 As the focus of this timeline is on migration generally, it does not encompass – and is without prejudice to – other more specificinitiatives, including initiatives relating to refugees per se, such as those of UNHCR or the Commonwealth of Independent States
Conference (1996–2005).

360

Appendices

Creation of the Berne Initiative
Launch of the IOM International Dialogue on Migration (IDM)
2001

World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related
Intolerance (Durban Conference I)
Launch of the Cross-Border Co-operation Process (Söderköping Process)Launch of the Migration Dialogue for West Africa (MIDWA) Process
Launch of the Coordination Meeting on International Migration, United Nations
Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs

2002

Launch of the Regional Ministerial Conference on Migration in the Western
Mediterranean (5+5 Dialogue)
Launch of the Bali Process on People Smuggling, Trafficking in Persons and Related
Transnational Crime
Delivery of the Migration Working Group’s Report to the Secretary-General (Doyle
Report)Establishment of the Global Commission on International Migration (GCIM)
Establishment of the Geneva Migration Group

2003

Launch of the Mediterranean Transit Migration Dialogue (MTM)
Launch of the Ministerial Consultation on Overseas Employment and Contractual
Labour for Countries of Origin in Asia (Colombo Process)Launch of the Migration, Asylum, Refugees Regional Initiative (MARRI)

2004

Adoption of the non-binding ILO Report VII Towards a Fair Deal for Migrant Workers in
the Global Economy, International Labour Conference
Adoption of the non-binding Berne Initiative International Agenda for Migration
Management
Establishment of the Global Migration Group (GMG, formerly the Geneva Migration
Group)First High-level Dialogue on International Migration and Development (2006 HLD)2006

Appointment of a Special Representative of the Secretary-General for International
Migration and Development by the United Nations Secretary-General
Launch of the Euro–African Dialogue on Migration and Development (Rabat Process)
Adoption of the non-binding ILO Multilateral Framework on Labour Migration2007

Launch of the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD)WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

2008

2009

2011

Launch of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development – Regional Consultative
Process on Migration (IGAD-RCP)
Launch of the Ministerial Consultations on Overseas Employment and Contractual
Labour for Countries of Origin and Destination in Asia (Abu Dhabi Dialogue)
Durban Review Conference
Launch of the Eastern Partnership (EaP) Panel on Migration and Asylum (incorporating
the Söderköping Process)
Adoption of the Istanbul Declaration and Programme of Action for the Least Developed
Countries, Fourth United Nations Conference of the Least Developed Countries  
United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio +20)

2012

Launch of the Nansen Initiative on Disaster-Induced Cross-Border Displacement
Launch of the Migration Dialogue for Central African States (MIDCAS)
Adoption of the non-binding IOM Migration Crisis Operational Framework (MCOF)
Second High-level Dialogue on International Migration and Development (2013 HLD)2013

Launch of the Almaty Process on Refugee Protection and International Migration
Launch of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) RCP –MIDCOM
Launch of the Migrants in Countries in Crisis (MICIC) Initiative
Launch of the Mayoral Forum on Human Mobility, Migration and Development

2014

Adoption of the non-binding report Fair Migration: Setting an ILO Agenda, International
Labour Conference
Adoption of the non-binding SIDS Accelerated Modalities of Action Pathway (SAMOA
Pathway)
Launch of the Intra-Regional Forum on Migration in Africa (IRFMA or Pan-African
Forum)
Launch of the Arab Regional Consultative Process (ARCP)
Adoption by the United Nations General Assembly of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development

2015

Adoption by the IOM Council of the Migration Governance Framework
Adoption of the Addis Ababa Action Agenda on Financing for Development
Adoption of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, Third United Nations
World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction  
Adoption of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change
Adoption of the non-binding Nansen Initiative’s Agenda for the Protection of CrossBorder Displaced Persons in the Context of Disasters and Climate Change

361

362

AppendicesWorld Humanitarian Summit and launch of the Grand Bargain
Adoption of the New Urban Agenda, United Nations Conference on Housing andSustainable Development (Habitat III)2016

Adoption of the non-binding MICIC Initiative’s Guidelines to Protect Migrants in
Countries Experiencing Conflict or Natural Disasters
Adoption of the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants by the United
Nations Summit on Large Movements of Refugees and Migrants  

2017

Informal consultations (April–November) and stocktaking phase (December) of the
Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration
Thematic consultations (January–December), NGO consultations (June) andstocktaking phase (December) of the Global Compact on Refugees
Launch of the United Nations Network on Migration (successor to the Global Migration
Group)

2018

Intergovernmental Conference to Adopt the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly andRegular Migration
Endorsement of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration by theUnited Nations General AssemblyEndorsement of the Global Compact on Refugees by the United Nations General
Assembly  

Source: Bauloz, 2017 (updated).

363

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

Appendix B. Convergence and divergence between the Global Compact for Migration andprior global migration initiatives and processes
The Global Compact for Migration builds on previous global migration initiatives and processes, including onthematic areas upon which these initiatives were already converging prior to the Compact. These areas ofconvergence are reproduced in the table below along three main thematic clusters: (a) minimizing the negative
aspects of migration by addressing the drivers and consequences of displacement and irregular migration;(b) acknowledging and strengthening the positive effects of migration; and (c) protecting migrants’ rights
and ensuring their well-being.
The Global Compact for Migration also confirms thematic trends that have emerged through the years
raising new migratory and policy challenges, such as environmental migration and the focus on sustainable
development, as outlined in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (see table below).

Summary of key thematic convergences, trends and tension points in selected global
migration initiatives prior to the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration

Minimizing
the negative
aspects of
migration

Areas ofconvergence• Tackling the drivers of forced and irregular migration: poverty, humanrights violations and armed conflicts• Addressing irregular migration through effective border control policies• Cooperating in preventing and combatting human trafficking andsmuggling• Ratifying and implementing the Human Trafficking and Migrant
Smuggling Protocols

Forcountriesof origin
Strengthening
the positiveeffects of
migration

For host
countries• Improving money transfers and lowering remittances
fees• Ensuring fair recruitment practices, including reducing
recruitment agencies’ fees
• Facilitating voluntary return and reintegration of
migrants• Improving transfers of knowledge and skills of highly
skilled and other migrants• Encouraging and creating opportunities for diaspora
engagement in development• Capitalizing on (temporary) labour migration to meetlabour market’s needs• Attracting skilled migrant workers• Capitalizing on the skills and entrepreneurship of thediaspora• Interrelationship between migration and trade (Mode 4of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS))

364

Appendices

Areas ofconvergence• Integrating migration issues into development planning• Need for more evidence-based research on theinterrelationship between migration and development• Improving partnerships for managing labour migration,
including with the private sector

Strengthening
the positiveeffects of
migration

In general

Protecting
migrants’rights andensuring theirwell-being• Combating discrimination, racism and xenophobia• Securing migrants workers’ rights and labour standards• Protecting migrants from abuses, exploitation and human trafficking• Ratifying and implementing core international human rights treaties,
ILO conventions and instruments on human trafficking• Treating women and girls, children and victims of human trafficking as
migrants in vulnerable situations requiring special protection• Integrating (long-term) migrants in society

Thematic
trends• Environmental drivers of migration (for example, natural disasters, man-madecatastrophes and environmental degradation)• From development to sustainable development and the role of migration• From brain drain to temporary and/or circular migration• Stranded migrants as migration in a vulnerable situation

Key tension
points• Recommendation for opening up more legal avenues for migration• Consideration of low-skilled labour migration outside temporary migration policies• Ratification and implementation of the 1990 International Convention on the Protectionof the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Member of Their Families

Source: Bauloz, 2017. This summary was made on the basis of a comparative thematic mapping of the following nine migration
initiatives and processes: the Berne Initiative; the annual meetings of the International Dialogue on Migration; the 2002
Doyle Report; the Global Commission on International Migration established in 2003; the Global Migration Group; the2006 and 2013 First and Second High-level Dialogues on International Migration and Development; the Global Forum on
Migration and Development; and the 2016 United Nations Summit for Refugees and Migrants.

However, if the Global Compact for Migration covers issues that were already ranking high on the global
migration governance agenda before the adoption of the Compact, it also goes beyond previous endeavours
by:•

Placing more emphasis on some specific thematic areas, including on:––

Collecting and utilizing accurate and disaggregated data (Objective 1) to “foster […] research,guide[…] coherent and evidence-based policy-making and well-informed public discourse […]” andfacilitate the effective monitoring and evaluation of the Compact’s commitments.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

•

365

––

Enhancing the availability and flexibility of pathways for regular migration (Objective 5), especiallythrough labour migration and skills matching at all skills levels,35 in addition to family reunification
and academic mobility.36 Regular avenues are also considered for migrants compelled to leave
because of sudden-onset natural disasters and other precarious situations by providing, for instance,
humanitarian visas, private sponsorships, access to education for children and temporary work
permits.37 It provides as well for planned relocation and visa options in the specific cases of slowonset natural disasters, the adverse effects of climate change and environmental degradation.38––

Addressing and reducing vulnerabilities in migration (Objective 7), covering a broad illustrative listof migrants in a situation of vulnerability, regardless of migration status.39

Introducing one thematic area which was not covered in previous global migration initiatives:––

Saving lives and establishing coordinated international efforts on missing migrants (Objective 8),
nevertheless already reflected in the 2016 New York Declaration.40

While these developments constitute steps forward in global migration governance, some Global Compact for
Migration objectives, commitments and actions appear not to be as far-reaching as one would have expected.
If one compares the final text of the Global Compact for Migration with its first draft,41 some issues seemto have been more delicate during States’ negotiations. This is, for instance, the case of the detention of
migrant children. The first draft referred in categorical terms to “ending the practice of child detention in
the context of international migration”,42 while States have only committed to “working to end the practiceof child detention” in the final text of the Compact.43 Similarly, two specific issues have not been includedin the final text of the Compact:
The non-criminalization of irregular migration: Instead, the Global Compact for Migration provides forpotential sanctions to address irregular entry or stay without expressly prohibiting criminal ones,44 except
for smuggled and trafficked migrants.45
The regularization of undocumented migrants: Regularization is only indirectly envisaged by “facilitat[ing]access for migrants in an irregular status to an individual assessment that may lead to regular status, on acase by case basis and with clear and transparent criteria”.46

35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44

UNGA, 2018a. On regular pathways for low-skilled migrant workers, see Newland and Riester, 2018.
UNGA, 2018a.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid.
UNGA, 2016.
Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, 2018a.
Ibid., para 27(g).
UNGA, 2018a, para. 29(h).
UNGA, 2018a: Objective 11, para. 27(f). These sanctions nonetheless have to be “proportionate, equitable, non-discriminatory, andfully consistent with due process and other obligations under international law”.
45 Ibid. This contrasts with the more straightforward commitment applying to both refugees and migrants in the New York Declaration(UNGA, 2016).
46 UNGA, 2018a: Objective 7, para. 23(i), contrasting with the express reference to regularization made in the Global Compact for
Migration zero draft, (Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, 2018a: para. 30(g)) on “[f]acilitat[ing] access toregularization options as a means to promote migrants’ integration […]”. See also UNGA, 2016:, Annex II, para. 8(p).

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

367

References*

Chapter 1
AlSayyad, N. and M. Guvenc
2015
Virtual uprisings: On the interaction of new social media, traditional media coverage andurban space during the “Arab Spring”. Urban Studies, 52(11).
Burns, A. and S. Mohapatra
2008
International migration and technological progress. Migration and Development Brief 4,World Bank, Washington D.C.
Castles, S.
2010

Understanding global migration: A social transformation perspective. Journal of Ethnic andMigration Studies, 36(19):1565–1586.

Czaika, M. and H. de Haas
2014
The globalization of migration: Has the world become more migratory? International
Migration Review, 48(2):283–323.
De Witte, M.
2018

Stanford research explores the complexities of global immigration, from past to present, 18
April 2018, Stanford News. Available at https://news.stanford.edu/2018/04/18/examiningcomplexities-migration/.

Goldin, I., G. Cameron and M. Balarajan
2011
Exceptional People: How Migration Shaped Our World and Will Define Our Future. Princeton
University Press, Princeton.
Faist, T. and N. Glick-Schiller (eds.)
2009
Migration, development and transnationalization: A critical stance. Papers in Special
Section, Social Analysis, 53(3):106–122.
Fotaki, M.
2014

Friedman, T.L.
2016

Narcissistic elites are undermining the institutions created to promote public interest.
British Politics and Policy blog, London School of Economics, London, 21 February. Available
at https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/narcissism-and-perversion-in-public-policy/.
Thank You for Being Late: An Optimist’s Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations. Allen
Lane, New York.

Hall, K. and D. Posel
2019
Fragmenting the Family? The complexity of household migration strategies in post-apartheid
South Africa. IZA Journal of Development and Migration, 10(2). Available at https://doi.
org/10.2478/izajodm-2019-0004.
*

All hyperlinks provided were operating at the time of publication.

368

References

Hochschild, J. and J. Mollenkopf
2008
The complexities of immigration: Why Western countries struggle with immigration politics
and policies. Migration Policy Institute, Washington D.C.
Ikenberry, G.K.
2018

The end of liberal international order? International Affairs, 94(1):7–23.

International Labour Organization (ILO)2018
ILO Global Estimates on International Migrant Workers – Results and Methodology. 2ndedition. ILO, Geneva. Available at www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/--dcomm/---publ/documents/publication/wcms_652001.pdf.
International Organization for Migration (IOM)
2000
World Migration Report 2000. IOM, Geneva. Available at https://publications.iom.int/books/
world-migration-report-2000.
2003

World Migration Report 2003: Managing Migration Challenges and Responses for People on
the Move. IOM, Geneva. Available at http://publications.iom.int/books/world-migrationreport-2003-managing-migration.

2017

World Migration Report 2018, IOM, Geneva. Available at https://publications.iom.int/books/
world-migration-report-2018.

Juskalian, R.
2018

Kapur, D.
2001
Khadria, B.
2004

Inside the Jordan refugee camp that runs on blockchain. MIT Technology Review, 12 April.
Available at www.technologyreview.com/s/610806/inside-the-jordan-refugee-camp-thatruns-on-blockchain/.
Diasporas and technology transfer. Journal of Human Development, 2(2):265–286.
Human resources in science and technology in India and the international mobilityof highly skilled Indians. Science, Technology and Industry Working Paper 2004/7,
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Paris. Available at www.oecd.org/
officialdocuments/publicdisplaydocumentpdf/?cote=DSTI/DOC(2004)7&docLanguage=En.

King, R.
2012

Theories and typologies of migration: an overview and a primer. Working Paper. Malmö
University, Malmö.

2016

International Migration: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Koser, K.
Latonero, M., K. Hiatt, A. Napolitano, G. Clericetti and M. Penagos
2019
Digital Identity in the Migration & Refugee Context: Italy Case Study. Coalizione Italiana
Libertà e Diritti Civili (CILD), Rome. Available at https://datasociety.net/wp-content/
uploads/2019/04/DataSociety_DigitalIdentity.pdf.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

Mauldin, J.
2018

McAuliffe, M.
2016

2018

Mishra, P.
2017

369

The age of change is coming, and these tech trends will drive economic growth. Forbes,
29 August. Available at www.forbes.com/sites/johnmauldin/2018/08/29/the-ageof-change-is-coming-and-these-tech-trends-will-drive-the-next-decades-economicgrowth/#6e78467131fd.
How transnational connectivity is shaping irregular migration: Insights for migration policy
and practice from the 2015 irregular migration flows to Europe. Migration Policy Practice,6(1):4–10.
The link between migration and technology is not what you think. Agenda, World Economic
Forum, Geneva, 14 December. Available at www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/12/socialmedia-is-casting-a-dark-shadow-over-migration/.
Age of Anger: A History of the Present. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York.

Muggah, R. and I. Goldin
2019
How to survive and thrive in our age of uncertainty. Agenda, World Economic Forum,
Geneva, 7 January. Available at www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/01/how-to-survive-ourage-of-uncertainty-muggah-goldin/.
Parsons, C.R., R. Skeldon, T.L. Walmsley and L.A. Winters
2007
Quantifying international migration, a database of bilateral stocks. In: International
Migration, Economic Development and Policy (Ç. Özden and M. Schiff, eds.). The World Bank,
Washington, D.C., pp. 17–58.
Rawnsley, A.
2018

Ritholtz, B.
2017

Sanchez, G.
2018
Schwab, K.
2016

Skeldon, R.
2018

Democracy is more fragile than many of us realised, but don’t believe that it is doomed. The
Guardian, 21 January. Available at www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jan/21/
democracy-is-more-fragile-than-many-of-us-realised-but-do-not-believe-that-it-is-doomed.
The world is about to change even faster: Having trouble keeping up? The pace of innovationand disruption is accelerating. Bloomberg Opinion, 6 July. Available at www.bloomberg.
com/opinion/articles/2017-07-06/the-world-is-about-to-change-even-faster.
Critical perspectives on clandestine migration facilitation: An overview of migrant smuggling
research. Journal on Migration and Human Security, 5(1):9–27.
The Fourth Industrial Revolution: What it means, how to respond. Agenda, World Economic
Forum, Geneva, 14 January. Available at www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/01/the-fourthindustrial-revolution-what-it-means-and-how-to-respond/.
International migration, internal migration, mobility and urbanization: Towards more
integrated approaches. Migration Research Series, Paper No 53, IOM, Geneva.

370

References

Stone, T.
2016

History tells us what may happen next with Brexit & Trump. Medium, 23 July. Available
at https://medium.com/@tswriting/history-tells-us-what-will-happen-next-with-brexittrump-a3fefd154714.

Triandafyllidou, A.
2018
Globalisation and migration. In: Handbook on Migration and Globalisation (A. Triandafyllidou,ed.). Edward Elgar, Cheltenham.
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA)
2003
Long-Range Population Projections: Proceedings of the United Nations Technical Working Groupon Long-Range Population Projections. United Nations Headquarters, New York. Availableatwww.un.org/en/development/desa/population/publications/pdf/trends/populationprojections.pdf.
2015

Trends in International Migrant Stock: Migrants by Destination and Origin. UN DESA, New York.
Available at www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/migration/data/estimates2/
estimates15.asp.

2019aInternational Migrant Stock 2019. UN DESA, Population Division, New York. Available atwww.un.org/en/development/desa/population/migration/data/estimates2/estimates19.
asp (accessed 26 September 2019).

2019b

World Population Prospects 2019. Highlights. ST/ESA/SER.A/423, UN DESA, Population
Division, New York. Available at https://population.un.org/wpp/Publications/Files/
WPP2019_Highlights.pdf.

United Nations General Assembly (UNGA)2016
New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants. A/RES/71/1, 3 October. Available atwww.un.org/en/development/desa/population/migration/generalassembly/docs/
globalcompact/A_RES_71_1.pdf.
World Economic Forum (WEF)
2019
Transformation Map on Migration (curated by Marie McAuliffe, IOM). WEF,
Geneva,Switzerland.
Availableathttps://intelligence.weforum.org/topics/
a1Gb0000000LGr8EAG?tab=publications.

Chapter 2
Adjami, M.
2016

Statelessness and Nationality in Côte d’Ivoire: A Study for UNHCR. Available at www.refworld.
org/docid/58594d114.html.

Blizzard, B. and J. Batalova
2019
Refugees and Asylees in the United States. Spotlight, Migration Policy Institute, 13 June.
Available at www.migrationpolicy.org/article/refugees-and-asylees-united-states.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

371

Brookings Institution and University of Bern
2010
IASC Framework on Durable Solutions for Internally Displaced Persons. The Brookings
Institution, Washington, D.C. Available at www.unhcr.org/50f94cd49.pdf.
Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)2019
Out of the Shadows: Shining a Light on Irregular Migration. Project Director: D.F. Runde,
Authors: E.K. Yayboke and C. Garcia Gallego, CSIS Project on Prosperity and Development,
CSIS and Rowman & Littlefield, Washington, D.C., and Lanham. Available at https://csis-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/publication/190826_RundeYaybokeGallego_
IrregularMigrations.pdf.
de Beer, J., J. Raymer, R. van den Erf and L. van Wissen
2010
Overcoming the problems of inconsistent international migration data: A new method
applied to flows in Europe. European Journal of Population, 6(4):459–481.
Fertig, M. and C. Schmidt
2001
First- and second-generation migrants in Germany – What do we know and what do people
think? IZA Discussion Papers, 286:1–48.
Gallagher, A. and M. McAuliffe
2016South-East Asia and Australia. In: Migrant Smuggling Data and Research: A Global Reviewof the Emerging Evidence Base (M. McAuliffe and F. Laczko, eds.). IOM, Geneva. Available athttps://publications.iom.int/system/files/smuggling_report.pdf.
Gordon, l., K. Scanlon, T. Travers and C. Whitehead
2009
Economic Impact on London and the UK of an Earned Regularization of Irregular Migrants in
the UK. Greater London Authority, London. Available at www.london.gov.uk/sites/default/
files/gla_migrate_files_destination/irregular-migrants-report.pdf.
Institute on Statelessness and Inclusion
2014
The World’s Stateless. Wolf Legal Publishers, Oisterwijk. Available at www.institutesi.org/
worldsstateless.pdf.
2018Statelessness in Numbers: 2018. An Overview and Analysis of Global Statistics. Available atwww.institutesi.org/ISI_statistics_analysis_2018.pdf.

Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC)
2018
Global Report on Internal Displacement 2018. IDMC, Geneva. Available at www.internaldisplacement.org/global-report/grid2018/.
2019

Global Report on Internal Displacement 2019. IDMC, Geneva. Available at www.internaldisplacement.org/global-report/grid2019/.

n.d.

Global Internal Displacement Database. IDMC, Geneva. Available at www.internaldisplacement.org/database (accessed 3 September 2019).

International Labour Organization (ILO)2018
ILO Global Estimates on International Migrant Workers – Results and Methodology. 2ndedition. ILO, Geneva. Available at www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/--dcomm/---publ/documents/publication/wcms_652001.pdf.

372

Referencesn.d.

Arab States: Labour Migration. Available at www.ilo.org/beirut/areasofwork/labourmigration/lang--en/index.htm.

International Organization for Migration (IOM)
2000
World Migration Report 2000. IOM, Geneva. Available at https://publications.iom.int/books/
world-migration-report-2000.
2003

World Migration Report 2003: Managing Migration Challenges and Responses for People on
the Move. IOM, Geneva. Available at http://publications.iom.int/books/world-migrationreport-2003-managing-migration.

2019a2018 Return and Reintegration Key Highlights. IOM, Geneva. Available at www.iom.int/sites/
default/files/our_work/DMM/AVRR/2018_return_and_reintegration_key_highlights.pdf.

2019bGlossary on Migration. International Migration Law No. 34, IOM, Geneva. Available at www.
iom.int/glossary-migration-2019.

n.d.

Latest Global Figures: Missing Migrants Project: Tracking Deaths Along Migratory Routes. IOM,
Geneva. Available at https://missingmigrants.iom.int/.

2010

Dimensions and dynamics of irregular migration. Population, Space and Place, 16(3):181–
193.

Koser, K.

Kyaw, N.N.
2017
Laczko, F.
2017

McAuliffe, M.
2018

Unpacking the presumed statelessness of Rohingyas. Journal of Immigrant and RefugeeStudies, 15(3):269–286.
Improving data on migration: A 10-point plan. Migration Policy Practice, 7:1, January–
March. Available at https://publications.iom.int/fr/books/migration-policy-practice-volvii-number-1-january-march-2017.
The nexus between forced and irregular migration: Insights from demography. In: The
Demography of Refugee and Forced Migration (G. Hugo, J. Abbasi-Shavazi and E.P. Kraly,eds.). Springer, Cham, Switzerland.

Neto, F.
1995

Predictors of satisfaction with life among second generation migrants. Social Indicators
Research, 35(1):93–116.

Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD)
2018
International Migration Outlook 2018. OECD Publishing, Paris. Available at www.oecd-ilibrary.
org/social-issues-migration-health/international-migration-outlook-2018_migr_outlook2018-en.
n.d.aInternational Migration Database. OECD Data, Paris. Available at https://stats.oecd.org/
Index.aspx?DataSetCode=MIG (accessed 2 September 2019).

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

373

n.d.b

Foreign-Born Employment. OECD Data, Paris. Available at https://data.oecd.org/migration/
foreign-born-employment.htm (accessed 2 September 2019).

n.d.c

Net ODA. OECD Data, Paris. Available at https://data.oecd.org/oda/net-oda.htm (accessed
3 September 2019).

Poulain, M. and N. Perrin
2001
Is the measurement of international migration flows improving in Europe. Working Paper
No. 12. Joint ECE-EUROSTAT Work Session on Migration Statistics organized in cooperation
with the UN Statistics Division. UN Statistical Commission and the UN Economic Commission
for Europe (Eurostat). Geneva, 21–23 May.
Radford, J. and P. Connor
2019
Canada now leads the world in refugee resettlement, surpassing the U.S., Pew ResearchCenter, Factank, News in the Numbers, 19 June. Available at www.pewresearch.org/facttank/2019/06/19/canada-now-leads-the-world-in-refugee-resettlement-surpassing-theu-s/.
Skeldon, R.
2018

United Nations
1954

International Migration, Internal Migration, Mobility and Urbanization: Towards More
Integrated Approaches. Migration Research Series, No. 53. IOM, Geneva. Available at https://publications.iom.int/books/mrs-no-53-international-migration-internal-migrationmobility.
Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons. United Nations Treaty Series,
360:117, 28 September. Entry into force, 6 June 1960.

United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA)
1998
Recommendations on Statistics of International Migration: Revision 1. United
Nations, New York. Available at https://unstats.un.org/unsd/publication/seriesm/
seriesm_58rev1e.pdf.
2002International Migration 2002. Population Division, New York.

2008

International Migrant Stock: The 2008 Revision. United Nations, New York. Available athttps://esa.un.org/migration/index.asp?panel=1 (accessed 2 September 2019).

2015

International Migration Flows to and From Selected Countries: The 2015 Revision. UN
DESA, Population Division. Available at www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/
migration/data/empirical2/migrationflows.asp (accessed 2 September 2019).

2017aInternational Migration Report 2017. United Nations, ST/ESA/SER.A/403, December.
Available
atwww.un.org/en/development/desa/population/migration/publications/migrationreport/docs/MigrationReport2017.pdf.

2017bInternational Migrant Stock: The 2017 Revision. United Nations database, POP/DB/MIG/
Stock/Rev.2017. Available at www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/migration/
data/estimates2/estimates17.shtml (accessed 2 September 2019).

374

References

2019aInternational Migrant Stock 2019. UN DESA, Population Division, New York. Available atwww.un.org/en/development/desa/population/migration/data/estimates2/estimates19.
asp (accessed 18 September 2019).

2019b

International Migration Stock 2019. Documentation. POP/DB/MIG/Stoc/Rev.2019, UN DESA,
Population Division, New York. Available at www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/
migration/data/estimates2/docs/MigrationStockDocumentation_2019.pdf.

2019cWorld Population Prospects 2019. Highlights. ST/ESA/SER.A/423, UN DESA, Population
Division, New York. Available at https://population.un.org/wpp/Publications/Files/
WPP2019_Highlights.pdf.

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
2009
Human Development Report 2009. UNDP, New York. Available at www.hdr.undp.org/sites/
default/files/reports/269/hdr_2009_en_complete.pdf.
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)2010
UNHCR Global Trends 2010. UNHCR, Geneva. Available at www.unhcr.org/statistics/
country/4dfa11499/unhcr-global-trends-2010.html.
2014a

Handbook on Protection of Stateless Persons under the 1954 Convention Relating to the
Status of Stateless Persons. UNHCR, Geneva. Available at www.unhcr.org/dach/wp-content/
uploads/sites/27/2017/04/CH-UNHCR_Handbook-on-Protection-of-Stateless-Persons.pdf.

2014b

Global Action Plan to End Statelessness. UNHCR, Geneva. Available at www.refworld.org/
docid/545b47d64.html.

2018

Global Trends: Forced Displacement in 2017. UNHCR, Geneva. Available at www.unhcr.org/
statistics/unhcrstats/5b27be547/unhcr-global-trends-2017.html.

2019

Global Trends: Forced Displacement in 2018. UNHCR, Geneva. Available at www.unhcr.org/
statistics/unhcrstats/5d08d7ee7/unhcr-global-trends-2018.html.

n.d.a

Population Statistics. UNHCR, Geneva. Available at http://popstats.unhcr.org/en/persons_of_concern (accessed 3 September 2019).

n.d.bResettlement. UNHCR, Geneva. Available at(accessed 3 September 2019).

http://popstats.unhcr.org/en/resettlement

UNHCR Executive Committee (ExCom)
2017
Update on Statelessness. United Nations Document EC/68/SC/CRP.13, 7 June. Available atwww.refworld.org/docid/59a58d724.html.
United States Department of Homeland Security
2018
DHS announces additional, enhanced security procedures for refugees seeking resettlementin the United States. Press Release, 31 January. Available at www.dhs.gov/news/2018/01/29/
dhs-announces-additional-enhanced-security-procedures-refugees-seeking-resettlement.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

Van Waas, L.
2013

Venkov, J.
2018World Bank
2016

375

Reflections on Thailand (1): A protracted and neglected situation of statelessness. Weblog
Statelessness Programme, Tilburg University. Available at http://statelessprog.blogspot.
com/2013/02/reflections-on-thailand-1-protracted.html.
Not just a simple twist of fate: statelessness in Lithuania and Latvia. European Network
on Statelessness. Available at www.statelessness.eu/blog/not-just-simple-twist-fatestatelessness-lithuania-and-latvia.
Migration and Remittances Factbook 2016 – Third edition. World Bank,
Washington, D.C. Available at https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/
handle/10986/23743/9781464803192.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y.

2017a

Migration and Remittances: Recent Developments and Outlook. Migration and Development
Brief 27. World Bank, Washington, D.C. Available at http://pubdocs.worldbank.org/
en/992371492706371662/MigrationandDevelopmentBrief27.pdf.

2017bRemittances to developing countries decline for second consecutive year. Press release,
World Bank, Washington, D.C. Available at www.worldbank.org/en/news/pressrelease/2017/04/21/remittances-to-developing-countries-decline-for-second-consecutiveyear.

2018

Migration and Remittances: Recent Developments and Outlook. Migration and Development
Brief 30. World Bank, Washington, D.C. Available at www.knomad.org/sites/default/
files/2018-12/Migration%20and%20Development%20Brief%2030.pdf.

2019Migration and Remittances: Recent Developments and Outlook. Migration and Development
Brief 31. World Bank, Washington, D.C. Available at www.knomad.org/sites/default/
files/2019-04/Migrationanddevelopmentbrief31.pdf.

n.d.aWorld Bank Country and Lending Groups. World Bank, Washington, D.C. Available at https://
datahelpdesk.worldbank.org/knowledgebase/articles/906519-world-bank-country-andlending-groups (accessed 2 September 2019).

n.d.b

Migration and Remittances Data (updated as of April 2019). World Bank, Washington,
D.C. Available at www.worldbank.org/en/topic/migrationremittancesdiasporaissues/brief/migration-remittances-data (accessed 2 September 2019).

n.d.c

Migration and Remittances Publications. World Bank, Washington, D.C. Available atwww.worldbank.org/en/topic/migrationremittancesdiasporaissues/brief/migration-andremittances-publications.

376

References

Chapter 3
ACAPS
2018

Acosta, D.
2016

Adepoju, A.
2016

African Union
2019

Aimsiranun, U.
2018

Migration in West and North Africa: Scenarios. Available at www.mixedmigration.org/wpcontent/uploads/2018/12/20181130_acaps_mmc_scenarios_report_migration_in_west_
and_north_africa_update_2.pdf.
Free Movement in South America: The Emergence of an Alternative Model? Migration Policy
Institute, 23 August. Available at www.migrationpolicy.org/article/free-movement-southamerica-emergence-alternative-model.
Migration Dynamics, Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons in Africa. United Nations
Academic Impact (UNAI), 20 September. Available at https://academicimpact.un.org/
content/migration-dynamicsrefugees-and-internally-displaced-persons-africa.
Refugees, Returnees and Internally Displaced Persons in Africa at center of 32nd AU Summit
Opening of the 37th Ordinary Session of the PRC, Addis Ababa. Available at https://au.int/
en/pressreleases/20190115/refugees-returnees-and-internally-displaced-persons-africacenter-32nd-au.
Regional Approaches to Labour Migration: Mercosur and Asean in Comparative
Perspective. Proceedings of New York International Business and Social Science Research
Conference, New York. Available at www.aabl.com.au/aablConference/public/documents/
pdf/2018_11_25_05_17_37_NYIBSRC-216_Full_Paper.pdf.

