Migration

The present report, prepared in accordance with resolution 1996/2 of the ECOSOC, provides an overview of demographic trends for the world, its geographic regions and selected countries, and for various development and income groups. It focuses on major demographic changes during recent decades, as well as projected changes during the time frame for implementing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and beyond. The report includes population size and change, fertility and family planning, mortality, changing population age structures, urbanization and city growth, and international migration, including recent trends in the number of refugees and asylum seekers.

More than 1 million Bangladeshis live permanently outside the country and some 200,000 or more leave the country every year to work elsewhere. Most of these migrants send part of their earnings home on a regular or irregular basis. This report takes Bangladesh as a case study and looks at the importance of remittances for the economic development of the origin countries of migrant communities.

South–South remittance corridors still remain a largely unexplored research area, despite the fact that for a few years already, international organizations, such as the International Organization for Migration and the World Bank, have been highlighting the importance of South–South migration and remittance flows. In South America, the Argentina–Bolivia corridor is the third most relevant South–South corridor in terms of annual volumes, after Venezuela–Colombia and Argentina–Paraguay. This publication provides a diagnostic report on the access to and use of remittance services by Bolivian migrants in Argentina, showing the main obstacles and challenges faced to achieve a productive use of remittances. The study examines the legal and regulatory frameworks of remittance-related transactions, together with the sending process from Argentina to Bolivia, with its chain of intermediation and different money transfer schemes. It provides key recommendations for public policies and actions aimed at maximizing the positive impact of remittances in terms of local development, focusing on two intervention pillars: financial education and transparency of the remittance services market.

The Migrant Integration Policy Index (MIPEX) Health strand is a questionnaire designed to supplement the existing seven strands of the MIPEX, which in its latest edition (2015) monitors policies affecting migrant integration in 38 different countries. The questionnaire measures the equitability of policies relating to four issues: (A) migrants’ entitlements to health services; (B) accessibility of health services for migrants; (C) responsiveness to migrants’ needs; and (D) measures to achieve change. The work described in this report formed part of the EQUI-HEALTH project carried out by the International Organization for Migration from 2013 to 2016, in collaboration with the Migrant Policy Group (MPG) and COST Action IS1103 (Adapting European health services to diversity). Part I of this report shows that many studies have already been carried out on migrant health policies, but because they tend to select different countries, concepts, categories and methods of measurement, it is difficult to integrate and synthesize all these findings. The MIPEX Health strand sets out to surmount this obstacle by collecting information on carefully defined and standardized indicators in all 38 MIPEX countries, as well as Bosnia and Herzegovina and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. Part II describes the conceptual framework underlying the questionnaire and the way in which aspects of policy were operationalized and scored in the 38 indicators. This is followed in Part III by a detailed description of the pattern of results found in 34 European countries on each item in the questionnaire. Part IV reports the results of statistical analyses of collected data.

This report compares the experiences of several existing assisted return programmes for rejected asylum seekers and irregular migrants in Europe and draws lessons for future programmes. Specifically, the report focuses on three aspects: programme implementation, targeting of assistance, and evaluation. It analyzes the experiences of existing programmes in France, the Netherlands, and Switzerland and makes recommendations for best practice in the future.

This new publication in the IOM Migration Research Series explores the decision-making processes of war-affected Syrian families before leaving home. Drawing upon collaborative family interviews with 46 Syrian families resettled in Lebanon, the research methodology included narrative discussion —spanning life in Syria, the journey from Syria to Lebanon and life in Lebanon—as well as drawing and mapmaking. The findings are divided into four themes: (1) how long it took for families to decide to leave, (2) the push factors that influenced the family’s decision to leave, (3) why families decided to journey to Lebanon versus another neighbouring country, (4) the push/pull factors in deciding to resettle in a third country. The findings indicate that there is much diversity in the decision-making processes that families engage in and underscore the importance of family agency in making informed decisions.

