Towards migration research networking in Eastern-Southern African subregions

This article reports efforts made by a small group of Eastern-Southern African (ESA) subregion scholars to adopt a systematic approach to establishing a regional network Migration Network in Eastern and Southern Africa (MINESA). The approach involved: 1) holding a conference at which symptomatic types of internal and international migration would be discussed; 2) publication of the conference proceedings; and 3) establishment of MINESA as a network of policy-oriented research in the two subregions. The first stage has been accomplished, the second is nearly complete, and the third has yet to be undertaken. During the African Population Conference organized by the International Union for Scientific Study of Population in Dakar, Senegal, on 5-9 November 1988, a small group agreed on a timetable to establish MINESA. At the ESA conference, papers were presented on ESA issues; internal migration processes and mechanism; refugee movements and their implications for countries; the effects on the economies of Southern African states, of emigration to the Republic of South Africa (RSA). In a keynote address, Adepoju surveyed migration and development in Western-Central (Middle) Africa and Eastern-Southern Africa, which included colonial and post-colonial historical epochs, internal and international migration, and labor and refugee movements. A paper on Kenya by Oucho discussed the implications for rural-urban balance of internal migration based on 1969 and 1979 censuses. Rural-urban migration from the traditional economy to Nairobi and Mombasa in particular has created an unacceptable rural-urban imbalance, adversely affecting rural development. Eastern and Southern Africa has seen massive and wide spatial dispersal of refugees (victims of wars, drought, and famine). Two papers were presented on Tanzania and one on Uganda. The final set of papers addressed the effects of labor migration to the RSA on Swaziland and Lesotho.     

Emigration dynamics from and within South Asia

This review of current knowledge about emigration dynamics from and within South Asia (Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka) opens with a brief history of the three phases of emigration from the area since the 1830s (plantation labor; postindependence to the UK, US, Canada, and Australia; and labor migration to the oil-exporting countries). The influence of the creation of Pakistan and Bangladesh is also covered as are British colonial and commonwealth policies. It is noted that migration data are incomplete and that India exhibits an ambivalence about collecting such information. The discussion then turns to emigration since 1970 and considers permanent migration from South Asia to the traditional receivers; South Asian asylum seekers in Europe; South Asian refugees, illegal migrants, migrant workers (flows and destinations), the stock of contract migrant workers (and their characteristics); returnee migrant workers; and skill levels. Analysis is provided of macro level determinants of emigrations such as gross national product (level and growth), the general demographic and social situation, labor force growth and structure, poverty and inequality, and internal and international migration. Environmental factors causing displacement in Southern Asia include floods, cyclones, river bank erosion, drought, and desertification. Global warming could displace millions of people in the region, and development projects have contributed to displacement. The remainder of the report covers political and ethnic factors, micro-factors influencing migration decision-making, the policies of sending and receiving countries, the consequences of emigration, and the potential for migration in the future.     

Emigration dynamics in Bangladesh

This study of emigration dynamics opens by noting that emigration is one of the most dynamic economic and social elements in Bangladesh. The history of emigration from Bangladesh is sketched, and the level and trend of emigration is described for various destinations (especially the UK, the Middle East and North Africa, and Japan) and in terms of the socioeconomic background of migrants, channels of migration, occupations, the potential level of emigration, and applications for US Visas. The next section of the report presents the economic and demographic setting in terms of the gross national and domestic products, quality of life, the size and distribution of the population, the labor force, literacy, unemployment and underemployment, urbanization, internal migration, poverty, and income distribution. The discussion then centers on the sociopolitical setting and such factors as unmet basic human needs, the demand for expatriate workers, and emigration policy. It is concluded that the desperate economic situation in Bangladesh has combined with the demand for expatriate workers and the development of institutions to facilitate emigration. The result is increasing interest in emigration, which is fueled by mass communication highlighting the differences between the quality of life in Bangladesh and abroad.     