Altai Consulting and International Organization for Migration (IOM)2015
Irregular Migration Between West Africa, North Africa and the Mediterranean. Prepared by
Altai Consulting for IOM Nigeria. Available at https://fmmwestafrica.org/wp-content/
uploads/2017/02/en-altai.pdf.
Amnesty International
2018
South Africa: Ten years after xenophobic killings, refugees and migrants still living infear. Available at www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2018/05/south-africa-ten-years-afterxenophobic-killings-refugees-and-migrants-still-living-in-fear/.
Andrew and Renata Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law
2019
Australia–United States Resettlement Arrangement. Available at www.kaldorcentre.unsw.
edu.au/publication/australia%E2%80%93united-states-resettlement-arrangement.
Atong, K., E. Mayah and K. Odigie
2018
Africa Labour Migration to GCC States: The Case of Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and Uganda. African
Regional Organisation of the International Trade Union Confederation. Available at www.
ituc-africa.org/IMG/pdf/ituc-africa_study-africa_labour_migration_to_the_gcc_states.pdf.

377

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

Australian Bureau of Statistics
2019
Net
Overseas
Migration.
Available
atwww.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/
Latestproducts/3412.0Main%20Features42017-18? opendocument&tabname=Summary&pro
dno=3412.0&issue=2017-18&num=&view=.
Australian Department of Education and Training
2018
International student data: monthly summary. Available at https://internationaleducation.
gov.au/research/International-Student-Data/Documents/MONTHLY%20SUMMARIES/2018/
Dec%202018%20MonthlyInfographic.pdf.
Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
2019
Pacific Labour Scheme. Available atDocuments/pacific-labour-scheme.pdf.

https://dfat.gov.au/geo/pacific/engagement/

Australian Department of Social Services
2019
Syrian/Iraqi humanitarian crisis. Available at
programs-policy/syrian-iraqi-humanitarian-crisis.
Bauder, H.
2016
Bialik, K.
2019

www.dss.gov.au/settlement-services-

Sanctuary Cities: Policies and Practices in International Perspective. International Migration,
55(2):174–187. Available at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/imig.12308.
Border apprehensions increased in 2018 – especially for migrant families. Pew ResearchCentre, 16 January. Available at www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/01/16/borderapprehensions-of-migrant-families-have-risen-substantially-so-far-in-2018/.

British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)2018Japan eases immigration rules for workers. BBC, 8 December. Available at www.bbc.com/
news/world-asia-46492216.
2019

Migrant caravan: Mexico detains hundreds in raid. BBC, 24 April. Available at www.bbc.com/
news/world-latin-america-48036092.

Buckley M., A. Zendel, J. Biggar, L. Frederiksen and J. Wells
2016
Migrant Work and Employment in the Construction Sector. International Labour Organization(ILO), Geneva. Available at www.ilo.org/global/topics/labour-migration/publications/
WCMS_538487/lang--en/index.htm.
Carling, J.
2016

Chatzky, A.
2019

West and Central Africa. In: Migrant Smuggling Data and Research: A global review ofthe emerging evidence base (M. McAuliffe and F. Laczko, eds.). IOM, Geneva. Available athttps://publications.iom.int/system/files/smuggling_report.pdf.
Mercosur: South America’s Fractious Trade Bloc. Council on Foreign Relations. Available atwww.cfr.org/backgrounder/mercosur-south-americas-fractious-trade-bloc.

378

References

Chishti, M. and J. Bolter
2019
The Travel Ban at Two: Rocky Implementation Settles into Deeper Impacts. Migration Policy
Institute, 31 January. Available at www.migrationpolicy.org/article/travel-ban-two-rockyimplementation-settles-deeper-impacts.
Climate and Development Knowledge Network
2014a The IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report: What’s in it for Africa? CDKN, London. Available athttps://cdkn.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/AR5_IPCC_Whats_in_it_for_Africa.pdf.
2014b

The IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report: What’s in it for South Asia? CDKN, London. Available
at https://cdkn.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/CDKN-IPCC-Whats-in-it-for-South-AsiaAR5.pdf.

Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL)
2019
Plan de Desarrollo Integral entre El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras y México. Available
atwww.gob.mx/cms/uploads/attachment/file/462720/34.Hacia_un_nuevo_estilo_de_desarrollo___Plan_de_Desarrollo_Integral_El.pdf.
Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL), United Nations (UN) and International
Organization for Migration (IOM)2017
Latin American and Caribbean Regional Preparatory Meeting of International Migration
Experts on the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration. Available at www.
cepal.org/sites/default/files/events/files/caribe_resumen_ejecutivo_v1_eng_ow.pdf.
Connolly, A.
2019

Irregular border crossings into Canada drop by half since same time last year. Global News,
24 June. Available at https://globalnews.ca/news/5425884/canada-irregular-bordercrossings-decrease-by-half/.

Connor, P. and J.M. Krogstad
2018
Many worldwide oppose more migration – both into and out of their countries. Pew ResearchCenter, 10 December. Available at www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/12/10/manyworldwide-oppose-more-migration-both-into-and-out-of-their-countries/.
Cook, S., J. Lu, H. Tugendhat and D. Alemu
2016
Chinese migrants in Africa: Facts and fictions from the agri-food sector in Ethiopia andGhana. World Development, 81:61–70. Available at www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/
pii/S0305750X15301571.
Cullell, J.M.
2019

México defiende su política migratoria tras detener a casi 400 centroamericanos de caminoa EE.UU. El Pais, 24 April. Available at https://elpais.com/internacional/2019/04/23/
mexico/1556037413_037927.html.

Curtain, R. and M. Dornan
2019
A pressure release valve? Migration and climate change in Kiribati, Nauru and Tuvalu.
Development Policy Center, The Australian National University. Available at https://devpolicy.org/publications/reports/Migration-climate%20change-Kiribati-Nauru-Tuvalu.
pdf.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

379

Curtain, R., M. Dornan, J. Doyle and S. Howes
2016
Pacific Possible: Labour mobility: the ten-billion-dollar prize. The World Bank, July. Available
at http://pubdocs.worldbank.org/en/555421468204932199/pdf/labour-mobility-pacificpossible.pdf.
Davidson, H.
2019

Last four refugee children leave Nauru for resettlement in US. The Guardian, 27 February.
Available at www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/28/last-four-refugee-children-leavenauru-for-resettlement-in-us.

Devillard, A., A. Bacchi and M. Noack
2016
A Survey on Migration Policies in West Africa. ICMPD, Vienna, and IOM, Dakar. Available atwww.icmpd.org/fileadmin/ICMPD-Website/ICMPD_General/Publications/2015/A_Survey_
on_Migration_Policies_in_West_Africa_EN_SOFT.pdf.
Diamant, J. and K.J. Starr
2018
Western Europeans vary in their nationalist, anti-immigrant and anti-religious minority
attitudes. Pew Research Center, 19 July. Available at www.pewresearch.org/facttank/2018/06/19/western-europeans-vary-in-their-nationalist-anti-immigrant-and-antireligious-minority-attitudes/.
Diop, A., T. Johnston and K.T. Le
2018Migration Policies across the GCC: Challenges in Reforming the Kafala. European University
Institute and Gulf Research Centre. Available at http://gulfmigration.org/media/
pubs/book/grm2017book_chapter/Volume%20-%20Migration%20to%20Gulf%20-%20
Chapter%203.pdf.
Doherty, M., B. Leung, K. Lorenze and A. Wilmarth
2014
Understanding South Asian Labor Migration. Workshop in International Public Affairs,
La Follette School of Public Affairs, University of Wisconsin, Madison. Available at www.
lafollette.wisc.edu/images/publications/workshops/2014-migration.pdf.
Dominguez-Villegas, R.
2019
Protection and Reintegration: Mexico Reforms Migration Agenda in an Increasingly Complex
Era. Migration Policy Institute, 7 March. Available at www.migrationpolicy.org/article/
protection-and-reintegration-mexico-reforms-migration-agenda.
Duncan, H. and I. Popp2017
Migrants and Cities: Stepping Beyond World Migration Report 2015. In: World Migration Report2018 (M. McAuliffe and M. Ruhs, eds.), IOM, Geneva. Available at https://publications.iom.
int/system/files/pdf/wmr_2018_en_chapter10.pdf.
East African Communityn.d.
Common Market. Available at www.eac.int/common-market.
Ellis, P. and M. Roberts
2016
Leveraging Urbanization in South Asia: Managing Spatial Transformation for Prosperityand Livability. World Bank Group, Washington, D.C. Available at https://openknowledge.
worldbank.org/handle/10986/22549.

380

References

Eurasianet
2019

As Russia loses its luster, Tajik laborers head to Turkey. Eurasianet, 5 May. Available athttps://eurasianet.org/as-russia-loses-its-luster-tajik-laborers-head-to-turkey.

Eurasian Economic Union
n.d.
General information. Available at www.eaeunion.org/?lang=en#about-info.
European Commission
2018a Lake Chad Basin Crisis: Food Insecurity Situation. Available at https://reliefweb.int/sites/
reliefweb.int/files/resources/ECDM_20181219_Lake_Chad_Basin_Crisis.pdf.
2018bIntegration of immigrants in the European Union. Special Eurobarometer 469. Available
athttps://ec.europa.eu/home-affairs/news/results-special-eurobarometer-integrationimmigrants-european-union_en.

2018c

Report from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council. Available at https://
ec.europa.eu/home-affairs/sites/homeaffairs/files/what-we-do/policies/european-agendasecurity/20181204_com-2018-777-report_en.pdf.

n.d.

Schengen Area. European Commission Migration and Home Affairs. Available at https://
ec.europa.eu/home-affairs/what-we-do/policies/borders-and-visas/schengen_en.

2018

Residence permits for non-EU citizens. Available at https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/
documents/2995521/9333446/3-25102018-AP-EN.pdf/3fa5fa53-e076-4a5f-8bb5a8075f639167.

2019

Migration and migrant population statistics. Available at https://ec.europa.eu/
eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Migration_and_migrant_population_
statistics&oldid=415659.

Eurostat

Farbotko, C.
2018

No Retreat: Climate Change and Voluntary Immobility in the Pacific Islands. Migration
Policy Institute, 13 June. Available at www.migrationpolicy.org/article/no-retreat-climatechange-and-voluntary-immobility-pacific-islands.

Flahaux, M.L. and H. de Haas
2016
African migration: Trends, patterns, drivers. Comparative Migration Studies, 4(1):1–25.
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
2018a Atlas of Migration: the majority of migrants from Central America come from rural areas. FAO
Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean. Available at www.fao.org/americas/
noticias/ver/en/c/1174658/.
2018b

FAO and WFP concerned about the impact of drought on the most vulnerable in Central
America. Available at www.fao.org/americas/noticias/ver/en/c/1150344/.

2019

Risk Analysis for 2019. Available at https://frontex.europa.eu/assets/Publications/Risk_
Analysis/Risk_Analysis/Risk_Analysis_for_2019.pdf.

Frontex

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

381

Gallagher, A. and M. McAuliffe
2016South-East Asia and Australia in Migrant Smuggling Data and Research: A global review ofthe emerging evidence base, McAuliffe, M. and F. Laczko (eds.), IOM, Geneva.
Gao, H., T.B. Bohn, E. Podest and D.P. Lettenmaier
2011
On the causes of the shrinking of Lake Chad. IOP Science: Environmental Research Letters,
6(3):1–7. Available at http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/6/3/034021/
meta.
Gaston, S. and J.E. Uscinski
2018
Out of the Shadows: Conspiracy Thinking on Immigration. The Henry Jackson Society.
Available at https://henryjacksonsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Out-of-theShadows-Conspiracy-thinking-on-immigration.pdf.
Georgetown Universityn.d.
Planned Relocations: Reports and Publications. Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.
Available at https://isim.georgetown.edu/Planned-Relocations.
Gois, A.
2015

Labour Migration in the ASEAN Region. Heinrich Böll Stiftung, Berlin, 23 November. Availableat www.boell.de/en/2015/11/23/labour-migration-asean-region.

Harkins, B., D. Lindgren and T. Suravoranon
2017
Risks and rewards: Outcomes of labour migration in South-East Asia. IOM and ILO. Available
atwww.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---asia/---ro-bangkok/documents/publication/
wcms_613815.pdf.
Hatsukano, N.
2015

Hervey, G
2017

Hickey, C.K.
2019

Improving the Regulatory and Support Environment for Migrant Workers for Greater
Productivity, Competitiveness, and Social Welfare in ASEAN. ERIA Discussion Paper Series,
November 2015. Available at www.eria.org/ERIA-DP-2015-76.pdf.
The EU exodus: When doctors and nurses follow the money. Politico, 30 September. Availableat www.politico.eu/article/doctors-nurses-migration-health-care-crisis-workers-follow-themoney-european-commission-data/.
Immigration’s Cash Rewards. Foreign Policy, 17 April. Available at https://foreignpolicy.
com/2019/04/17/immigrations-cash-rewards-migration-remittances/.

Hu, X.
2012

Hugo, G.J.
2014

China’s Young Rural-to-Urban Migrants: In Search of Fortune, Happiness, and Independence.
Migration Policy Institute, 4 January. Available at www.migrationpolicy.org/article/chinasyoung-rural-urban-migrants-search-fortune-happiness-and-independence.
The changing dynamics of ASEAN international migration. Malaysian Journal of Economic
Studies, 51(1):43–67.

382

References

2015

Internal and International Migration in East and Southeast Asia: Exploring the Linkages.
Population, Space and Place, 22(7):651–668. Available at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/
doi/10.1002/psp.1930/full.

Human Rights Watch
2018
Mozambique: Armed Groups Burn Villages. Available at www.hrw.org/news/2018/06/19/
mozambique-armed-groups-burn-villages.
2019

World Report 2019: Events of 2018. Available at www.hrw.org/world-report/2019.

Hummel, D., M. Doevenspeck and C. Samimi
2012
Climate Change, Environment and Migration in the Sahel: Selected Issues with a Focus
on Senegal and Mali. Migration, Climate and Environmental Changes in the Sahel (MICLE)
Research Project, Working Paper No. 1. Available at www.micle-project.net/uploads/media/
micle-wp1-2012-en.pdf.
Hummel D. and S. Liehr
2015
Migration in the West African Sahel – more than a response to climate change. ISOE Policy
Brief No. 2/2015. Available at www.isoe-publikationen.de/fileadmin/redaktion/Downloads/
Bevoelkerung/policy-brief-isoe-2015-2.pdf.
Içduygu, A.
2018

Middle East. In: Migrant Smuggling Data and Research: A global review of the emerging
evidence base, Volume 2 (A. Triandafyllidou and M. McAuliffe, eds.). IOM, Geneva. Available
athttps://publications.iom.int/books/migrant-smuggling-data-and-research-globalreview-emerging-evidence-base-volume-2.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC)
2018
Permanent Residents Admitted in 2017, by Top 10 Source Countries. Available at www.canada.
ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/corporate/publications-manuals/annual-reportparliament-immigration-2018/permanent-residents-admitted.html.
Institute of International Education (IIE)
2018
Places of Origin. Available at www.iie.org/Research-and-Insights/Open-Doors/Data/
International-Students/Places-of-Origin.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
2018
Impacts of 1.5°C of Global Warming on Natural and Human Systems. Available at www.ipcc.
ch/site/assets/uploads/sites/2/2019/02/SR15_Chapter3_Low_Res.pdf.
Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC)
2018a Global Report on Internal Displacement. IDMC, Geneva. Available at www.internaldisplacement.org/global-report/grid2018/downloads/2018-GRID.pdf.
2018bGlobal Report on Internal Displacement. IDMC, Geneva. Available at www.internaldisplacement.org/media-centres/east-africa-worst-hit-by-internal-displacement-in-firsthalf-of-2018.

2019

Global Report on Internal Displacement. IDMC, Geneva. Available at www.internaldisplacement.org/sites/default/files/publications/documents/2019-IDMC-GRID.pdf.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

n.d.

383

Global Internal Displacement Database. IDMC, Geneva. Available at www.internaldisplacement.org/database/displacement-data.

International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC)
2018
Niger: Complex emergency. Available at https://media.ifrc.org/ifrc/wp-content/uploads/
sites/5/2018/04/IFRC-Niger-complex-emergency-A4-EN-3.pdf.
International Labour Organization (ILO)
2016
Labour migration in Latin America and the Caribbean: Diagnosis, strategy, and ILO’s workin the region. ILO Technical Reports, 2016/2. ILO, Lima. Available at www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/
groups/public/---americas/---ro-lima/documents/publication/wcms_548185.pdf.
2018Europe’s ageing population comes with a silver lining. Available at www.ilo.org/brussels/
information-resources/news/WCMS_645926/lang--en/index.htm.

2019Labour Mobility in Pacific Island Countries. Available at www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/
public/---asia/---ro-bangkok/---ilo-suva/documents/publication/wcms_712549.pdf.

International Organization for Migration (IOM)
2015
More Europeans Migrate to Latin America, Caribbean Than Other Way Around: IOM Study. IOM,
Geneva. Available at www.iom.int/news/more-europeans-migrate-latin-america-caribbeanother-way-around-iom-study.
2016a

3rd Almaty Process Senior Officials Meeting (SOM), 19–20 September 2016, Astana
Kazakhstan. IOM, Astana. Available at www.iom.kz/en/new/213-alma-proc-meet-eng.

2016b

Migrant Vulnerabilities and Integration Needs in Central Asia: Root Causes, Social andEconomic Impact of Return Migration. IOM, Astana. Available at www.iom.kz/images/
inform/FinalFullReport18SBNlogocom.pdf.

2017

Migration Trends in South America. South American Migration Report No. 1. IOM, SouthAmerica. Available at http://robuenosaires.iom.int/sites/default/files/Documentos%20
PDFs/Report_ Migration_Trends_South_America_N1_EN.pdf.

2018aRegional Migrant Response Plan: For the Horn of Africa and Yemen 2018–20. IOM, Geneva.
Available at www.iom.int/sites/default/files/country/docs/regional_migrant_response_
plan_for_the_h.a_yemen.pdf.

2018b

IOM Libya Voluntary Humanitarian Return. IOM, Geneva. Available at www.iom.int/sites/
default/files/vhr-_update_16-31_dec-english.pdf.

2018c

IOM Bangladesh: Rohingya Humanitarian Crisis Response: Monthly Situation Report. IOM,
Geneva. Available at www.iom.int/sites/default/files/situation_reports/file/bangladesh_
sr_201812.pdf.

2018d

Iraq Displacement Figures Drop Below Two Million for First Time Since 2014; Nearly Four Million
Have Returned Home. IOM, Geneva. Available at www.iom.int/news/iraq-displacementfigures-drop-below-two-million-first-time-2014-nearly-four-million-have.

384

References

2018e

Number of Refugees, Migrants from Venezuela Reaches 3 Million. IOM, Geneva. Available atwww.iom.int/news/number-refugees-migrants-venezuela-reaches-3-million.

2018f

Encuesta Monitoreo de Flujos. IOM, San José, Costa Rica. Available at https://rosanjose.iom.
int/site/sites/default/files/Reportes/dtm_chiapas_espanol.pdf.

2019aDisplacement Tracking Matrix: Programming in the East and Horn of Africa. IOM, Nairobi.
Available at https://displacement.iom.int/reports/east-and-horn-africa-%E2%80%942019-info-sheet.

2019b

Mozambique — Tropical Cyclone Idai Situation Report 3 (3 April 2019). IOM, Mozambique.
Available at https://displacement.iom.int/reports/mozambique-%E2%80%94-tropicalcyclone-idai-situation-report-3-3-april-2019?close=true.

2019cMediterranean Migrant Arrivals Reach 12,174 in 2019; Deaths Reach 356. IOM, Geneva.
Available at www.iom.int/news/mediterranean-migrant-arrivals-reach-12174-2019-deathsreach-356.

n.d.aWest and Central Africa. IOM, Dakar. Available at www.iom.int/west-and-central-africa.

n.d.bFlow Monitoring Europe.
europe?type=arrivals.

n.d.c

The Counter Trafficking Data Collaborative (CTDC). IOM, Geneva. Available at www.
ctdatacollaborative.org/.

n.d.dMissing Migrants. IOM, Geneva. Available at https://missingmigrants.iom.int/region/
mediterranean.

n.d.eSouth America. IOM, Buenos Aires. Available at www.iom.int/south-america.

IOM,

Geneva.

Availableathttps://migration.iom.int/

International Organization for Migration and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (IOM and
UNHCR)
2018
Returns to Afghanistan in 2017: Joint IOM-UNHCR Summary Report. Available at https://
data2.unhcr.org/en/documents/download/63077.
Ionesco, D., D. Mokhnacheva and F. Gemenne
2017
The Atlas of Environmental Migration. IOM and Routledge. Available at https://environmentalmigration.iom.int/projects/atlas-environmental-migration.
Jacobsen, J. and M. Valenta
2016
Moving to the Gulf: an empirical analysis of the patterns and drivers of migration to the GCC
countries, 1960–2013. Labour History, 57(5):627–648. Available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1
080/0023656X.2016.1239885.
Jayasuriya, D. and R. Sunam
2016
South Asia. In: Migrant Smuggling Data and Research: A global review of the emerging
evidence base (M. McAuliffe and F. Laczko, eds.), IOM, Geneva. Available at https://publications.iom.int/system/files/smuggling_report.pdf.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

Jennings, R.
2018

Ju-Young, P.
2018

385

China Agrees To Accept Filipino Workers, But Will They Go? Forbes, 3 May. Available at www.
forbes.com/sites/ralphjennings/2018/05/03/why-overseas-filipino-workers-will-clamorfor-jobs-in-china/#311ec20c8309.
Korea to accept 56,000 foreign workers in 2019. The Korea Herald, 19 December. Availableat www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20181219000544.

Kahanec, M. and F. Zimmermann
2009
Migration in an enlarged EU: A challenging solution? European Commission. Available athttps://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/publications/pages/publication14287_en.pdf.
Karasz, P. and P. Kingsley
2018
What Is Hungary’s ‘Slave Law,’ and Why Has It Provoked Opposition? New York Times, 22
December. Available at www.nytimes.com/2018/12/22/world/europe/hungary-slave-law.
html.
Krogstad, J.M, J.S. Passel and D. Cohn
2019
5 facts about illegal immigration in the U.S. Pew Research Center, 12 June. Available at www.
pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/06/12/5-facts-about-illegal-immigration-in-the-u-s/.
Kwon, J.
2019
Landau, L.
2018

MacGregor, M.
2019
Maher, S.
2018South Korea’s “Yemeni Refugee Problem”. Middle East Institute. Available at www.mei.edu/
publications/south-koreas-yemeni-refugee-problem.
Xenophobia in South Africa: why it’s time to unsettle narratives about migrants. The
Conversation. Available at https://theconversation.com/xenophobia-in-south-africa-whyits-time-to-unsettle-narratives-about-migrants-102616.
Changing journeys: Migrant routes to Europe. Info Migrants. Available at www.infomigrants.
net/en/post/15005/changing-journeys-migrant-routes-to-europe.
Southern Africa. In: Migrant Smuggling Data and Research: A global review of the emerging
evidence base, Volume 2 (A. Triandafyllidou and M. McAuliffe, eds.). IOM, Geneva. Available
athttps://publications.iom.int/books/migrant-smuggling-data-and-research-globalreview-emerging-evidence-base-volume-2.

Malik, S.
2015

Asian Immigrants in the United States Today. Center for American Progress. Available at www.
americanprogress.org/issues/immigration/news/2015/05/21/113690/asian-immigrantsin-the-unites-states-today/.

2017

No Win-Wins in Kenya’s Modern-Day Voyages in Search of Work. Brookings Institution, 26
May. Available at www.brookings.edu/blog/future-development/2017/05/26/no-win-winsin-kenyas-modern-day-voyages-in-search-of-work/.

Manji, F.

386

References

Matusevich, Y.
2019

McAuliffe, M.
2016

2018

From Samarkand to Seoul: Central Asian migrants in South Korea. Eurasianet, 17 May.
Available at https://eurasianet.org/from-samarkand-to-seoul-central-asian-migrants-insouth-korea.
Resolving Policy Conundrums: Enhancing Humanitarian Protection in Southeast Asia.
Migration Policy Institute, Washington, D.C. Available at http://reliefweb.int/sites/
reliefweb.int/files/resources/TCM_Development-McAuliffe-FINAL.pdf.
The link between migration and technology is not what you think. World Economic Forum.
Available at www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/12/social-media-is-casting-a-dark-shadowover-migration/.

McAuliffe, M. and D. Jayasuriya
2016
Do asylum seekers and refugees choose destination countries? Evidence from large-scale
surveys in Australia, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. International
Migration, 54(4):44–59. Available at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/
imig.12240.
McCurry, J.
2019

Meissner, D.
2018

Fears of exploitation as Japan prepares to admit foreign workers. The Guardian, 2 January.
Available at www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/02/fears-of-exploitation-as-japanprepares-to-admit-foreign-workers.
Asylum Reform, Not Troops, Is the Solution to Current Border Reality. Migration Policy
Institute, November. Available at www.migrationpolicy.org/news/asylum-reform-nottroops-solution-current-border-reality.

Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China
2019a More Chinese study abroad in 2018. Available at http://en.moe.gov.cn/news/media_
highlights/201904/t20190401_376249.html.
2019b
Mittelstadt, M.
2018

Natter, K.
2014

Statistical report on international students in China for 2018. Available at http://en.moe.
gov.cn/news/press_releases/201904/t20190418_378586.html.
Shaping a Narrative of “Crisis” at Border, Trump Administration Takes Muscular Action.
Migration Policy Institute, 19 December. Available at www.migrationpolicy.org/article/top10-2018-issue-3-border-crisis-narrative-trump-administration-action.
Fifty years of Maghreb emigration: How states shaped Algerian, Moroccan and Tunisianemigration. Working Paper, DEMIG No. 21, International Migration Institute, University of
Oxford. Available at www.imi.ox.ac.uk/publications/wp-95-14.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

387

New Zealand Immigrationn.d.
New Zealand Refugee Quota Programme. Available at www.immigration.govt.nz/aboutus/what-we-do/our-strategies-and-projects/supporting-refugees-and-asylum-seekers/
refugee-and-protection-unit/new-zealand-refugee-quota-programme.
New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment
2018
Migration Trends: 2016/2017. Available at www.mbie.govt.nz/assets/Uploads/c22ab0c547/
migration-trends-2016-17.pdf.
Nikiforova, E. and O. Brednikova
2018
On labor migration to Russia: Central Asian migrants and migrant families in the matrix of
Russia’s bordering policies. Political Geography, 66:142–150. Available at www-sciencedirectcom.uplib.idm.oclc.org/science/article/pii/S0962629816303225.
Ning, L.
2018

China expands new visa policy nationwide to lure high-end foreign talents. People’s Daily,
6 March. Available at http://en.people.cn/n3/2018/0306/c90000-9433613.html.

Nshimbi, C.C. and L. Fioramonti
2013
A Region Without Borders? Policy Frameworks for Regional Labour Migration Towards
South Africa. MiWORC Report, African Centre for Migration and Society, University of the
Witwatersrand. Available at www.miworc.org.za/docs/MiWORC-Report-1.pdf.
Nye, C.
2019

O’Faolain, A.
2018

Japan’s desperate need for migrant workers a warning for the UK. The Conversation. Available
athttps://theconversation.com/japans-desperate-need-for-migrant-workers-a-warningfor-the-uk-109529.
Migrant fishermen claim their workign conditions are akin to ‘modern’ slavery, The Irish
Times, 22 November 2018.

Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
2018a Venezuela: Human rights experts say health system in crisis. Available at www.ohchr.org/EN/
NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=23667&LangID=E.
2018b

UN experts to US: “Release migrant children from detention and stop using them to deter
irregular migration”. Available at www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.
aspx?NewsID=23245&LangID=E.

Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE)
2016
Labour Migration in Central Asia. OSCE Security Community, Issue 1/2016. OSCE. Availableat www.osce.org/magazine/250386.
Otker-Robe, I.
2019

Building a more resilient Caribbean to natural disasters and climate change. World Bank.
Availableathttps://blogs.worldbank.org/developmenttalk/building-more-resilientcaribbean-natural-disasters-and-climate-change.

388

References

Palencia, G.
2014

Patriquin, M.
2018

Drought Leaves up to 2.8 Million Hungry in Central America. Scientific American, 4 September.
Available at www.scientificamerican.com/article/drought-leaves-up-to-2-8-million-hungryin-central-america/.
Canada registers sixfold increase in US citizens seeking asylum in 2017. The Guardian,
14 November. Available at www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/14/us-citizens-seekingasylum-canada-increases-immigration-refugees.

Peto, S.
2019

Pholphirul, P.
2018

Thousands rally against Hungary’s overtime work law, PM Orban. Reuters, 5 January.
Available
atwww.reuters.com/article/us-hungary-protest/thousands-rally-againsthungarys-overtime-work-law-pm-orban-idUSKCN1OZ0GO.
South–south labour migration and sustainable development: Implications for Southeast
Asian countries. Sustainable Development, 27(1):1–12. Available at https://onlinelibrary.
wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/sd.1876.

Qin, M., J.J. Brown, S.S. Padmadas, B. Li, J. Qi and J. Falkingham
2016
Gender inequalities in employment and wage-earning among internal labour migrants in
Chinese cities. Demographic Research, 34:175–202. Available at www-jstor-org.uplib.idm.
oclc.org/stable/pdf/26332032.pdf?ab_segments=0%252Fdefault-2%252Fcontrol&refreqid=
excelsior%3A6bdc7e40c410192ddfe82d4852f27c43.
Radford, J.
2019Rahman, Md M.
2013

Key findings about U.S. immigrants. Pew Research Center, 17 June. Available at www.
pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/06/17/key-findings-about-u-s-immigrants/.
Migrant Indebtedness: Bangladeshis in the GCC Countries. International Migration,
53(6):205–219. Available at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/imig.12084/full.

Raphelson, M, J. Hobson and C. Bentley
2018
California Sanctuary Law Divides State In Fierce Immigration Debate. National Public Radio.
Available at www.npr.org/2018/10/17/657951176/california-sanctuary-law-divides-statein-fierce-immigration-debate?t=1563450409757.
Refugee Council of Australia
2017
Recent Changes in Australian Refugee Policy. RCA, June. Available at www.refugeecouncil.
org.au/publications/recent-changes-australian-refugee-policy/.
Reifeld, H.
2015

Emigration, Transit and Host Country: Migration in Morocco. KAS International Reports,
Issue 2–3, Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung. Available at www.kas.de/wf/en/33.40711/.

Reuters
2018

IMF projects Venezuela inflation will hit 1,000,000 percent in 2018. Reuters, 24 July.
Availableathttps://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-economy/imf-projectsvenezuela-inflation-will-hit-1000000-percent-in-2018-idUSKBN1KD2L9.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

Rudincova, K.
2017

Sanchez, G.
2018

Schmeidl, S.
2016

Seligman, L.
2018

Sengupta, A.
2018

389

Desiccation of Lake Chad as a cause of security instability in the Sahel region. GeoScape,11(2):112–120. Available at https://content.sciendo.com/view/journals/geosc/11/2/
article-p112.xml.
Mexico. In: Migrant Smuggling Data and Research: A global review of the emerging evidence
base, Volume 2 (A. Triandafyllidou and M. McAuliffe, eds.). IOM, Geneva. Available athttps://publications.iom.int/books/migrant-smuggling-data-and-research-global-reviewemerging-evidence-base-volume-2.
Determinants of Displacement from Post-2014 Afghanistan. Paper presented at the Afghan
Migration: Aspirations, Movements, Demography, Integration and Return Conference,
Australian National University, March 2016. Available at http://demography.anu.edu.au/afghan-migration-conference/participants.
U.S.-led Coalition Set to Launch Final Fight Against ISIS in Syria. Foreign Policy, 1 August.
Available at https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/08/01/u-s-led-coalition-set-to-launch-finalfight-against-isis-in-syria/.
Southern Africa. In: Migrant Smuggling Data and Research: A global review of the emerging
evidence base, Volume 2 (A. Triandafyllidou M. McAuliffe, eds.). IOM, Geneva. Available athttps://publications.iom.int/books/migrant-smuggling-data-and-research-global-reviewemerging-evidence-base-volume-2.

Shapiro, L. and M. Sharma
2018
How many migrant children are still separated from their families? The Washington Post,
30 August. Available at https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/local/trackingmigrant-family-separation/.
Shuo, Z.
2019

Chinese students studying abroad up 8.83%. China Daily, 28 March. Available at www.
chinadaily.com.cn/a/201903/28/WS5c9c355da3104842260b30eb.html.

Sitaropoulos, N.
2000
Modern Greek asylum policy and practice in the context of the relevant European
developments. Journal of Refugee Studies, 13(1):105–17.
Solomon, D.B.
2019

Southwick, K.
2015

U.S. dream pulls African migrants in record numbers across Latin America. Reuters, 5 July.
Available at www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-immigration-africa/u-s-dream-pulls-africanmigrants-in-record-numbers-across-latin-america-idUSKCN1U01A4.
Preventing mass atrocities against the stateless Rohingya in Myanmar. Journal ofInternational Affairs, 68(2):137–56.