Le Dialogue de haut niveau sur la migration internationale et le développement 2006 offre une occasion cruciale de faire en sorte que les voix des femmes migrantes soient entendues. La reconnaissance explicite des droits humains des femmes et la nécessité d’instaurer l’égalité entre les sexes sont une condition préalable fondamentale de toute politique saine, équitable et efficace qui vise à gérer la migration en évitant tout désordre ou manque d’humanité. Ce rapport aborde la migration au XXIe siècle, les femmes et la migration, la traite des femmes, les femmes réfugiées et conclut sur les droits humains des migrants.

This report draws on findings from a survey of 1,000 Zimbabweans living in the United Kingdom and South Africa and aims to obtain a profile in terms of their skills base, transnational links and interest in contributing to development. It examines the education and employment skills base of respondents on arrival in either the UK or South Africa and their educational qualifications and employment at the time of the survey. Transnational activities are also explored, including the sending of economic and other remittances.

El Informe sobre las Migraciones en el Mundo 2011 presenta los datos disponibles a escala mundial sobre las percepciones y las actitudes del público con respecto a la migración. Analiza la forma en que se modelan esas percepciones y actitudes y el modo en que pueden ejercer influencia en la política y en los medios de comunicación, o ser objeto de influencia. También examina el papel que desempeñan los medios de comunicación en la presentación de las opiniones, la información sobre las tendencias y el marco del discurso sobre la migración. Se incluyen, asimismo, ejemplos de buenas prácticas en la comunicación de una imagen positiva y equilibrada de los migrantes por parte de los gobiernos, la sociedad civil y los medios de comunicación. Por último, el Informe plantea varias medidas para mejorar la comunicación sobre la migración con el propósito de promover una mejor comprensión y reconocimiento de los beneficios de la migración, formular políticas con una mayor base empírica y contar con la participación efectiva de los propios migrantes.

At least two hundred thousand women and children from South-East Asia are trafficked annually. This figure represents nearly one third of the global trafficking trade. This study reviews what is known about trafficking in the region and provides a thorough overview of the viewpoints that have been developed within South-East Asia. It also discusses problems faced in the fight against trafficking and highlights priority areas for the development and implementation of counter trafficking programmes and initiatives.

The media and prevailing policy discourses convey an increasingly apocalyptic image of the massive outflows of desperate Africans fleeing poverty and war at home. This study tries to achieve a more empirically and quantitatively founded understanding of the nature, scale and recent evolution of irregular West African migration to Maghreb and Europe. Furthermore, the publication evaluates how policies to manage trans-Saharan and trans-Mediterranean migration have affected current migration patterns.

International migration is a structural feature of an interconnected Asia-Pacific. The number of migrants to and from the region continues to grow, reflecting factors such as changing demographics, economic transformations, and increased connectivity, as well as showing the influence of instability and conflict in the region; meanwhile, the impacts of migration in all countries have grown to become more important; and the means adopted by countries have adapted to try to address these impacts in a positive manner. This report draws from existing research and provides information on the key trends in migration in the region; the drivers of migration; the impacts of migration; and policy responses at national and multilateral level and concludes with recommendations.

The LDC Waiver is a legal tool that enables WTO Members to sidestep their obligation to treat all services imports equally under the Most-Favoured Nation (MFN) clause through the granting preferential treatment to services and service exporters from a Least Developed Country (LDC). It is similar to the “Enabling Clause” for goods within the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), except that the Waiver only benefits LDCs, not all developing countries. It operates thus as an “LDC-only Enabling Clause for services”. The Waiver only enables preferences, it does not require WTO Members to grant them, nor provide them with specific ideas or tools to facilitate LDCs’ exports into their markets. This paper presents the findings of the pilot study on Senegal. Focusing on a selection of services sectors of particular export interest to Senegal, this case-study assesses, where appropriate on an anecdotal basis, whether and to what extent the preferences granted by WTO Members respond to the market access, regulatory and other barriers experienced by Senegal’s services exporters in their export market(s). By converging all available sources of information, the analysis aims to identify the relevance of the notified preferences for Senegal’s services exports, possible gaps and opportunities for further development of improved market access mechanisms, as well as its utilization by LDC services exporters.