An overview of present and future emigration dynamics in South Asia

The author presents preliminary findings on selected aspects of the dynamics which govern emigration from and within the South Asian region comprised of Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. The paper attempts to identify some of the major reasons for observed migration flows and how the future may be envisaged especially in view of government programs, policies, and priorities. Contract labor migration is given special attention since it has become the predominant type of migration in the region. Sections consider a possible conceptual framework; measuring emigration pressure or potential; data and data problems; the volume of emigration since 1970; South Asian migrant workers; macro-level determinants of emigration; community, family, and individual factors; and sending country policies. The consequences of emigration are discussed in terms of the impacts upon the labor force and non-economic consequences. Observations for the future conclude the paper. Analysis of the dynamics of emigration from South Asia indicate an urgent need to improve data on various forms of emigration, that relevant officials in countries of origin have a longstanding concern about the exploitation of workers in sending as well as receiving countries, and the need to better understand the linkages between various factors relevant to the emigration process. An understanding of such linkages would allow for more realistic policies and planning for future emigration.     

Emigration dynamics in developing countries

This paper describes the research objectives and summarizes first-stage findings of a joint project of the International Organization for Migration and the UN Population Fund on emigration dynamics in developing countries. The paper was prepared for a conference in Bellagio organized to allow academics, policy-makers, and officials to evaluate the first-stage findings and to appraise the stage-two research proposals. The research methodology developed at a 1993 project launching meeting held in Geneva drew on demographic transition theory and involves inclusion in the research framework of economic; demographic; community, family, and individual; and sociopolitical variables which would provide a dynamic understanding of why different migration flows were occurring and allow projections of various types of future migration. In addition, the research was to explain all types of migration, with disaggregation by type provided. The first stage of research (reported at this conference) was devoted to obtaining and assembling data on the factors known to influence emigration dynamics. The second stage will be devoted to attempts to measure the interaction among variables in a specific region. The first-stage findings are summarized in this paper for sub-Saharan Africa, southern Asia, and Central America and the Caribbean. This paper ends by noting that this research takes the same direction as objectives cited in the 1994 UN Conference on Population and Development's (ICPD) Programme for Action. The evaluation of the proposal of second-stage research will include ways to maximize the concordance of that research with the goals of the ICPD.     

The economic,demographic, sociocultural and political setting for emigration from Sri Lanka

This study of emigration from Sri Lanka is introduced by a brief review of the situation during the colonial period and an overview of recent migration experience. The second section of the paper deals with data collection and sources for labor migration, political migration, and estimates of total net migration. The third section looks at economic and demographic trends in terms of the growth of the economy, population growth and social well-being, the growth of the labor force, unemployment, the structure of the work force, internal migration and access to agricultural lands, and income distribution and poverty. The sociocultural setting is then explored by considering exposure to the international environment, ethnicity and cultural affinity, the formation of information and job placement networks, the supportive role of the family, and the impact of success and failure. Moving on the influence of the political setting, the paper then discusses the government policy of foreign employment promotion as well as the influence of political developments on migration. In conclusion, the paper notes that future demand for domestic service workers will likely increase, and that Sri Lanka will continue to have a surplus of workers to fill this demand until the end of the 1990s, when a tightening domestic labor market and increased real wages will ease the push for migration. Political factors will continue to favor migration, however, unless a liberal democratic regime becomes the governing force in Sri Lanka.     

Sending countries and the politics of emigration and destination

This article examines available means and activities of sending countries in their efforts to exert control over the "long-term temporary" emigration process. In the European case, the structure of migration has provided sending countries with ongoing channels for promoting their interests. In this picture the political dimensions of immigration are analyzed as epiphenomenal, dependent, or inconsequential. It is assumed that 1) state power directly correlates with economic power, and 2) economic and strategic power differences between states necessarily imply inequality in social and cultural terms. Although emigration may not serve the long-term "objective" interests of senders, it does provide a short-term safety value from the point of view of political managers. Both sending and receiving countries' interests are best served by a system of temporary labor migration, not permanent immigration. The receivers' ability to act according to narrow economic self-interest is restricted by a host of multilateral agreements that regulate and define the obligations and rights of the participants in international migration. Bilateral agreements not only specify the conditions of recruitment, employment, and family migration, they also provide a continuing basis for sending country influence throughout the migration process. Sending states that have a long history of emigration tend to have more developed and articulated emigration policies and commensurate institutional structures to channel and control the migration process in all stages--leaving, working abroad, and returning. The reluctance of Europe's immigrants to serve their social and political ties to their countries of origin is reinforced by the sending countries' activities aimed at insuring the continued long-term but temporary nature of migration.     