390

References

Srivastava, R. and A. Pandey
2017
Internal and International Migration in South Asia: Drivers, Interlinkage and Policy Issues.
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, New Delhi. Available at
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0024/002494/249459E.pdf.
Staedicke, S., J. Batalova and J. Zong
2016
On the Brink of Demographic Crisis, Governments in East Asia Turn Slowly to Immigration.
Migration Policy Institute, 6 December. Available at www.migrationpolicy.org/article/brinkdemographic-crisis-governments-east-asia-turn-slowly-immigration.
Stats, New Zealand
2019
Net migration remains high. Available at www.stats.govt.nz/news/net-migration-remainshigh.
Szakacs, G.
2019

Orban offers financial incentives to boost Hungary’s birth rate. Reuters, 10 February.
Available at www.reuters.com/article/us-hungary-orban-benefits/orban-offers-financialincentives-to-boost-hungarys-birth-rate-idUSKCN1PZ0I0.

The State Council, the People’s Republic of China
2018
China unveils State immigration administration. Available at http://english.gov.cn/state_council/ministries/2018/04/03/content_281476099942832.htm.
Tian, Y. and E.A. Chung
2018
Is Japan Becoming a Country of Immigration? Why More Foreign Labor Doesn’t Imply
Liberalization. Foreign Affairs, 3 August. Available at www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/japan/2018-08-03/japan-becoming-country-immigration.
Tierney, J., C. Ummenhofer and P. deMenocal
2015
Past and future rainfall in the Horn of Africa. Science Advances, 1(9):1–8. Available at
http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/1/9/e1500682.
Turaeva, R.
2018

Imagined mosque communities in Russia: Central Asian migrants in Moscow. Asian Ethnicity,
20(2):131–147. Available at www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14631369.2018.15255
29.

United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)
2018
In Mexico, children traveling with migrant caravan still in need of protection and support– UNICEF. Available at www.unicef.org/press-releases/mexico-children-traveling-migrantcaravan-still-need-protection-and-support-unicef.
2019

Cyclone Idai: More than 1.5 million children urgently need assistance across Mozambique,
Malawi and Zimbabwe. Available at www.unicef.org/thailand/press-releases/cyclone-idaimore-15-million-children-urgently-need-assistance-across-mozambique.

United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)
2018
Economic Development in Africa Report 2018: Migration for Structural Transformation.
United Nations, New York. Available at https://unctad.org/en/pages/PublicationWebflyer.
aspx?publicationid=2118.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

391

United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA)
2015
World Population Prospects: The 2015 Revision. United Nations, New York. Available athttps://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/publications/files/key_findings_wpp_2015.pdf.
2017

Trends in International Migrant Stock: The 2017 Revision. United Nations database.
Available at www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/migration/data/estimates2/
estimates17.shtml.

2018

The speed of urbanization around the world. Available at https://population.un.org/wup/
Publications/Files/WUP2018-PopFacts_2018-1.pdf.

2019aInternational Migrant Stock 2019. United Nations, New York. Available at https://www.
un.org/en/development/desa/population/migration/data/estimates2/estimates19.asp.

2019bWorld Population Prospects 2019: Highlights. United Nations, New York. Available at https://
population.un.org/wpp/Publications/Files/WPP2019_Highlights.pdf.

2019cWorld Population Prospects 2019. UN DESA, Population Division, New York. Available athttps://population.un.org/wpp/Download/Standard/Population/.

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
n.d
About Kyrgyz Republic. Available at http://www.kg.undp.org/content/kyrgyzstan/en/
home/about-us.html.
United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP)
2015
Climate Change and Migration in the Pacific: Links, attitudes, and future scenarios in Nauru,
Tuvalu and Kiribati. 3 December. Available at www.unescap.org/resources/climate-changeand-migration-pacific-links-attitudes-and-future-scenarios-nauru-tuvalu-and.
United Nations Environment (UN Environment)
2018a Mapping the devastation of Somalia’s drought. United Nations. Available at www.
unenvironment.org/news-and-stories/story/mapping-devastation-somalias-drought.
2018b

The tale of a disappearing lake. Available at www.unenvironment.org/news-and-stories/
story/tale-disappearing-lake.

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
2016
Global Trends: Forced displacement in 2015. Geneva, Switzerland. Available at https://www.
unhcr.org/statistics/unhcrstats/576408cd7/unhcr-global-trends-2015.html.
2018a

Global Trends: Forced Displacement in 2017. Available at www.unhcr.org/5b27be547.pdf.

2018b

New Zealand: By the Government of New Zealand. Available at www.unhcr.org/3c5e59d04.
pdf.

2019a

Global Trends: Forced Displacement in 2018. Available at www.unhcr.org/globaltrends2018/.

2019b

Desperate Journeys. Available at https://data2.unhcr.org/en/documents/download/67712#_
ga=2.212974932.1597542286.1563629435-978608323.1563629435.

392

References

2019c

Russian Federation. Available at http://reporting.unhcr.org/node/2551?y=2019#year.

2019d

Refugees and migrants from Venezuela top 4 million: UNHCR and IOM. Available at https://www.unhcr.org/news/press/2019/6/5cfa2a4a4/refugees-migrants-venezuela-top-4million-unhcr-iom.html.

2019e

The Refugee Brief – 4 February 2019. Available at www.unhcr.org/refugeebrief/the-refugeebrief-4-february-2019/.

n.d.

Population Statistics. UNHCR, Geneva. Available at http://popstats.unhcr.org/en/persons_of_concern.

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
2011
Livelihood Insecurity: Climate Change, Migration and Conflict in the Sahel. UNEP, Geneva.
Available at http://postconflict.unep.ch/publications/UNEP_Sahel_EN.pdf.
United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
n.d.
Current Emergencies. Available at www.unocha.org/where-we-work/current-emergencies.
United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS)
2018
Pastoralism and Security in West Africa and the Sahel. Available at https://unowas.
unmissions.org/sites/default/files/rapport_pastoralisme_eng-2.pdf.
United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC)
2018
Global Study on Smuggling of Migrants 2018. United Nations, New York. Available at www.
unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/glosom.html.
United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA)
n.d.
Where We Work. UNRWA, Gaza City. Available at www.unrwa.org/where-we-work.
United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) and Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for
Human Rights (OHCHR)
2018
Desperate and Dangerous: Report on the human rights situation of migrants and refugees in
Libya. Available at www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/LY/LibyaMigrationReport.pdf.
United States Agency for International Development (USAID)
n.d.
Agriculture and Food Security: USAID Southern Africa Regional. USAID. Available at www.
usaid.gov/southern-africa-regional/agriculture-and-food-security.
United States Department of Homeland Security
2018
Fiscal Year 2018 Entry/Exit Overstay Report. Available at www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/
publications/19_0417_fy18-entry-and-exit-overstay-report.pdf.
United States Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)20182017 Hate Crime Statistics. Available at https://ucr.fbi.gov/hate-crime/2017/resourcepages/hate-crime-summary.
United States Department of Staten.d.
Immigrant and Nonimmigrant Visas Issued at Foreign Service Posts. Available at https://travel.state.gov/content/dam/visas/Statistics/AnnualReports/FY2018AnnualReport/
FY18AnnualReport%20-%20TableI.pdf.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

Vanderwey, H.
2019

Velasco, S.A.
2018

Walker, S.
2019

Werner, A.
2018
World Bank
2018a

393

Turning youth unemployment into entrepreneurship. United Nations Development
Programme, Pacific Office in Fiji. Available at www.pacific.undp.org/content/pacific/en/
home/blog/2019/turning-youth-unemployment-into-entrepreneurship.html.
Ecuador. In: Migrant Smuggling Data and Research: A global review of the emerging evidence
base, Volume 2 (A. Triandafyllidou and M. McAuliffe, eds.). IOM, Geneva. Available athttps://publications.iom.int/books/migrant-smuggling-data-and-research-global-reviewemerging-evidence-base-volume-2.
Viktor Orbán calls for anti-migration politicians to take over EU. The Guardian, 10 February.
Available at www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jan/10/viktor-orban-calls-anti-migrationpolitics-take-over-eu-matteo-salvini.
Outlook for the Americas: A Tougher Recovery. IMF Blog, 23 July. Available at https://blogs.
imf.org/2018/07/23/outlook-for-the-americas-a-tougher-recovery/.
Record high remittances to low- and middle-income countries in 2017. Washington, D.C.
Available
atwww.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2018/04/23/record-highremittances-to-low-and-middle-income-countries-in-2017.

2018b

Russia’s Economic Recovery Continues, Modest Growth Ahead. Available at www.worldbank.
org/en/news/press-release/2018/05/23/russias-economic-recovery-continues-modestgrowth-ahead.

2019aMigration and Remittances: Recent Developments and Outlook. Available at www.knomad.
org/publication/migration-and-development-brief-31.

2019b

The World Bank In Pacific Islands. Available at www.worldbank.org/en/country/
pacificislands/overview.

Zong, J. and J. Batalova
2019
Caribbean Immigrants in the United States. Migration Policy Institute, 13 February. Availableat www.migrationpolicy.org/article/caribbean-immigrants-united-states.
Zong, J., J. Batalova and M. Burrows
2019
Frequently Requested Statistics on Immigrants and Immigration in the United States.
Migration Policy Institute, 14 March. Available at www.migrationpolicy.org/article/
frequently-requested-statistics-immigrants-and-immigration-united-states#Now.

394

References

Chapter 4
Abascal, M.
2017

Tu casa, mi casa: Naturalization and belonging among Latino immigrants. International
Migration Review, 51(2):291–322.

Acemoglu, D. and J. Robinson
2000
Why did the West extend the franchise? Democracy, inequality, and growth in historicalperspective. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 115(4):1167–1199.
Agwu, G.A., D.N. Yuni and L. Anochiwa
2018
Do remittances improve income inequality? An instrumental variable quantile analysis of
the Senegalese case. International Migration, 56(1):146–166.
Akcay, S. and A. Karasoy
2017
Remittances and calorie consumption nexus in Algeria. International Migration, 55(4):103–
117.
Akoka, K., O. Clochard and A. Tcholakova
2017
Editorial: The condition of refugee: Subjective experiences and collective mobilizations.
Revue Européenne des Migrations Internationales, 33(4):7–21.
Alden, E.
2017Is border enforcement effective? What we know and what it means. Journal on Migrationand Human Security, 5(2):481–490.

Aldred, J., A. Astell, R. Behr, L. Cochrane, J. Hind, A. Pickard, L. Potter, A. Wignall and E. Wiseman
2008
The world’s 50 most powerful blogs. The Guardian, 9 March.
Alfaro-Velcamp, T., R.H. McLaughlin, G. Brogneri, M. Skade and M. Shaw2017
‘Getting angry with honest people’: The illicit market for immigrant ‘papers’ in Cape Town,
South Africa. Migration Studies, 5(2):216–236.
Altman, C.E., J. Van Hook and J. Gonzalez
2017
Becoming overweight without gaining a pound: Weight evaluations and the social integrationof Mexicans in the United States. International Migration Review, 51(1):3–36.
Amit, K. and D. Blum
2018
Subjective perceptions related to migration. International Migration, 56(3):123–126.
Appleby, K.
2017

Strengthening the global refugee protection system: Recommendations for the global
compact on refugees. Journal on Migration and Human Security, 5(4):780–799.

Arouri, M. and C. Nguyen
2018
Does international migration affect labor supply, non-farm diversification and welfare ofhouseholds? Evidence from Egypt. International Migration, 56(1):39–62.
Atkinson, K.E.
2018

Policy and possibilities of humanitarian development: Displaced women and peace-building
features of the UNHCR. Refugee Survey Quarterly, 37(4):408–439.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

Bakewell, O.
2008

395

Research beyond the categories: The importance of policy irrelevant research into forced
migration. Journal of Refugee Studies, 21(4):432–453.

Basu, S.
2017
Bauder, H.
2017
Beaman, J.
2016

Wage assimilation of immigrants: A comparison of ‘new’ and ‘old’ Asian source countries.
Migration Studies, 5(1):1–28.
Sanctuary cities: Policies and practices in international perspective. International Migration,
55(2):174–187.
As French and anyone else: Islam and the North African second generation in France.
International Migration Review, 50(1):41–69.

Bello, V. and T. Bloom
2017
Interculturalism in times of crisis. International Migration, 55(2):5–9.
Benson, L.B.
2017

Immigration adjudication: The missing “rule of law”. Journal on Migration and Human
Security, 5(2):331–355.

Betts, A., N. Omata and L. Bloom
2017
Thrive or survive? Explaining variation in economic outcomes for refugees. Journal on
Migration and Human Security, 5(4):716–743.
Blitz, B.
2017

Another story: What public opinion data tell us about refugee and humanitarian policy.
Journal on Migration and Human Security, 5(2):379–400.

Bloemraad, I. and A. Sheares
2017
Understanding membership in a world of global migration: (How) does citizenship matter?
International Migration Review, 51(4):823–867.
Boehm, D.A.
2017

Separated families: Barriers to family reunification after deportation. Journal on Migrationand Human Security, 5(2):401–416.

Bonjour, S. and S. Chauvin2018
Social class, migration policy and migrant strategies: An introduction. International
Migration, 56(4):5–18.
Bornmann, L.
2014
Boswell, C.
2008

Do altmetrics point to the broader impact of research? An overview of benefits anddisadvantages of altmetrics. Journal of informetrics, 8(4):895–903.
The political functions of expert knowledge: Knowledge and legitimation in European Union
immigration policy. Journal of European Public Policy, 15(4):471–88.

396

References

Brekke, J., M. Røed and P. Schøne
2017
Reduction or deflection? The effect of asylum policy on interconnected asylum flows.
Migration Studies, 5(1):65–96.
Brzozowski, J., M. Cucculelli and A. Surdej
2017
The determinants of transnational entrepreneurship and transnational ties’ dynamics among
immigrant entrepreneurs in ICT sector in Italy. International Migration, 55(3):105–125.
Burson, B., W. Kälin, J. McAdam and S. Weerasinghe
2018
The duty to move people out of harm’s way in the context of climate change and disasters.
Refugee Survey Quarterly, 37(4):379–407.
Bylander, M.
2017
2018

Poor and on the move: South–South migration and poverty in Cambodia. Migration Studies,5(2):237–266.
Migration disruption: Crisis and continuity in the Cambodian mass returns. International
Migration Review, 52(4):1130–1161.

Cantor, D.J., J. van Wijk, S. Singer and M.P. Bolhuis
2017
The emperor’s new clothing: National responses to “undesirable and unreturnable” aliens
under asylum and immigration law. Refugee Survey Quarterly, 36(1):1–8.
Canut, C. and A. Pian
2017
Editorial. Revue Européenne des Migrations Internationales, 33(2-3):7–19.
Carling, J.
2015
2016

Castles, S.
2010
Cederberg, M.
2017

Who is who in migration studies: 107 names worth knowing. Available at https://jorgencarling.
org/2015/06/01/who-is-who-in-migration-studies-108-names-worth-knowing/.
West and Central Africa. In: Migrant Smuggling Data and Research: A Global Review of
the Emerging Evidence Base (M. McAuliffe and F. Laczko, eds.). IOM, Geneva. Available athttps://publications.iom.int/books/migrant-smuggling-data-and-research-global-reviewemerging-evidence-base.
Understanding global migration: A social transformation perspective. Journal of Ethnic andMigration Studies, 36(10):1565–1586.
Social class and international migration: Female migrants’ narratives of social mobility andsocial status. Migration Studies, 5(2):149–167.

Chaudhary, A.R.
2018
Organizing transnationalism and belonging among Pakistani immigrants in London and New
York. Migration Studies, 6(3):420–447.
Chavan, M. and L. Taksa
2017
Shifts in intergenerational mobility of Indian immigrant entrepreneurs. International
Migration, 55(1):99–127.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

397

Cherney, A., B. Head, P. Boreham, J. Povey and M. Ferguson
2012
Perspectives of academic social scientists on knowledge transfer and research collaborations:
A cross-sectional survey of Australian academics. Evidence and Policy: A Journal of Research,
Debate and Practice, 8(4):433–453.
Colquhoun, D.
2011

Publish-or-perish: Peer review and the corruption of science. The Guardian, 5 September.

Coon, M.
2017

Local immigration enforcement and arrests of the Hispanic population. Journal on Migrationand Human Security, 5(3):645–666.

Corti, P. and A. Miranda
2018
Editorial: Coexistence, interweaving and overlapping of Italian migration flows. RevueEuropéenne des Migrations Internationales, 34(1):21–28.
Cosemans, S.
2018

The politics of dispersal: Turning Ugandan colonial subjects into postcolonial refugees(1967–76). Migration Studies, 6(1):99–119.

Costas, R., Z. Zahedi and P. Wouters
2015
Do “altmetrics” correlate with citations? Extensive comparison of altmetric indicators withcitations from a multidisciplinary perspective. Journal of the Association for Information
Science and Technology, 66(10):2003–2019.
Crisp, J. and K. Long
2016
Safe and voluntary refugee repatriation: From principle to practice. Journal on Migrationand Human Security, 4(3):141–147.
Crush, J. and M. Caesar
2017
Introduction: Cultivating the Migration-Food Security Nexus. International Migration,
55(4):10–17.
Czaika, M. and H. de Haas
2017
The effect of visas on migration processes. International Migration Review, 51(4):893–926.
Davies, M. and R. Woodward
2014International Organizations: A Companion. Edward Elgar Publishing, United Kingdom.
Davis, J. and E.A. Jennings
2018
Spatial and temporal dimensions of migration on union dissolution. International Migration,
56(6):136–152.
Department for International Development (DFID)
2008
DFID Research Strategy 2008–2013. Working Paper Series: Capacity Building. United
Kingdom Department for International Development.
Duckett, J. and G. Wang2017
Why do authoritarian regimes provide public goods? Policy communities, external shocks
and ideas in China’s rural social policy making. Europe-Asia Studies, 69(1):92–109.

398

References

Dumitriu, P.
2018Strengthening Policy Research Uptake in the Context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development. United Nations Joint Inspection Unit, United Nations Document JIU/
REP/2018/7. Available at www.unjiu.org/sites/www.unjiu.org/files/jiu_rep_2018_7_
english_0.pdf.

Dye, T.
1972
El Qadim, N.
2018

Understanding Public Policy. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs.
The symbolic meaning of international mobility: EU-Morocco negotiations on visa
facilitation. Migration Studies, 6(2):279–305.

Ellis, B.D. and H.J. Stam2018
Cycles of deportability: Threats, fears, and the agency of ‘irregular’ migrants in Canada.
Migration Studies, 6(3):321–344.
Ellis, E.G.
2017

Fake think tanks fuel fake news – And the President’s tweets. Wired Magazine, 24 January.
Available at www.wired.com/2017/01/fake-think-tanks-fuel-fake-news-presidents-tweets/.

Ervin, D., E.R. Hamilton and D. Lopez-Carr
2017
Blessed be the ties: Health and healthcare for migrants and migrant families in the UnitedStates. International Migration, 55(5):5–7.
Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR)2017
An Immigration Reform Agenda for the 115th Congress. Available at www.fairus.org/
legislation/reports-and-analysis/immigration-reform-agenda-115th-congress.
Felenon, A.
2017
Fellini, I.
2018

Rethinking the Hispanic paradox: The mortality experience of Mexican immigrants intraditional gateways and new destinations. International Migration Review, 51(3):567–599.
Immigrants’ labour market outcomes in Italy and Spain: Has the southern European model
disrupted during the crisis? Migration Studies, 6(1):53–78.

Fine, J. and G. Lyon
2017
Segmentation and the role of labor standards enforcement in immigration reform. Journal
on Migration and Human Security, 5(2):431–451.
Flahaux, M.L.
2017

The role of migration policy changes in Europe for return migration to Senegal. International
Migration Review, 51(4):868–892.

Flahaux, M.L. and S. Vezzoli
2018
Examining the role of border closure and post-colonial ties in Caribbean migration. Migration
Studies, 6(2):165–186.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

Flynn, M.
2017

399

Kidnapped, trafficked, detained? The implications of non-state actor involvement in
immigration detention. Journal on Migration and Human Security, 5(3):593–613.

Foster, J.G., A. Rzhetsky and J.A. Evans2015
Tradition and innovation in scientists’ research strategies. American Sociological Review,
80(5):875–908.
Frelick, B., I. Kysel and J. Podkul
2016
The impact of externalization of migration controls on the rights of asylum seekers andother migrants. Journal of Migration and Human Security, 4(4):190–220.
Fuller, H.R.
2017

The emotional toll of out-migration on mothers and fathers left behind in Mexico.
International Migration, 55(3):156–172.

Gammeltoft-Hansen, T. and N.F. Tan
2017
The end of the deterrence paradigm? Future directions for global refugee policy. Journal on
Migration and Human Security, 5(1): 28–56.
Geeraert, J.
2018

Germano, R.
2018

Healthcare reforms and the creation of ex-/included categories of patients – “Irregular
Migrants” and the “Undesirable” in the French healthcare system. International Migration,
56(2):68–81.
Using video to promote empathy, reduce xenophobia, and illustrate concepts in the studyof international migration. Migration Studies, 6(1):140–152.

Gibson, J. and D. McKenzie
2017
How reliable are survey estimates of remittances? Evidence from a cross-reporting survey
exercise. Migration Studies, 5(1):97–115.
Gilman, D. and L.A. Romero
2018
Immigration detention, Inc. Journal on Migration and Human Security, 6(2):145–160.
Global Migration Group (GMG)
2017a Handbook for Improving the Production and Use of Migration Data for Development. Global
Knowledge Partnership for Migration and Development (KNOMAD), Washington, D.C. Available
atwww.knomad.org/sites/default/files/2017-11/Handbook%20for%20Improving%20
the%20Production%20and%20Use%20of%20Migration%20Data%20for%20Development.pdf.
2017bMigration, Remittances and Financial Inclusion: Challenges and Opportunities for Women’s
Economic Empowerment. UN-Women, New York. Available at https://globalmigrationgroup.
org/system/files/GMG_Report_Remittances_and_Financial_Inclusion_updated_27_July.
pdf.

400

References

Gong, S.
2018
Gravelle, T.B.
2018

Are the consequences of experiencing discrimination the same for immigrants of differingsocio-economic status in Japan? International Migration, 56(2):37–55.
Partisanship, local context, group threat, and Canadian attitudes towards immigration andrefugee policy. Migration Studies, 6(3):448–467.

GreyNet International
2014
Pisa Declaration on Policy Development for Grey Literature Resources. The Grey Journal,
10(2):64.
Gubernskaya, Z. and J. Dreby
2017
US immigration policy and the case for family unity. Journal on Migration and Human
Security, 5(2):417–430.
Harbeson, J.W.
2016

Mainstreaming involuntary migration in development policies. CMS Essays. Available at
http://cmsny.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/JMHSspecialcoll-Immigration-System.
pdf.

Hari, A. and J.C.Y. Liew
2018
Precarity, illegality and temporariness: Implications and consequences of Canadianmigration management. International Migration, 56(6):169–175.
Hayes, M. and R. Pérez-Gañán
2017
North–South migrations and the asymmetric expulsions of late capitalism: Global inequality,
arbitrage, and new dynamics of North–South transnationalism. Migration Studies, 5(1):116–
135.
Hewlett Foundation
2018
Evidence-Informed Policymaking Strategy. Global Development and Population Program,
1–18.
Hollenbach, D.
2016

Borders and duties to the displaced: Ethical perspectives on the refugee protection system.
Journal on Migration and Human Security, 4(3):148–165.

Horvath, K., A. Amelina and K. Peters
2017
Re-thinking the politics of migration. On the uses and challenges of regime perspectives for
migration research. Migration Studies, 5(3):301–314.
Huot, S.
2017

‘Doing’ capital: Examining the relationship between immigrants’ occupational engagement
and symbolic capital. Migration Studies, 5(1):29–48.

International Labor Organization (ILO)
2017
Addressing governance challenges in a changing labour migration landscape. ILO, Geneva.
Available
atwww.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_norm/---relconf/documents/
meetingdocument/wcms_550269.pdf.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

2018

401

ILO Global Estimates on International Migrant Workers – Results and Methodology. Second
edition, ILO, Geneva. Available at www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/--dcomm/---publ/documents/publication/wcms_652001.pdf.

International Organization for Migration (IOM)
2017a Fatal Journeys, Volume 3 Part 1: Improving Data on Missing Migrants. IOM GMDAC, Geneva.
Available at https://publications.iom.int/system/files/pdf/fatal_journeys_volume_3_
part_1.pdf.
2017bFatal Journeys, Volume 3 Part 2: Improving Data on Missing Migrants. IOM GMDAC, Geneva.
Available at https://publications.iom.int/system/files/pdf/fatal_journeys_3_part2.pdf.

2017cMaking Mobility Work for Adaptation to Environmental Changes: Results from the MECLEP
Global Research. IOM GMDAC, Geneva. Available at https://publications.iom.int/system/
files/pdf/meclep_comparative_report.pdf.

2017dMigration Research Leaders’ Syndicate: Ideas to Inform International Cooperation on Safe,
Orderly and Regular Migration. IOM, Geneva. Available at https://publications.iom.int/
system/files/pdf/migration_research_leaders_syndicate.pdf.

2017eWorld Migration Report 2018 (M. McAuliffe and M. Ruhs, eds.). IOM, Geneva. Available atwww.iom.int/wmr/world-migration-report-2018.

2018

Migration and the 2030 Agenda: A Guide for Practitioners. IOM, Geneva. Available at https://publications.iom.int/system/files/pdf/sdg_en.pdf.

Ionesco, D., D. Mokhnacheva and F. Gemenne
2017
The Atlas of Environmental Migration. IOM and Routledge. Available at www.iom.int/sites/
default/files/about-iom/gender/Atlas-of-Environmental-Migration.pdf.
Iredale, R., T. Turpin, C. Hawksley, S. Go, S. Kanchai and Y. May Kaung
2001
Migration Research and Policy Landscape. Case Studies of Australia, the Philippines andThailand. Asia Pacific Migration Research Network (APMRN) Working Paper No. 9. APMRNSecretariat Centre for Asia Pacific Social Transformation Studies, University of Wollongong.
Jiménez, T.R., J. Park and J. Pedroza
2018
The new third generation: Post-1965 immigration and the next chapter in the long story ofassimilation. International Migration Review, 52(4):1040–1079.
Jones, W. and A. Teytelboym
2017
Matching systems for refugees. Journal on Migration and Human Security, 5(3):667–681.
Kanstroom, D.
2017The “right to remain here” as an evolving component of global refugee protection: Current
initiatives and critical questions. Journal on Migration and Human Security, 5(3):614–644.

Karimi, A. and S.M. Bucerius
2018
Colonized subjects and their emigration experiences. The case of Iranian students and theirintegration strategies in Western Europe. Migration Studies, 6(1):1–19.

402

References

Kelley, N.
2017

Responding to a refugee influx: Lessons from Lebanon. Journal on Migration and Human
Security, 5(1):82–104.

Kelly, E.
2019

Kerwin, D.
2016
2017

Search is on for new steward to deliver Plan S open access, as Smits bows out. Science
Business, 4 March. Available at https://sciencebusiness.net/news/search-new-stewarddeliver-plan-s-open-access-smits-bows-out.
How robust refugee protection policies can strengthen human and national security. Journal
on Migration and Human Security, 4(3):83–140.
Moving beyond comprehensive immigration reform and Trump: Principles, interests, andpolicies to guide long-term reform of the US immigration system. Journal on Migration and
Human Security, 5(3):541–576.

Kerwin, D. and R. Warren
2017
National interests and common ground in the US immigration debate: How to legalize the
US immigration system and permanently reduce its undocumented population. Journal on
Migration and Human Security, 5(2):297–330.
Kesler, C. and M. Safi
2018
Immigrants in the labour markets of France and the United Kingdom: Integration models,institutional variations, and ethnic inequalities. Migration Studies, 6(2):225–250.
Kim, G. and M. Kilkey
2018
Marriage migration policy in South Korea: Social investment beyond the nation state.
International Migration, 56(1): 23–38.
Koff, H.
2016

Diaspora philanthropy in the context of policy coherence for development: Implications forthe post-2015 Sustainable Development Agenda. International Migration, 55(1):5–19.

Koops, J., B. Martinovic and J. Weesie
2017
Are inter-minority contacts guided by the same mechanisms as minority–majority contacts?
A comparative study of two types of inter-ethnic ties in the Netherlands. International
Migration Review, 51(3):701–726.
Krzyzanowski, M., A. Triandafyllidou and R. Wodak
2017
The mediatization and the politicization of the “refugee crisis” in Europe. Journal of
Immigrant and Refugee Studies, 16(1-2):1–14.
Kuépié, M.
2018

Is international migration always good for left behind households members? Evidence fromchildren education in Cameroon. International Migration, 56(6):120–135.

Kumar, R.R., P.J. Stauvermann, A. Patel and S. Prasad
2018
The effect of remittances on economic growth in Kyrgyzstan and Macedonia: Accounting for
financial development. International Migration, 56(1):95–126.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

Langerak, E.J.
2010

Laubenthal, B.
2017

403

Conservative think tanks and discourse on immigration in the U.S. College of Liberal Arts
and Social Sciences Theses and Dissertations. Available at https://via.library.depaul.edu/
etd/36/.
Introduction: Labour migration in Europe: Changing policies – changing organizations –changing people. International Migration, 55(S1):3–10.

Leclerc-Olive, M. and M.-A. Hily
2016
Editorial. Revue Européenne des Migrations Internationales, 32(2):7–12.
Lopez, L.
2016

Two hawkish anti-immigration groups say consulted by Trump. Reuters, 7 October. Availableat www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-election-trump-immigration-idUSKCN1270Z3.

López García, A.I.
2018
Economic remittances, temporary migration and voter turnout in Mexico. Migration Studies,6(1):20–52.
Magner, T.
2016

Refugee, asylum, and related legislation in the US Congress: 2013-2016. Journal on Migrationand Human Security, 4(4):166–189.

Maliepaard, M. and R. Alba
2018
Cultural integration in the Muslim second generation in the Netherlands: The case of gender
ideology. International Migration Review, 50(1):70–94.
Martin, P.
2017
Martin, S.
2016

Immigration policy and agriculture: Possible directions for the future. Journal on Migrationand Human Security, 5(2):252–262.
New models of international agreement for refugee protection. Journal on Migration and
Human Security, 4(3):60–75.

Mason,E.
1999
McAuliffe, M.
2016

2017

Researching refugee and forced migration studies. Behavioral and Social Sciences Librarian,18(1):1–20.
Migration moderate, ‘Master Weaver’ and inspirational team leader: Reflecting on the lasting
legacy of Graeme Hugo in three spheres of migration policy. Australian Geographer, 47(4):383–389.
Protection elsewhere, resilience here: Introduction to the special issue on statelessness,
irregularity and protection in southeast Asia. Journal of Immigrant and Refugee Studies,
15(3):221–231.

404

References

McAuliffe, M. and F. Laczko
2016
Report overview. In: Migrant Smuggling Data and Research: A Global Review of the Emerging
Evidence Base (M. McAuliffe and F. Laczko, eds.). IOM, Geneva, pp. 1–24.
Melzer, S.M. and R.J. Muffels
2017
Migrants’ pursuit of happiness: An analysis of the effects of adaptation, social comparisonand economic integration on subjective well-being on the basis of German panel data for
1990–2014. Migration Studies, 5(2):190–215.
Menjívar, C., J.E. Morris and N.P. Rodríguez
2018
The ripple effects of deportations in Honduras. Migration Studies, 6(1):120–139.
Micinski, N.R.
2018

Refugee policy as foreign policy: Iraqi and Afghan refugee resettlements to the UnitedStates. Refugee Survey Quarterly, 37(3):253–278.

