Migration
Patterns and trends on trafficking in persons: Country profiles
The section provides the country profiles with an overview of the patterns and trends on TIP for each ECOWAS Member State based on the TIP administrative data reported via the WATIP questionnaire.
Introduction
Climate change poses significant challenges for Ethiopia, with both slow- and sudden-onset events increasingly affecting communities across the country (World Bank, 2021).
Approach and methodology
The methodology used in the study is a mixed methods approach (quantitative and qualitative).
Migration and maritime security
Seychelles has committed to ensuring that it will create an environment where migration is taking place in a safe, orderly and regular manner.
Theoretical background
Although the environment as a driving force behind migration is not new to the literature, it is currently receiving more attention because of climate change and the frequency of extremely damaging disasters.
Introduction
Climate change poses significant challenges for the Philippines, with both slow- and sudden-onset events increasingly affecting communities across the country.
Migration statistics in Seychelles
The Migration Profile recommends strengthening migration statistics to capture all migration-related information (e.g. on immigration, irregular migration and emigration).
Irregular migration
Irregular migration is not a key concept used in Seychelles.
Migration and Inequality
Drawing on Europe’s experience, this brief provides a cross-country comparative overview of inequality affecting children in the migration pathway, who are often described as 'children on the move'. Following a brief overview of the policy and practice in relation to various categories of refugee and migration children in Europe, it reflects on the performance of the countries with regard to Target 10.7 of the SDG.
Economic Development and the Evolution of Internal Migration
This paper uses Demographic and Health surveys to estimate internal migration between and within rural and urban areas for 31 countries at different stages of development. The methodological approach is to estimate migration transition matrices indicating the shares of the population (by gender) that move or stay in rural and urban areas over three periods (childhood and two forward periods). Results indicate that rural-to-rural migration is the dominant form of migration in many countries in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia that are still relatively less developed. For countries that have already undertaken the path of structural transformation, rural-to-urban migration is greater than intra-rural migration. Sizeable urban to rural migration flows are found in many countries, with rural returnees often contributing substantially to these urban-to-rural flows, which has implications for development options in both rural and urban areas. Return migration to rural areas is particularly large in countries in relatively early phases of development, and higher for males than for females. For the sample of countries in sub-Saharan Africa, on average 61 percent of males and 34 percent of females migrating from urban-to-rural areas are return migrants who lived in rural areas as children. The analysis also confirms anecdotal evidence that migrants move in several steps: in the overall sample of countries, at least 41 percent of males and 36 percent of females who move once will move a second time (or more). Internal migration patterns vary considerably according to gender in some regions of the world; however, in countries that are further along the path of structural transformation, and particularly urbanization, the magnitude of migration flows appears to be similar across genders.
Independent Children, Inconsistent Adults
Like adults, children migrate across borders for different reasons and in varying circumstances; and they face legal consequences as a result of their migration. Two of these consequences are common to all child migrants and have far-reaching implications: the child migrants become non-citizens or aliens once they cross a border, and they face a new social environment once they leave home. The existing legal framework does not directly address either of these consequences. Domestic child protection law, which addresses the problems facing children without satisfactory homes, does not often cover issues of foreign citizenship, including the risk of deportation and lack of entitlement to social benefits that non-citizen children can face. And migration law, which establishes the parameters of lawful status for recognized categories of migrant, does not deal with the needs and circumstances of most children who travel independently of their families. However, international law has long recognized the distinctive needs of some groups of child migrants. In the Declaration on the Rights of the Child, adopted by the League of Nations in 1924, the first ever international child rights declaration, two of the five principles articulated define rights relevant to child migrants: (1) the primacy of the child’s right to relief in times of distress (a precursor to attention to the special needs of refugee children) and (2) the imperative of protection for exploited children (prefiguring concern with child trafficking). More recent regional and domestic legislation regulating immigration has included provisions promoting family unity and by implication the migration of children with or to join their adult relatives. A broader engagement with the many other aspects of child migration however has been absent. There is no single piece of international or regional legislation that systematically and comprehensively addresses the issue. As a result the body of relevant legislation, though quite extensive and diverse, has an impact on child migrants which is inconsistent and incomplete.
Child Migrants with and without Parents
This paper studies child migration in Argentina, Chile and South Africa. It defines child migrants as under 18 year olds whose usual residence was in a different country or province five years prior to census. The paper estimates the scale of child migration; compares relative magnitudes of internal and international migration; and considers sensitivity to alternative definitions of migration. Second, it examines family structures within which migrant children live at destinations, defining children who are co-resident with adult parents and siblings as dependent, and those outside of these close family members, as independent. Third, the internal/international and in/dependent distinctions are analysed jointly to describe some social-economic characteristics of the four sub-groups of migrant children.
Child-Related Concerns and Migration Decisions
Current times are characterized by unprecedented migration levels: millions of people are on the move worldwide. Thus, understanding why people decide to migrate is a major goal of policymakers and international organizations, and migration has become a prominent issue on the global research agenda. Traditional migration drivers can be divided into reasons to leave (‘push’ factors) and reasons to migrate (‘pull’ factors), and include income deprivation, dissatisfaction with public services and institutions in the home country, conflict and war, climate change, and social networks abroad. In this paper, we focus our attention on children’s well-being as a potential migration driver. We investigate it by using the Gallup World Poll, a repeated cross-section dataset of a survey conducted in more than 150 countries from 2006 to 2016. We estimate the association between planned and intended migration and children’s perceived well-being using logit models with standardized coefficients, robust standard errors, and year and country fixed effects. Estimates reveal a positive and statistically significant association between child-related concerns, migration intent and plans. In particular, the probability of individuals having migration intent and plans increases where they report lower levels of satisfaction with child-related issues, as measured by the Youth Development Index, an index driven by indicators of respect for children and satisfaction with the education system. Moreover, children’s well-being affects more individuals living in households with children than those without. Finally, migration is a child- and youth-related phenomenon: young individuals would like to migrate, and plan to do so, more than older individuals.