Rethinking care through social reproduction: articulating circuits of migration

Care has come to dominate much feminist research on globalized migrations and the transfer of labor from the South to the North, while the older concept of reproduction had been pushed into the background but is now becoming the subject of debates on the commodification of care in the household and changes in welfare state policies. This article argues that we could achieve a better understanding of the different modalities and trajectories of care in the reproduction of individuals, families, and communities, both of migrant and nonmigrant populations by articulating the diverse circuits of migration, in particular that of labor and the family. In doing this, I go back to the earlier North American writing on racialized minorities and migrants and stratified social reproduction. I also explore insights from current Asian studies of gendered circuits of migration connecting labor and marriage migrations as well as the notion of global householding that highlights the gender politics of social reproduction operating within and beyond households in institutional and welfare architectures. In contrast to Asia, there has relatively been little exploration in European studies of the articulation of labor and family migrations through the lens of social reproduction. However, connecting the different types of migration enables us to achieve a more complex understanding of care trajectories and their contribution to social reproduction.     

Some thoughts on emigration from the Mediterranean basin

In addition to emphasizing that the kind of migration characteristic of the 1960s between Mediterranean and western European countries has serious implications for the former, this discussion explores the more questionable consequence of "lassez-faire" emigration for employment and development; proposes a method of analysis--the human resources approach--which facilitates insight into undesirable development, incipient or future bottlenecks, and how far they may be caused by outmigration or could be removed by the purposeful organization of return migration; and raises for examination various principles and instruments of emigration policy connecting international movements of human resources with development in general and employment policy and manpower planning in particular. Wherever migrant workers go abroad temporarily, which has been claimed to be the feature of Mediterranean western European migrations, they are not totally lost to their country of origin. They may be considered to remain part of the national labor force. Consequently, the human resources available for the country's development (hereafter termed the "national" labor force) comprise both the domestic population and the temporarily absent population. Migration streams may consist of seasonal (S), temporary (T), and permanent (P) workers according to the intentions of the migrants or their legal status. To obtain the effective numbers of S, T, and P migrants, it is necessary to weigh the figures of intending S, T, and P migrants with the actual emigration experience of each category. Applying hypothetical proportions to the known S (15%), T (80%), and P (5%) figures for Yugoslavia would give the following effective rates (as percentages of total outmigration: S = 13.5%; T = 49.25%; and P = 37.25%. In the case of Yugoslavia, which may be considered fairly representative, the temporarily absent workforce would be less than 2/3 of the annual outflow postulated. Thus, 1 in 3 migrants leaving Yugoslavia is irrelevant for manpower planning purposes. Net outmigration at seasonal peaks or throughout the year reduces the available labor supply directly. It also does so disproportionately, for it involves the most able bodied persons. To obtain positive effects, the contribution of migrants to the home country's economy would have to be larger than before migration. The question is what effect does foreign emigration have on the spatial, economic, and social modernization of the rural sector. Most Mediterranean countries are characterized by widely scattered settlements, many of which are unviable and costly to service. The economic organization of the rural sector may be affected through labor shortages inducing wage pressure and mechanization. The traditional social organization of the rural sector may receive jobs from outmigration that could speed up its replacement by modern structures.     

Violence,Networks, and International Migration from Colombia

Although Colombia is a major country of emigration, little is known about its citizens' motivations for migration. Social and economic conditions have been studied as determinants of migration, but violence has received less attention. We examine how social networks and violence function to promote emigration from Colombia by linking event‐history data from the Latin American Migration Project to external data on violence and economic conditions. We show that emigration is more likely to be initiated by those with higher education, those with network connections to migrants, and during periods of greater violence and increased police presence. Although violence acts powerfully to determine when people migrate, the geographic distribution of social capital determines where they go. Not surprisingly, migrants go to locations where people in their social networks are currently living or have been earlier.     