Mora, G.C., J. Fernández and M. Torre
2018
Different contexts and trends: Latina immigrant fertility in the US and Spain. International
Migration, 56(5):56–73.
Mulligan, A., L. Hall and E. Raphael
2013
Peer review in a changing world: An international study measuring the attitudes ofresearchers. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology,64(1):132–161.
Musalo, K. and E. Lee
2017
Seeking a rational approach to a regional refugee crisis: Lessons from the summer 2014
“Surge” of Central America women and children at the US–Mexico border. Journal on
Migration and Human Security, 5(1):137–179.
Nedelcu, M. and R. Ciobanu
2016
The migrations of Romanian Roma in Europe: Politics of inclusion, strategies of distinction and(de)construction of identity boundaries. Revue Européenne des Migrations Internationales,
32(1):7–17.
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
2018
Principles and Guidelines, Supported by Practical Guidance, on the Human Rights Protection ofMigrants in Vulnerable Situations. OHCHR, Geneva. Available at www.ohchr.org/Documents/
Issues/Migration/PrinciplesAndGuidelines.pdf.
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), International Labour Organization(ILO), International Organization for Migration (IOM) and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees(UNHCR)2018
G20 International Migration and Displacement Trends Report 2018. OECD, ILO, IOM and UNHCR.
Available at www.oecd.org/els/mig/G20-international-migration-and-displacement-trendsreport-2018.pdf.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

405

Orrenius, P.M. and M. Zavodny
2017
Creating cohesive, coherent immigration policy. Journal on Migration and Human Security,5(1):180–193.
Ozimek, A.
2012

Paerregaard, K.
2018
Pailey, R.N.
2018

Palmer, W.
2018
Pande, A.
2018

Bloggers and economists are failing on immigration. Forbes, 7 October. Available at www.
forbes.com/sites/modeledbehavior/2012/10/07/bloggers-and-economists-are-failing-onimmigration.
Capitalizing on migration: The role of strong and weak ties among Peruvian entrepreneursin the United States, Spain and Chile. Migration Studies, 6(1):79–98.
Between rootedness and rootlessness: How sedentarist and nomadic metaphysics
simultaneously challenge and reinforce (dual) citizenship claims for Liberia. Migration
Studies, 6(3):400–419.
Back pay for trafficked migrant workers: An Indonesian case study. International Migration,
56(2):56–67.
Intimate counter-spaces of migrant domestic workers in Lebanon. International Migration
Review, 52(3):780–808.

Pavez-Soto, I. and C. Chan
2018
The second generation in Chile: Negotiating identities, rights, and public policy. International
Migration, 56(2):82–96.
Pécoud, A.
2015

Depoliticising Migration: Global Governance and International Migration Narratives. Palgrave
McMillan, United Kingdom.

Petit, V. and S. Wang
2018
Editorial: La santé mentale en migrations internationales. Revue Européenne des Migrations
Internationales, 34(2–3):7–20.
Petreski, M., B. Petreski and D. Tumanoska
2017
Remittances as a shield to vulnerable households in Macedonia: The case when the
instrument is not strictly exogenous. International Migration, 55(1):20–36.
Pineteh, E.A.
2018

Spatial contestation, victimisation and resistance during xenophobic violence: Theexperiences of Somali migrants in post-Apartheid South Africa. International Migration,
56(2):133–145.

406

References

Poulain, M., N. Perrin and A. Singleton (eds.)
2006
THESIM: Towards Harmonised European Statistics on International Migration. Presses
universitaires de Louvain, Louvain.
Priem, J., H.A. Piwowar and B.M. Hemminger
2012
Altmetrics in the wild: Using social media to explore scholarly impact. arXiv preprint
arXiv:1203.4745.
Prosser Scully, R.
2015
How the pressure of publish or perish affects us all. The Medical Republic. Available at
http://medicalrepublic.com.au/how-the-pressure-of-publish-or-perish-affects-us-all/1134.
Rabesandratana, T.
2019Will the world embrace Plan S, the radical proposal to mandate open access to sciencepapers? Science, 3 January. Available at www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/01/will-worldembrace-plan-s-radical-proposal-mandate-open-access-science-papers.
Rahaman, M.A., M.M. Rahman, K.Md. Bahauddin, S. Khan and S. Hassan
2018
Health disorder of climate migrants in Khulna city: An urban slum perspective. International
Migration, 56(5):42–55.
Ravenstein, E.G.
1885
The laws of migration. Journal of the Statistical Society of London, 48(2):167–235.
Ricard-Guay, A. and T. Maroukis
2017
Human trafficking in domestic work in the EU: A special case or a learning ground for theanti-trafficking field? Journal of Immigrant and Refugee Studies, 15(2):109–121.
Rich, A.
2004

The political demography of think tanks. In: Think Tanks, Public Policy, and the Politics ofExpertise (A. Rich, eds.). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 1–28.

Rocha-Jiminez, T., K.C. Brouwer, M. Salazar, S.C. Boyce, A.E. Servin, S.M. Goldenberg, H. Staines-Orozco, R.B.
Vera-Monroy and J. G. Silverman
2018“He invited me and didn’t ask anything in return”. Migration and mobility as vulnerabilities
for sexual exploitation among female adolescents in Mexico. International Migration,
56(2):5–17.
Rodriguez, C.
2017

Enforcement, integration, and the future of immigration federalism. Journal on Migrationand Human Security, 5(2):509–540.

Rojc, P.
2017

Who supports trump’s favourite immigration think tank? Inside Philanthropy, 21 April.
Available
atwww.insidephilanthropy.com/home/2017/4/21/center-for-immigrationstudies-funders.

2016

Rethinking the assumptions of refugee policy: Beyond individualism to the challenge ofinclusive communities. Journal on Migration and Human Security, 4(3):76–82.

Rupp, G.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

407

Ryo, E.
2017
Sanchez, G.
2017

The promise of a subject-centered approach to understanding immigration noncompliance.
Journal on Migration and Human Security, 5(2):285–296.
Critical perspectives on clandestine migration facilitation: An overview of migrant smuggling
research. Journal on Migration and Human Security, 5(1):9–27.

Sánchez-Domínguez, M. and S. Fahlén
2018
Changing sector? Social mobility among female migrants in care and cleaning sector in
Spain and Sweden. Migration Studies, 6(3):367–399.
Schmidt, S.
2017“They need to give us a voice”: Lessons from listening to unaccompanied Central Americanand Mexican children on helping children like themselves. Journal on Migration and Human
Security, 5(1):57–81.

Schor, R.
2017

Editorial. Revue Européenne des Migrations Internationales, 33(1):7–9.

Schulz, B. and L. Leszczensky
2016
Native friends and host country identification among adolescent immigrants in Germany:
The role of ethnic boundaries. International Migration Review, 50(1):163–196.
Sense About Science2005
I don’t know what to believe. Making sense of science stories. Available at https://senseaboutscience.org/activities/i-dont-know-what-to-believe/.
Silver, A., H. Edelblute, T. Mouw and S. Chávez
2018
Fractured families, connected community: Emotional engagement in a transnational social
network. International Migration, 56(6):153–168.
Smith, R.
2006

Peer review: A flawed process at the heart of science and journals. Journal of the Royal
Society of Medicine, 99(4):178–182.

Song, L.
2018

China and the international refugee protection regime: Past, present, and potentials.
Refugee Survey Quarterly, 37(2):139–161.

2017

Citizenship after Trump. CMS Essays. Available at https://cmsny.org/publications/spirocitizenship-after-trump/.

Spiro, P.

Stark, O. and D.E. Bloom
1985
The new economics of labor migration. The American Economic Review, 75(2):173–178.
Stefanovic, D. and N. Loizides
2017
Peaceful returns: Reversing ethnic cleansing after the Bosnian war. International Migration,
55(5):217–234.

408

References

Takenaka, A., M. Nakamuro and K. Ishida
2016
Negative assimilation: How immigrants experience economic mobility in Japan. International
Migration Review, 50(2):506–533.
Takle, M.
2017

Migration and asylum statistics as a basis for European border control. Migration Studies,5(2):267–285.

The LSE GV314 Group
2014
Evaluation under contract: Government pressure and the production of policy research.
Public Administration, 92(1):224–239.
The PLoS Medicine Editors
2006
The Impact Factor Game. PLoS Med, 3(6):e291. Available at https://journals.plos.org/
plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.0030291.
Thelwall, M., S. Haustein, V. Larivière and C.R. Sugimoto2013
Do altmetrics work? Twitter and Ten Other Social Web Services. PloS one, 8(5):e64841.
Triandafyllidou, A. and M. McAuliffe (eds)2018
Migrant Smuggling Data and Research: A Global Review of the Emerging Evidence Base(volume 2). IOM, Geneva. Available at https://publications.iom.int/system/files/pdf/
migrant_smuggling_data_vol2_0.pdf.
Troy, T.
2012

Devaluing the think tank. National Affairs, Winter. Available at www.nationalaffairs.com/
publications/detail/devaluing-the-think-tank.

2016

Prospects for responsibility sharing in the refugee context. Journal on Migration and Human
Security, 4(3):45–59.

Türk, V.

United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)
2017a The State of the World’s Children 2017: Children in a Digital World. UNICEF, New York.
Available at www.unicef.org/publications/files/SOWC_2017_ENG_WEB.pdf.
2017b

A Child Is a Child: Protecting Children on the Move from Violence, Abuse and Exploitation.
UNICEF, New York. Available at www.unicef.org/publications/files/UNICEF_A_child_is_a_child_May_2017_EN.pdf.

United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA)
2017
International Migration Report 2017. UN DESA, New York. Available at www.un.org/
en/development/desa/population/migration/publications/migrationreport/docs/
MigrationReport2017.pdf.
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Overseas Development Institute (ODI)
2017
Climate Change, Migration and Displacement: The Need for a Risk-Informed and Coherent
Approach. UNDP, Geneva, and ODI, London. Available at www.odi.org/sites/odi.org.uk/
files/resource-documents/11874.pdf.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

409

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)2018
Global Education Monitoring Report Summary 2019: Migration, Displacement and Education– Building Bridges, not Walls. UNESCO, Paris. Available at https://unesdoc.unesco.org/
ark:/48223/pf0000265996.
United Nations General Assembly (UNGA)
2018
Draft Outcome Document of the Conference, Intergovernmental Conference to Adopt the Global
Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration. A/CONF.231/3, 30 July.
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
2019
Global Trends: Forced Displacement in 2018. UNHCR, Geneva. Available at www.unhcr.org/
globaltrends2018/.
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)
2000
United Nations Protocol Against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air, Supplementing
the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime. United Nations,Geneva. Available at www.unodc.org/documents/middleeastandnorthafrica/smugglingmigrants/SoM_Protocol_English.pdf.
2018aGlobal Report on Trafficking in Persons. UNODC, Vienna. Available at www.unodc.org/
documents/data-and-analysis/glotip/2018/GLOTiP_2018_BOOK_web_small.pdf.

2018bGlobal Study on Smuggling of Migrants 2018. UNODC, Vienna. Available at www.unodc.org/
documents/data-and-analysis/glosom/GLOSOM_2018_web_small.pdf.

Urama, N.E., E.O. Nwosu, D.N. Yuni and S.E. Aguegboh
2017International migrant remittances and labour supply in Nigeria. International Migration,
55(1):37–50.
Valatheeswaran, C. and M. Imran Khan
2018
International remittances and private schooling: Evidence from Kerala, India. International
Migration, 56(1):127–145.
Van Noorden, R.
2014
Global scientific output doubles every nine years. Nature news blog. Available at http://
blogs.nature.com/news/2014/05/global-scientific-output-doubles-every-nine-years.html.
Ware, M. and M. Mabe
2015
The STM Report: An Overview of Scientific and Scholarly Journal Publishing. International
Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers (STM). Available at www.stmassoc.org/2015_02_20_STM_Report_2015.pdf.
Warren, R. and D. Kerwin
2017
The 2,000 mile wall in search of a purpose: Since 2007 visa overstays have outnumbered
undocumented border crossers by a half million. Journal on Migration and Human Security,5(1):124–136.
Warren, H.R., N. Raison and P. Dasgupta
2017
The rise of altmetrics. Journal of the American Medical Association, 317(2):131–132.

410

Wasem, R.E.
2018

References

Immigration governance for the twenty-first century. Journal on Migration and Human
Security, 6(1):97–120.

Williams, C. and D. Padula
2015
The evolution of Impact Factors: From bibliometrics to altmetrics. Altmetric and Scholastica.
Woods, J. and J. Manning
2015
The impression management tactics of an immigration think tank. Sociological Focus,
48(4):354–372.
World Bank
2018

Moving for Prosperity: Global Migration and Labor Markets. Policy Research Report. World
Bank, Washington, D.C. Available at www.worldbank.org/en/research/publication/movingfor-prosperity.

Wu, Z., S.M. Lee, F. Hou, B. Edmonston and A. Carmichael
2018
Earning gaps for Chinese immigrants in Canada and the United States. International
Migration, 56(2):18–36.
Yabiku, S.T. and V. Agadjanian
2017
Father’s labour migration and children’s school discontinuation in rural Mozambique.
International Migration, 55(4):188–202.
Yamamoto, L. and M. Esteban
2017
Migration as an adaptation strategy for Atoll Island States. International Migration,
55(2):144–158.
Young, J.G.
2017
Zamore, L.
2018

Making America 1920 again? Nativism and US immigration, past and present. Journal on
Migration and Human Security, 5(1):217–235.
Refugees, development, debt, austerity: A selected history. Journal on Migration and Human
Security, 6(1):26–60.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

411

Chapter 5
Abou-Chadi, T.
2018

Populismus und die Transformation des Parteienwettbewerbs, University of Zurich, 2November 2018. Available at https://tube.switch.ch/cast/videos/cfa1d7df-61b7-4fbbabda-0c56e7385f91

Abou-Chadi, T. and W. Krause
2018
The Causal Effect of Radical Right Success on Mainstream Parties’ Policy Positions: A
Regression Discontinuity Approach. British Journal of Political Science, 1–19, doi:10.1017/
S0007123418000029.
Adamson, F.B.
2018

Alfred, C.
2017

Sending States and the Making of Intra-Diasporic Politics: Turkey and Its Diaspora(s).
International Migration Review, 53(1):210–236. Available at https://journals.sagepub.com/
doi/10.1177/0197918318767665.
Why We Need to Talk About Migration and Human Security. Refugees Deeply. Availableat www.newsdeeply.com/refugees/community/2017/11/15/why-we-need-to-talk-aboutmigration-and-human-security.

Almond, G. and S. Verba
1963
The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and Democracy in Five Nations. Princeton University
Press, Princeton.
Atkinson, I.
2015

Integrating migrants through sport. European Commission Electronic Platform for Adult
Learning in Europe. Available at https://ec.europa.eu/epale/en/blog/integrating-migrantsthrough-sport

Baldwin-Edwards, M.
2008
Towards a theory of illegal migration: Historical and structural components. Third World
Quarterly, 29(7):1449–1459.
Barone, G. and S. Mocetti
2010
With a little help from abroad: The effect of low-skilled immigration on the female labour
supply. Labour Economics, 18(5):664–675. Available at www.sciencedirect.com/science/
article/abs/pii/S0927537111000273.
Beaton, K., L. Catão and Z. Koczan
2018
Money Sent Home by Migrants Buffers Income Shocks. IMF Blog, 28 February.
Available at https://blogs.imf.org/2018/02/28/money-sent-home-by-migrants-buffersincome-shocks/.
Beine, M., F. Docquier and M. Schiff
2013
International migration, transfer of norms and home country fertility. Canadian Journalof Economics, 46(4):1406–1430. Available at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/
abs/10.1111/caje.12062.

412

References

Bernstein, S., R. Diamond, T. McQuade and B. Pousada
2018
The Contribution of High-Skilled Immigrants to Innovation in the United States. Stanford
Business, Working Paper No. 3748. Available at www.gsb.stanford.edu/faculty-research/working-papers/contribution-high-skilled-immigrants-innovation-united-states.
Betts, A., L. Bloom, J. Kaplan and N. Omata
2014
Refugee Economies: Rethinking Popular Assumptions. University of Oxford. Available atwww.rsc.ox.ac.uk/files/files-1/refugee-economies-2014.pdf.
Bialik, K.
2019

For the fifth time in a row, the new Congress is the most racially and ethnically diverse ever.
Pew Research Center, 8 February. Available at www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/02/08/
for-the-fifth-time-in-a-row-the-new-congress-is-the-most-racially-and-ethnically-diverseever/.

Boyd, M.
1989

Family and Personal Networks in International Migration: Recent Developments and New
Agendas. International Migration Review, 23(3): 638–670.

Bradley, M., J. Milner and B. Peruniak
2019
Refugees’ Roles in Resolving Displacement and Building Peace: Beyond Beneficiaries.
Georgetown University Press, Washington, D.C.
British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)2019
Social media: How can governments regulate it? 8 April. Available at www.bbc.com/news/
technology-47135058.
Brookings Institution
2018
Foresight Africa: Top priorities for the continent in 2018. 11 January. Available at www.
brookings.edu/multi-chapter-report/foresight-africa-top-priorities-for-the-continentin-2018/.
Cambridge Dictionary
2019
Contribute. Available at https://dictionary.cambridge.org.
Carling, J.
2015
Castles, S.
2010

Who is who in migration studies: 107 names worth knowing. Available at https://jorgencarling.
org/2015/06/01/who-is-who-in-migration-studies-108-names-worth-knowing/.
Understanding global migration: A social transformation perspective. Journal of Ethnic andMigration Studies, 36(10):1565–1586. Available at www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369183X.2010.489381.

Centre for Multicultural Youth (CMY)n.d.
Sport. Available at www.cmy.net.au/sport.
Clarke, C.P.
2017

The Terrorist Diaspora: After the Fall of the Caliphate. Rand Corporation. Available athttps://docs.house.gov/meetings/HM/HM00/20170713/106224/HHRG-115-HM00-WstateClarkeC-20170713.pdf.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

413

Clemens, M., C. Huang and J. Graham
2018
The economic and fiscal effects of granting refugees formal labor market access. Center for
Global Development. Available at www.cgdev.org/sites/default/files/economic-and-fiscaleffects-granting-refugees-formal-labor-market-access-brief.pdf.
Constant, A.F.
2014

Do migrants take the jobs of native workers? IZA World of Labour. Available at https://wol.
iza.org/uploads/articles/10/pdfs/do-migrants-take-the-jobs-of-native-workers.pdf.

Cooper, B., A. Esser and R.T. Peter2018
Market barriers to remittances in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Cenfri. Available at https://
cenfri.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/2018.08.03_Volume-2_Market-barriers-toremittances-in-sub-Saharan-Africa-scoping-study_Cenfri-FSDA.pdf.
Cortés, P. and J. Tessada
2011
Low-Skilled Immigration and the Labor Supply of Highly Skilled Women. American
Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 3(3):88–123. Available at www.jstor.org/
stable/41288640?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents.
Crawley, H. and S. McMahon
2016
Beyond fear and hate: Mobilising people power to create a new narrative on migration anddiversity. Ben and Jerry’s. Available at www.benjerry.co.uk/files/live/sites/uk/files/ourvalues/Beyond-Fear-and-Hate-v1.5-FINAL.pdf.
Crush, J., G. Tawodzera, C. McCordic and S. Ramachandran2017
Refugee Entrepreneurial Economies in Urban South Africa. Southern African Migration
Programme (SAMP). Available at www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvh8r07x.
Czaika, M. and H. de Haas
2014
The Globalization of Migration: Has the World Become More Migratory? International
Migration Review, 48(2):283–323. Available at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/imre.12095.
de Haas, H.
2005

International migration, remittances and development: myths and facts. Third World
Quarterly, 26(8):1269–1284.

Demurger, S. and H. Xu
2011
Return Migrants: The Rise of New Entrepreneurs in Rural China. World Development,
39(10):1847–1861. Available atwww.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/
S0305750X11000970?via%3Dihub.
Dennison, J. and L. Drazanova
2018
Public attitudes on migration: rethinking how people perceive migration: an analysis ofexisting opinion polls in the Euro-Mediterranean region. European University Institute (EUI).
Available at https://cadmus.eui.eu/handle/1814/62348.
Desiderio, M.V.
2014

Policies to Support Immigrant Entrepreneurship. Migration Policy Institute. Available atwww.migrationpolicy.org/research/policies-support-immigrant-entrepreneurship.

414

References

Deutschmann, E. and E. Recchi
2019
Global Human Mobility Rapidly Increasing, New Open-Access Dataset Shows. Migration
Policy Centre, European University Institute. Available at https://blogs.eui.eu/
migrationpolicycentre/global-human-mobility-rapidly-increasing-new-open-accessdataset-shows/.
Docquier, F. and H. Rapoport
2011
Globalization, Brain Drain and Development. The Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
Available at http://ftp.iza.org/dp5590.pdf.
Eurostat2019

People in the EU - statistics on demographic changes. Available at https://ec.europa.
eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=People_in_the_EU_-_statistics_on_
demographic_changes.

Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation
2014
The economic case for welcoming immigrant entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship Policy Digest.
Available at www.kauffman.org/-/media/kauffman_org/resources/2015/entrepreneurshippolicy-digest/september-2015/the_economic_case_for_welcoming_immigrant_
entrepreneurs_updated_september_2015.pdf.
2017Fensore, I.
2016

The Kauffman Index: Startup activity- national trends. Available at www.
kauffman.org/kauffman-index/reporting/startup-activity/~/media/
c9831094536646528ab012dcbd1f83be.ashx.
The Impact of Migration on Foreign Direct Investments. University of St. Gallen. Available atwww.econ.uzh.ch/dam/jcr:f6f050e4-b99a-425e-b75c-ddfddcd01060/Fensore.pdf.

Ferrant, G. and M. Tuccio
2015South–South Migration and Discrimination Against Women in Social Institutions: A Twoway Relationship. World Development, 72(C):240–254. Available at https://ideas.repec.
org/a/eee/wdevel/v72y2015icp240-254.html.
Fisher, M.
2017
FitzGerald, D.S.
2014

Fearism: A critical analysis of uses and discourses in global migration studies. Technicalpaper No. 64, In Search of Fearlessness Research Institute.
The sociology of international migration. In: Migration Theory: Talking across disciplines(C. Brettell and J. Hollifield, eds.). Routledge, New York.

Geiger, A.W., K. Bialik and J. Gramlich
2019
The changing face of Congress in 6 charts. Pew Research Center, 15 February. Available atwww.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/02/15/the-changing-face-of-congress/.
Global Commission on International Migration (GCIM)
2005
Migration in an interconnected world: New directions for action. Available at www.iom.int/
jahia/webdav/site/myjahiasite/shared/shared/mainsite/policy_and_research/gcim/GCIM_
Report_Complete.pdf.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

415

Global Entrepreneurship Monitor
2013
Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2012 Global Report. Available at https://gemconsortium.
org/report/gem-2012-global-report.
Goldin, I.
2018

Immigration is vital to boost economic growth. Financial Times, 9 September 2018. Availableat www.ft.com/content/f1ca7b14-b1d6-11e8-87e0-d84e0d934341.

Goldin, I., G. Cameron and M. Balarajan
2011
Exceptional People: How Migration Shaped Our World and Will Define Our Future. Princeton
University Press, Princeton.
Goldin, I., A. Pitt, B. Nabarro and K. Boyle
2018
Migration and the Economy: Economic Realities, Social Impacts and Political Choices. Citi
GPS. Available at www.citivelocity.com/citigps/migration-and-the-economy/.
Grabowska, I. and D. Engbersen
2016
Social Remittances and the Impact of Temporary Migration on an EU Sending Country: The
Case of Poland. Central and Eastern European Migration Review, 5(2):99–117. Available atwww.ceemr.uw.edu.pl/sites/default/files/Grabowska_Engbersen_Social_Remittances_and_
the_Impact_of_Temporary_Migration_on_an_EU_Sending_Country_0.pdf.
Grande, E., T. Schwarzbözl and M. Fatke
2018
Politicizing immigration in Western Europe. Journal of European Public Policy, 26(10):1444–
1463. DOI: 10.1080/13501763.2018.1531909.
Hinds, R.
2018

Sport bringing Australian and African communities together in challenging times. ABC
News, 4 January. Available at www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-05/australian-african-hoopdreams-show-sports-power/9304450.

Hunt, J.
2010

Open for Business: Migrant Entrepreneurship in OECD Countries. OECD Publishing, Paris.
Available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264095830-en.

Hunt, J. and M. Gauthier-Loiselle
2010
How Much Does Immigration Boost Innovation? American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics,
2(2):31–56. Available at www.jstor.org/stable/25760296?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents.
International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Bank Group2015
The use of remittances and financial inclusion. Available at www.ifad.org/
documents/38714170/40187309/gpfi.pdf/58ce7a06-7ec0-42e8-82dc-c069227edb79.
International Labour Organization (ILO)
2019
Labour Migration in the Arab States. ILO, Beirut. Available at www.ilo.org/beirut/
areasofwork/labour-migration/WCMS_514910/lang--en/index.htm.
International Monetary Fund (IMF)2015
International Migration: Recent Trends, Economic Impacts, and Policy Implications. Availableat www.imf.org/external/np/g20/pdf/2015/111515background.pdf.

416

References

International Organization for Migration (IOM)
2005
World Migration Report 2005: Costs and benefits of international migration (I. Omelaniuk, ed.).
IOM, Geneva. Available at https://publications.iom.int/system/files/pdf/wmr_2005_3.pdf.
2016

Migrant vulnerabilities and integration needs in Central Asia: Assessing migrants’ andcommunity needs and managing risks. IOM, Almaty.

Jacobsen, K., H. Young and A. Osman
2008
Refugees and IDPs in Peacemaking Processes. In: Contemporary Peacemaking (J. Darby, R.M.
Ginty, eds.). Palgrave Macmillan, London.
Kanko, T. and T. Teller
2014
Irregular Migration in Sub-Saharan Africa: Causes and Consequences of Young Adult
Migration from Southern Ethiopia to South Africa. Princeton conference paper. Available at
http://paa2014.princeton.edu/papers/140147.
Kasinitz, P. and M. Martiniello2019
Music, migration and the city. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 42(6):857–864. Available at www.
tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01419870.2019.1567930.
Kaufmann, E.
2017

Why Values, not Economics, Hold the Key to the Populist Right – and to Crafting New
Migration Narratives. In McAuliffe, M. and Klein Solomon, M. (Eds) Migration Research
Leaders’ Syndicate: Ideas to Inform International Cooperation on Safe, Orderly and Regular
Migration. IOM, Geneva.

Kelly, N.
2018

Research Shows Immigrants Help Businesses Grow. Here’s Why. Harvard Business Review,
26 October. Available at https://hbr.org/2018/10/research-shows-immigrants-helpbusinesses-grow-heres-why.

Kenny, C. and M. O’Donnell
2016
Why increasing female migration from gender-unequal countries is a win for everyone. Center
for Global Development. Available at www.cgdev.org/publication/why-increasing-femaleimmigration-flows-gender-unequal-countries-could-have-significant.
Kerr, S.P. and W.R. Kerr
2016
Immigrant Entrepreneurship. Harvard Business School. Available at www.hbs.edu/faculty/
Publication%20Files/17-011_da2c1cf4-a999-4159-ab95-457c783e3fff.pdf.
Kerr, W.R. and W.F. Lincoln
2010
The Supply Side of Innovation: H-1B Visa Reforms and U.S. Ethnic Invention. Journal ofLabor Economics, 28(3). Available at www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/651934.
Kershen, A.J. (ed.)
2002
Food in the Migrant Experience. Routledge, London.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

Khadria, B.
2009

417

The Future of International Migration to OECD Countries. Regional Note South Asia.
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Available at www.oecd.
org/futures/43484309.pdf.

2012“Migration of Health Workers and Health of International Migrants: Framework for Bridging
Some Knowledge Disjoints between Brain Drain and Brawn Drain”, International Journal of
Public Policy, Vol. 8, Nos. 4/5/6, 2012, pp. 266–280.

2016Middle East Migration Country Policies. In: Adjusting to a World in Motion: Trends in Global
Migration and Migration Policy (J.B. Douglas and M.H. Lopez, eds.). International Policy
Exchange Series, Oxford University Press.

Khanna, G. and M. Lee
2018
Hiring highly educated immigrants leads to more innovation and better products. The
Conversation, 28 September. Available at https://theconversation.com/hiring-highlyeducated-immigrants-leads-to-more-innovation-and-better-products-100087.
Khoury, C.K., H.A. Achicanoy, A. Harold, A.D. Bjorkman, C. Navarro-Racines, L. Guarino, X. Flores-Palacios,
J.M.M. Engels, J.H. Wiersema, H. Dempewolf, S. Sotelo, J. Ramírez-Villegas, N.P. Castañeda-Álvarez, C. Fowler,
A. Jarvis, L.H. Rieseberg and P.C. Struik
2016
Origins of food crops connect countries worldwide. Proceedings of the Royal Society B:
Biological Sciences, 283(1832). Available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2016.0792.
Kirkpatrick, I., S. Ackroyd and R. Walker
2005
The New Managerialism and Public Service Professions: Change in Health, Social Services andHousing. Palgrave Macmillan: New York.
Lafleur, J.M and J. Duchesne
2017
Return migration, gender and social remittances: The return of female Bolivian migrants
from Spain in times of economic crisis. Revue Européenne des Migrations Internationales,33(2-3):183–201. Available at https://journals.openedition.org/remi/8650.
Lal, B.V., P. Reeves and J. Rai
2006
The Encyclopedia of the Indian Diaspora. General Editor, B. Lal. Editions, Didier Millet,
Singapore.
Lamba-Nieves, D. and P. Levitt
2011
Social Remittances Revisited. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 37(1):1–22. Availableat www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1369183X.2011.521361.
Levitt, P.
1998

Social Remittances: Migration Driven Local-Level Forms of Cultural Diffusion. International
Migration Review, 32(4):926–948. Available at www.jstor.org/stable/2547666?seq=1#page_
scan_tab_contents.

Levitt, P. and D. Lamba-Nieves

418

References

2010

Lieberman, A.
2018“It’s Not Just About the Economy, Stupid” – Social Remittances Revisited. Migration Policy
Institute. Available at www.migrationpolicy.org/article/its-not-just-about-economy-stupidsocial-remittances-revisited.
Q&A: Why Armenia is rolling out diaspora bonds for development. Devex, 15 August.
Available at www.devex.com/news/q-a-why-armenia-is-rolling-out-diaspora-bonds-fordevelopment-93275.

Martin, S., M.A. Larkin and M.N. Nathanson (eds.)
2000
World Migration Report 2000. IOM, Geneva. Available at https://publications.iom.int/
system/files/pdf/wmr_2000_edited_0.pdf.
Massey, D.S.
1990

Social Structure, Household Strategies, and the Cumulative Causation of Migration.
Population Index, 56(1):3–26. Available at www.jstor.org/stable/3644186?seq=1#page_
scan_tab_contents.

Mathers, C., G. Stevens, D. Hogan, W.R. Mahanani and J. Ho
2018
Global and Regional Causes of Death: Patterns and Trends, 2000–15. In: Disease Control
Priorities: Improving Health and Reducing Poverty (D.T. Jamison, H. Gelband and S. Horton
S, eds.). The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/The World Bank.
Washington, D.C.
McAuliffe, M.
2018

The link between migration and technology is not what you think. Agenda, 14 December.
World Economic Forum, Geneva. Available at www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/12/socialmedia-is-casting-a-dark-shadow-over-migration/.

McAuliffe, M. and F. Laczko (eds.)
2016
Migrant Smuggling Data and Research: A global review of the emerging evidence base. IOM,
Geneva. Available at https://publications.iom.int/system/files/smuggling_report.pdf.
McAuliffe, M. and M. Ruhs
2017
Report overview: making sense of migration in an increasingly interconnected world. In:
World Migration Report 2018 (M. McAuliffe and M. Ruhs, eds.). IOM, Geneva. Available athttps://publications.iom.int/system/files/pdf/wmr_2018_en_chapter10.pdf.
McAuliffe, M. and W. Weeks
2015
Media and migration: Comparative analysis of print and online media reporting on migrants
and migration in selected origin and destination countries. Irregular Migration Research
Program Occasional Paper Series. Australian Department of Immigration and Border
Protection: Canberra.
McKinsey Global Institute2016
People on the Move: Global Migration’s Impact and Opportunity. Available at www.
mckinsey.com/featured-insights/employment-and-growth/global-migrations-impact-andopportunity.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

McPartland, B.
2018

419

‘Africa won the World Cup?’: French players (and Obama) have final word. The Local, 18 July
2018. Available at www.thelocal.fr/20180718/africa-won-the-world-cup-french-players.

Meyer, D. and A. Shera2017
The impact of remittances on economic growth: An econometric model. EconomiA, 18(2):147–
155. Available at www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1517758016300753.
Milner, J.
2011

Refugees and the peacebuilding process. New Issues in Refugee Research, Research Paper No.
224. Available at https://carleton.ca/polisci/wp-content/uploads/Milner-Refugees-andthe-peacemaking-process-2011.pdf.

Mohieldin, M. and D. Ratha
2019
Migration Myths vs Economic Facts. Project Syndicate, February 2019. Available at www.
project-syndicate.org/commentary/global-compact-opposition-migration-development-bymahmoud-mohieldin-and-dilip-ratha-2019-02?barrier=accesspaylog.
Morawska, E.
2008
2013

Morgan, S.
2018

Research on immigration/ethnicity in Europe and the United States: A comparison. The
Sociological Quarterly, 49(3):465–482.
Structuring Immigrants Civic-political Incorporation into the Host Society. In: Outsiders No
More? Models of Immigrant Political Incorporation (J. Hochschild, J. Chattopadhyay, C. Gay
and M. Jones-Correa, eds.). Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Fake news, disinformation, manipulation and online tactics to undermine democracy.
Journal of Cyber Policy, 3(1):39–43.

