CIAO Focus for February: Migration

                                                                                                                                                    Photo by Martin Leveneur

CIAO Focus highlights a particular topic in the realm of international affairs. This month the focus is on migration.

"Across the globe, people are on the move," according to a summary of research on migration at Stanford. The UN estimates that there are 65 million people forcibly displaced worldwide. Earlier this month, the interior ministers of the European Union gathered in Lithuania for a conference on border management. The summit focused on irregular migration, the right to asylum, and the issue of pushbacks. Despite the link between human rights and effective migration policy, the conference concluded with a statement emphasizing the need for "full and secure external borders," echoing similar sentiments frequently heard in the United States. This approach is contrasted to the research of scholars such as anthropologist Daniel Reichman, who argues that "regardless of the reason a migrant may end up at the border, human rights should be paramount."

For the basic ideas and concepts surrounding global migration, the organization Diplo provides a useful summary of key points from the latest research, including the different types of migration based on data from the Migration Data Portal. In addition, Oxford has a research hub dedicated to migration, which highlights material from Migration Studies and the Journal of Refugee Studies. The Princeton University Library also has a detailed guide on the topics of migration, diasporas, and refugees.

Forced migration is a particularly relevant topic for those studying the consequences of war, with the Watson Institute reporting that "37 million people have fled their homes in the eight most violent wars the U.S. military has launched or participated in since 2001." Environmental migration has also become an unavoidable issue of international importance, in what the New York Times calls "the great climate migration." The Othering and Belonging Institute at Berkeley recently produced a report that combines many of the types of migration into a single, comprehensive analysis, which focuses on the impact of "neoliberalization, securitization, and the climate crisis" on global migration trends.