The LDC Waiver is a legal tool that enables WTO Members to sidestep their obligation to treat all services imports equally under the Most-Favoured Nation (MFN) clause through the granting preferential treatment to services and service exporters from a Least Developed Country (LDC). It is similar to the “Enabling Clause” for goods within the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), except that the Waiver only benefits LDCs, not all developing countries. It operates thus as an “LDC-only Enabling Clause for services”. The Waiver only enables preferences, it does not require WTO Members to grant them, nor provide them with specific ideas or tools to facilitate LDCs’ exports into their markets. This paper presents the findings of the pilot study on Zambia. Focusing on a selection of services sectors of particular export interest to Zambia, this case-study assesses, where appropriate on an anecdotal basis, whether and to what extent the preferences granted by WTO Members respond to the market access, regulatory and other barriers experienced by Zambia’s services exporters in their export market(s). By converging all available sources of information, the analysis aims to identify the relevance of the notified preferences for Zambia’s services exports, possible gaps and opportunities for further development of improved market access mechanisms, as well as its utilization by LDC services exporters.

El Informe sobre las Migraciones en el Mundo 2010 es una herramienta para la autoevaluación desde una perspectiva de futuro, y demuestra la necesidad de un enfoque más amplio de la creación de capacidad para la migración, que el que se ha adoptado hasta ahora. El objetivo no es prescribir políticas y prácticas que sean de aplicación a todo tipo de situaciones, sino proponer objetivos de políticas de gestión de la migración en cada esfera, estimular la reflexión y dar ejemplos de lo que pueden hacer los Estados y otros agentes. La Parte A del informe se centra en la identificación de las capacidades básicas en esferas de fundamental importancia para la gestión de la migración, planteando conceptos clave y señalando importantes ejemplos de las prácticas que se aplican en esos ámbitos. La Parte B ofrece un panorama general de la migración en el mundo contemporáneo, tanto desde una perspectiva mundial como de seis capítulos regionales, elaborados sobre la base de los datos más recientes.

The 2004 edition of the World Economic and Social Survey is divided into two parts. The first part discusses the state of the world economy in 2004 and the outlook for 2005. It includes a review of developments in international trade and finance and an overview of the situation in the world’s economies as of mid-2004 and their prospects for 2005. Meanwhile, the second part addresses international migration. It examines historical and recent surges in migration, policies towards migration, its economic and social effects, the question of refugees and the state of international cooperation regarding migration.

This study explores vulnerability and household response measures in the contexts of environmental stress in the Mekong Delta of Viet Nam. Displacement estimates are often based on broad assumptions derived from macro-scale geographical data, viewing individuals’ vulnerability to hazards through the lens of their physical proximity to hazard-prone areas. Given that household assets shape responses to opportunities and threats, this report examines key household assets which determine the household vulnerability, livelihood outcomes and those critical for mobility decision-making in the face of environmental change. The report also provides analysis of government relocation programmes targeting households susceptible to hazards and draws attention to the most asset-poor, who are often trapped and the least able to both adapt to stressors in- situ, or migrate elsewhere.

Trafficking in human beings has become one of the most serious problems in the Russian Federation. Trafficking in women is now a multi-billion dollar industry and a key source of revenue for Russian organized crime groups. The study examines the patterns and growth of this illegal activity in Russia, Europe and worldwide.

This study shows that migrant smuggling routes affect every part of the world. It is based on an extensive review of existing data and literature. The study presents detailed information about key smuggling routes, such as the magnitude, the profiles of smugglers and smuggled migrants, the modus operandi of smugglers and the risks that smuggled migrants face. It shows that smugglers use land, air and sea routes – and combinations of those – in their quest to profit from people’s desire to improve their lives. Smugglers also expose migrants to a range of risks; violence, theft, exploitation, sexual violence, kidnapping and even death along many routes.

This publication is a shortened version of the summary report “Mobility of Health Professionals: Health systems, work conditions, patterns of health workers’ mobility and implication for policy makers”, which was published in March 2012, in Bonn, Germany, by a consortium led by Dr. Caren Weilandt at the Wissenschaftliches Institut der Ärzte Deutschlands (WIAD, Scientific Institute of the Medical Association of German Doctors). It provides an overview of the outcomes of the MoHProf project that aimed to gather more insights into the processes and effects of mobility of health professionals to, from and within the European Union (EU) and which was carried out under the 7th Framework Programme for Research and Development of the EU.