Moser, P., A. Voena and F. Waldinger
2014
German Jewish Émigrés and US Invention. American Economic Review, 104(10):3222–3255.
Available at www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.104.10.3222.
Mounk, Y. and S. Foa
2018
The End of the Democratic Century: Autocracy’s Global Ascendance. Foreign Affairs, May/
June. Available at www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2018-04-16/end-democratic-century.
Mudde, C.
2019

Why copying the populist right isn’t going to save the left. The Guardian, 14 May 2019.

Murendo, C., M. Wollni, A. De Brauw and N. Mugabi
2018
Social Network Effects on Mobile Money Adoption in Uganda. The Journal of Development
Studies, 54(2):327–342.
Naudé, W., M. Siegel and K. Marchand2015
Migration, entrepreneurship and development: a critical review. UNU-MERIT Working
Papers, No. 033. Available at https://cris.maastrichtuniversity.nl/portal/en/publications/migration-entrepreneurship-and-development--a-critical-review(4e61f30c-62d4-4d4f-84cb6c4e8c295dad).html.

420

References

2017

Migration, entrepreneurship and development: critical questions. IZA Journal of Migration,
6:5.

Nicholls, W. and J. Uitermark
2016
Migrant cities: place, power, and voice in the era of super diversity. Journal of Ethnic andMigration Studies, 42(6):877–892.
Nordien, J.
2017

Diaspora Building Peace. African Diaspora Policy Centre. Available at www.diaspora-centre.
org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Diaspora-Building-Peace.pdf.

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)2016
Perspectives on Global Development 2017: International Migration in a Shifting World.
Available at www.oecd-ilibrary.org/development/perspectives-on-global-development2017/the-development-impact-of-migration-in-origin-countries_persp_glob_dev-2017-11en.
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)/International Labour Organization (ILO)2018
How Immigrants Contribute to Developing Countries’ Economies. OECD Publishing, Paris.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264288737-en.
Osabuohein, E.S. and A.A. Karakara
2018
ICT usage, mobile money and financial access of women in Ghana. AfricaGrowth Agenda,
15(1):14–18.
Oussedik, S.
2012
Pan, L., (ed.)
1999

Food and Cuisine: Part of the Migration Process. Institut Europeu de la Mediterrània. Availableat www.iemed.org.
The Encyclopedia of the Chinese Overseas. Harvard University Press.

Papademetriou, D.G.
2014
Curbing the Influence of “Bad Actors” in International Migration (Transatlantic Council
Statement). Migration Policy Institute. Available at www.migrationpolicy.org/research/curbing-influence-bad-actors-international-migration.
Pilcher, J.
2017
Pires, A.J.G.
2015

Food in world history. Routledge, New York.
Brain drain and brain waste. Journal of Economic Development, 40 (1). Available at www.jed.
or.kr/full-text/40-1/1.pdf.

Portes, A. and J. Walton
1981
Labor, Class, and the International System. New York, Academic Press.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

421

Rassenfossea, G. and G. Pellegrino
2019International Mobility of Inventors and Innovation: Empirical Evidence from the Collapse of
the Soviet Union. Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne. Available at https://snis.ch/
wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Working-paper-International_Mobility_1.pdf.
Ratha, D. and S. Ketkar
2011
Diaspora Bonds: Tapping the Diaspora During Difficult Times. Journal of International
Commerce, Economics and Policy, 22 August. Available at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/
papers.cfm?abstract_id=1913988.
Rother, S.
2009

Changed in Migration? Philippine Return Migrants and (un) Democratic Remittances.
European Journal of East Asian Studies, 8(2).

Ruhs, M.
2013

The Price of Rights: Regulating International Labor Migration. Princeton, Princeton University
Press.

Sajadmanesh, S., S.A. Ossia, H. Haddadi, M. Musolesi, G. Stringhini, S. Jafarzadeh, H.R. Rabiee, Y. Mejova and
E. De Cristofaro.
2017
Kissing Cuisines: Exploring Worldwide Culinary Habits on the Web. Proceedings of the 26th
International Conference on World Wide Web Companion. Available at www.researchgate.
net/publication/309460798_Kissing_Cuisines_Exploring_Worldwide_Culinary_Habits_on_
the_Web.
Schluter, C. and J. Wahba
2009
Illegal Migration, Wages, and Remittances: Semi-Parametric Estimation of Illegality Effects.
The Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). Available at http://ftp.iza.org/dp4527.pdf.
Shah, N.
2009

The management of irregular migration and its consequence for development: Gulf
Cooperation Council. Working Paper No. 19, Asian Regional Programme on Governance ofLabour Migration, ILO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific. ILO, Bangkok.

Shrier, D., G. Canale and A. Pentland
2016
Mobile Money and Payments: Technology Trends. Massachusetts Institute of Technology(MIT). Available at www.getsmarter.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/mit_mobile_and_money_payments_report.pdf.
Siapera, E., M. Boudourides, S. Lenis and J. Suiter
2018
Refugees and Network Publics on Twitter: Networked Framing, Affect, and Capture. Social
Media + Society, 4(1).
Simiyu Njororai, W.
2010
Global inequality and athlete labour migration from Kenya. Leisure/Loisir, 34(4):443–461.
Skeldon, R.
2018

International migration, internal migration, mobility and urbanization: Towards more
integrated approaches. Migration Research Series, Paper No 53. IOM, Geneva.

422

Skerry, P.
2002

References

Beyond Sushiology: Does Diversity Work? The Brookings Institution, 1 December. Availableat www.brookings.edu/articles/beyond-sushiology-does-diversity-work/.

Smith, H. and P. Stares (eds.)
2007
Diasporas in Conflict: Peace-Makers or Peace-Wreckers? UNU Press, Tokyo.
Smith, R., R. Spaaij and B. McDonald
2018
Migrant Integration and Cultural Capital in the Context of Sport and Physical Activity:
a Systematic Review. Journal of International Migration and Integration, 20(3):851–868.
Available at https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-018-0634-5.
Sport Inclusion Network (SPIN)
n.d.
Available at https://sportinclusion.net/.
Stark, O. and D.E. Bloom
1985
The New Economics of Labor Migration. The American Economic Review, 75(2):173–178.
Available at www.jstor.org/stable/1805591?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents.
Strohecker, K.
2016

Countries look to draw expatriate cash with “diaspora bonds”. Reuters, 17 April. Available atwww.reuters.com/article/us-emerging-bonds-diaspora/countries-look-to-draw-expatriatecash-with-diaspora-bonds-idUSKCN0XE0ID.

Suiter, J. and E. Culloty
2019
The impact of anti-immigration far-right activism on social media platforms. Presentation
at IOM side event, 6 May 2019, United Nations Headquarters, New York. Available at http://
webtv.un.org/meetings-events/watch/the-connections-between-migration-and-technology/6033486907001/?term=.
Suri, T. and W. Jack2016
The long-run poverty and gender impacts of mobile money. Science Magazine, 354(6317):1288–
1292. Available at https://science.sciencemag.org/content/354/6317/1288/tab-pdf.
Todaro, M.
1989

Economic Development in the Third World. Longman, New York.

Triandafyllidou, A., L. Bartolini and C. Guidi
2019
Exploring the links between enhancing regular pathways and discouraging irregular migration.
IOM, Geneva. Available at https://publications.iom.int/books/exploring-links-betweenenhancing-regular-pathways-and-discouraging-irregular-migration-0.
Tusikov, N. and B. Haggart
2019
It’s time for a new way to regulate social media platforms. The Conversation, 17 January
2019. Available at https://theconversation.com/its-time-for-a-new-way-to-regulate-socialmedia-platforms-109413.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

423

United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), International Organization for Migration(IOM) and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
2018
Policy Guide on Entrepreneurship for Migrants and Refugees. Available at https://unctad.
org/en/PublicationsLibrary/diae2018d2_en.pdf.
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA)
2019
International Migrant Stock: The 2019 Revision. United Nations, New York. Available atwww.un.org/en/development/desa/population/migration/data/estimates2/estimates19.
asp (accessed 18 September 2019).
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
2011
Towards Human Resilience: Sustaining MDG Progress in an Age of Economic
Uncertainty. UNDP, New York. Available at www.undp.org/content/undp/en/
home/librarypage/poverty-reduction/inclusive_development/towards_human_
resiliencesustainingmdgprogressinanageofeconomicun.html.
Van der Meer, T. and J. Tolsma
2014
Ethnic Diversity and Its Effects on Social Cohesion. Annual Review of Sociology, 40:459–478.
Available at www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev-soc-071913-043309.
Venturini, A., F. Montobbio and C. Fassio
2012
Are migrants spurring innovation? Migration Policy Centre. Available at www.
migrationpolicycentre.eu/docs/MPC%202012%20EN%2011.pdf.
Vertovec, S.
2007
Wallerstein, I.
1974
Weinberger, D.
2011
Weiner, M.
1978
Whiting, K.
2019

Super-diversity and its implications. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 30(6):1024–1054. Availableat www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01419870701599465.
The Modern World-System I: Capitalist Agriculture and the Origins of the European WorldEconomy in the Sixteenth Century. New York, Academic Press.
Too Big to Know: Rethinking Knowledge Now That the Facts Aren’t the Facts, Experts Are
Everywhere, and the Smartest Person in the Room Is the Room. Basic Books, New York.
Sons of the Soil: Migration and Ethnic Conflicts in India. Princeton University Press.
How Mo Salah may have reduced Islamophobia in Liverpool. World Economic Forum, June
2019. Available at www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/06/how-mo-salah-might-have-reducedislamophobia-in-liverpool/.

Wilk, R.
1999

Real Belizean Food: Building Local Identity in the Transnational Caribbean. American
Anthropologist, 101(2):244–255.

424

References

World Bank Group2019
Migration and Remittances: Recent Developments and Outlook. Available at www.knomad.
org/publication/migration-and-development-brief-31.
Zappettini, F. and M. Krzyzanowski
2019
The critical juncture of Brexit in media and political discourses: from nationalpopulist imaginary to cross-national social and political crisis. Critical
Discourse
Studies,
16(4):381–388.
Available
atwww.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17405904.2019.1592767?needAccess=true.
Zemandl, E.
2018

Orbán’s Hungary, transnational tribalism, and the emergence of a new European order.
Hungarian Spectrum, 14 May 2018. Available at http://hungarianspectrum.org/2018/05/14/
eva-j-zemandl-orbans-hungary-transnational-tribalism-and-the-emergence-of-a-neweuropean-order/.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

425

Chapter 6
Acosta, D.
2018

The National versus the Foreigner in South America. 200 Years of Migration and Citizenship
Law. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Allen, W., S. Blinder and R. McNeil
2017
Media reporting of migrants and migration. In: World Migration Report 2018 (M. McAuliffeand M. Ruhs, eds.). IOM, Geneva, pp. 191–207. Available at https://publications.iom.int/
books/world-migration-report-2018.
Aoki, Y. and L. Santiago
2018
Speak better, do better? Education and health of migrants in the UK. Labour Economics,
52:1–17.
Appave, G. and I. David
2017
Integration that values diversity – exploring a model for current migration dynamics. In:
Migration Research Leaders’ Syndicate: Ideas to Inform International Cooperation on Safe,
Orderly and Regular Migration (M. McAuliffe and M. Klein Solomon, eds.). IOM, Geneva,
pp. 159–167.
Arrighi, J.-T. and R. Bauböck
2016
A multilevel puzzle: Migrants’ voting rights in national and local elections. European Journalof Political Research, 56(3):619–639.
Bailey, J.P.
1979

Inmigración y relaciones étnicas: Los Ingleses en la Argentina. Desarollo Económico,
18(72):539–558.

Bakewell, O. and A. Bonfiglio
2013
Moving Beyond Conflict: Re-Framing Mobility in the African Great Lakes Region. Universityof Oxford, International Migration Institute, Working Paper for the African Great Lakes
Mobility Project.
Bakkaer Simonsen, K.
2017
Does citizenship always further immigrants’ feeling of belonging to the host nation? A
study of policies and public attitudes in 14 Western democracies. Comparative Migration
Studies, 5(3).
Banulescu-Bogdan, N.
2012
Shaping Citizenship Policies to Strengthen Immigrant Integration. Migration Policy
Institute, 2 August. Available at www.migrationpolicy.org/article/shaping-citizenshippolicies-strengthen-immigrant-integration.
Barslund, M. and N. Laurentsyeva
2018
On International Women’s Day: More Focus Needed on Integrating Migrant Women. Centre
for European Policy Studies. Available at www.ceps.eu/ceps-publications/internationalwomens-day-more-focus-needed-integrating-migrant-women/.

426

References

Bauböck, R., I. Honohan, T. Huddleston, D. Hutcheson, J. Shaw and M.P. Vink
2013
Access to Citizenship and its Impact on Immigrant Integration. European Summary andStandards. European University Institute, Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies,
Florence.
Bauböck, R. and M. Tripkovic (eds.)
2017
The Integration of Migrants and Refugees, An EUI Forum on Migration, Citizenship and
Demography. European University Institute, Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies,
Florence.
Bauder, H. (ed.)
2019
Putting Family First: Migration and Integration in Canada. UBC Press, Vancouver.
Bauder, H. and D.A. Gonzalez
2018
Municipal responses to “illegality”: Urban sanctuary across national contexts. Social
Inclusion, 6(1):124–134.
Beauchemin, C. and P. Bocquier
2003
Migration and Urbanization in Francophone West Africa: A Review of the Recent Empirical
Evidence. Document de travail DIAL/Unité de Recherche CIPRÉ. Available at www.
researchgate.net/profile/Cris_Beauchemin/publication/4793663_Migration_and_urbanization_in_francophone_west_Africa_a_review_of_the_recent_empirical_evidence/links/00b495359529f8673c000000.pdf.
Berndt, R.M.
1961

Problems of assimilation in Australia. Sociologus, 11(1):34–51.

Berry, J.
1997

Immigration, acculturation, and adaptation. Applied Psychology: An International Review/
Psychologie appliquée: Revue internationale, 46(1):5–34.

2006

Contexts of acculturation. In: The Cambridge Handbook of Acculturation Psychology (D.L.
Sam and J.W. Berry, eds.). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 27–42.

Bilgili, Ö., T. Huddleston and A.-L. Joki
2015
The Dynamics between Integration Policies and Outcomes: A Synthesis of the Literature.
Barcelona Centre for International Affairs and Migration Policy Group. Available at https://fr.scribd.com/document/271339269/MIPEX-Literature-Review-the-Dynamics-BetweenIntegration-Policies-and-Outcomes-1.
Bivand Erdal, M. and C. Oeppen
2013
Migrant balancing acts: Understanding the interactions between integration andtransnationalism. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 39(6):867–884.
Bjerg, M.M.
1988

Inmigración y asimilación en la Argentina. Un enfoque historiográfico. Anuario IEHS, 3.
Available at http://anuarioiehs.unicen.edu.ar/Files/1988/011%20-%20inmigracion%20
y%20asimilacion%20en%20la%20argentina.%20un%20enfoque%20historiografico.pdf.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

427

Block, L.
2015

Regulating membership: Explaining restriction and stratification of family migration in
Europe. Journal of Family Issues, 36(11):1433–1452.

Butschek, S. and T. Walter
2014
What active labour market programmes work for immigrants in Europe? A meta-analysis of
the evaluation literature. IZA Journal of Migration, 3.
Canganio, A.
2014
Cantle, T.
2005

Migration policies and migrant employment outcomes: Conceptual analysis and comparative
evidence for Europe. Comparative Migration Studies, 2(4):417–443.
Community Cohesion: A New Framework for Race and Diversity. Palgrave Macmillan,
Basingstoke. Available at www.migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/briefings/
immigration-diversity-and-social-cohesion/.

Caponio, T. and D. Donatiello2017
Intercultural policy in times of crisis: Theory and practice in the case of Turin, Italy.
Comparative Migration Studies, 5(1):13.
Card, D., J. Kluve and A. Weber
2010
Active labor market policy evaluations: A meta-analysis. The Economic Journal,120(548):452–477.
Castles, S.
2003

2004

Transnational communities: A new form of social relations under conditions of globalization?
In: Host Societies and the Reception of Immigrants (J.G. Reitz, ed.). University of California,
Center for Comparative Immigration Studies, San Diego, pp. 429–445.
The myth of controllability of difference: Labour migration, transnational communities andState strategies in the Asia–Pacific region. In: State/Nation/Transnation: Perspectives on
Transnationalism in the Asia–Pacific (B.S.A. Yeoh and K. Willis, eds.). Routledge, London
and New York, pp. 16–36.

Castles, S. and A. Davidson
2000
Citizenship and Migration: Globalization and the Politics of Belonging. Palgrave, Basingstoke.
Castles, S., H. de Haas and M.J. Miller
2014
The Age of Migration: International Population Movements in the Modern World. Fifth edition,
Palgrave Macmillan, London.
Castles, S., M. Korac, E. Vasta and S. Vertovec
2002
Integration: Mapping the Field. Report of a Project carried out by the University of Oxford
Centre for Migration and Policy Research and Refugee Studies Centre, contracted by theHome Office Immigration Research and Statistics Service, Home Office Online Report 28/03.
Charsley, K. and S. Spencer
2019
Understanding Integration Processes: Informing Policy and Practice. Policy Bristol, Policy
Report 44, January.

428

Chetail, V.
2019
Chiswick, B.R.
2016

Corak, M.
2011
Crawford, V.
2016

References

International Migration Law. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
“Tongue Tide”: The Economics of Language Offers – Important Lessons for How Europe Can
Best Integrate Migrants. Institute for the Study of Labour (IZA), IZA Policy Paper No. 113,
July.
Age at Immigration and the Education Outcomes of Children. Statistics Canada, Analytical
Studies Branch Research Paper Series.
10 Ways countries can help refugees integrate. World Economic Forum, 27 May. Available atwww.weforum.org/agenda/2016/05/10-ways-countries-can-help-refugees-integrate/.

Crawley, H., S. McMahon and K. Jones
2016
Migrants Voices in the British Media. Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations, Coventry
University. Available at http://www.coventry.ac.uk/research/research-directories/researchnews/2016/victims-and-villains.
Darden, J.T.
2015

Homeownership among immigrants in Canada and the United States: Similarities anddifferences. In: The Housing and Economic Experiences of Immigrants in U.S. and Canadian
Cities (C. Teixeira and W. Li, eds.). University of Toronto Press, Toronto, pp. 43–68.

De Paola, M. and G. Brunello
2016
Education as a Tool for the Economic Integration of Migrants. European Expert Network on
Economics of Education, Analytical Report No. 27, February.
Demireva, N.
2017

Immigration, Diversity and Social Cohesion. Briefing, The Migration Observatory, Universityof Oxford, Oxford.

Dronkers, J. and M.R. Vink
2012
Explaining access to citizenship in Europe: How citizenship policies affect naturalization
rates. European Union Politics, 13(3).
Duncan, H. and I. Popp2017
Migrants and cities: Stepping beyond World Migration Report 2015. In: The World Migration
Report 2018 (M. McAuliffe and M. Ruhs, eds.). IOM, Geneva, pp. 225–241.
Entzinger, H. and R. Biezeveld
2003
Benchmarking Immigrant Integration. Erasmus University Rotterdam, European ResearchCentre on Migration and Ethnic Relations, Rotterdam.
Espinoza-Castro, B., L.E. Vásquez Rueda, R.V. Mendoza Lopez and K. Radon
2018
Working below skill level as risk factor for distress among Latin American migrants living inGermany: A Cross-sectional study. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health:1–7.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

429

European Commission
2016
Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European
Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, Action Plan on the
Integration of Third Country Nationals. COM(2016) 377 final, 7 June.
2018

Special Eurobarometer 469. Integration of Immigrants in the European Union. Report,
European Union.

European Economic and Social Committee (EESC)
2017
How Civil Society Organizations Assist Refugees and Migrants in the EU: Successful Experiences
and Promising Practices from the 2016 EESC Civil Society Prize. EESC, Brussels.
European Migration Network
2014
Asylum and Migration Glossary 3.0. Second edition, European Union, Brussels.
Eurostat (European Union)
2018
Migrant Integration Statistics – Labour Market Indicators. Available at https://ec.europa.
eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Migrant_integration_statistics_%E2%80%93_
labour_market_indicators#Unemployment.
Faist, T.
2018

Favell, A.
2005

A Primer on Social Integration: Participation and Social Cohesion in the Global Compacts.
Universität Bielefeld, Fakultät für Soziologie, Centre on Migration, Citizenship andDevelopment (COMCAD), COMCAD Working Paper 161. Available at https://nbn-resolving.
org/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-58138-7.
Integration nations: The Nation–State and research on immigrants in Western Europe.
In: International Migration Research: Constructions, Omissions and the Promises ofInterdisciplinarity (M. Bommes and E. Morawska, eds.). Ashgate, Aldershot, pp. 41–67.

Filsi, S., E.C. Meroni and E. Vera-Toscano
2016
Educational Outcomes and Immigrant Background. European Commission, Joint ResearchCentre (JRC), JRC Technical Reports.
Fokkema, T. and H. de Haas
2011
Pre- and post-migration determinants of socio-cultural integration of African immigrants in
Italy and Spain. International Migration, 53(6):3–26.
Fonseca, X., S. Lukosch and F. Brazier
2018
Social cohesion revisited: A new definition and how to characterize it. Innovation: The
European Journal of Social Science Research, 32(2):231–253. Available at www.tandfonline.
com/doi/full/10.1080/13511610.2018.1497480.
Forrest, R. and A. Kearns
2001
Social cohesion, social capital and the neighbourhood. Urban Studies, 38(12):2125–2143.
Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) (European Union)
2011
Fundamental Rights of Migrants in an Irregular Situation in the European Union. European
Union, Luxembourg.

430

References

Gagnon, J. and D. Khoudour-Castéras
2012South–South Migration in West Africa: Addressing the Challenges of Immigrant Integration.
OECD Development Centre, Working Paper No. 312. Available at www.oecd-ilibrary.org/
docserver/5k98p4wcgjmx-en.pdf?expires=1548083798&id=id&accname=guest&
checksum=2BCA85C065F416B8023FAC43FD0C29F9.
Gathmann, C. and N. Keller
2016
Access to Citizenship and the Social Integration of Immigrants. Draft Working Paper.
Available at https://sole-jole.org/16286.pdf.
Government of Canada
1985
Canadian Multiculturalism Act. RSC, c. 24 (4th Supp.).
2018

Annual Report on the Operation of the Canadian Multiculturalism Act 2016–2017,
Multiculturalism from Now and Into the Future. Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada.

Hagelskamp, C., C. Suárez-Orozco and D. Hughes
2010
Migrating to opportunities: How family migration motivations shape academic trajectories
among newcomer immigrant youth. Applied Psychology, 66(4):717–739.
Hainmueller, J., D. Hangartner and G. Pietrantuono
2015
Naturalization fosters the long-term political integration of immigrants. Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 112(41):12651–12656.
Hennebry, J.
2017

For their own good? Addressing exploitation of women migrant workers. In: Ideas to InformInternational Cooperation on Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (M. McAuliffe and M. Klein
Solomon, eds.). IOM, Geneva.

Hooper, K. and B. Salant2018
It’s Relative: A Crosscountry Comparison of Family-Migration Policies and Flows. Migration
Policy Institute, Issue Brief, April.
Huddleston, T.
2015

2017

Migrant Political Participation: A Review of Policies and Integration Results in the OSCE
Region. Research Paper, Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Office for
Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, Warsaw.
Migrant Political Participation: A Review of Policies and Integration Results in the OSCE
Region. Research Paper, OSCE and Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights.
Available at www.osce.org/odihr/367936?download=true.

Huddleston, T., Ö. Bilgili, A.L. Joki and Z. Vankova
2015
Migrant Integration Policy Index 2015. Barcelona Centre for International Affairs andMigration Policy Group, Barcelona and Brussels.
Huddleston, T. and J. Dag Tjaden
2012
Immigrant Citizens Survey: How Immigrants Experience Integration in 15 European Cities.
King Baudouin Foundation and Migration Policy Group, Brussels.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

431

Huddleston, T. and A. Pedersen
2011
Impact of New Family Reunion Tests and Requirements on the Integration Process. Migration
Policy Group (MPG), MPG Briefings for Green Paper on Family Reunion No. 3.
International Labour Organization (ILO)2015
ILO Global Estimates on Migrant Workers: Results and Methodology. ILO Labour Migration
Branch and ILO Department of Statistics, Geneva. Available at www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/
public/---dgreports/---dcomm/documents/publication/wcms_436343.pdf (accessed 11
June 2019).
2018

ILO Global Estimates on International Migrant Workers: Results and Methodology. ILO Labour
Migration Branch and ILO Department of Statistics, Geneva. Second edition (reference year2017).

International Organization for Migration (IOM)
2011
Thailand Migration Report 2011: Migration for Development in Thailand – Overview and Tools
for Policymakers. IOM, Bangkok.
2013

Recognition of Qualifications and Competences of Migrants (A. Schuster, M.V. Desiderio and
G. Urso, eds.). IOM, Geneva.

2015

Migration Governance Framework. IOM Council, 106th Session, C/106/RES/1310, 4 December.

2017aWorld Migration Report 2018 (M. McAuliffe and M. Ruhs, eds.). IOM, Geneva.

2017b

Migration Research Leaders’ Syndicate: Ideas to Inform International Cooperation on Safe,
Orderly and Regular Migration. IOM, Geneva.

2018

How Migrant YouTubers Are Combatting Xenophobia and Discrimination. IOM, Geneva.
Available at https://medium.com/@UNmigration/how-migrant-youtubers-are-combattingxenophobia-and-discrimination-5751e1b757b5.

2019

International Migration Law, N° 34. Glossary on Migration. IOM, Geneva. Available at http://publications.iom.int/system/files/pdf/iml_34_glossary.pdf.

Isphording, I.E.
2015
What Drives the Language Proficiency of Immigrants? Immigrants Differ in their Language
Proficiency along a Range of Characteristics. IZA World of Labour, p. 177.
Jasinskaja-Lahti, I., K. Liedkind and R. Perhoniemi
2007
Perceived ethnic discrimination at work and well-being of immigrants in Finland: The
moderating role of employment status and work-specific group-level control beliefs.
International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 31(2):223–242.
Jenson, J.
1998

Mapping Social Cohesion: The State of Canadian Research. Canadian Policy Research Networks,
Ottawa.

432

References

Joki, A.-L. and A. Wolffhardtn.d.
How the Intercultural Integration Approach Leads to a Better Quality of Life in Diverse Cities.
Migration Policy Group, with the support of T. Huddleston. Available at http://rm.coe.int/
intercultural-to-the-core-how-the-intercultural-cities-index-can-be-be/168076631b.
Joppke, C.
2010
2014

Citizenship and Immigration. Polity Press, London.
European immigrant integration after multiculturalism. In: Global and Asian Perspectives on
International Migration (G. Battistella, ed.). IOM and Springer, London, pp. 77–99.

Klaufus, C., P. van Lindert, F. van Noorloos and G. Steel2017
All-inclusiveness versus exclusion: Urban project development in Latin America and Africa.
Sustainability, 9(11):2038–1053.
Kluve, J.
2010
Kontos, M.
2011

The effectiveness of European active labor market programs. Labour Economics, 17(6):904–
918.
Between Integration and Exclusion: Migrant Women in European Labor Markets. Migration
Policy Institute, 23 March. Available at www.migrationpolicy.org/article/betweenintegration-and-exclusion-migrant-women-european-labor-markets.

Koser, K. and A. Cunningham
2017
Migration, violent extremism and social exclusion. In: The World Migration Report 2018 (M.
McAuliffe and M. Ruhs, eds.). IOM, Geneva, pp. 209–223.
Krüger Diaz, A.L. and J. Plaza Pinto
2017
Is There Language Policy for Migrants in Brazil? Linguistic Ideologies and Three Language
Tests. Tilburg University, Tilburg Papers in Culture Studies, No. 192.
Kuch, A.
2018

Kymlicka, W.
2012

Lessons from Tanzania’s historic bid to turn refugees to citizens. News Deeply, Refugees
Deeply, 22 February. Available at www.newsdeeply.com/refugees/community/2018/02/22/
lessons-from-tanzanias-historic-bid-to-turn-refugees-to-citizens.
Multiculturalism: Success, Failure, and the Future. Migration Policy Institute, Washington,
D.C.

Landau, L.B. and O. Bakewell2018
Introduction: Forging a study of mobility, integration and belonging in Africa. In: Forging
African Communities: Mobility, Integration and Belonging (O. Bakewell and L.B. Landau,eds.). Palgrave Macmillan, London, pp. 1–24.
Lens, D., I. Marx and S. Vuji
2018
Does Migration Motive Matter for Migrants’ Employment Outcomes? The Case of Belgium.
Institute of Labour Economics, Discussion Paper Series, IZA DP No. 11906.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

Levitt, P.
2004
Lewis, E.G.
2013

433

Transnational Migrants: When “Home” Means More than One Country. Migration Policy
Institute, Migration Information Source, 1 October.
Immigrant native substitutability: The role of language. In: Immigration, Poverty andSocioeconomic Inequality (D. Card and S. Raphael, eds.). Russell Sage Foundation, New York,
pp. 60–97.

Li, X.
2007

Portrait of an Integration Process. Difficulties Encountered and Resources Relied on for
Newcomers in their First 4 Years in Canada. Evidence from three Waves of the Longitudinal
Survey of Immigrants to Canada (LSIC). Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Research and
Evaluation, June. Available at www.canada.ca/content/dam/ircc/migration/ircc/english/
pdf/research-stats/portrait-integr-process-e.pdf.

Liebig, T. and K. Rose Tronstad
2018
Triple Disadvantage? A First Overview of the Integration of Refugee Women. OECD Social,
Employment and Migration Working Paper No. 216.
Lippert, R.K. and S. Rehaag (eds.)
2013
Sanctuary Practices in International Perspectives: Migration, Citizenship and Social Movements.
Routledge, New York.
Logan, J.R., S. Oh and J. Darrah
2012
The political and community context of immigrant naturalization. Journal of Ethnic andMigration Studies, 38(4):535–554.
Long, K., E. Mosler Vidal, A. Kuch and J. Hagen-Zanker
2017
Citizenship, Migration and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. ODI Briefing,
September. Available at www.odi.org/publications/10911-citizenship-migration-and-2030agenda-sustainable-development.
Manby, B.
2016
Martiniello, M.
2006

Citizenship Law in Africa: A Comparative Study. Open Society Foundations, New York.
Political Participation, mobilisation and representation of immigrants and their offspringin Europe. In: Migration and Citizenship: Legal Status, Rights and Political Participation(R. Bauböck, ed.). IMISCOE Reports, Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam, pp. 83–105.

Mazzucato, V. and D. Schans
2011
Transnational families and the well-being of children: Conceptual and methodologicalchallenges. Journal of Marriage and Family, 73(4):704–712.
McKinsey Global Institute2016
People on the Move: Global Migration’s Impact and Opportunity. McKinsey Global Institute,
New York.

434

References

Medina, D.A.
2015

Undocumented immigrants in New York get ID cards to open bank accounts. The Guardian,
12 January. Available at www.theguardian.com/money/us-money-blog/2015/jan/12/
undocumented-immigrants-id-cards-new-york.

Mercator Dialogue on Asylum and Migration (MEDAM)
2018
Flexible Solidarity: A Comprehensive Strategy for Asylum and Immigration in the EU. 2018
MEDAM Assessment Report on Asylum and Migration Policies in Europe. MEDAM, Kiel.
Modood, T.
2013

Multiculturalism. Second edition, Polity Press, Cambridge, Oxford, Boston, New York.

Morrice, L., L.K. Tip, M. Collyer and R. Brown
2019“You can’t have a good integration when you don’t have a good communication”: Englishlanguage learning among resettled refugees in England. Journal of Refugee Studies (advanceaccess).
Mustafa, S.
2018

Mustasaari, S.
2015

Nothing about us without us: Why refugee inclusion is long overdue. News Deeply, Refugees
Deeply, 20 June. Available at www.newsdeeply.com/refugees/community/2018/06/20/
nothing-about-us-without-us-why-refugee-inclusion-is-long-overdue.
The “nuclear family paradigm” as a marker of rights and belonging in transnationalfamilies. Social Identities: Journal for the Study of Race, Nation and Culture, 21(4):359–372.