Migration and development: myths and reality

Recent research on the impact of labor migration on the socioeconomic development of developing countries has provided opportunity to try and resolve some of the long-standing polemics that have pervaded the literature on migration and development. This article focuses on findings concerning the labor, remittance, and social impacts of emigration on countries that have participated in labor emigration. While a great deal more research needs to be done, recent findings confirm that in some situations the sort-term impacts of labor migration on sending countries have been considerable.     

Morocco's Migration Experience: A Transitional Perspective1

Using a ‘transitional’ perspective on migration, which combines three theoretical approaches on dynamic development‐migration linkages, this paper interprets the evolution of migration within, from, and to Morocco over the twentieth century. Colonization and the incorporation of rural areas, along with a certain level of socio‐economic development, have spurred internal and international wage labour migration both within Morocco and from Morocco to Europe. Migration seems to be the result of development rather than the lack of development. Populations from highly marginalized regions were less likely to participate in migration than populations from the three, moderately enclosed “migration belts” which had established traditions of pre‐modern, largely circular migration. At the onset of large‐scale emigration in the 1960s, the spatial patterns of labour migration were significantly infuenced by colonial bonds with Spain and France, selective labour recruitment, and Moroccan selective passport issuance policies. However, the influence of such policies rapidly decreased due to the effects of migration‐facilitating networks. Increasingly restrictive policies coincided with a growing reliance on family migration, permanent settlement, undocumented migration, and the exploration of new migration itineraries, and had no success in reducing migration levels.Alongside patterns of decentralizing internal migration, a spatial diffusion of international out‐migration has expanded beyond the historical migration belts in response to new labour opportunities in southern Europe. Persistent demand for migrant labour, along with demographic factors and increasing aspirations, suggest that migration over formally closed borders is likely to remain high in the near future. However, in the longer term, out‐migration might decrease and Morocco could increasingly develop into a migration destination for migrants from sub‐Saharan Africa, a transition process which may already have een set in motion.     

Colonial Oppression, Gender, and Women in the Irish Diaspora

This paper explores the relationship between colonial oppression in pre-famine Ireland and the development of gender patterns that fostered uncommon social and familial roles for women. In post-famine Ireland women's traditional family roles illustrate cultural empowerment that combined with the pull factors of employment opportunities to spawn higher female than male emigration at the same time that patriarchal oppression restricted women's full social participation in Ireland and limited their authority to specific domains of family life. Cultural changes in post-famine Ireland, including increased power for the Catholic Church, mothers' socialization of children to the moral teachings of the Church, delayed marriage, and permanent celibacy among large segments of the population, intersected to produce unique patterns of migration. For women who immigrated to the United States, the cultural background of colonial oppression instilled values that respected independence and employment. In the case of the Irish, colonial oppression initiated gender patterns that pushed women to greater familial power and occupational independence than was typical of other ethnic groups.     

Sailing through Suez from the South: The Emergence of an Indies‐Dutch Migration Circuit, 1815–19401

This paper shows the importance of colonial garrisons and colonial migratory circuits in the history of European migration. During the nineteenth century the overwhelming majority of European‐born migrants to the Dutch East Indies were military personnel. Rapidly decreasing mortality rates and a large influx of European military personnel in the decades of colonial wars were responsible for the remarkable growth of the European colonial population throughout the second half of the nineteenth century. As a consequence an extensive colonial‐metropole migration circuit emerged. Contrary to expectations, neither the opening of the Suez Canal nor imperialist expansion resulted in a significant increase of white civilian emigration to colonial Indonesia in the late nineteenth century. Instead, sailings through Suez went north as frequently as south. It was only at a much later stage, following the end of World War I, that the tobacco and rubber plantations as well as the oil industry of the Outer Regions of the Indies archipelago generated an unprecedented demand for expatriate labor.     

