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DRC Research
The DRC's research programme is organised by type of migration, key migration
themes and region of migration. For information and resources about this
research, visit out research section.
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DRC Publications
We have a variety of working papers, briefing papers and other
documents to download in our publications
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Events Calendar
Consults our news and events section
to find out about DRC seminars, conferences and other international migration-related
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Conceptual Background: Migration, Globalisation
and Poverty |
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Introduction
Globalisation has brought both benefits and costs to the poor,
and much the same is true of migration. At one extreme, forced
migration is seen as a consequence of globalisation and development,
as people are displaced either directly by global corporations,
international organisations or governments seeking to exploit
natural resources and promote a particular vision of development,
or indirectly as structural shifts in the economy lead to
violence and insecurity. Alternatively, migration is seen
as reflecting a lack of development, as poverty forces people
to leave their homes in search of a better life – a
search that is often viewed as doomed to failure. Yet in other
circumstances, migration can be understood as a deliberate
and often successful strategy adopted by poor people to maintain
livelihoods, realise their rights and promote social protection.
This has been described by some as a genuine process of ‘globalisation
from below’, although the migration of the poor ranges
from inter-continental down to local, seasonal movements.
The DRC's approach to migration
and development
Over the last decade, there has been a gradual shift in attitudes
towards migration, and this is reflected in the core conceptual
underpinning to the Migration DRC. Our starting point encompasses
three key positions:
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First, that migration is an integral
part of the everyday life of many poor people.
Historically, the policies of most governments have
tended to focus on trying to prevent migration, or at
best on trying to address its ‘root causes’,
by eliminating poverty and promoting development. Yet
this approach has not prevented migration. Rather, it
has simply tended to increase the costs and risks borne
by poor people who continue to migrate anyway, because
migration represents an essential livelihood option.
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Second, that
some forms of migration typify the poor more than others.
Global public attention has tended to focus on the more
visible international movements - perhaps unsurprising
given the massive increase in movements to North America
and Europe over the last two decades. Yet the migration
that is most open to the poor tends to be short-term,
seasonal or temporary, and contained within southern
countries and regions. Such flows, although an
enduring feature of migration systems, tend to represent
an invisible component of migration flows, not picked
up by many data-gathering systems and relatively little
studied. These flows are also highly gendered, and may
disproportionately affect children or other less visible
groups of migrants.
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Third, we start
from a position that to understand the significance
of migration in poor peoples’ lives, migrants
themselves need to be consulted and involved in the
research process. This implies a participatory
approach not only to field data collection, but also
to the analysis and dissemination of research findings
that could directly impinge on the ability of the poor
to secure their livelihoods and rights through migration.
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Migration is not a new process. Indeed, as a proportion of
the world’s population, it seems likely that the stock
of international migrants at least has remained relatively
constant over recent decades, even if the range of different
origins and destinations has increased, and the gender, age
and class composition of migrant flows has shifted. However,
what is new is the approach being adopted towards migration.
Despite growing restrictionist policies adopted by many governments
in the North and the South, development agencies and donors
are increasingly accepting that migration has a potentially
important role to play in the alleviation of poverty. Thus,
at an estimated $88 million each year, global remittances
by migrant workers have come to dwarf Official Development
Assistance, and are higher than Foreign Direct Investment
in some 58 countries in the South.
The DRC's research focus
In this context, the overall objective of the Migration DRC
is to develop a programme of research, training and capacity
building which seeks to maximise the benefits of migration
to poor people, whilst minimising its risks and costs.
Our main emphasis will be on the study of migration flows
in which poor people themselves are most represented –
internal and cross-border flows in the South, often to engage
in temporary work, although also to escape violence and the
restrictive conditions of official settlement schemes established
for refugees and the internally displaced. Our concern is
not simply with the volume of remittances, but with how migration
impacts on livelihoods, rights and social protection more
generally, including the inter-generational and gendered distribution
of costs and benefits. Short-distance flows of migrants from
rural to urban or between rural areas within a country or
region are also often intimately linked with wider transnational
flows of migrants, and one of our objectives is to explore
these under-researched linkages.
