Migration & Citizenship
Readings week 1:
De Haas – International Migration, Remittances and Development:
Myths and Facts
The debate on international South – North labour migration tends to focus on
the receiving end (of their interests and consequences), this bias obscures the
understanding of developmental causes and consequences of migration at
the sending end. – p. 1269
De Haas examines the reciprocal migration through the discussion of the
seven myths. – p. 1269
“Instead of uselessly and harmfully trying to stop inevitable migration,
immigration policies allowing for freer circulation can, besides increasing
migration control, enhance the vital contribution of migrants to the
development of their home countries.” – p. 1269
“It would appear fundamental to regard the relationship between migration
and development as a reciprocal relationship. (…) It is also important to
establish an explicit link between the traditionally separated domains of
development and immigration policies pursued by migrant receiving countries,
as the latter significantly affect the mobility and economic behaviour of
migrants.” – p. 1269-1270
1) The first myth is the idea that we live in an age of unprecedented
migration. People often think that this is because of globalisation. – p.
1270
a. However there were periods before the late 20 th century and early
21st century, that had periods of equal or more international
migration. – p. 1270
b. Discourses of ‘aquatic’ metaphors (‘waves of immigrants’). – p.
1270
c. The direction of international migration has radically changed, and
the visibility is increased (many Western societies confronted with
culturally distinct immigrants). – p. 1270
2) The second myth is that poverty and misery are the root causes of labour
migration. – p. 1271
a. It is rarely the poorest who migrate, because migrating involves
costs and risks, knowledge, social networks, and requires the
necessary aspirations. – p. 1271
b. “Rather than absolute poverty, a certain level of socioeconomic
development, combined with relative deprivation in the form of
global inequality of development opportunities, seems to be the
most important cause of migration.” – p. 1271
c. “Development seems inevitably accompanied by increasing mobility
and migration.” – p. 1271
d. The relation between migration and development is not linear or
inversely proportional. – p. 1271
,3) The third myth is that developmental policies, developmental assistance
and trade liberalisation are an effective remedy against migration, because
social and economic development enables more people to migrate and
tends to increase their aspirations. – p. 1271
a. “Consequently, ‘stay-at-home’ aid and trade policies seem to be
‘right for the wrong reasons’.” – p. 1272
b. “Moreover, trade liberalisation and migration can become long-term
complements if non-tariff trade barriers, subsidies, higher
productivity, technological advantages and economics of scale in
the North harm the competitiveness of the South even in the
production of labour-intensive goods, thereby leading to the shift of
economic activities to the North, along with more immigration to
support them.” – p. 1272
4) The fourth myth is that migration as a potential source of development
provokes a brain drain. – p. 1272
a. First, not all migrants are highly skilled. – p. 1272
b. Second, the brain drain seems to be only truly massive in a minority
of countries. – p. 1272
c. Third, a brain drain can be accompanied by a brain gain. – p. 1272
d. Fourth, labour tends to be more productive in wealthy, industrialised
countries. – p. 1272
e. “Many governments consider skilled labourers to be an export
product and so willingly create surpluses of certain categories of the
highly skilled.” – p. 1272
f. Highly skilled migrants often play an important and positive role in
the societal and political debate, the development of a civil society
in countries of origin, and the emancipation of women and minority
groups (besides their economic role). One of the main reasons for
this is that they tend to have more freedom and opportunities to
organise themselves and express their opinion than that is often the
case in the sending countries. – p. 1272-1273
g. “This is not to say that the impact of migration is always positive
and that no brain drain can occur.” – p. 1273
h. Stay-at-home policies have proven to be ineffective and
counterproductive by alienating migrants. – p. 1273
5) The fifth migration myth is that the money migrant remit to sending
countries is mainly spent on conspicuous consumption and non-productive
investments (the idea that there is a dangerous dependency on
remittances). – p. 1274
a. The idea that the departure of young men decline in local
economic activities this lost labour effect is blamed for the de-
intensification of agriculture and the decline of land under
cultivation. – p. 1274
b. More recent work suggests that remittances potentially enable
migrants and their families to invest in agriculture and other
enterprises. – p. 1274
, c. “Furthermore, there seems reason to criticise the inclination to
denote expenditure on housing, sanitation, health care, food and
schooling as unproductive and non-developmental. After all, such
improvements in well-being and human capital also have the
tendency to increase their productivity, freedom of choice and the
capacity to participate in public debate. Consequently they also
constitute 'development', at least if we adopt a broad definition of
this concept, which puts improvements in people's actual
capabilities and well-being first.” – p. 1274
6) The sixth myth is that the orientation of migrants towards their countries of
origin is an indication of the lack of social and economic integration in the
receiving countries’ societies. – p. 1275
a. Particularly visible in some Northwest European countries. – p.