National Museum Australian.d.
Defining Moments: White Australia Policy. Webpage. Available at www.nma.gov.au/definingmoments/resources/white-australia-policy.
Newland, K.
2017

Nicholson, F.
2018

Okyere, S.A.
2016

Migrant return and reintegration policy: A key component of migration governance.
In: Migration Research Leaders’ Syndicate: Ideas to Inform International Cooperation on Safe,
Orderly and Regular Migration (M. McAuliffe and M. Klein Solomon, eds.). IOM, Geneva,
pp. 169–173.
The “Essential Right” to Family Unity of Refugees and Others in Need of International
Protection in the Context of Family Reunification. PPLA/2018/02, United Nations HighCommissioner for Refugees, Legal and Protection Policy Research Series, Geneva.
Africa’s ‘new town’ urban solutions. U3 – UrbanisticaTre. Available at www.urbanisticatre.
uniroma3.it/dipsu/?portfolio=africas-new-town-urban-solutions.

Oliver, C.
2013

The Impact of Restrictions and Entitlements on the Integration of Family Migrants: A
Comparative Report. University of Oxford, Centre on Migration, Policy and Society.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

Onyulo, T.
2018

435

School started by refugees becomes one of Uganda’s best. News Deeply, Refugees Deeply, 16
August. Available at www.newsdeeply.com/refugees/articles/2018/08/16/school-startedby-refugees-becomes-one-of-ugandas-best.

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
2011
Naturalisation: A Passport for the Better Integration of Immigrants? OECD, Paris. Available athttps://read.oecd-ilibrary.org/social-issues-migration-health/naturalisation-a-passportfor-the-better-integration-of-immigrants_9789264099104-en#page1.
2012

Settling In: OECD Indicators of Immigrant Integration 2012. OECD Publishing, Paris. Available
atwww.oecd-ilibrary.org/social-issues-migration-health/settling-in-oecd-indicators-ofimmigrant-integration-2012_9789264171534-en.

2014

International Migration Outlook 2014. Special Focus: Mobilising Migrants’ Skills for Economic
Success. OECD Publishing, Paris.

2018aInternational Migration Outlook 2018. Forty-second edition. OECD Publishing, Paris.
Available at www.oecd-ilibrary.org/social-issues-migration-health/international-migrationoutlook_1999124x.

2018b

Working Together for Local Integration of Migrants and Refugees. OECD, Paris.

OECD and European Union (EU)2015
Indicators of Immigrant Integration 2015: Settling In. OECD Publishing, Paris. Available
atwww.oecd.org/migration/indicators-of-immigrant-integration-2015-settling-in9789264234024-en.htm.
2018

Oyefara, J.L.
2018

Settling In 2018: Indicators of Immigrant Integration. OECD Publishing/EU, Paris/Brussels.
Available at www.oecd-ilibrary.org/social-issues-migration-health/indicators-of-immigrantintegration-2018_9789264307216-en.
Migration and urbanization in Africa. In: The Palgrave Handbook of African Politics,
Governance and Development (S. Oloruntoba and T. Falola, eds.). Palgrave Macmillan, New
York, pp. 451–467.

Panagiotopoulou, J.A. and L. Rosen
2018
Denied inclusion of migration-related multilingualism: An ethnographic approach toa preparatory class for newly arrived children in Germany. Language and Education,
23(5):394–409.
Papademetriou, D.G.
2012
Rethinking National Identity in the Age of Migration. Council Statement, Transatlantic
Council on Migration, Migration Policy Institute, Washington, D.C.
Pearson, M.
2015

What’s a ‘sanctuary city’ and why should you care? CNN, 2 July. Available at https://edition.cnn.com/2015/07/06/us/san-francisco-killing-sanctuary-cities/index.html.

436

Penny, E.
2016

Phillips, D.
2006

References“We Don’t Have a Refugee Crisis. We Have a Housing Crisis.” Open Democracy, 5 November.
Available at www.opendemocracy.net/en/can-europe-make-it/we-don-t-have-refugeecrisis-we-have-housing-crisis/.
Moving towards integration: The housing of asylum seekers and refugees in Britain. Housing
Studies, 21(4):539–553.

Public Policy and Management Institute (PPMI)
2017
Preparing Teachers for Diversity: The Role of Initial Teacher Education, Final Report. European
Commission, Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture.
Redfield, R., R. Linton and M. Herskovitz
1936
Memorandum on the Study of Acculturation. American Anthropologists, 38:149–152.
Reichel, D.
2011

Robinson, K.
2014
Rodrigues, M.
2018
Ros i Sole, C.
2014

Do Legal Regulations Hinder Naturalisation? Citizenship Policies and Naturalisation Rates in
Europe. European University Institute (EUI), Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies,
EUI Working Papers RSCAS 2011/51.
Voices from the front line: Social work with refugees and asylum seekers in Australia andthe UK. British Journal of Social Work, 44(6):1602–1620.
Can Digital Technologies Help Reduce the Immigrant–Native Educational Achievement Gap?
European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC), JRC Science for Policy Report.
The paradoxes of language learning and integration in the European context. In: Language
Issues in Migration and Integration: Perspectives from Teachers and Learners (D. Mallows,ed.). British Council, London, pp. 57–77.

Sánchez Alonso, B.
2002
La época de las grandes migraciones desde del siglo XIX a 1930. Mediterráneo económico,
1:19–32.
Schmidtke, O.
2018

The civil society dynamic of inclusion and empowering refugees in Canada’s urban centres.
Social Inclusion, 6(1):147–156.

Scholten, P., F. Baggerman, L. Dellouche, V. Kampen, J. Wolf and R. Ypma
2017
Policy Innovation for Refugee Integration? A Comparative Analysis of Innovative Policy
Strategies Toward Refugee Integration Across Europe. Erasmus University, Rotterdam.
Silver, H.
2015

The Contexts of Social Inclusion. United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs(UN DESA), Working Paper No. 144, ST/ESA/2015/EWP/144.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

Somers, T.
2018

Spitzer, D.L.
2018

437

Multilingualism for Europeans, monolingualism for immigrants? Towards policy-based
inclusion of immigrant minority language students in content and language integrated
learning (CLIL). European Journal of Language Policy, 10(2):203–228.
Family Migration Policies and Social Integration. United Nations Expert Group, Family
Policies for Inclusive Societies.

Stanford University
2018
Switzerland launches program to test AI for refugee integration. 30 May. Available athttps://phys.org/news/2018-05-switzerland-ai-refugee.html.
Thorkelson, S.
2015
UN-Habitat
2016a

2016b

Occupy Europe? Political Participation and the Immigrant Second Generation. Working
Paper.
The New Urban Agenda. United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban
Development (Habitat III), Quito, 17–20 October, paras. 14 and 99. Available at http://
habitat3.org/wp-content/uploads/NUA-English.pdf.
From Habitat II to Habitat III: Twenty Years of Urban Development. Available at http://wcr.
unhabitat.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Chapter1-WCR-2016.pdf.

United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (UN CESCR)
1999
Implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights:
General Comment No. 13 (Twenty-First Session, 1999): The Right To Education (Article 13of the Covenant). 8 December. E/C.12/1999/10.
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), IOM and UNHCR
2018
Policy Guide on Entrepreneurship for Migrants and Refugees. UNCTAD, IOM and UNHCR.
Available at https://publications.iom.int/books/policy-guide-entrepreneurship-migrantsand-refugees.
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA)
1998
Recommendations on Statistics of International Migration: Revision 1. United Nations, NewYork.
United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)2018
Global Education Monitoring Report, Migration, Displacement and Education: Building
Bridges, Not Walls. UNESCO Publishing.
United Nations General Assembly (UNGA)
2015
Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. 21 October.
A/RES/70/1.
2018a

Draft outcome document of the Conference, Intergovernmental Conference to Adopt the
Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration. Note by the President of the General
Assembly. 30 July. A/CONF.231/3.

438

References

2018b

Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Part II: Global Compact on
Refugees. A/73/12 (Part II).

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
2018
Turn the Tide: Refugee Education in Crisis. UNHCR, Geneva. Available at www.unhcr.org/
turnthetide/.
United Nations Human Rights Committee (UN HRCttee)
1989
General Comment No. 18: Non-discrimination. 10 November. Available at https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=
INT%2fCCPR%2fGEC%2f6622&Lang=en.
United Nations Human Rights Council (UN HRC)
2018
Principles and Practical Guidance on the Protection of the Human Rights of Migrants in
Vulnerable Situations. Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
7 February. A/HRC/37/34/Add.1.
United States Department of Labor
2018
Foreign-Born Workers: Labor Force Characteristics – 2017. Bureau of Labor Statistics,
Economic News Release. Available at www.bls.gov/news.release/forbrn.nr0.htm/LaborForce-Characteristics-of-Foreign-Born-Workers-Summary.
Vathi, Z.
2015
Vertovec, S.
1999

Migrating and Settling in a Mobile World: Albanian Migrants and their Children in Europe.
IMISCOE Research, Springer, Dordrecht.
Conceiving and researching transnationalism. Ethnic and Racial Studies 22(2):445–462.

Wadhwa, V., A. Saxenlan, B. Rissing and G. Gereffi
2007
America’s New Immigrant Entrepreneurs. Master of Engineering Management Program, Duke
University and School of Information, University of California at Berkeley.
Wiesbrock, A.
2011
World Bank2013

The integration of immigrants in Sweden: A model for the European Union? International
Migration, 40(4):52.
Inclusion Matters: The Foundation for Shared Prosperity (Advance Edition). World Bank,
Washington, D.C. License: Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0.

Zapata-Barrero, R.
2017
Interculturalism in the post-multicultural debate: A defence. Comparative Migration Studies,5(1):14.
Zetter, R., D. Griffiths, N. Sigona, D. Flynn, T. Pasha and R. Beynon
2006
Immigration, Social Cohesion and Social Capital: What Are the Links? Oxford Brookes
University, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, York.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

439

Chapter 7
Abbas, M., T. Aloudat, J. Bartolomei, M. Carballo, S. Durieux-Paillard, L. Gabus, A. Jablonka, Y. Jackson, K.
Kaojaroen, D. Koch, E. Martinez, M. Mendelson, R. Petrova-Benedict, S. Tsiodras, D. Christie, M. Saam, S.
Hargreaves and D. Pittet
2018
Migrant and refugee populations: A public health and policy perspective on a continuing
global crisis. Antimicrobial Resistance and Infection Control, 7:113. Available at https://doi.
org/10.1186/s13756-018-0403-4.
Aboii, S.
2016

Undocumented immigrants and the inclusive health policies of sanctuary cities. Harvard
Public Health Review, 9. Available at http://harvardpublichealthreview.org/undocumentedimmigrants-and-the-inclusive-health-policies-of-sanctuary-cities/.

Abubakar, I., R.W. Aldridge, D. Devakumar, M. Orcutt, R. Burns, M.L. Barreto, P. Dhavan, F.M. Fouad, N. Groce,
Y. Guo, S. Hargreaves, M. Knipper, J.J. Miranda, N. Madise, B. Kumar, D. Mosca, T. McGovern, L. Rubenstein,
P. Sammonds, S.M. Sawyer, K. Sheikh, S. Tollman, P. Spiegel and C. Zimmerman
2018
The UCL–Lancet Commission on Migration and Health: The health of a world on themove. The Lancet, 392(10164):2606–2654. Available at https://doi.org/10.1016/S01406736(18)32114-7.
Aldridge, R.W., L.B. Nellums, S. Bartlett, A.L. Barr, P. Patel, R. Burns, S. Hargreaves, J.J. Miranda, S. Tollman,
J.S. Friedland and I. Abubakar
2018
Global patterns of mortality in international migrants: A systematic review and metaanalysis. The Lancet, 392(10164):2553–2566. Available at https://doi.org/10.1016/S01406736(18)32781-8.
Benach, J., C. Muntaner, C. Delclos, M. Menéndez and C. Ronquillo
2011
Migration and “low-skilled” workers in destination countries. PLoS Medicine, 8(6):e1001043.
Available at https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1001043.
Bhopal, R.
1997

Is research into ethnicity and health racist, unsound, or important science? British Medical
Journal, 314(7096):1751–1756.

Bozorgmehr, K. and L. Biddle
2018
New UN Compact for Migration falls short on health. British Medical Journal, 363:k5327.
Available at https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.k5327.
Brandenberger, J., T. Tylleskär, K. Sontag, B. Peterhans and N. Ritz
2019
A systematic literature review of reported challenges in health care delivery to migrants andrefugees in high-income countries – the 3C model. BMC Public Health, 19(1):755.
Chung, R.Y. and S.M. Griffiths
2018
Migration and health in the world: A global public health perspective. Public Health,158:64–65. Available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2018.04.005.

440

References

Cotter, C., H.J.W. Sturrock, M.S. Hsiang, J. Liu, A.A. Phillips, J. Hwang, C.S. Gueye, N. Fullman, R.D. Goslingand R.G.A. Feachem
2013
The changing epidemiology of malaria elimination: New strategies for new challenges. The
Lancet, 382(9895):858.
Crisp, N. and L. Chen
2014
Global supply of health professionals. New England Journal of Medicine, 370(10):950–957.
Devakumar, D., N. Russell, L. Murphy, K. Wickramage, S.M. Sawyer and I. Abubakar
2018Children and adolescents on the move: What does the Global Compact for Migration mean
for their health? The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health, 3(2):64–66. Available at https://doi.org/10.1016/S2352-4642(18)30376-6.
European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control
2018
Public health guidance on screening and vaccination for infectious diseases in newly
arrived migrants within the EU/EEA. European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control,
Stockholm.
Fellmeth, G., K. Rose-Clarke, C. Zhao, L.K. Busert, Y. Zheng, A. Massazza, H. Sonmez, B. Eder, A. Blewitt, W.
Lertgrai, M. Orcutt, K. Ricci, O. Mohamed-Ahmed, R. Burns, D. Knipe, S. Hargreaves, T. Hesketh, C. Opondo
and D. Devakumar
2018
Health impacts of parental migration on left-behind children and adolescents: A systematic
review and meta-analysis. The Lancet, 392(10164):2567–2582. Available at https://doi.
org/10.1016/S0140-6736(18)32558-3.
Filges, T., E. Montgomery, M. Kastrup and A.-M.K. Jørgensen
2015
The impact of detention on the health of asylum seekers: A systematic review. Campbell
Systematic Reviews, 11(1). Available at https://doi.org/10.4073/csr.2015.13.
Fortier, J.P.
2010

Migrant-sensitive health systems. In: Health of Migrants – The Way Forward: Report of a
Global Consultation. WHO, Geneva, p. 61.

Giorgi Rossi, P., F. Riccardo, A. Pezzarossi, P. Ballotari, M.G. Dente, C. Napoli, A. Chiarenza, C. Velasco Munoz,
T. Noori and S. Declich
2017
Factors influencing the accuracy of infectious disease reporting in migrants: A scoping
review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 14(7):720.
Available at https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph14070720.
Grabovschi, C., C. Loignon and M. Fortin
2013
Mapping the concept of vulnerability related to health care disparities: A scoping review.
BMC Health Services Research, 13:94. Available at https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6963-1394.
Graham, E., L. Jordan and B. Yeoh
2015
Parental migration and the mental health of those who stay behind to care for children in
South-East Asia. Social Science and Medicine, 132:225–235.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

441

Griswold, K.S., K. Pottie, I. Kim, W. Kim and L. Lin
2018
Strengthening effective preventive services for refugee populations: Toward communities
of solution. Public Health Reviews, 39:3. Available at https://doi.org/10.1186/s40985-0180082-y.
Guinto, R.L.L.R., U.Z. Curran, R. Suphanchaimat and N.S. Pocock
2015
Universal health coverage in ‘One ASEAN’: Are migrants included? Global Health Action,
8(1):25749. Available at https://doi.org/10.3402/gha.v8.25749.
Gushulak, B., J. Weekers and D.W. MacPherson
2009
Migrants in a globalized world – health threats, risks, and challenges: An evidence-based
framework. Emerging Health Threats Journal, 2:e10. Published online 31 March 2010.
Hacker, K., M. Anies, B.L. Folb and L. Zallman
2015
Barriers to health care for undocumented immigrants: A literature review. Risk Managementand Healthcare Policy, 8:175–183. Available at https://doi.org/10.2147/RMHP.S70173.
Heslehurst, N., H. Brown, A. Pemu, H. Coleman and I. Rankin
2018
Perinatal health outcomes and care among asylum seekers and refugees: A systematic review
of systematic reviews. BMC Medicine, 16:89. Available at https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916018-1064-0.
Hiam, L., S. Steele and M. McKee
2018
Creating a ‘hostile environment for migrants’: The British government’s use of healthservice data to restrict immigration is a very bad idea. Health Economics, Policy and Law,
13(2):107–117.
Ho, S., D. Javadi, S. Causevic, E.V. Langlois, P. Friberg and G. Tomson
2019Intersectoral and integrated approaches in achieving the right to health for refugees
on resettlement: A scoping review. BMJ Open, 9(7):e029407. Available at https://doi.
org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-029407.
Hui, C., J. Dunn, R. Morton, L.P. Staub, A. Tran, S. Hargreaves, C. Greenaway, B.A. Biggs, R. Christensen and
K. Pottie
2018
Interventions to improve vaccination uptake and cost effectiveness of vaccination
strategies in newly arrived migrants in the EU/EEA: A systematic review. International
Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 15(10):2065. Available at https://doi.
org/10.3390/ijerph15102065.
Ingleby, D., R. Petrova-Benedict, T. Huddleston and E. Sanchez
2018
The MIPEX Health strand: A longitudinal, mixed-methods survey of policies on migrant
health in 38 countries. European Journal of Public Health, 29(3):458–462. Available athttps://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/cky233.
International Labour Organization (ILO)2015
ILO Global Estimates on International Migrant Workers: Results and Methodology. Special
Focus on Migrant Domestic Workers. ILO, Labour Branch and Department of Statistics,
Geneva. Available at http://www.ilo.ch/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---dcomm/documents/publication/wcms_436343.pdf.

442

References

2018

ILO Global Estimates on International Migrant Workers: Results and Methodology. ILO, Labour
Branch and Department of Statistics, Geneva. Available at www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/
public/---dgreports/---dcomm/---publ/documents/publication/wcms_652001.pdf.

International Organization for Migration (IOM)
2004
Migrant Health for the Benefit of All. No. MC/INF/275. IOM, Geneva.
2008

IOM, Migration and Health: IOM’s Programmes and Perspectives: Towards a Multisectoral
Approach. Standing Committee on Programme and Finance, 2nd Session, SCPF/12. IOM,
Geneva.

2013

International Migration, Health and Human Rights. IOM, Geneva. Available at https://publications.iom.int/books/international-migration-health-and-human-rights.

2016

Recovering from the Ebola Crisis: IOM’s Strategic Framework for Action 2015–2017. Migration
Health Research Portal. IOM, Geneva.

2017a

Summary Report on the MIPEX Health Strand and Country Reports. IOM Migration Research
Series, No. 52, Geneva. Available at https://doi.org/10.18356/c58c11aa-en.

2017b

Migration Health Research to Advance Evidence Based Policy and Practice in Sri Lanka.
IOM, Geneva. Available at https://publications.iom.int/books/migration-health-researchadvance-evidence-based-policy-and-practice-sri-lanka.

2017c

Health of Migrants: Resetting the Agenda. Report of the 2nd Global Consultation. Colombo,
Sri Lanka, 21–23 February 2017. IOM, Geneva.

2018

Migration of health workers. IOM factsheet. IOM, Geneva.

International Society for Social Pediatrics and Child Health (ISSOP), Migration Working Group2018
ISSOP position statement on migrant child health. Child: Care, Health and Development,
44(1):161–170.
Iten, A.E., E.A. Jacobs, M. Lahiff and A. Fernández
2014
Undocumented immigration status and diabetes care among Mexican immigrants in two
immigration “sanctuary” areas. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, 16(2):229–238.
Jensen, T.K., E.M. Skårdalsmo and K.W. Fjermestad
2014
Development of mental health problems – A follow-up study of unaccompanied refugeeminors. Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health, 8:29. Available at https://doi.
org/10.1186/1753-2000-8-29.
Jitthai, N.
2013

Migration and malaria. The Southeast Asian Journal of Tropical Medicine and Public Health,44(Suppl 1):166–200; discussion:306–307.

Juárez, S.P., H. Honkaniemi, A.C. Dunlavy, R.W. Aldridge, M.L. Barreto, S.V. Katikireddi and M. Rostila
2019
Effects of non-health-targeted policies on migrant health: A systematic review and metaanalysis. The Lancet Global Health, 7(4):420–435. Available at https://doi.org/10.1016/
S2214-109X(18)30560-6.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

443

Khan, M.S., A. Osei-Kofi, A. Omar, H. Kirkbride, A. Kessel, A. Abbara, D. Heymann, A. Zumla and O. Dar
2016
Pathogens, prejudice, and politics: The role of the global health community in the European
refugee crisis. The Lancet Infectious Diseases, 16:e173–e177. Available at https://doi.
org/10.1016/S1473-3099(16)30134-7.
Kiss, L., N.S. Pocock, V. Naisanguansri, S. Suos, B. Dickson, D. Thuy, J. Koehler, K. Sirisup, N. Pongrungsee,
V.A. Nguyen, R. Borland, P. Dhavan and C. Zimmerman
2015
Health of men, women, and children in post-trafficking services in Cambodia, Thailand, andVietnam: An observational cross-sectional study. The Lancet Global Health, 3(3):e154–e161.
Available at https://doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(15)70016-1.
Lee, A., F. Sim and P. Mackie
2018
Migration and health – Seeing past the hype, hysteria and labels. Public Health, 158:A1–A2.
Available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2018.04.004.
Lönnroth, K., G.B. Migliori, I. Abubakar, L. D’Ambrosio, G. de Vries, R. Diel, P. Douglas, D. Falzon, M.-A.
Gaudreau, D. Goletti, E.R. González Ochoa, P. LoBue, A. Matteelli, H. Njoo, I. Solovic, A. Story, T. Tayeb, M.J.
van der Werf, D. Weil, J.-P. Zellweger, M. Abdel Aziz, M.R.M. Al Lawati, S. Aliberti, W. Arrazola de Oñate,D. Barreira, V. Bhatia, F. Blasi, A. Bloom, J. Bruchfeld, F. Castelli, R. Centis, D. Chemtob, D.M. Cirillo, A.
Colorado, A. Dadu, U.R. Dahle, L. De Paoli, H.M. Dias, R. Duarte, L. Fattorini, M. Gaga, H. Getahun, P. Glaziou,
L. Goguadze, M. del Granado, W. Haas, A. Järvinen, G.-Y. Kwon, D. Mosca, P. Nahid, N. Nishikiori, I. Noguer,
J. O’Donnell, A. Pace-Asciak, M.G. Pompa, G.G. Popescu, C. Robalo Cordeiro, K. Rønning, M. Ruhwald, J.-P.
Sculier, A. Simunovic’, A. Smith-Palmer, G. Sotgiu, G. Sulis, C.A. Torres-Duque, K. Umeki, M. Uplekar, C. vanWeezenbeek, T. Vasankari, R.J. Vitillo, C. Voniatis, M. Wanlin and M.C. Raviglione
2015
Towards tuberculosis elimination: An action framework for low-incidence countries. European
Respiratory Journal, 45:928–952. Available at https://doi.org/10.1183/09031936.00214014.
Lougarre, C.
2016

Using the right to health to promote universal health coverage. Health and Human Rights
Journal, 18(2):35–48.

Lu, Y. and A. Zhang
2016
The link between migration and health. In: Handbook of Migration and Health (F. Thomas,ed.). Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham, pp. 19–43.
Lynch, C. and C. Roper
2011
The transit phase of migration: Circulation of malaria and its multidrug-resistant forms in
Africa. PLoS Medicine, 8:e1001040.
Malhotra, R., C. Arambepola, S. Tarun, V. de Silva, J. Kishore and T. Østbye
2013
Health issues of female foreign domestic workers: A systematic review of the scientific andgray literature. International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health, 19(4):261–
277. Available at https://doi.org/10.1179/2049396713Y.0000000041.
Martinez, O., E. Wu, T. Sandfort, B. Dodge, A. Carballo-Dieguez, R. Pinto, S.D. Rhodes, E. Moya and S. ChavezBaray
2015
Evaluating the impact of immigration policies on health status among undocumented
immigrants: A systematic review. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, 17(3):947–970.
Available at https://doi.org/10.1007/s10903-013-9968-4.

444

References

Migrating out of Poverty
2017
Thinking twice: Myths about migration.
Migration Policy Institute2015
Promoting the Well-Being of Left-Behind Children of Asian Labor Migrants: Evidence for
Policy and Action. Policy Briefs. Available at www.migrationpolicy.org/research/promotinghealth-left-behind-children-asian-labour-migrants-evidence-policy-and-action.
Mladovsky, P.
2013
Murty, O.P.
2009

Migrant health in the EU. In: Disaggregated Data and Human Rights: Law, Policy and Practice.
The University of Essex Human Rights Centre Clinic, pp. 31–32.
Maid abuse. Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine, 16:290–296. Available at https://doi.
org/10.1016/j.jflm.2008.12.020.

Onarheim, K.H., A. Melberg, B.M. Meier and I. Miljeteig
2018
Towards universal health coverage: Including undocumented migrants. BMJ Global Health,3(5):e001031. Available at https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2018-001031.
Pindolia, D.K., A.J. Garcia, A. Wesolowski, D.L. Smith, C.O. Buckee, A.M. Noor, R.W. Snow and A.J. Tatem
2012
Human movement data for malaria control and elimination strategic planning. Malaria
Journal, 11:205. Available at https://doi.org/10.1186/1475-2875-11-205.
Pottie, K., C. Hui, P. Rahman, D. Ingleby, E.A. Akl, G. Russell, L. Ling, K. Wickramage, D. Mosca and C.D.
Brindis2017
Building responsive health systems to help communities affected by migration: An
international Delphi consensus. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public
Health, 14(2):144. Available at https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph14020144.
Rechel, B., P. Mladovsky and W. Devillé
2012
Monitoring migrant health in Europe: A narrative review of data collection practices. Health
Policy, 105(1):10–16.
Riccardo, F., M.G. Dente, T. Kärki, M. Fabiani, C. Napoli, A. Chiarenza, P. Giorgi Rossi, C.V. Munoz, T. Nooriand S. Declich
2015
Towards a European framework to monitor infectious diseases among migrant populations:
Design and applicability. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health,12(9):11640–11661. Available at https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph120911640.
Robjant, K., R. Hassan and C. Katona2009
Mental health implications of detaining asylum seekers: Systematic review. The British Journalof Psychiatry, 194(4):306–312. Available at https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.bp.108.053223.
Sampson, R., V. Chew, G. Mitchell and L. Bowring
2015
There Are Alternatives: A Handbook for Preventing Unnecessary Immigration Detention(Revised). International Detention Coalition, Melbourne.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

445

Senarath, U., K. Wickramage and S.L. Peiris
2014
Prevalence of depression and its associated factors among patients attending primary caresettings in the post-conflict Northern Province in Sri Lanka: A cross-sectional study. BMC
Psychiatry, 14:85. Available at https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-244X-14-85.
Siriwardhana, C., B. Roberts and M. McKee
2017
Vulnerability and resilience. Thematic Discussion Paper. 2nd Global Consultation on
Migration and Health. IOM, Geneva.
Siriwardhana, C., K. Wickramage, S. Siribaddana, P. Vidanapathirana, B. Jayasekara, S. Weerawarna, G.
Pannala, A. Adikari, K. Jayaweera, S. Pieris and A. Sumathipala
2015
Common mental disorders among adult members of ‘left-behind’ international migrant
worker families in Sri Lanka. BMC Public Health, 15:299.
Spallek, J., A. Reeske, H. Zeeb and O. Razum
2016
Models of migration and health. In: Handbook of Migration and Health (F. Thomas, ed.).
Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham, pp. 44–58.
Suphanchaimat, R., K. Kantamaturapoj, W. Putthasri and P. Prakongsai
2015
Challenges in the provision of healthcare services for migrants: A systematic review throughproviders’ lens. BMC Health Services Research, 15:390. Available at https://doi.org/10.1186/
s12913-015-1065-z.
Sweileh, W.M.
2018

Global research output in the health of international Arab migrants (1988–2017). BMC
Public Health, 18:755. Available at https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-018-5690-4.

Sweileh, W.M., K. Wickramage, K. Pottie, C. Hui, B. Roberts, A.F. Sawalha and S.H. Zyoud
2018
Bibliometric analysis of global migration health research in peer-reviewed literature(2000–2016). BMC Public Health, 18:777. Available at https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-0185689-x.
Thapa, D.K., D. Visentin, R. Kornhaber and M. Cleary
2018
Migration of adult children and mental health of older parents ‘left behind’: An integrative
review. PLoS One, 13(10):e0205665.
Thomas, F. (Ed.)
2016
Handbook of Migration and Health. Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham.
Trummer, U., S. Novak-Zezula, A. Renner and I. Wilczewska
2016
Cost analysis of health care provision for irregular migrants and EU citizens without
insurance. Thematic study developed and implemented by Centre for Health and Migration,
Vienna, under the overall guidance of IOM Migration Health Division at the Regional Office
Brussels within the framework of the IOM/EC EQUI-HEALTH project “Fostering healthprovision for migrants, the Roma, and other vulnerable groups”.
Tulloch, O., F. Machingura and C. Melamed
2016
Health, migration and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Overseas Development
Institute, London.

446

UHC20302017
United Nations
2015

References

Global Compact for progress towards universal health coverage. UHC2030. Available at www.
uhc2030.org/our-mission/global-compact/.
Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. A/RES/70/1.

Vearey, J., M. Orcutt, L.O. Gostin, C. Adeola Braham and P. Duigan
2019
Building alliances for the global governance of migration and health. British Medical Journal,
366:l4143. Available at https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l4143.
White, L.C., M. Cooper and D. Lawrence
2019
Mental illness and resilience among sexual and gender minority refugees and asylum seekers.
British Journal of General Practice, 69(678):10–11. Available at https://doi.org/10.3399/
bjgp19X700349.
Wickramage, K., R.G. Premaratne, S.L. Peiris and D. Mosca
2013
High attack rate for malaria through irregular migration routes to a country on verge ofelimination. Malaria Journal, 12:276. Available at https://doi.org/10.1186/1475-2875-12276.
Wickramage, K., M. De Silva and S. Peiris
2017
Patterns of abuse amongst Sri Lankan women returning home after working as domestic
maids in the Middle East: An exploratory study of medico-legal referrals. Journal of Forensic
and Legal Medicine, 45:1–6. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jflm.2016.11.001.
Wickramage, K. and G. Annunziata
2018
Advancing health in migration governance, and migration in health governance. The Lancet,
392, 2528–2530. Available at https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(18)32855-1.
Wickramage, K., L.O. Gostin, E. Friedman, P. Prakongsai, R. Suphanchaimat, C. Hui, P. Duigan, E. Barragan
and D.R. Harper
2018a Missing: Where are the migrants in pandemic influenza preparedness plans? Health andHuman Rights Journal, 20(1):251–258.
Wickramage, K., J. Vearey, A.B. Zwi, C. Robinson and M. Knipper
2018b Migration and health: A global public health research priority. BMC Public Health, 18:987.
Wild, V. and A. Dawson
2018
Migration: A core public health ethics issue. Public Health, Special issue on Migration: A global
public health issue, 158:66–70. Available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2018.02.023.
Winters, M., B. Rechel, L. de Jong and M. Pavlova
2018
A systematic review on the use of healthcare services by undocumented migrants in Europe.
BMC Health Services Research, 18:30. Available at https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-0182838-y.
Wolffers, I., S. Verghis and M. Marin
2003
Migration, human rights, and health. The Lancet, 362(9400):2019–2020.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

447

World Bank Group2015
The Economic Impact of Ebola on Sub-Saharan Africa: Updated Estimates for 2015. World
Bank, New York.
World Health Assembly
2008
World Health Assembly resolution 61.17: Health of migrants.
2017

World Health Assembly resolution 70.15: Promoting the health of refugees and migrants.

World Health Organization (WHO)1946
Preamble to the Constitution of the World Health Organization as adopted by theInternational Health Conference, New York, 19–22 June, 1946; signed on 22 July 1946 by
the representatives of 61 States (Official Records of the World Health Organization, No.
2:100) and entered into force on 7 April 1948.
2007

The World Health Report 2007 – A Safer Future: Global Public Health Security in the 21stCentury. World Health Organization, Geneva.

2010a

The WHO Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel. WHO,
Geneva. Available at www.who.int/hrh/migration/code/code_en.pdf?ua=1.

2010b

Health of Migrants – The Way Forward: Report of a Global Consultation. Madrid, 3–5 March.
WHO, Geneva.

2014

Health in All Policies (HiAP) Framework for Country Action. WHO, Geneva.

2015

Global Technical Strategy for Malaria, 2016–2030. WHO Global Malaria Programme, Geneva.

2017

Promoting the Health of Refugees and Migrants. Draft framework of priorities and guiding
principles to promote the health of refugees and migrants. Report by the Secretariat.
Seventieth World Health Assembly. Provisional agenda item 13.7. (No. A70/24). WHO,
Geneva.

