Migration

This report examines how pastoral mobility has been impacted by the creation of unnatural boundaries within landscapes and how societies cope with these constraints through legal or informal arrangements. There are many examples from around the world of efforts to facilitate transboundary movements and transboundary ecosystem management by pastoralists.

Hoy, la mitad de todos los migrantes internacionales – 95 millones – son mujeres y niñas. No obstante, pese a sus sustanciales contribuciones a sus familias en el lugar de origen y a las comunidades en el extranjero, se sigue pasando por alto y haciendo caso omiso a sus necesidades. El informe de este año examina el alcance y la magnitud de la migración de mujeres, los efectos de las remesas que éstas envían al lugar de origen para apoyar a sus familias y comunidades, y su desproporcionada vulnerabilidad a la trata, la explotación y el abuso.

This report reviews the current status of demographic evidence and its capacity to support monitoring of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It focuses on the core systems generating demographic data and describes how the “data revolution” has already improved their performance and the potential for accelerating such improvements. In addition, the report underscores that open access to anonymized microdata and routine use of geo-referencing in data collection are necessary to expand the use of demographic data. Geo-referencing makes possible the integration of diverse datasets and facilitates disaggregation and the incorporation of big data in analyses and modelling.

This paper presents an overview of current thinking and available evidence on the migration development nexus and includes an assessment of the intended and unintended consequences of development interventions and the role of humanitarian aid in migrant producing areas. Four critical issues are analyzed: poverty and migration; conflicts, refugees, and migration; migrants as a development resource; aid and migration.

The report shows that important research has been undertaken on the transnational crime aspects of migrant smuggling, including on routes, smuggling organizations (such as criminal networking and facilitation), smuggler profiles and fees/payment. Likewise, there is an emerging academic literature on migrant smuggling, particularly the economic and social processes involved in smuggling, which has largely been based on small-scale qualitative research, mostly undertaken by early career researchers. Contributions from private research companies, as well as investigative journalists, have provided useful insights in some regions, helping to shed light on smuggling practices. There remains, however, sizeable gaps in migration policy research and data, particularly in relation to migration patterns and processes linked to migrant smuggling, including its impact on migrants (particularly vulnerability, abuse and exploitation), as well as its impact on irregular migration flows (such as increasing scale, diversity and changes in geography). Addressing these systemic and regional gaps in data and research would help deepen understanding of the smuggling phenomenon, and provide further insights into how responses can be formulated that better protect migrants while enhancing States’ abilities to manage orderly migration.

This paper is intended to stimulate discussions on the relationship between migration, return, and development. It outlines the operational framework and research strategy that will be used to investigate this relationship in an ongoing research project on West Africa. The paper discusses the following issues: contemporary trends in international migration in West Africa, consequences of migration to domestic labour markets, effects of migrant remittances, brain drain phenomenon, the developmental impacts of potential capital transfers occurring with return, elements for a meso-level approach on migration issues to achieve an improved understanding of the complex relationship between international migration, return, and development.

IOM’s second World Migration Report presents one of the most complete records of reference data and background analysis on population movements. It is organized around the core theme of migration management. Policy responses to specific migration issues are discussed in a series of essays with varying geographical and thematic focus. Preceding the thematic section, a general section introduces the reader to the basics of international migration issues and provides regional updates on trends that have occurred since the publication of the previous report. Maps and graphs and a separate statistics section support the updates on migration trends and policies. With contributions from internationally renowned practitioners and scholars in the area of migration, the report provides a critical analysis of the current state and policy implications of international migration.