Labour Market Realism and the Global Compacts on Migration and Refugees

The Global Compacts on Migration (GCM) and Refugees (GCR) include policy recommendations that aim to increase opportunities for legal labour migration, improve protections for migrant workers, and provide refugees with ‘complementary pathways’ to enhanced protection via labour mobility. This paper explains why there are large gaps between these policy recommendations and the labour market policies and realities in the countries that host most of the world’s migrant workers. These gaps between ideals and realities are likely to limit the effective implementation of the GCM/GCR recommendations on labour migration. More ‘labour market realism‘ is needed to incrementally but effectively improve protections for migrant workers.     

The Global Compacts on Refugees and for Safe,Orderly and Regular Migration: Introduction to the Special Issue

In December 2018, the UN General Assembly adopted two Global Compacts: The Global Compact on Refugees (GCR) and the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM). These two compacts, while non‐binding and aspirational in nature, offer the first widely‐accepted new normative frameworks on the movement of people since the ratification of the 1951 refugee convention and its 1967 protocol. This special issue of International Migration aims to analyse the way in which these two compacts were negotiated, examine their potential impact in a number of areas, and compare the way they deal with common themes such as gender, civil society and security. This introductory article describes the background and the process of negotiating the global compacts, provides a short summary of the articles included in this special issue, and highlights gaps in the two compacts that are not elsewhere discussed herein.     

From Refugees to Forced Migration: The UNHCR and Human Security1

Within UNHCR, there has been a shift in the emphasis on the meaning of protection. Protection of refugees is now primarily defined as security of refugees and refugee operations rather than in terms of the legal asylum process. The article examines the significance of UNHCR placing the refugee issue within both the larger context of forced migration as well as within the context of human security. The paper clarifies and documents a current and general focus of forced migration that includes the internally displaced as well as refugees and offers a framework for comprehending and dealing with the refugee problem that has shifted focus to the security dimension.     

Refugees and Shifted Risk: An International Study of Syrian Forced Migration and Smuggling

The role of smuggling in forced migration has been a leading policy challenge of the Syrian refugee crisis in Europe and the Middle East. This study investigates how anti‐smuggling government policies have shaped migratory risks for Syrian refugees in five countries: Jordan, Turkey, Greece, Serbia and Germany. Original evidence from in‐depth interviews (n=123), surveys (n=100), expert interviews (n=75) and ethnography reveal that government anti‐smuggler policies have: (a) endangered Syrian refugees by shifting risk from smugglers to their clients; (b) distorted refugees’ perceptions of risk, and; (c) decreased refugees’ confidence in government representatives while increasing dependence on smugglers. These data are unique in scope and topic, expanding the existing literature with an emphasis on understudied experiences during migration. The paper concludes with a policy recommendation that acknowledges the reality of smugglers’ role in forced migrants’ decisions, offering a pragmatic alternative of strategic pre‐emption of smugglers.     

The European Union and the Background of the Global Compacts

This article explores the influence of the European Union in shaping and promoting the discourse, theoretical bases and political practices that make up the Global Compact on Refugees and the Global Compact on Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration. It analyses the experiences and dynamics of European Union policies in its most recent history, and explores its operational, discursive and practical dimensions, focusing on the example of the EU's partnership with Turkey.     

Refugees: On the Economics of Political Migration

Unless literally forced to leave, prospective refugees have a choice between staying and flight, subject to constraints, particularly the willingness of a country to grant asylum. Although all options may be unpleasant, they nonetheless represent alternatives amenable to economic analysis. The incentive to flee is a function of threat severity and credibility, and the attractiveness of available safe havens. The theoretical analysis suggests that restrictive asylum policies have little impact on demand for asylum, except in the interplay with other factors, such as costs of flight and retribution against unsuccessful refugees. While the case of bogus refugees has received much attention in the popular literature, this article shows that threatened individuals may choose emigration instead of flight if there are repercussions associated with refugee status. The article also analyzes the case of bogus refugees.     

International Federation of Social Workers: International Policy on Refugees

The initiators and the advocates of the Australian Assistance Plan claim they are creating a new framework—a framework which is more sensitive to and aware of the needs of the individual and the community. As Knight and Wallace point out in the March issue of Australian Social Work, the key concept is participation.¹ The Social Welfare Commission, who initiated the A.A.P., describe it as:     

Not Bound but Committed: Operationalizing the Global Compact on Refugees

The Global Compact on Refugees is not legally binding, but it gives rise to commitments by the international community as a whole. It is also rooted in international refugee law, international human rights law and international humanitarian law. This article addresses how the GCR cannot give rise to binding obligations in international law, yet provide for enhanced protection and assistance to refugees and hosting communities, and establish commitments for a fairer and more predictable sharing of burdens and responsibilities. It does this by reference to other non‐legally binding international documents and rules of law. Additionally, the use of indicators to measure states’ and other international actors’ performance in operationalizing the GCR provides a framework to measure commitments; coupled with greater humanitarian and development co‐operation, commitments can be better facilitated even if the GCR is not legally binding. Finally, the sharing of burdens and responsibilities is also fulfilled by the emphasis on solutions.     

International Newsletter on Migration

The International Newsletter on Migration is a publication of the Research Committee on Migration (RC: No. 31) of the International Sociological Association. Address all correspondence to the Secretary‐Treasurer, Lydio F. Tomasi, E‐mail: < cmslft@aol.com >.     

International Newsletter on Migration

The International Newsletter on Migration is a publication of the Research Committee on Migration (RC: No. 31) of the International Sociological Association. Address all correspondence to the Editor of the Newsletter, Catherine Wihtol de Wenden (50, Avenue Duquesne, 75007 Paris, France, Tel. 47‐34‐77‐85) or to Lydio F. Tomasi, Editor of IMR, E‐mail: < cmslft@aol.com >.     

International Newsletter on Migration

The International Newsletter on Migration is a publication of the Research Committee on Migration (RC: No. 31) of the International Sociological Association. Address all correspondence to the Editor of the Newsletter, Catherine Wihtol de Wenden (50, Avenue Duquesne, 75007 Paris, France, Tel. 47‐34‐77‐85) or to Lydio F. Tomasi, Editor of IMR, E‐mail: < cmslft@aol.com >.     

International Newsletter on Migration

The International Newsletter on Migration is a publication of the Research Committee on Migration (RC: No. 31) of the International Sociological Association. Address all correspondence to the Editor of the Newsletter, Catherine Wihtol de Wenden (50, Avenue Duquesne, 75007 Paris, France, Tel. 47‐34‐77‐85) or to Lydio F. Tomasi, Editor of IMR, E‐mail: < cmslft@aol.com >.     

International Newsletter on Migration

The International Newsletter on Migration is a publication of the Research Committee on Migration (RC: No. 31) of the International Sociological Association. Address all correspondence to the Editor of the Newsletter, Catherine Wihtol de Wenden (50, Avenue Duquesne, 75007 Paris, France, Tel. 47‐34‐77‐85) or to Lydio F. Tomasi, Editor of IMR, E‐mail: < cmslft@aol.com >.     

International Newsletter on Migration

The International Newsletter on Migration is a publication of the Research Committee on Migration (RC: No. 31) of the International Sociological Association. Address all correspondence to the Editor of the Newsletter, Catherine Wihtol de Wenden (50, Avenue Duquesne, 75007 Paris, France, Tel. 47‐34‐77‐85) or to Lydio F. Tomasi, Editor of IMR, E‐mail: < cmslft@aol.com >.