2019

Promoting the Health of Refugees and Migrants. Draft global action plan, 2019–2023. WHO,
Geneva.

448

References

Chapter 8
Aras, B. and S. Yasun
2016
The Educational Opportunities and Challenges of Syrian Refugee Students in Turkey:
Temporary Education Centers and Beyond. IPC-Mercator Policy Brief, July.
Asylum Information Database (Aida)
2018
Country Report: Turkey. European Council on Refugees and Exiles, n.p.
Autorità garante per l’infanzia e l’adolescenza (AGIA)
2017
Minori stranieri non accompagnati: bando per diventare tutore volontario. AGIA, n.p.
Available at www.garanteinfanzia.org/news/minori-stranieri-non-accompagnati-bandodiventare-tutore-volontario.
Bernard van Leer Foundation
2013Children of seasonal migrant workers. Early Childhood Matters, November. Available athttps://bernardvanleer.org/publications-reports/children-of-seasonal-migrant-workers/.
Bhabha, J.
2011

2014

From citizen to migrant: The scope of child statelessness in the twenty-first century. In:
Children without a State: A Global Human Rights Challenge (J. Bhabha, ed.). MIT Press,
Cambridge, pp. 1–39.
Targeting the right issue: Trafficked children and the human rights imperative. In: Child
Migration and Human Rights in a Global Age, Princeton University Press, Princeton, pp.
137–174.

Bhabha, J. and M. Dottridge
2017
Child Rights in the Global Compacts: Recommendations for protecting, promoting andimplementing the human rights of children on the move in the proposed Global Compacts.
Available at https://refugeesmigrants.un.org/sites/default/files/stocktaking_initiative_
on_child_rights_in_the_global_compacts.pdf.
Bhabha, J., J. Kanics and D.H. Senovilla (eds.)
2018
Research Handbook on Child Migration. Edward Elgar, Cheltenham.
Bicocchi, L.
2011

Blitz, B.K.
2011

Undocumented children in Europe: Ignored victims of immigration restrictions: A European
overview of Belgium, France, Hungary, Italy, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and theUK. In: Children Without a State: A Global Human Rights Challenge (J. Bhabha, ed.). MIT
Press, Cambridge, MA, pp. 109–130.
Neither seen nor heard: Compound deprivation among stateless children. In: Children
Without a State: A Global Human Rights Challenge (Bhabha, J., ed.). MIT Press, Cambridge,
pp. 43–66.

Bomquist, R. and R. Cincotta
2016
Myanmar’s democratic deficit: Demography and the Rohingya dilemma. Stimson Spotlight,
Washington, D.C.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

Campoy, A.
2016

449

Mexico has its own version of Donald Trumps’s border wall and it’s just as controversial.
Quartz, 13 September. Available at https://qz.com/778314/mexico-wants-to-stop-centralamerican-immigrants-from-boarding-la-bestia-train/.

Çelik, C. and A. Ìçduygu
2018Schools and refugee children: The case of Syrians in Turkey. International Migration,
57(2):253–267.
Chase, E.
2017

Health and wellbeing. Becoming Adult Research Brief No. 5, London. Available at https://
becomingadultproject.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/ba-brief-5-low-res.pdf.

Chase, E. and N. Sigona
2017
Forced returns and protracted displacement. Becoming Adult Research Brief No. 7, London.
Available at https://becomingadultproject.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/ba-brief-7-lowres.pdf.
Crea, T.M.
2018

Unaccompanied immigrant children are highly vulnerable. Public Health Post, n.p.

Digidiki, V. and J. Bhabha
2017
Emergency within an Emergency: The Growing Epidemic of Sexual Exploitation and Abuseof Migrant Children in Greece. Harvard FXB Center for Health and Human Rights. Available
athttps://fxb.harvard.edu/2017/04/17/new-report-emergency-within-an-emergencyexploitation-of-migrant-children-in-greece/.
Dononi, A., A. Monsutti and G. Scalettaris
2016
Afghans on the Move: Seeking Protection and Refuge in Europe. The Graduate InstituteGeneva, Global Migration Centre, Geneva.
Dottridge, M. and O. Feneyrol
2007
Action to strengthen indigenous child protection mechanisms in West Africa to prevent
migrant children from being subjected to abuse. Available at http://lastradainternational.
org/lsidocs/443%20dottridge_oct07.pdf.
Dryden–Peterson, S., N. Dayya and E. Adelman
2017
Pathways to educational success among refugees: connecting locally and globally situatedresources. American Educational Research Journal, 54(6):1011–1047.
Ensor, M.O. and E.M. Goz’dziak (eds.)
2016Children and Forced Migration: Durable Solutions during Transient Years. Palgrave Macmillan,n.p.
European Commission
2017a EMN Ad-Hoc Query on Forced Returns to Afghanistan. European Migration Network,
n.p.
Availableathttps://emnbelgium.be/sites/default/files/publications/EMNAHQ_2017.1230_-_Forced_returns_to_Afghanistan_COMPILATION_2017-11-08.pdf.

450References

2017b

Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council. COM(2017)
211 final, European Commission, Brussels.

2018

Compilation of Data, Situation, and Media Reports on Children in Migration. European
Commission, n.p. Available at www.ec.europa.eu/newsroom/document.cfm?doc_id=40299.

European Court of Human Rights
n.d.
Court decisions referred to in this chapter can be found at the Court’s online document
repository at www.echr.coe.int/.
Europol
2018

Criminal Networks Involved in the Trafficking and Exploitation of Underage Victims in theEuropean Union. Doc Ref. No. 1001370, Europol, The Hague.

Geissler O. and A. Laganju
2018
The challenge of strengthening the regional child protection system for children on themove in West Africa. In: Research Handbook on Child Migration (J. Bhabha, J. Kanics andD.H. Senovilla, eds.). Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, pp. 319–333.
Government of Colombia
2018
Informe final: Registro administrativo de migrantes venezolanos en Colombia. Government ofColombia, Bogotá. Available at www.refworld.org.es/pdfid/5b2957524.pdf.
Harvard FXB Center for Health and Human Rights and International Organization for Migration (IOM)2019
Returning Home: The Reintegration Challenges Facing Child and Youth Returnees from Libya
to Nigeria.
Harvard FXB Center for Health and Human Rights and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees(UNHCR)2017
Protecting Youth in Ecuador: An Assessment of Health and Wellbeing. Harvard FXB Centerfor Health and Human Rights, Boston, MA.
Human Rights Watch
2018a Syria: Armed Group Recruiting Children in Camps. Human Rights Watch, n.p. Available atwww.hrw.org/news/2018/08/03/syria-armed-group-recruiting-children-camps.
2018b
Humphreys, M.
1994“Like a Lottery”: Arbitrary Treatment of Unaccompanied Migrant Children in Paris. Human
Rights Watch, n.p.
Empty Cradles. Transworld Publishers, n.p.

Inter-Agency Network of Education in Emergencies (INEE)
2018
Abstract Summary: A Framework for Collaboration between Child Protection and Education in
Humanitarian Contexts. INEE, Nairobi.
Inter-Agency Working Group to End Child Immigrant Detention
n.d.
Ending Child Immigration Detention. Available at https://endchilddetention.org/wpcontent/uploads/2016/09/IAWG_Advocacy-Brochure_Aug-2016_FINAL-web.pdf.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

451

Inter-American Court of Human Rights
2014
Advisory Opinion OC-21/14, Rights and Guarantees of Children in the Context of Migrant and/or in Need of International Protection. OC-21/14, Inter-American Court of Human Rights, 19
August. Available at www.corteidh.or.cr/docs/opiniones/seriea_21_eng.pdf.
International Detention Coalition
2018
Keeping Children Safe. October, No. 3, International Detention Coalition, n.p. Available
athttps://idcoalition.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Keeping-Children-Safe-IDCBriefing-Paper-Oct-2018.pdf.
International Organization for Migration (IOM)
2016
Global Migration Data Analysis Centre: Data Briefing Series. Issue No. 5, September. IOM,
Geneva. Available at https://publications.iom.int/books/global-migration-data-analysiscentre-data-briefing-series-issue-no-5-september-2016.
2017aWorld Migration Report 2018 (M. McAuliffe and M. Ruhs, eds.). IOM, Geneva. Available atwww.iom.int/wmr/world-migration-report-2018.

2017b

Special Measures for the Evacuation of Migrant Children: A Reference Checklist. IOM, Geneva.
Available at www.iom.int/sites/default/files/Children_Checklist_170412_FINAL.pdf.

2019Fatal Journeys, Volume 4. IOM, Global migration Data Analysis Centre, Geneva. Available athttps://publications.iom.int/system/files/pdf/fatal_journeys_4.pdf.

Kanics, J.
2018

Realizing the rights of undocumented children in Europe, specifically Ireland. In: Children
Without a State: A Global Human Rights Challenge (J. Bhabha, ed.). MIT Press, Cambridge,
MA, pp. 131–150.

Kara, S.
2009
Khadria, B.
1995

1996
Kohli, R.K.S.
2018

Kopan, T.
2018

Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery. Columbia University Press, New York.
Economic Strategies for Banishing Child Labour – Compulsory Primary Education, Specificvs. General Egalitarianism, and Innovation in Financial Instrument for Mobilization ofParticipation. IED Discussion Paper Series, No. 68, Institute for Economic Development,
Boston University, Boston.
Child-labour: Reform through a fiscal instrument. Economic and Political Weekly, 31(30), 27
July.
Protection: Migrant children in institutional protection. In: Research Handbook on Child
Migration (J. Bhabha, J. Kanics and D.H. Senovilla, eds.). Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, pp.
381–396.
More than 14,000 immigrant children are in U.S. custody, an all-time high. San Francisco
Chronicle, 16 November. Available at www.sfchronicle.com/nation/article/More-than-14000-immigrant-children-are-in-U-S-13399510.php.

452

References

Ní Raghallaigh, M.
2018
The integration of asylum seeking and refugee children: Resilience in the face of adversity.
In: Research Handbook on Child Migration (J. Bhabha, J. Kanics and D.H. Senovilla, eds.).
Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, pp. 351–368.
O’Donnell, R.
2018

The role of the European Union in the protection of migrant children. In: Research
Handbook on Child Migration (J. Bhabha, J. Kanics and D.H. Senovilla, eds.). Edward Elgar,
Cheltenham, p. 132.

Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
2016
Recommended Principles to Guide Actions concerning Children on the Move and Other Children
Affected by Migration. OHCHR, n.p.
Peyroux, O.
2018

Migrant children (including Roma children) from the Balkans and East Europe. In: Research
Handbook on Child Migration (J. Bhabha, J. Kanics and D.H. Senovilla, eds.). Edward Elgar,
Cheltenham, pp. 98–112.

Ressler, E., N. Boothby and D. Steinbock
1998
Unaccompanied Children: Care and Protection in Wars, Natural Disasters and Refugee
Movements. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Rozzi, E.
2018
Ruhani, R.A.
2017

Unaccompanied minors in Italy: Children or aliens? In: Research Handbook on Child Migration(J. Bhabha, J. Kanics and D.H. Senovilla, eds.). Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, pp. 241–259.
100,000 children of school-going age in the Rohingya camps. Dhaka Tribune, Dhaka.

Save the Children
2017
Invisible Wounds: The Impact of Six years of War on the Mental Health of Syria’s Children.
Save the Children, n.p.
Save the Children, Plan International and World Vision International
2018
Childhood Interrupted: Children’s Voices from the Rohingya Refugee Crisis. Save the Children,n.p.
Sigona, N., E. Chase and R. Humphris
2017a Protecting the “best interests” of the child in transition to adulthood. Becoming Adult
Research Brief No. 3, London. Available at https://becomingadultproject.files.wordpress.
com/2017/12/ba-brief-3-low-res.pdf.
2017bUnderstanding causes and consequences of going “missing”. Becoming Adult Research Brief
No. 6, London. Available at https://becomingadultproject.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/
ba-brief-6-low-res.pdf.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

Singleton, A.
2018

453

Data: Creating the empirical base for development of child migration policy and protection.
In: Research Handbook on Child Migration (J. Bhabha, J. Kanics and D.H. Senovilla, eds.).
Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, pp. 334–350.

Sirin, S.R. and L. Rogers-Sirin
2015
The Educational and Mental Health Needs of Syrian Refugee Children. Migration Policy
Institute, n.p.
Smyth, C.
2018

The jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights relevant to child migrants. In:
Research Handbook on Child Migration (J. Bhabha, J. Kanics and D.H. Senovilla, eds.).
Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, pp. 140–156.

Strategic Executive Group2018
Joint Response Plan for Rohingya Humanitarian Crisis: Mid-Term Review. Strategic Executive
Group, n.p.
Suárez-Orozco C. and M. Suárez-Orozco
2018
Education: The experience of Latino immigrant adolescents in the United States. In: Research
Handbook on Child Migration (J. Bhabha, J. Kanics and D.H. Senovilla, eds.). Edward Elgar,
Cheltenham, pp. 397–415.
Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN)
2019
Indicators and a Monitoring Framework. SDSN, n.p. Available at http://indicators.report/targets/10-7/.
Swedish Migration Agency
2017
Asylum regulations. Available at www.migrationsverket.se/English/Private-individuals/
Protection-and-asylum-in-Sweden/Applying-for-asylum/Asylum-regulations.html.
2019

Terrio, S.J.
2018

The Local
2017
Theirworld2017

Tillfälliga lagen förlängs efter beslut i riksdagen. Available at www.migrationsverket.se/
Om-Migrationsverket/Pressrum/Nyhetsarkiv/Nyhetsarkiv-2019/2019-06-18-Tillfalligalagen-forlangs-efter-beslut-i-riksdagen.html.
Undocumented Central American children in the United States. In: Research Handbook onChild Migration (J. Bhabha, J. Kanics and D.H. Senovilla, eds.). Edward Elgar, Cheltenham,
pp. 427–446.
Massive show of support for refugee youths protesting Sweden’s Afghanistan deportations.
The Local, Stockholm.
700,000 Jordanian and Syrian refugee children to benefit from education funding boost.
Theirworld. Available at https://theirworld.org/news/jordan-syrian-refugee-childrenearly-education-funding-boost-world-bank.

454

References

2019

Thronson, V.T.
2018

Timera, M.
2018

United Nations
1989

EU gives 100m euros to educate Syrian refugee children in Lebanon. 3 July. Available athttps://theirworld.org/news/eu-gives-100m-euros-to-educate-syrian-refugee-children-inlebanon.
The impact of Special Immigrant Juvenile Status on access to protection of unaccompanied
child migrants in the United States. In: Research Handbook on Child Migration (J. Bhabha,
J. Kanics and D.H. Senovilla, eds.). Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, pp. 229–240.
Child mobility from and within West African countries. In: Research Handbook on Child
Migration (J. Bhabha, J. Kanics and D.H. Senovilla, eds.). Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, pp.
66–81.
Convention on the Rights of the Child. UNTS 1577 3, 20 November (entry into force: 2
September 1990).

United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)
2011
Quelle protection pour les enfants concernés par la mobilité en Afrique de l’Ouest ? Nos
positions et recommandations. UNICEF. Available at www.unicef.org/wcaro/french/Rapport_
FR-web.pdf.
2013Children and Migration: Rights, Advocacy and Resilience. Available at www.unicef-irc.org/
research/children-and-migration-rights-and-resilience/.

2016a

Broken Dreams. Central American Children’s Dangerous Journey to the United States. UNICEF –Child Alert. Available at www.unicef.org/infobycountry/files/UNICEF_Child_Alert_Central_
America_2016_report_final(1).pdf.

2016b

Uprooted: The Growing Crisis for Refugee and Migrant Children. UNICEF, New York. Available
at https://www.unicef.org/publications/files/Uprooted_growing_crisis_for_refugee_and_migrant_children.pdf.

2017a

A Child is a Child: Protecting Children on the Move from Violence, Abuse and Exploitation.
UNICEF, New York. Available at www.unicef.org/publications/files/UNICEF_A_child_is_a_child_May_2017_EN.pdf.

2017b

UNICEF Annual Report Libya. UNICEF: New York. Available at www.unicef.org/about/annualreport/files/Libya_2017_COAR.pdf.

2018a2018 EO: Evaluation of UNICEF’s Response to the Rohingya Refugee Crisis in Bangladesh.
Evaluation Report. UNICEF, Evaluation Office, New York. Available at www.unicef.org/
evaldatabase/index_103442.html.

2018bChild Displacement. Available at https://data.unicef.org/topic/child-migration-anddisplacement/displacement/ (accessed 18 July 2019).

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

455

UNICEF, IOM, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Eurostat and the Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development
2018“A Call to Action: Protecting Children on the Move Starts with Better Data” (UN: New York).
United Nations Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their
Families
2017
Joint General Comment No. 3 (2017) of the Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All
Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families and No. 22 (2017) of the Committee on the
Rights of the Child on the General Principles Regarding the Human Rights of Children in theContext of International Migration. CMW/C/GC/3-CRC/C/GC/22, United Nations, n.p.
United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child2005
General Comment No. 6 (2005): Treatment of Unaccompanied and Separated Children Outside
their Country of Origin. CRC/GC/2005/6, United Nations, n.p.
2012

Report of the 2012 Day of General Discussion: The Rights of All Children in the Context ofInternational Migration. United Nations.

United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA)
2019a International Migrant Stock 2019. UN DESA, Population Division, New York. Available atwww.un.org/en/development/desa/population/migration/data/estimates2/estimates19.
asp (accessed 18 September 2019).
2019b

International Migration Stock 2019. Documentation. POP/DB/MIG/Stoc/Rev.2019, UN DESA,
Population Division, New York. Available at www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/
migration/data/estimates2/docs/MigrationStockDocumentation_2019.pdf.

United Nations General Assembly (UNGA)2016
New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants. Resolution adopted by the General Assemblyon 19 September 2016. A/RES/71/1.
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
1997
Guidelines on Policies and Procedures in Dealing with Unaccompanied Children Seeking
Asylum. UNHCR, n.p.
2015

Profiling Study of Unaccompanied or Separated Afghan Children Arriving in Sweden in2015. UNHCR, n.p.

2018Children on the Run: Unaccompanied Children Leaving Central America and Mexico and theNeed for International Protection. UNHCR, Washington, D.C.

2019aRefugee Response in Bangladesh. UNHCR, n.p.

2019b

Population Factsheet, UNHCR, Bangladesh, Cox’s Bazar – as of 28 February 2019. UNCHR,
n.p. Available at https://data2.unhcr.org/en/documents/details/68229.

456

References

United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)
2018
In Turkey, refugee child marriages drive adolescent pregnancies underground. UNFPA,
News, 26 July. Available at www.unfpa.org/news/turkey-refugee-child-marriages-driveadolescent-pregnancies-underground.
United States Appeals Court
1985
Polovchak v. Meese, 774 F.2d 731 (Seventh Circuit).
2000

Gonzalez Ex Rel. Gonzalez v. Reno, 86 F. Supp. 2d 1167.

Uyan-Semerci. P. and E. Erdoğan
2018
Who cannot access education? Difficulties of being a student for children from Syria in
Turkey. Vulnerable Children and Youth Studies, 13(1):30–45.
Vacchiano, F.
2018

Desiring mobility: Child migration, parental distress and constraints on the future in North
Africa. In: Research Handbook on Child Migration (J. Bhabha, J. Kanics and D.H. Senovilla,eds.). Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, pp. 82–97.

Watters, C. and I. Delyn2018
Wellbeing: Refugee children’s psychosocial wellbeing and mental health. In: Research
Handbook on Child Migration (J. Bhabha, J., Kanics and D.H. Senovilla, eds.). Edward Elgar,
Cheltenham, pp.369–380.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

457

Chapter 9
Achandi E.L., G. Mujawamariya, A.R. Agboh-Noameshie, S. Gebremariam, N. Rahalivavololona and J. Rodenburg
2018
Women’s access to agricultural technologies in rice production and processing hubs:
A comparative analysis of Ethiopia, Madagascar and Tanzania. Journal of Rural Studies,
60:188–198.
Adamo, S.B.
2008

Adams, H.
2016

Addressing environmentally induced population displacements: A delicate task. Background
Paper for the Population-Environment Research Network Cyberseminar on “Environmentally
Induced Population Displacements”. Available at www.populationenvironmentresearch.org/
pern_files/papers/sadamo_pern2008.pdf.
Why populations persist: mobility, place attachment and climate change. Population andEnvironment, 37(4):429–448.

Adger, W.N., N.W. Arnell, R. Black, S. Dercon, A. Geddes and D.S. Thomas
2015
Focus on environmental risks and migration: Causes and consequences.
Environmental Research Letters, 10(6). Available at https://iopscience.iop.org/
article/10.1088/1748-9326/10/6/060201/pdf.
Adger, W.N., J. Barnett, K. Brown, N. Marshall and K. O’Brien
2013
Cultural dimensions of climate change impacts and adaptation. Nature Climate Change,
3(2):112–117.
Adger, W.N., R.S. de Campos and C. Mortreux
2018
Mobility, displacement and migration, and their interactions with vulnerability andadaptation to environmental risks. In: Routledge Handbook of Environmental Displacement
and Migration. (R. McLeman and F. Gemenne, eds.). Routledge, London, pp. 29–41.
Arnall, A.
2019

Resettlement as climate change adaptation: What can be learned from state-led relocationin rural Africa and Asia? Climate and Development, 11(3):253–263.

Aryal, S., T.N. Maraseni and G. Cockfield2014
Sustainability of transhumance grazing systems under socio-economic threats in Langtang,
Nepal. Journal of Mountain Science, 11(4):1023–1034.
Ash, J. and J. Campbell
2016
Climate change and migration: The case of the Pacific Islands and Australia. Journal ofPacific Studies, 36(1):53–72.
Asian Development Bank (ADB)2012
Addressing Climate Change and Migration in Asia and the Pacific. Final Report, ADB, Manila.
Ayeb-Karlsson, S., C.D. Smith and D. Kniveton
2018
A discursive review of the textual use of “trapped” in environmental migration studies: Theconceptual birth and troubled teenage years of trapped populations. Ambio, 47(5):557–573.

458

References

Ayeb-Karlsson, S., K. van der Geest, I. Ahmed, S. Huq and K. Warner2016
A people-centred perspective on climate change, environmental stress, and livelihood
resilience in Bangladesh. Sustainability Science, 11(4):679–694.
Babagaliyeva, Z., A. Kayumov, N. Mahmadullozoda and N. Mustaeva
2017
Migration, remittances and climate resilience in Tajikistan. Working Paper Part I. PRISE.
Kazkhstan: The Regional Environmental Centre for Central Asia.
Baldwin, A.
2013
2017
Banerjee, S.
2017

Racialisation and the figure of the climate change migrant. Environment and Planning A:
International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 45(6): 1474–1490.
Resilience and race, or climate change and the uninsurable migrant: Towards an anthroporacial
reading of “race”. Resilience, 5(2):129–143.
Understanding the effects of labour migration on vulnerability to extreme events in Hindu
Kush Himalayas: Case studies from Upper Assam and Baoshan County. Unpublished doctoral
thesis, University of Sussex, United Kingdom.

Banerjee, S., R. Black, A. Mishra and D. Kniveton
2018
Assessing vulnerability of remittance-recipient and non-recipient households in ruralcommunities affected by extreme weather events: Case studies from south-west China andnorth-east India. Population, Space and Place, 25(2).
Banerjee, S., S. Hussain, S. Tuladhar and A. Mishra
Building capacities of women for climate change adaptation: Insights from migrant-sending
households in Nepal. Climatic Change (under review).
Banjade, M. R. and N.S. Paudel
2008
Mobile pastoralism in crisis: Challenges, conflicts and status of pasture tenure in Nepal
mountains. Journal of Forest and Livelihood, 7(1):49–57.
Barnett, J. and C. McMichael
2018
The effects of climate change on the geography and timing of human mobility. Populationand Environment, 39(4):339–356.
Barnett, J. R. and M. Webber
2009
Accommodating migration to promote adaptation to climate change. The Commission on
Climate Change and Development. Policy Research Working Paper 5270. The World Bank,
Washington D.C.
Baro, M. and T.F. Deubel
2006
Persistent hunger: Perspectives on vulnerability, famine, and food security in sub-SaharanAfrica. Annual Review of Anthropology, 35:521–538.
Bettini, G.
2013

Climate barbarians at the gate? A critique of apocalyptic narratives on “climate refugees”.
Geoforum, 45: 63-72.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

2014

459

Climate migration as an adaption strategy: Desecuritizing climate-induced migration or
making the unruly governable? Critical Studies on Security, 2:180–195.

Black, R. and M. Collyer
2014
Populations “trapped” at times of crisis. Forced Migration Review.
Black, R., N. Adger, N. Arnell, S. Dercon, A. Geddes and D. Thomas
2011
Migration and global environmental change: Future challenges and opportunities. Final
project report, The Government Office for Science, London. Available at https://assets.
publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/
file/287717/11-1116-migration-and-global-environmental-change.pdf.
Brandt, R., R. Kaenzig and S. Lachmuth
2016
Migration as a risk management strategy in the context of climate change: Evidence fromthe Bolivian Andes. In: Migration, Risk Management and Climate Change: Evidence and Policy
Responses (A. Milan, B. Schraven, K. Warner and N. Cascone, eds.). Springer, London, pp.
213–229.
Brookings Institution and United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
2015
Guidance on Protecting People from Disasters and Environmental Change through Planned
Relocation. Georgetown University, Brookings Institution, and UNHCR. Available atwww.unhcr.org/uk/protection/environment/562f798d9/planned-relocation-guidanceoctober-2015.html.
Carson D., D. Bird, L. Bell and P. Yuhun
2014
Migration as adaptation to climate change for remote indigenous communities: What might
we expect? The Northern Institute, Charles Darwin University, Isse No. 201406. Available atwww.cdu.edu.au/sites/default/files/research-brief-2014-6.pdf.
Castles, S.
2010

Understanding global migration: A social transformation perspective. Journal of Ethnic andMigration Studies, 36(10):1565–1586.

Conferencia Suramericana sobre Migraciones (CSM), International Organization for Migration (IOM) and
Platform on Disaster Displacement (PDD)2018
Lineamientos regionales en materia de protección y asistencia a personas desplazadas a
través de fronteras y migrantes en países afectados por desastres de origen natural. CSM,
IOM and PDD. Available at https://reliefweb.int/report/world/lineamientos-regionales-enmateria-de-protecci-n-y-asistencia-personas-desplazadas-trav.
de Haas, H.
2012
Diagne, K.
2007

The migration and development pendulum: A critical view on research and policy.
International Migration, 50(3):8–25.
Governance and natural disasters: Addressing flooding in Saint Louis, Senegal. Environment
and Urbanization, 19:552–562.

460

References

Donato, K.M. and D.S. Massey
2016
Twenty-first-century globalization and illegal migration. The Annals of the American
Academy of Political and Social Science, 666(1):7–26.
El-Hinnawi, E.
1985

Environmental refugees. United Nations Environment Programme, Nairobi.

Evertsen, K. and K. Van der Geest
2019
Gender, environment and migration in Bangladesh. Climate and Development. Available
at http://collections.unu.edu/eserv/UNU:7337/Gender_environment_and_migration_in_
Bangladesh_META.pdf.
Felli, R. and N. Castree
2012
Neoliberalising adaptation to environmental change: Foresight or foreclosure? Environment
and Planning A: International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 44(1):1–4.
Garschagen, M. and S. Sandholz
2018
The role of minimum supply and social vulnerability assessment for governing criticalinfrastructure failure: Current gaps and future agenda. Natural Hazards and Earth System
Sciences, 18(4):1233–1246.
Gemenne, F.
2011

Why the numbers don’t add up: A review of estimates and predictions of people displacedby environmental changes. Global Environmental Change, 21:S41–S49.

General Economic Division (GED)2015
7th Five Year Plan FY 2016-FY 2020: Accelerating Growth, Empowering Citizens. Planning
Commission, Government of Bangladesh, Dhaka.
Gentle, P. and R. Thwaites
2016
Transhumant pastoralism in the context of socioeconomic and climate change in themountains of Nepal. Mountain Research and Development, 36(2):173–182.
Goldsmith, M.
2015

The big smallness of Tuvalu. Global Environment, 8(1):134–151.

Government of Fiji
2018
Republic of Fiji’s Planned Relocation Guidelines: A Framework to Undertake Climate Change
Related Relocation. Republic of Fiji, Ministry of Economy.
Government of Kenya
2016
Kenya National Adaptation Plan 2015–2030. Enhanced Climate Resilience Towards the
Attainment of Vision 2030 and Beyond. Government of Kenya.
Grothmann, T. and A. Patt
2005
Adaptive capacity and human cognition: the process of individual adaptation to climatechange. Global Environmental Change, 15(3):199–213.
Hall, S.M.
2015

Migrant urbanisms: Ordinary cities and everyday resistance. Sociology, 49(5):853–869.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

461

Hill, A., C. Minbaeva, A. Wilson and R. Satylkanov
2017
Hydrologic controls and water vulnerabilities in the Naryn River Basin, Kyrgyzstan: A sociohydro case study of water stressors in Central Asia. Water, 9(5):325.
Hugo, G.
1996

Environmental Concerns and International Migration. International Migration Review,30(1):105–131.

2011

Future demographic change and its interactions with migration and climate change. Global
Environmental Change, 21:S21–S33.

Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), World
Food Programme (WFP), International Organization for Migration (IOM) and Organization of American States
(OAS)
2017
Food Security and Emigration: Why People Flee and the Impact on Family Members Left
Behind in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. IADB, IFAD, WFP, IOM and OAS.
Availableathttps://docs.wfp.org/api/documents/WFP-0000022124/download/?_ga=2.95495900.118707534.1565861292-1209066283.1565861292.
Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC)
2016
Global Report on Internal Displacement 2016. IDMC, Geneva.
2019

Global Report on Internal Displacement 2019. IDMC, Geneva.

Ingty, T. and K.S. Bawa
2012
Climate change and indigenous peoples. In: Climate Change in Sikkim Patterns – Impacts
and Initiatives (M.L. Arrawatia and S. Tambe, eds.). Information and Public Relations
Department, Government of Sikkim, Gangtok.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
2014
Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability. Part A: Global and
Sectoral Aspects. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fifth Assessment Report of theIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge and New
York.
International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD)
2018
Building climate-resilient, migrant-friendly cities and towns. ICCCAD Policy Brief. Availableat www.icccad.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Policy-Brief-on-Climate-Migration-andCities.pdf.
International Organization for Migration (IOM)2007
Migration and the Environment. Discussion Note: MC/INF/288, prepared for the Ninetyfourth Session of the IOM Council, Geneva, 27–30 November.
2014

West Africa: Promoting sustainable land management in migration prone areas throughinnovative financing mechanisms. Project Brochure. Available at https://italy.iom.int/
sites/default/files/news-documents/Brochure_%20English.pdf.

2016

The Climate Change-Human Trafficking Nexus. IOM, Geneva. Available at https://publications.
iom.int/system/files/pdf/mecc_infosheet_climate_change_nexus.pdf.

462

References

2017

Making Mobility Work for Adaptation to Environmental Changes: Results from the MECLEP
Global Research. IOM, Geneva. Available at https://publications.iom.int/system/files/pdf/
meclep_comparative_report.pdf.

2018Mapping Human Mobility and Climate Change in Relevant National Policies and Institutional
Frameworks. The Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage Associated with
Climate Change Impacts. Task Force on Displacement, Activity l.1. Available at https://
unfccc.int/sites/default/files/resource/20180917%20WIM%20TFD%20I.1%20Output%20
final.pdf.