Emigration dynamics of eastern African countries

This examination of emigration dynamics focuses on 13 countries extending from Eritrea to Zimbabwe and Mozambique on the eastern African mainland and on 5 Indian Ocean island nations. The first part of the study looks at the temporal, spatial, and structural perspectives of emigration dynamics. Part 2 considers international migration in the region according to Appleyard's typology (permanent settlers, labor migration, refugees, and illegal migrants) with the additional category of return migration. Measurement issues in emigration dynamics are discussed in part 3, and the demographic/economic setting is the topic of part 4. The demographic factors emphasized include spatial distribution, population density, population structure, population dynamics, demographic transition, and the relationship between internal and international migration. Other major topics of this section of the study are the economic base, the human resource base, population and natural resources, the sociocultural context (emigration, chain migration, return migration, and migration linkages and networks), political factors (including human rights, minority rights and security, regional integration and economic cooperation, and the impact of structural adjustment programs), and a prediction of future emigration dynamics. It is concluded that refugee flows remain a major factor in eastern African countries but the development of human resources in the northern portion of the region indicates development of potential labor migration from this area. Data constraints have limited measurement of emigration in this region and may contribute to the seeming indifference of most eastern African countries to emigration policies. Emigration in this region has been triggered by deteriorating economic and political conditions and is expected to increase.     

Preliminary analysis of emigration dynamics in Sub-Saharan Africa

Migration is so prominent in African history that several observers have concluded that it is a way of life for many Africans. Considerable migration has occurred historically throughout Africa in response to political, economic, religious and security situations, ethnic tensions, and demographic pressures. Patterns, directions, and motivations of migration have been severely affected by the colonial experience which, in turn, has influenced economic, sociocultural, political, and demographic development. Historical and political links between African and colonial countries initially facilitated migration toward the UK, France, Belgium, and later to the US, Canada, and Germany. Under a lengthy recession, however, these Western economies have severely restricted the flow of immigration. This paper discusses the data situation, the economic regime, the demographic regime, the political regime, the micro-macro context, the cultural regime, the ecological setting, political change and uncertainty in South Africa, the intra-African exchange of skilled manpower, and implementing the IOM/UNFPA project in sub-Saharan Africa.     

Politics and ideology in migration policy formulation: the case of Kuwait

In 1716, 3 prominent families of the original Kuwaitis agreed that 1 family would control finance and commerce, another seafaring activities, and the 3rd the government. This continued allegiance has been instrumental in shaping migration policy in Kuwait. Migration to Kuwait began in the 1930s-1940s to meet labor needs of the oil industry and the social infrastructure. This began a steady increase, with several setbacks in the early 1970s, of the migrant population. Between (1959-1964), Kuwait had to determine how it would exist and operate as an independent state. The new state established migration policy based on a need for national identity and on weighing the interests of 4 political groups: the ruling family; the wealthy merchants; the Arab Nationalist Movement; and Kuwaiti Nationalists. 3 migration laws emerged which satisfied the 4 groups and in some form continued into the 1980s. These laws basically allowed the continuation of free immigration of labor with the government controlling entry, movement, rights, and employment of the migrants while stressing neutrality and reciprocity with other states, especially Arab states. 1 law greatly limited the number of citizenships to nonKuwaitis and guaranteed economic control and major share of profits to Kuwaitis. Between 1965-1984, many changes to migration policy occurred for political, demographic, and economic reasons. 1 such change was an amendment restricting naturalization to Muslims, thereby not allowing naturalization of the growing Asian migration population, to preserve their cultural authenticity. By 1984, following 1 rebalance of the distribution of Kuwaitis and nonKuwaitis, economic declines, and security threats, migration policy shifted back to population balance. Kuwaiti history shows, however, that experimenting with migration policy and population balance cannot establish internal political and social cohesion. This is a revised version of a paper originally presented at the 1987 Annual Meeting of the Population Association of America (see Population Index, Vol. 53, No. 3, Fall 1987, p. 409).     

