Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - MIGNEX (Aligning Migration Management and the Migration-Development Nexus)

Teaser

In order to manage the long-term challenges of global migration, Europe must create effective and coherent policies for engaging with countries of origin and transit. Effectiveness and cohesion depend on the real-world mechanisms at work: How do the root causes of migration...

Summary

In order to manage the long-term challenges of global migration, Europe must create effective and coherent policies for engaging with countries of origin and transit. Effectiveness and cohesion depend on the real-world mechanisms at work: How do the root causes of migration operate? What do prospective migrants see as alternatives to migration? How do policy measures interact with other factors in shaping migration outcomes?

The project’s overall objective is to contribute to more effective and coherent migration management through evidence-based understanding of the linkages between development and migration.

Steps toward this objective comprise extensive research in ten strategically relevant countries of origin and transit, including Afghanistan, Guinea, Somalia, Nigeria and Turkey. The project team will conduct a survey with a target sample of 12,500 individuals, in addition to qualitative data collection and policy analysis.

Correctly identifying two-way causal mechanisms between migration and development is imperative but very difficult. The project design incorporates two innovative responses to this challenge. First, it follows a principle of disaggregation, which, among other things, entails specific attention to local-level mechanisms. Second, the analysis combines conventional methods, such as multivariate regression, with Qualitative Comparative Analysis, which is a technique that allows for identifying complex causal relationship on the basis of in-depth case studies. In the analysis of policy coherence, the consortium will focus on identifying the causes of incoherence.

Work performed

MIGNEX began in September 2018. Much of the activity so far has focused on laying the foundations for methodology, research communication, and impact. We have:

• Developed an extensive project website and prepared five publication series
• Appointed an End-User Board who is closely involved with the project
• Recruited an End-User Panel with 100+ members who are surveyed on an annual basis
• Published a detailed strategy for Communication and Impact
• Launched a project newsletter that now has more than 400 subscribers
• Published three papers on specialized methodology
• Carried out initial exploratory fieldwork

Final results

Two of the most influential notions in migration research and policy since the turn of the Millennium have been ‘migration management’ and ‘the migration–development nexus’ In Europe no less than in other regions of the world, each of these notions has spawned substantial research. But very few publications have examined the connections between the two, and the linkages remain elusive. Addressing migration challenges—which have reached unprecedented proportions over the past two years—requires an approach that aligns the two research fields and translates the connections into policy implications. This is the challenge at the heart of MIGNEX.

The project is driven by one overarching objective: Contribute to more effective and coherent migration management through evidence-based understanding of the linkages between development and migration.

The specific objectives set out in MIGNEX will result in:
1. Refined understandings of the multi-level determination of migration processes
2. Documentation of how configurations of policies and non-policy factors shape migration processes
3. Refined understandings of the multi-level impacts of migration processes on development
4. Documentation of how configurations of migration and non-migration factors shape development outcomes
5. Identified opportunities for sound management of transit migration
6. Examination of links between migration legislation and new policy tools for migration management
7. Clarification of links between migration management, development processes, and migrant integration
8. Disentanglement of foundations of policy incoherence in European migration and development policy
9. Assessment of the effectiveness of the overall European approach to third-country cooperation on migration

The expected impacts of MIGNEX are:
Impact 1: A better understanding of the determinants of migration and the two-way interaction between migration and development processes
Impact 2: Enhanced policy coherence and effectiveness in the EU’s approach to third-country cooperation on migration
Impact 3: Stronger conceptual tools for interpreting the role of the EU and its Member States as global actors in the field of migration

Website & more info

More info: http://www.mignex.org.