In addition, we will be concerned with large-scale international
flows of migrants in two key areas. One involves negotiations
over the movement of persons to provide services in the General
Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) – where we will
seek to focus attention on the temporary movement of a range
of categories of service workers, both skilled and unskilled.
The second area will incorporate the movement of qualified
professionals (and southern students seeking professional
training), since such movements and their dynamic impacts
on training, labour markets and services in areas such as
the medical and teaching professions can have a major impact
on the poor.
Defining key concepts
A number of important concepts re-occur in the research descriptions
and plans outlined below:
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First,
the notion of livelihoods
is understood in its broader conception to encompass
the various entitlements and capabilities that poor
people (and others) have in terms of seeking a living
and maintaining well-being. The intention is to move
beyond the relatively narrow framework of ‘sustainable
livelihoods’, which has been developed as a policy
tool in the context of particular programmes, to a conception
that explores the many different ways in which people
enhance their well-being.
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Second, the notion
of poverty itself is viewed
as multi-dimensional rather than strictly income-related,
and we will be concerned with exploring impacts of migration
on poverty (and vice versa) that extend to broader well-being,
access to education and freedom of social and cultural
expression. We do not assume either that the poor are
forced to migrate, or indeed that the poor are often
not able to migrate. The process of migration, by exposing
people to broader ideas, may intensify feelings of relative
deprivation.
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Third, we will
seek to extend understanding of the concept of social
protection in situations of migration,
viewing migration both as a process that can increase
or reduce the vulnerability of those affected by it,
as well as an important social protection strategy in
its own right.
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Fourth, much of
our work will be infused with a focus on rights,
including analysis of the practical value of a rights-based
approach to migrants and migration, rather than an approach
based on mitigating risk or reducing vulnerability.
Here, our understanding of rights is again broad, encompassing
‘bottom up’ economic and social rights that
are embodied in customary practice as well as the ‘top
down’ rights that are enshrined in international
law.
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Fifth, we are
concerned with issues of inter-generational
and gendered distributions of costs and
benefits, and especially the consequences of migration
for children. Children are affected by migration in
a number of ways – they may migrate with their
parents, or be left behind when one or more parent migrates;
but they may also migrate themselves, including for
work and education. Autonomous child migration appears
to us a contentious, but also somewhat under-researched
(and under-theorised) phenomenon. An important starting
point is to recognise that in much of the world, children
and adolescents do participate in the labour market,
sometimes from an early age. In this context, child
migration may well primarily be about choosing where
to work, rather than whether to work.
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The use of each of these concepts in the literature on migration
and development has been examined in more detail in a series
of initial working papers that have been written during the
inception phase of the Centre (see publications
section).
In addition, we are interested in exploring in more detail the
concept of sustainability, both of
migration as a livelihood or social protection strategy more
generally, and specifically the sustainability implications
for individuals, societies and nation states of return migration
and the temporary mobility of professionals and other migrants.
Discussion of the concept of sustainability will form the focus
of a further conceptual paper to be developed in the first few
months of Phase 2, along with a paper dealing with the conceptual
links between internal and international migration.
The key concepts listed above are not unique to the field of
migration, and several form the focus of substantive research
in other DFID-funded DRCs and other wider collaborative research
projects and centres. Reflecting this, our intention is to adopt
an open and inclusive approach to our research and training,
building on and enhancing the strengths of partners from five
countries, but also reaching out to researchers and policy-makers
outside these specific partners and countries, and outside the
specific field of migration. Our primary aim is not to speak
only to those who are convinced that migration is an important
aspect of poor peoples’ livelihoods, but to those who
are not yet convinced, and to address areas where new research
and analysis and dissemination of research findings can make
a real difference. |
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