1275
b. Remittances were negatively seen as a ‘disappearance’ of income
earned in the receiving country. – p. 1275-1276
c. “In this context, too, it is important to recognise that migrants
increasingly live in a transnational world, in which they
simultaneously work, do business or participate in public debate in
two or even more countries.” – p. 1276
Remittances are higher than we think because it includes cash transfers and
transfers through informal channels. – p. 1276
“Remittances have proved to be less volatile, less pro-cyclical, and therefore a
more reliable source of income than other capital flows to developing
countries, such as foreign direct investment (FDI) and development aid.” – p.
1277
“The main beneficiaries of remittances are lower middle income countries,
which receive nearly half of all remittances worldwide.” – p. 1277
Remittances go directly to those who need it, and does not require
bureaucracy or the risk of losing the money to corrupt officials. – p. 1277
“In brief, remittances seem to be a well nigh ideal form of 'bottom up'
development finance-and perhaps a more viable alternative to classical forms
of development aid. Although there is an element of truth in this, such
euphoria may be overly optimistic.” – p. 1277
1) There is a tendency to overestimate the amount of migration and
remittances. – p. 1277
2) “Second, unrestrained optimism unfortunately ignores the insights
that have emerged from prior research with regard to 1) the
selectivity and 2) the heterogeneity of the impact of migration and
remittances on development in migrant-sending communities and
countries. As migration is a selective process, the direct benefits of
remittances are also selective and do not tend to flow to the poorest
members of communities, nor to the poorest countries.” – p. 1278
The most effective policies should improve the legal position of migrants, as
well as improve the general social and political-economic circumstances in the
sending countries. – p. 1278
, Governments and developmental agencies can increase the positive impact
of migration on development in two ways:
1) Reducing the transaction costs of remittances. – p. 1279
2) Remittances can be encouraged by exempting them from taxation.
– p. 1279
In evaluating policies pursued by most migrant-receiving countries, two major
incoherences appear:
1) “There is a potential discrepancy between the aim of development
agencies to help the poorest people and the poorest countries, on
the one hand, on the other, the aim of creating a link between
migration and development policies, because migrants are
generally not the poorest members of communities and most
migrants do not come from the poorest countries.” – p. 1279
2) “A second, more fundamental, discrepancy exists between the
restrictive immigration policies of migrant-receiving countries and
their wish to stimulate circular and return migration.” – p. 1279
7) The seventh migration myth is that states are able to ‘manage’, largely
control, or stop migration. – p. 1279-1280
a. The goals of restrictive immigration policies as pursued by most
Western states are generally unrealistic and have a
counterproductive result. – p. 1280
“On the sending side, governments should abandon stay-at-home policies,
which have not only proven to be ineffective, but also seem to alienate
migrants and actually decrease their inclination to return, circulate, invest and
participate in public debate. A more fruitful approach would be to create an
attractive social, economic and political environment that will encourage
migrants to remain involved in their home countries, to return and circulate,
and to make social and economic investments.” – p. 1281
“On the receiving side, opening the borders to demand-driven labour
migration while guaranteeing migrants' rights will greatly enhance the
developmental potential of labour migration for both the sending and receiving
societies. Purposefully allowing low- and highly skilled workers to immigrate
will also increase governments' ability to select migrants on the basis of their
education and skills. This will prevent further criminalisation of 'economic
migration' and encourage circular migration. Migrants will become more
visible and people smuggling will be reduced. This is also in the interest of
receiving countries.” – p. 1281-1282
Geddes & Scholten – The Politics of Migration and Immigration in
Europe:
Debates in Europe about migration have been strongly influenced by the
‘refugee crisis’. – p. 2
Germany is often the preferred final destination of refugees in Europe. – p. 2