Emigration dynamics in West Africa

This report on the emigration dynamics at work in Western Africa opens by noting that this region comprises an important migration system with large legal and illegal movements of people within the region and to industrialized countries. Migration has been fueled by high growth rates coupled with lower growth rates of per capital income. Migration takes the form of continuing inflow into receiving countries, such as the Ivory Coast, sudden changes in migration status (in Ghana and Nigeria) reflecting sudden economic changes, a brain drain to developed countries, and an influx of refugees. The second section of the report presents a brief look at historical migratory patterns, including those of nomads which continue today. Data limitations are addressed in section 3, and the drawbacks of census data for migration information are noted. The next section describes the economic and demographic factors in the region which contribute to migration. These include the long lasting effects of colonization in general, the exploitation of minerals, patterns of agricultural development, poverty, and population growth. A closer examination of these forces at work is provided in case studies of Ghana, Nigeria, and the migration stream from Burkina Faso to the Ivory Coast. Section 5 looks at the economic causes and effects of the brain drain. Social and cultural factors are covered in section 6, with an emphasis placed on family and migration networks. Section 7 covers political factors influencing migration, such as the efforts of people to retain contact with other members of their ethnic group who may live on the opposite side of an arbitrarily drawn (by colonizers) international border, the designation of administrative capital cities, and the ease in crossing borders without documentation. The next section describes the 1975 formation of the Economic Community for West Africa (ECOWAS) and its protocols regarding free movement of citizens within the states which comprise the Community. The tolerance level of receiving countries is also linked to their economic situation. Section 9 discusses ethnic upheaval and the flow of refugees generated by Liberia, Chad, Sierra Leone, Togo, and Mauritania. The report ends with a projection of increased migration due to population growth, economic adversity, and political instability. Greater migration may also be generated if ECOWAS is successful in meeting its economic goals for the region.     

Illegals and expulsion in Africa: the Nigerian experience

The persistence and widespread nature of undocumented migration in Africa is due to 1) the absence of barriers or the arbitrariness of national frontiers, 2) the large stretch of unpoliced borders, 3) ignorance about the existence of borders, and 4) the absence or inadequacy of migration laws and regulations in both the countries of origin and destination. The free movement of persons in Africa has a long tradition. Over a large part of Africa, international migration is regarded as an extension of internal migration. The free movement of persons across frontiers in Africa historically has been facilitated by the cultural affinity of communities divided by international boundaries and the colonial policies of both the French and British. The "migration" of nomads pays little regard to international borders and is largely undocumented, even in national censuses. The frontier workers along the borders of Uganda and Kenya where members of the same extended family live on both sides of the borders and commute daily are statistically regarded as international migrants, without regard for the sociocultural realities of the African situation. Political independence substantially altered the erstwhile free movement of persons across African countries as national governments enacted immigration laws and regulations. The newly independent countries wanted to reserve employment for nationals. The Sahelian drought, internal strife in Chad, the deteriorating economic situation in Ghana, the oil-lead economic boom in Nigeria, and the treaty on the free movement of people in the community accelerate the tempo of undocumented migration in West Africa. Also, migration laws and regulations are not always rigorously enforced. Expulsion and deportation are common policy measures directed at illegal migrants resident in African countries. In Nigeria, the events leading to the expulsion of aliens were gradual, but in all cases, the actual expulsion--or decisions to expel--are usually sudden and dramatic.     

"Lazy men", time-use,and rural development in Zambia

This paper examines how work and the labor in agriculture in rural sub-Saharan Africa is measured. Section 1 presents a historical example of colonial discourses of the "lazy" African (the Lamba in Zambia). Section 2 analyzes a study carried out in rural Zambia to illustrate the relationship between stereotypes held by many Europeans, particular aspects of the colonial project, and the social relations brought about by colonialism. Section 3 examines the ways in which present work and labor approaches in sub-Saharan Africa embody value judgements which leads to distorted documentation of the division of labor between opposite genders. Sections 4 through 7 look at a time-use study conducted in Zambia and argue that studies of such nature create value judgement on what comprises work, and about how researchers and planners classify this. Overall, this article has demonstrated that time-use surveys may provide inadequate understanding of women and men's work in the absence of an understanding of the local context in which the work is undertaken, and of labor markets.