Human Migrations in the world Presentation by Gregory Beltran of the School for Advanced Studies in Social Sciences of Paris Hemispheres Program Migration, development and globalization: What interactions? Paris, from the 6 th to the 24 th of April Hemispheres is funded by the European Union. The views expressed in this blog do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Commission. 1
Introduction Migrations are not a recent thing, it s an historical and human fact since prehistory Today control of the migrations and above all of the immigration, seems to be a state priority for occidental countries However, freedom of movement is a human right according to the UDHR (article 13) Quiz your perceptions and knowledge of migration Source : United Nations Program for Development : http://hdr.undp.org/fr/statistiques/acceder/mobilite/quiz/ 2
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a) Immigrants profiles Women represent 48% of international migrants Migrants are in majority young (25-30 years old) High-skilled people and middle-class people are over represented in migrations 5
Number of the visa delivered by the United States of America in 2005 6
b) Regions of migrations 60% of international migrants move to countries that are in a similar HDI category than their country of origin Only 37% of international migrants move from developing to developed countries Historical events have a huge impact on migrations regions designation (ex: Malawi) 7
Map 1 : The majority of the movements are internal to the regions Origin and destination of the international migrants in 2000 c) Migrations effects For migrants from developing countries, migration is a chance in a financial and educational way Money sent by migrants (repatriation funds) to their own countries is more important than ODA, even though it can not replace a national human development strategy Migration is also an economical chance for developed and hosting countries 8
Top recipients of migrant remittances among developing countries 9
2) Political and moral positions about immigration According to Jérôme Valluy, immigration policies in Europe are a combination of three political coalitions: - The utilitarist one - The humanist one - The nationalist one a) Nationalism and security Restrictions on migrants rights in Europe are inspired by the vision of immigration as an invasion and a danger for the national culture Countries like France or Italia have a government which use a national rhetoric like in the debate about the national identity in France b) Utilitarism Other countries, like Spain, defend immigration with economical arguments Financial organisms and employers lobbies, at a European level, claim for migration policies more flexible to help the economy Some demographic studies conclude that immigration is a chance in front of the ageing in Europe c) Humanism NGO, religious groups and radical political parties defend migrants rights in the name of human rights This coalition is a minority but can use juridical tools like European Court of Human Right 10
3) Some figures In 2009, according to the UN, international migrants were 220 million (3,5% of WP). Estimations of world migrations are a difficult and dangerous game that s why in front of figures of migrations; we have to ask three questions: Which scientific tools were used? Which organisms have produced those numbers? What kind of migrations are they talking about? a) Difficulties and sciences All countries have difficulties to calculate their percentage of immigrants that haven t authorization of residence and leave in the country clandestinely Not every country dispose of the same tools and resources to make statistics about migrations 11
b) Some organizations that produce figures States and their national statistics office International organization like the United Nations Non Governmental Organization Academicals organisms International Organization of Migration (OIM) and Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) c) What kind of migration? Migration can be internal or international International organisms and national legislations use different categories to think and talk about immigration: forced migration, migrant worker, refugees, IDP s, illegal migrant cf glossary In social sciences, those categories are polemical 12
An example, the refugees According to UNHCR, there are 50 millions refugees or, more precisely, people victim of forced displacements in the world This forced displacement integrates Internally Displaced People : Palestinian refugees, returnees people and between 10 and 18 million of real refugees. a) Who is refugee and how? In Europe, states have the power and the duty to recognize the status of refugees to migrants who correspond to the Geneve s definition (1951) In refugee camps and in countries without an official instance of asylum, this power belongs to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugee. 13
Number of refugee by countries in 2007 Glossary : Refugee (Refugiés), Asylum seeker (Demandeur d asile), Repatriated (refugee and internally displaced person) (Rapatriés (réfugiés et déplacés internes)), Apatride (Apatrides), Internally displaced (Déplacés internes), Others population which relevant of the UNHCR statut (Autres populations relevant de la compétence du HCR). 14
b) Economical migrations and political exile Historically, this separation is a political invention to manage migrant population in an efficient way Sociology, anthropology and historic researches show that this opposition is not totally relevant to explain human migration c) Restrictions on asylum right In the 1990 s, Europe s states have adopted legislation to reduce possibility for foreigners to ask and to obtain the refugees status. In the 2000 s, Europe Union choose more and more to manage immigration and asylum, with the help of externalisation. 15
Evolution of the rejected and accepted rate by the OFPRA (French organization in charge of the asylum seeker demand) since 1973 Glossary: Rejected rate (Taux de rejets), Accepted rate (Taux d accords) 16
4) Migration policies With the construction of European Union, immigration has become a subject of harmonized reforms In NGO s and between migrants defenders, the expression of fortress Europe is using to stigmatize the militarization of European frontiers a) Schengen and FRONTEX It s only at the end of the 1980 s that immigration became a European concern, with the adoption of Schengen agreements To defend European boundaries from foreigners, European states have created FRONTEX and have made agreements with southern countries, like Libya, to prevent migrants arrivals 17
b) Externalisation and selection Zero immigration is not credible or possible, and it is also not the aim of this fortress Europe : European countries want to select their migrants To turn real this selection, the externalization is also a practical way 18
5) Exiled ways The ways used by migrants depend on a large degree of options At an individual level, reasons for leaving one s country is a combination In migration, dreams and realities are very distant points a) Security policies and migrants deaths New itineraries for migrants are created by political efforts to control frontiers. Those new itineraries are more dangerous. The emphasize on militarization of borders leads to violations of human rights and also to murders like in Ceuta and Melilla 19
b) Reasons and projects NGO, like Doctors Without Borders, in different European countries support migrants in a psychological way. That psychological way can come from the difference between the migratory project (to help their family which is still in the country for instance) and the reality of the migrant life (difficulties to own and save money) Contemporary events show how wars and conflicts are an important reason for migration, even after the official end of the war 20
International itinerary of the illegal migrations 21