Editorial for International Migration, 54 (2)
| Author | Howard Duncan |
| Published date | 01 April 2016 |
| Date | 01 April 2016 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12245 |
Editorial for International Migration, 54 (2)
World migration news continues to be dominated by the refugee crisis in Europe and the Middle
East with not only continued flows from the Syrian civil war and strife elsewhere in the region, but
also with ever-stronger reactions from within the European Union. Predictably, some members of
the European public have voiced vigorous concerns over the arrival of large numbers of refugees
and other migrants, and various political interests have taken their cues from these reactions or,
some might argue, led them on. So strong have these concerns been that some governments have
re-introduced intra-European border controls, thereby opening the question of the viability of the
Schengen agreement. Reports of sexual violence against women committed by some of the
migrants have made an already uncertain social situation even less so, and governments are scram-
bling to restore the public’s confidence in their ability to manage the movement of refugees and
other migrants into their communities. At the same time, other voices, from both within Europe
and the international community, implore Europe to do yet more to help these victims of violence
and political oppression and to work to uphold human rights and maintain European values of
openness and compassion. The European refugee crisis remains indeed a crisis, and this publication
watches with great interest and in anticipation that members of our community will submit their
careful analyses for publication.
This issue of International Migration offers contributions in three areas: the relationship between
migration and development, the relationship between migration and security, and migration man-
agement. Over the past decade, much has been made of the development benefits of remittances
with calls for reducing the costs of sending them and suggestions for how their benefits can be
enhanced. But Syed Tehseen Jawaid and Syed Ali Raza offer some prudent cautions, noting that,
while remittances are generally of considerable value to homeland economies, under some circum-
stances they are seen to increase voluntary unemployment and reduce economic growth. Annalisa
Busetta, Valeria Cetorelli and Manuela Stranges examine remitting behaviours among migrants to
Italy, finding a surprising degree of invariance over time. The European Union has long supported
the management of migration for development purposes. Niels Keijzer, Julie H
eraud and Malin
Frankenhaeuser find, however, that migration policies of individual member states do not always
reflect the EU’s position on the relationship between migration and development that some member
states still regard migration primarily as a domestic problem to deal with unilaterally. Jo~
ao
Resende-Santos explores the perspective of a small, low income island society and demonstrates
the signal importance of migration and the Cape Verdean diaspora for its economy.
What some refer to as the “securitization of migration”remains of high interest to academic
researchers, many of whom see in it numerous disadvantages for migrants. Gilberto Rosas looks at
the “thickening of the US border”following numerous measures including the Immigration Reform
and Control Act and the militarization of border patrols, noting the effects of these measures on
migrants, including reductions in their human security. Staying within North America, Suzanne
Huot, Andrea Bobadilla, Antoine Bailliard and Debbie Laliberte Rudman look at how security mea-
sures introduced into the immigration system by the Canadian government have contributed to the
“othering”of certain migrants, asylum seekers in particular, and eroding the government’s responsi-
bilities to these people. Maurizio Ambrosini, in analyzing the ways in which governments manage
irregular migration, identifies four dominant patterns: exclusion, stigmatization, tolerance, and inte-
gration. He offers a detailed analysis of the governance of irregular migration by Italy and other
Dr. Howard Duncan, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
doi: 10.1111/imig.12245
©2016 The Author
International Migration ©2016 IOM
International Migration Vol. 54 (2) 2016
ISSN 0020-7985Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
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