IOM and United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD)
2019
Addressing the Land Degradation–Migration Nexus: The Role of the United Nations to Combat
Desertification. IOM, Geneva. Available at https://environmentalmigration.iom.int/sites/
default/files/IOM%20UNCCD%20Desertification%202019%20FINAL.pdf.
IOM and World Food Programme (WFP)
2016
Hunger without Borders: The Hidden Links between Food Insecurity, Violence and Migration in
the Northern Triangle of Central America. IOM, WFP, London School of Economics and Political
Science and Organization of American States. Available at https://environmentalmigration.
iom.int/hunger-without-borders-hidden-links-between-food-insecurity-violence-andmigration-northern-triangle.
Ionesco, D., D. Mokhnacheva and F. Gemenne
2017
The Atlas of Environmental Migration. Routledge, Abingdon.
Ionesco, D. and M. Traore Chazalnoel
2018
10 Key Takeaways from the GCM on Environmental Migration. Environmental Migration Portal,
IOM, Geneva. Available at https://environmentalmigration.iom.int/10-key-takeaways-gcmenvironmental-migration.
Jones L. and E. Boyd
2011
Exploring social barriers to adaptation: Insights from Western Nepal. Global Environmental
Change, 21:1262–1274.
Joshi, S., W.A. Jasta, M. Ismail, R.M. Shrestha, S.L. Yi and N. Wu
2013
Herders’ perceptions of and responses to climate change in Northern Pakistan. Environmental
Management, 52(3):639–648.
Kelman, I., R. Stojanov, S. Khan, O.A. Gila, B. Duz and D. Vikhrov
2015
Viewpoint paper. Islander mobilities: Any change from climate change? International
Journal of Global Warming, 8:584–602.
King, M.
2017
Kirch, P.V.
2017

A tribe faces rising tides: The resettlement of Isle de Jean Charles. LSU Journal of Energy
Law & Resources, 6:295.
On the Road of the Winds: An Archaeological History of the Pacific Islands before European
Contact. University of California Press, Berkeley.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

463

Le De, L., J.C. Gaillard and W. Friesen
2013
Remittances and disaster: A review. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 4:34–
43.
Liu, W., C. Yang, Y. Liu, C. Wei and X. Yang
2018
Impacts of concentrated rural resettlement policy on rural restructuring in upland areas: A
case study of Qiantang Town in Chongqing, China. Land Use Policy, 77:732–744.
Madgwick, F.J., R. Oakes, F. Pearce and R.E. Tharme
2017
Water shocks: Wetlands and human migration in the Sahel. Wetlands International. Availableat www.wetlands.org/publications/water-shocks-wetlands-human-migration-sahel/.
Maldonado, J.K., C. Shearer, R. Bronen, K. Peterson and H. Lazrus
2013
The impact of climate change on tribal communities in the US: Displacement, relocation,and human rights. In: Climate Change and Indigenous Peoples in the United States (J.K.
Maldonado, B. Colombi and R. Pandya, eds.). Springer, Cham, pp. 93–106.
McLeman, R.
2016

2018

Migration as adaptation: Conceptual origins, recent developments, and future directions.
In: Migration, Risk Management and Climate Change: Evidence and Policy Responses (A.
Milan, B. Schraven, K. Warner and N. Cascone, eds.). Springer, London, pp. 213-229.
Thresholds in climate migration. Population and Environment, 39(4):319–338.

McLeman, R. and B. Smit
2003
Climate change, migration and security. Canadian Security Intelligence Service, Research,
Analysis and Production Branch Commentary No. 86.
Moktan, M. R., L. Norbu, H. Nirola, K. Dukpa, T.B. Rai and R. Dorji
2008
Ecological and social aspects of transhumant herding in Bhutan. Mountain Research andDevelopment, 28(1):41–48.
Myers, N.
1993

Environmental refugees in a globally warmed world. BioScience, 43(11):752161.

Namgay, K., J.E. Millar, R.S. Black and T. Samdup
2014
Changes in transhumant agro-pastoralism in Bhutan: A disappearing livelihood? Human
Ecology, 42(5):779–792.
Nansen Initiative
2015
Agenda for the Protection of Cross-Border Displaced Persons in the Context of Disasters andClimate Change Protection. Volume 2, Nansen Initiative.
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM)
2016
Attribution of Extreme Weather Events in the Context of Climate Change. National Academies
Press.
Nawrotzki, R.J., J. DeWaard, M. Bakhtsiyarava and J.T. Ha
2017
Climate shocks and rural-urban migration in Mexico: Exploring nonlinearities and thresholds.
Climatic Change, 140(2):243–258.

464

References

Nawrotzki, R.J., F. Riosmena and L.M. Hunter2013
Do rainfall deficits predict U.S.-bound migration from rural Mexico? Evidence from the
Mexican census. Population Research and Policy Review, 32(1):129–158.
Oakes, R.
2019

Culture, climate change and mobility decisions in Pacific Small Island Developing States.
Population and Environment. 40(4):480–503.

Oakes, R., A. Milan and J. Campbell
2016
Kiribati: Climate change and migration - Relationships between household vulnerability,
human mobility and climate change. Report No.20, United Nations University Institute forEnvironment and Human Security (UNU-EHS), Bonn.
Ouedraogo, I., N.S. Diouf, M. Ouédraogo, O. Ndiaye and R.B. Zougmoré
2018
Closing the gap between climate information producers and users: Assessment of needs anduptake in Senegal. Climate, 6:13.
Platform on Disaster Displacement (PDD)
2016
Strategic Framework 2016–2019. PDD. Available at https://environmentalmigration.iom.int/
sites/default/files/policy/PDD/PDD%20-%20Strategic%20Framework%202016-2019%20%28FINAL%29.pdf.
2019Platform on Disaster Displacement (PDD) Strategy 2019-2022. PDD. Available at https://disasterdisplacement.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/26062019-PDD-Strategy-20192022-FINAL_to_post_on_website.pdf.

Penning-Rowsell, E.C., P. Sultana and P.M. Thompson
2013
The “last resort”? Population movement in response to climate-related hazards in
Bangladesh. Environmental Science and Policy, 27:S44–S59.
Piguet, E., R. Kaenzig and J. Guélat
2018
The uneven geography of research on “environmental migration”. Population andEnvironment, 39(4):357–383.
Ransan-Cooper, H., C. Farbotko, K.E. McNamara, F. Thornton and E. Chevalier
2015
Being(s) framed: The means and ends of framing environmental migrants. Global
Environmental Change, 35:106–115.
Resurrección B.P., C.G. Goodrich, Y. Song, A. Bastola, A. Prakash, D. Joshi, J. Liebrand and S.A. Shah2019
In the shadows of the Himalayan mountains: Persistent gender and social exclusion
development. In: The Hindu Kush Himalaya Assessment (P. Wester, A. Mishra, A. Mukherji
and A. Bhakta Shrestha, eds.). Springer, London.
Ribot, J.C.
2011

Vulnerability before adaptation: Toward transformative climate action. Global Environmental
Change, 21:1160–1162.

Rigaud, K.K., A. de Sherbinin, B. Jones, J. Bergmann, V. Clement, K. Ober, J. Schewe, S. Adamo, B. McCusker,
S. Heuser and A. Midgley2018
Groundswell: Preparing for Internal Climate Migration. World Bank Group, Washington, D.C.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

465

Shaoliang, Y., M. Ismail and Y. Zhaoli
2012
Pastoral Communities’ Perspectives on Climate Change and Their Adaptation Strategies in the
Hindukush-Karakoram-Himalaya. Springer, Dordrecht.
Shen, S. and F. Gemenne
2011
Contrasted views on environmental change and migration: The case of Tuvaluan migration
to New Zealand. International Migration, 49:e224–e242.
Sherwood, A., M. Bradley, L. Rossi, R. Guiam and B. Mellicker
2015
Resolving post-disaster displacement: Insights from the Philippines after Typhoon Haiyan(Yolanda). Brookings Institution.
Shivakoti, R.
2019

When disaster hits home: Diaspora engagement after disasters. Migration and Development,
8(3):338–354.

Siddiqui, T., R.B. Bhagat, S. Banerjee, C. Liu, B. Sijapati, R. Memon, P. Thinley, M. Ito, O. Nemat and G.M. Arif2019
Migration in the HKH region: Governance, drivers, and consequences In: The Hindu Kush
Himalaya Assessment (P. Wester, A. Mishra, A. Mukherji and A. Bhakta Shrestha, eds.).
Springer, London.
Sierra Club2018

Women on the move in a changing climate: A discussion paper on gender, climate & mobility.
Sierra Club & UN Women. Available at www.sierraclub.org/sites/www.sierraclub.org/files/
uploads-wysiwig/Women%20On%20The%20Move%20In%20A%20Changing%20Climate%20
report.pdf.

Singh C., H. Osbahr and P. Dorward
2018
The implications of rural perceptions of water scarcity on differential adaptation behaviourin Rajasthan. India. Regional Environmental Change, 18:2417–2432.
Stern, N., S. Peters, V. Bakhshi, A. Bowen, C. Cameron, S. Catovsky, D. Crane, S. Cruickshank, S. Dietz and N.
Edmonson
2006
Stern Review: The Economics of Climate Change. Vol. 30, HM treasury, London.
Uekusa, S. and S. Matthewman
2017
Vulnerable and resilient? Immigrants and refugees in the 2010–2011 Canterbury and Tohoku
disasters. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 22:355–361.
United Nations Framework Climate Change Convention (UNFCCC)
2010
Cancun Climate Change Conference. UNFCCC. Available at http://unfccc.int/meetings/
cop_16/items/5571.php.
2013

Report of the Conference of the Parties on Its Nineteenth Session. Held in Warsaw from 11 to
23 November. Available at https://unfccc.int/resource/docs/2013/cop19/eng/10a01.pdf.

2015

Adoption of the Paris Agreement. 21st Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC (COP21),
FCCC/CP/2015/L.9, 13 December. Available at http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/2015/
cop21/eng/l09.pdf.

466

References

2017

Workplan of the Task Force on Displacement. Executive Committee of the Warsaw International
Mechanism, May. Available at http://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/tfd_workplan.pdf.

2018

Decision -/CP.24. Report of the Executive Committee of the Warsaw International Mechanism
for Loss and Damage Associated with Climate Change Impacts. Advanced unedited edition.
Available at https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/resource/cp24_auv_ec%20wim.pdf.

United Nations General Assembly (UNGA)
2018
Draft Outcome of the Conference. Intergovernmental Conference to Adopt the Global Compact
for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration. 30 July. A/CONF.231/3.
Van der Geest, K.
2011
The Dagara farmer at home and away: Migration, environment and development in Ghana.
African Studies Centre, Leiden.
Van der Geest, K., M. Burkett, J. Fitzpatrick, M. Stege and B. Wheeler
2019
Marshallese perspectives on migration in the context of climate change. IOM Policy Brief.
Availableathttps://publications.iom.int/system/files/pdf/policy_brief_series_vol5_
issue1.pdf.
Voigt-Graf, C. and S. Kagan
2017
Migration and labour mobility from Kiribati. Development Policy Centre Discussion Paper,
No. 56.
Warner, K.
2018

Coordinated approaches to large-scale movements of people: contributions of the Paris
Agreement and the Global Compacts for migration and on refugees. Population andEnvironment, 39(4):384–401.

Warner, K. and T. Afifi
2014
Where the rain falls: Evidence from 8 countries on how vulnerable households use migration
to manage the risk of rainfall variability and food insecurity. Climate and Development,
6(1):1–17.
Zickgraf, C.
2018“The fish migrate and so must we”: The relationship between international and internal
environmental mobility in a Senegalese fishing community. Medzinarodne vztahy (Journalof International Relations), 16(1):5–21.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

467

Chapter 10
Aghazarm, C., P. Quesada and S. Tishler
2012
Migrants Caught in Crisis: The IOM Experience in Libya. IOM, Geneva.
Alfred, C.
2016

South African website to crowdsource reports of xenophobic violence. News Deeply, Refugees
Deeply, 29 August.

Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED)
2019
Data Export Tool. Available at www.acleddata.com/data/ (accessed 19 July 2019).
Battistella, G.
2012

Multi-level policy approach in the governance of labor migration: Considerations from thePhilippine experience. Asian Journal of Social Science, 40(4):419–446.

Bravi, A., A. Trupp, K. Schaur, T. Sakulsri, R. Tadee, K. Apipornchaisakul and S. Punpuing
2017
Thailand Case Study: Migration and Natural Disasters – The Impact on Migrants of the 2011
Floods in Thailand. International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD), Vienna.
Global Migration Group2017
Handbook for Improving the Production and Use of Migration Data for Development. Global
Knowledge Partnership for Migration and Development (KNOMAD), World Bank, Washington,
D.C. Available at https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/Handbook%20
for%20Improving%20the%20Production%20and%20Use%20of%20Migration%20Data%20
for%20Development.pdf.
Government of India
2012
Revised Indian Community Welfare Fund (ICWF) Scheme in Indian Missions Abroad. Decree
no. F.No.OI-1101211412012-EP-1. Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs. Available at www.
mea.gov.in/images/pdf/revised-icwf.pdf.
Government of the Philippines
2011
Creating the Overseas Preparedness and Response Team and Replacing the Presidential
Middle East Preparedness Committee. Executive Order No. 34. Available at www.lawphil.
net/executive/execord/eo2011/eo_34_2011.html.
Guadagno, L.
2015

Reducing migrants’ vulnerabilities to natural disasters through disaster risk reduction
measures. Issue Brief 1: Migrants in Countries in Crisis (MICIC) Initiative.

Hendow, M., A. Bravi, A. Kraler, R.N. Pailey, B. Perchinig, K. Schaur, O. Bakewell, J. Peebles and L. Rasche
2018
Resilience in the Face of Adversity: A Comparative Study of Migrants in Crisis Situations.
International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD), Vienna. Available atwww.researchgate.net/publication/324971049_Resilience_in_the_Face_of_Adversity_A_
Comparative_Study_of_Migrants_in_Crisis_Situations.
Hui, C.
2019

Key informant interview conducted on 29 January 2019.

468

References

Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC)
2018
Inform Global Risk Index: Results 2018. Available at www.inform-index.org/Portals/0/
InfoRM/2018/INFORM%20Annual%20Report%202018%20Web%20Spreads%20v2.
pdf?ver=2017-12-20-141446-540).
International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD)
2017
Policy Recommendations: One Year of Implementation of the Migrants in Countries in Crisis
Initiative: How Can Lessons Learnt Inform the Global Compacts? ICMPD, Vienna. Available atwww.icmpd.org/fileadmin/user_upload/MICIC_Policy_Recommendations_for_the_GCM_-_
Dec_2017.pdf.
International Organization for Migration (IOM)
2016
Forging Partnerships for the Future: IOM and the Private Sector. IOM, Geneva. Available athttps://publications.iom.int/books/forging-partnership-future-iom-and-private-sector.
2018

Mixed Migration Routes: Central America incl. Mexico. IOM, Geneva. Available at https://
missingmigrants.iom.int/sites/default/files/Mixed_migration_routes_Central_America_
incl_Mexico_1.pdf.

2019

Libya’s Migrant Report: Round 23, November–December 2018. IOM, Displacement Tracing
Matrix. Available at https://migration.iom.int/reports/libya-%E2%80%94-migrant-report23-nov-dec-2018.

n.d.

MigApp. IOM, Geneva. Available at www.iom.int/migapp.

Khadria, B.
2009
Kleist, N.
2017
Mainwaring, C.
2012

The future of South Asian migration: A look at India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
OECD Journal: General Papers, 2009(4):26–49.
Disrupted migration projects: The moral economy of involuntary return to Ghana from
Libya. Africa, 87(2):322–42.
In the face of revolution: The Libyan civil war and migration politics in Southern Europe.
In: Change and Opportunities in the Emerging Mediterranean (S. Calleya and M. Wohlfeld,eds.). Malta University Press, Malta, pp. 431–451.

Make the Road New York2012
Unmet Needs: Superstorm Sandy and Immigrant Communities in the Metro New York Area.
Make the Road New York. Available at https://maketheroadny.org/unmet-needs-superstormsandy-and-immigrant-communities-in-the-metro-new-york-area/.
Mansour-Ille, D. and M. Hendow
2017
Lebanon Case Study: Migrant Domestic Workers and the 2006 Crisis. International Centre forMigration Policy Development (ICMPD), Vienna.
2018

From exclusion to resistance: Migrant domestic workers and the evolution of agency in
Lebanon. Journal of Immigrant and Refugee Studies, 16(4):449–469.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

Martin, S.
2016

469

New models of international agreement for refugee protection. Journal on Migration and
Human Security, 4(3):60–75.

Martin, S., S. Weerasinghe and A. Taylor
2014
Humanitarian Crises and Migration: Causes, Consequences and Responses. First edition,
Abingdon, Oxon; Routledge, New York.
Martinez, K.M.
2017

Hidden in the ashes: Migrant farmworkers are invisible during California fires. Blog post
published by MICIC, 29 December. Available at https://micicinitiative.iom.int/blog/hiddenashes-migrant-farmworkers-are-invisible-during-california-wildfires.

Martinez, K.M., A. Hoff and A. Núñez-Alvarez
2009
Coming Out of the Dark: Emergency Preparedness Plan for Farmworker Communities in San
Diego County. Vista Community Clinic. Available at www.cidrap.umn.edu/sites/default/
files/public/php/27048/Coming%20Out%20of%20the%20Dark_0.pdf.
Migrants in Countries in Crisis (MICIC) Initiative2015
Background Paper: Migrants in Countries in Crisis Initiative. IGC Plus Consultation. Available
athttps://micicinitiative.iom.int/sites/default/files/publications/cover/backgroundpaper_igc-plus-consultation.pdf.
2016

Guidelines to Protect Migrants in Countries Experiencing Conflict or National Disaster. MICIC
Secretariat, IOM, Geneva. Available at https://micicinitiative.iom.int/sites/default/files/
document/micic_guidelines_english_web_13_09_2016.pdf.

2017

Migrants in Disaster Risk Reduction: Practices for Inclusion. IOM and the Council of Europe.
Availableathttps://publications.iom.int/books/migrants-disaster-risk-reductionpractices-inclusion.

Multicultural Development Association of Queensland
2011
Queensland Floods Commission Inquiry of 2011. Multicultural Development Association of
Queensland.
Munier, A.
2017

Supporting Bangladeshi migrants returning from Libya. MICIC. Available at https://
micicinitiative.iom.int/blog/supporting-bangladeshi-migrants-returning-libya.

New York Women’s Foundation
2015
Mapping Pathways to Recovery in the Shadow of Hurricane Sandy. New York Women’sFoundation.
Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)
2018
Principles and Guidelines, Supported by Practical Guidance, on the Human Rights Protectionof Migrants in Vulnerable Situations. Available at www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/
Migration/PrinciplesAndGuidelines.pdf.

470

References

Ogie, R., J. Castilla Rho, R.J. Clarke and A. Moore
2018
Disaster risk communication in culturally and linguistically diverse communities: The roleof technology. Proceedings, 2:1256.
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and Eurostat
2018
Oslo Manual 2018: Guidelines for Collecting, Reporting and Using Data on Innovation, 4th
Edition: The Measurement of Scientific, Technological and Innovation Activities. OECD Publishing,Paris/Eurostat, Luxembourg. Available at https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264304604-en.
Pailey, R.N., L. Kandilige, J. Suah Shilue and M. Zongo
2016
Côte d’Ivoire Case Study: Côte d’Ivoire at a Crossroads – Socio-economic Development
Implications of Crisis-induced Returns to Burkina Faso, Ghana and Liberia. International
Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD), Vienna.
Perchinig, B., L. Rasche and K. Schaur
2017
Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection Policies in the European Union and the MICIC Agenda.
International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD), Vienna.
Samuel Hall
2018

DEMAC – Creating Opportunities to Work with Diasporas in Humanitarian Settings.

Shaw, L.
2018

Intensifying focus on migrant returns takes a more global stage. Migration Policy Institute,
14 December. Available at www.migrationpolicy.org/article/top-10-2018-issue-6-focus-onmigrant-returns.

Shepherd, J. and K. Van Vuuren
2014
The Brisbane flood: Culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) gatekeepers’ risk
communication role. Disaster Prevention and Management, 23(4).
Teves, O.
2012

Filipinos flee war in Syria with tales of horror. The Times of Israel, 12 September.

Translators Without Borders
2017a Putting Language on the Map in the European Refugee Response.
2017b

TWB’s response in Nigeria. Available at https://translatorswithoutborders.org/twbresponse-nigeria/.

United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA)
2019
International Migrant Stock 2019. UN DESA Population Division, New York. Available at www.
un.org/en/development/desa/population/migration/data/estimates2/estimates19.asp.
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
2018
Human Development Indices and Indicators: Statistical Update. UNDP, New York. Available
at http://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/2018_human_development_statistical_update.
pdf.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

471

United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR)
2015
Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030. Available at www.unisdr.org/we/coordinate/sendai-framework.
2019

Global Risk Data Platform. Available at https://preview.grid.unep.ch/.

United States Geological Survey (USGS)2019
ANSS Comprehensive Earthquake Catalogue (ComCat) Documentation. Available at https://earthquake.usgs.gov/data/comcat/index.php#6.
Veerassamy, L.
2017

Warren, M.
2018

IOM Djibouti – Assisting migrants evacuated from the Yemen crisis. Migrants in Countries in
Crisis (MICIC) Initiative. Blog post published by MICIC. Available at https://micicinitiative.
iom.int/blog/iom-djibouti-assisting-migrants-evacuated-yemen-crisis.
Consular rights of foreign nationals: International norms. Available at http://users.
xplornet.com/~mwarren/norms.htm.

Wickramage, K.P.
2019
Key informant interview conducted on 1 January 2019.
Zampagni, F., H. Boubakri, R. Hoinathy, L. Kandilige, H. Manou Nabara, S. Sadek, M. El Sayeh, M. Zongo and
M. Hendow
2017
Libya Case Study: An Unending Crisis – Responses of Migrants, States and Organisations to the2011 Libya Crisis. International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD), Vienna.

472

References

Chapter 11
Akesson, B. and K. Coupland2018
Without choice? Understanding war-affected Syrian families’ decisions to leave home.
Migration Research Series No. 54, IOM, Geneva. Available at https://publications.iom.int/
books/mrs-no-54-without-choice-understanding-war-affected-syrian-families-decisionsleave-home.
Aleinikoff, A. and S. Martin
2018
Making the Global Compacts Work: What future for refugees and migrants? Policy brief 6.
Andrew and Renata Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law and The Zolberg Instituteon Migration and Mobility, Sydney.
Allinson, K., P. Erdunast, E. Guild and T. Basaran
2019
GCM Commentary: The Legal Status of the UN’s Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular
Migration in International and UK Law. University of London, School of Advanced Study,
Refugee Law Initiative, RLI Blog on Refugee Law and Forced Migration, 31 January. Available
at https://rli.blogs.sas.ac.uk/2019/01/31/gcm-commentary-the-legal-status/.
Angenendt, S. and N. Biehler
2018
On the way to a Global Compact on Refugees: the “zero draft” – a positive, but not yet sufficient
step (SWP Comments, 18/2018). Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik -SWP- Deutsches Institut
für Internationale Politik und Sicherheit, Berlin. Available at http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-57406-2.
Bauloz, C.
2017

A Comparative Thematic Mapping of Global Migration Initiatives: Lessons Learned Towards
a Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration. IOM, Migration Research Leaders
Syndicate in Support of the Global Compact on Migration, Geneva.

Betts, A.
2006

Comprehensive plans of action: Insights from CIREFCA and the Indochinese CPA. UNHCR,New Issues in Refugee Research, Working Paper No. 120.

Betts, A. and L. Kainz
2017
The History of Global Migration Governance. University of Oxford, Refugee Studies Centre,
Working Paper Series No. 122, Oxford.
Carling, J.
2017
2018

Chetail, V.
2019

The Meaning of Migrants: What Is the Issue and Why Does it Matter? Available at https://meaningofmigrants.org/.
Three reasons for rejecting a “Global Compact for Most Migration”. Available at https://jorgencarling.org/2018/03/11/three-reasons-for-rejecting-a-global-compact-for-mostmigration/.
International Migration Law. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

Chimni, B.S.
2018

473

Global Compact on Refugees: One step forward, two steps back. International Journal of
Refugee Law, 30(4):630–634.

Crisp, J.
2018

de Haas, H.
2011

Mobilizing Political Will for Refugee Protection and Solutions: A Framework for Analysis
and Action. World Refugee Council Research Paper No. 1, June, World Refugee Council andCentre for International Governance Innovation, Waterloo.
The Determinants of International Migration. Conceptualising Policy, Origin and Destination
Effects. Working Paper No. 32, Oxford International Migration Institute.

Dowd, R. and J. McAdam
2017
International cooperation and responsibility-sharing to protect refugees: What, why andhow? International and Comparative Law Quarterly, 66(4):863–892.
Duncan, H. and I. Popp2017
Migrants and cities: Stepping beyond the World Migration Report 2015. In: World Migration
Report 2018 (M. McAuliffe and M. Ruhs, eds.). IOM, Geneva. Available at www.iom.int/wmr/
chapter-10.
European Commission
2015
Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European
Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions: A European Agenda on
Migration. COM(2015) 240 final, 13 May.
Faist, T.
2000

The Volume and Dynamics of International Migration and Transnational Social Spaces. Oxford
University Press, Oxford.

2016

In Search of Commitments: The 2016 Refugee Summits. Andrew and Renata Kaldor Centre forInternational Refugee Law, University of New South Wales Sydney.

Ferris, E.

Gallagher, A.T.
2018

The Global Compact for Migration: What Happened? And What’s Next? Thomson Reuters
Foundation News, 11 December. Available at http://news.trust.org/item/20181211095245sgodq/.

Gammeltoft-Hansen, T.
2018
The normative impact of the Global Compact on Refugees. International Journal of Refugee
Law, 30(4):605–610.
Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration
2018a Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration. Zero draft, 5 February.
2018b

Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration. Draft Rev. 2, 28 May.

474

References

Global Migration Group (GMG)n.d.
Terms of Reference. Available at https://globalmigrationgroup.org/system/files/uploads/
documents/Final_GMG_Terms_of_Reference_prioritized.pdf.
Hansen, R.
2018
Hathaway, J.C.
2018
Huxley, J.
2007

The Comprehensive Refugee Response Framework: A Commentary. Journal of RefugeeStudies, 31(2):131–151.
The Global Cop-Out on Refugees. International Journal of Refugee Law, 30(4):591–604.
When a boat came in. The First Wave: Beyond a White Australia. Available at www.smh.com.
au/multimedia/misr/story.html.

International Organization for Migration (IOM)
2015
World Migration Report 2015. IOM, Geneva. Available at http://publications.iom.int/system/
files/wmr2015_en.pdf.
Kaufmann, E.
2017

Khadria, B.
2017

Why Values, not Economics, Hold the Key to the Populist Right – and to Crafting New
Migration Narratives. In: Migration Research Leaders’ Syndicate: Ideas to Inform International
Cooperation on Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (M. McAuliffe and M. Klein Solomon,eds.). IOM, Geneva, p. 183.
Statement by Professor Binod Khadria, Thematic Expert of the Second Informal Thematic
Session Global Compact for Migration (GCM) for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration. United
Nations, New York, 22–23 May. Available at https://refugeesmigrants.un.org/sites/default/
files/t2_p3_binodkhadria.pdf.

Klein Solomon, M. and S. Sheldon
2018
The Global Compact for Migration: From the Sustainable Development Goals to aComprehensive Agreement on Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration. International Journal of
Refugee Law, 30(4):584–590.
Legomsky, S.H.
2003

Secondary refugee movements and the return of asylum seekers to third countries: The
meaning of effective protection. UNHCR, Legal and Protection Policy Research Series,
PPLA/2003/01, February.

Leone, F.
2018

Makooi, B.
2018“Sea Change” Refugee Compact Discussed in New York. IISD, SDG Knowledge Hub, 28 June.
Available at https://sdg.iisd.org/news/sea-change-refugee-compact-discussed-in-newyork.
Why is the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration being challenged inEurope? Info Migrants, 3 December. Available at www.infomigrants.net/en/post/13634/
why-is-the-global-compact-for-safe-orderly-and-regular-migration-being-challenged-ineurope.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

Martin, S.
2014

475

International Migration, Evolving Trends from early Twentieth Century to Present. Cambridge
University Press, Cambridge. Available at www.cambridge.org/core/books/international-mi
gration/60893845597CB52B99F9C3ECC72199ED.

Martin, S. and S. Weerasinghe
2017
Global Migration Governance: Existing Architecture and Recent Developments. In: World
Migration Report 2018 (IOM). Geneva, chapter 5. Available at www.iom.int/wmr/chapter-5.
Massey, D.S., J. Arango, G. Hugo, A. Kouaouci and A. Pellegrino
1998
Worlds in Motion: Understanding International Migration at the End of the Millennium. Oxford
University Press, Oxford.
McAuliffe, M.
2016

The appification of migration. A million migrants? There are apps for that. Asia and thePacific Policy Society, Apps Policy Forum, 20 January. Available at www.policyforum.net/
the-appification-of-migration.

McAuliffe, M. and A.M. Goossens
2018
Regulating international migration in an era of increasing interconnectedness. In:
Handbook of Migration and Globalisation (A. Triandafyllidou, ed.). Edward Elgar Publishing,Cheltenham/Northampton, pp. 86–104.
McAuliffe, M., A.M. Goossens and A. Sengupta
2017
Mobility, migration and transnational connectivity. In: World Migration Report 2018 (M.
McAuliffe and M. Ruhs, eds.). IOM, Geneva, pp. 149–169. Available at www.iom.int/wmr/
chapter-6.
McAuliffe, M. and D. Jayasuriya
2016
Do asylum seekers and refugees choose destination countries? Evidence from large-scale
surveys in Australia, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. International
Migration, 56(4):44–59. Available at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/
imig.12240.
McAuliffe, M., A. Kitimbo, A.M. Goossens and A. Ahsan Ullah
2017
Understanding migration journeys from migrants’ perspectives. In: World Migration Report2018 (M. McAuliffe and M. Ruhs, eds.). IOM, Geneva Available at http://publications.iom.
int/system/files/pdf/wmr_2018_en_chapter7.pdf.
Mudde, C.
2019

Why copying the populist right isn’t going to save the left. The Guardian, 14 May.

Ndonga Githinji, E. and T. Wood
2018
Prospects for the Global Compacts in Africa: Combining International Solidarity with Homegrown Solutions. International Journal of Refugee Law, 30(4):699–703.
Nebehay, S.
2015

U.N. expects Europe’s refugee flow to top 1 million in 2015. Reuters, 5 November. Availableat www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-migrants-un-idUSKCN0SU1F320151105.

476

References

Newland, K.
2010

The Governance of International Migration: Mechanisms, Processes, and Institutions. Global
Governance, 16(3):331–343.

2011

Cooperative arrangements to share burdens and responsibilities in refugee situations shortof mass influx. Discussion paper prepared for a UNHCR Expert Meeting on International
Cooperation to Share Burdens and Responsibilities, 27–28 June.

2018

The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration: An Unlikely Achievement.
International Journal of Refugee Law, 30(4):657–660.

Newland, K. and A. Riester
2018
Welcome to Work? Legal Migration Pathways for Low-Skilled Workers. Migration Policy
Institute, Washington D.C.
Siegfried, M.
2017

New refugee framework “dead in the water” without more international support. The
New Humanitarian (formerly IRIN News), 10 July. Available at www.irinnews.org/
analysis/2017/07/10/new-refugee-framework-dead-water-without-more-internationalsupport.

Triandafyllidou, A.
2017
Beyond Irregular Migration Governance: Zooming in on Migrants’ Agency. European Journalof Migration and Law, 19(1).
Türk, V.
2018
United Nations
2018

The promise and potential of the Global Compact on Refugees. International Journal of
Refugee Law, 30(4):575–583.
Implementation Will Be Ultimate Proof of Success, Deputy Secretary-General Tells Delegatesin Talks on Global Compact for Migration. Press Release. 7 June. Ref DSG/SM/1183-DEV/3338.

United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA)
1998
Recommendations on Statistics of International Migration: Revision 1. United Nations, New
York. Available at https://unstats.un.org/unsd/publication/SeriesM/SeriesM_58rev1E.pdf.
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Multi-Partner Trust Fund Office2019 Start-Up Fund for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration. Migration Multi-Partner Trust Fund,
Terms of Reference. May 2019. Available at http://mptf.undp.org/factsheet/fund/MIG00.
United Nations General Assembly (UNGA)2016
New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants. Resolution adopted by the General
Assembly on 19 September 2016. A/RES/71/1.
2017aReport of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Migration. Note by the
Secretary General. 3 February. A/71/728.

2017b

Making Migration Work for All. Report of the Secretary-General. 12 December. A/72/643.

WORLD MIGRATION REPORT 2020

477

2018a

Draft outcome document of the Conference, Intergovernmental Conference to Adopt the
Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration. Note by the President of the General
Assembly. 30 July. A/CONF.231/3.

2018b

Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Part II: Global Compact on
Refugees. A/73/12 (Part II).

2019

Format and Organizational Aspects of the International Migration Review Forums. A/73/L.99,
15 July.

United Nations Network on Migration2018
Terms of Reference. Available at www.migrationnetwork.un.org/sites/default/files/docs/
UN_Network_on_Migration_TOR.PDF.
Zalan, E.
2018
Zimonjic, P.
2018

EU in sudden turmoil over UN Migration Pact. EU Observer, 4 December. Available at https://
euobserver.com/migration/143597.
Ex-Harper minister calls out Scheer over ‘factually incorrect’ statement on UN migration
pact. CBC News, 5 December. Available at www.cbc.ca/news/politics/alexander-scheertrudeau-un-compact-1.4932698.

17 route des Morillons, P.O. Box 17, 1211 Geneva 19, Switzerland
Tel.: +41 22 717 9111 • Fax: +41 22 798 6150
E-mail: hq@iom.int • Website: www.iom.int