Migration Governance and Policy in the Global South: Introduction and Overview

Building knowledge about migration governance and policy in the Global South is a priority for research and policy. The studies in this special section offer both new empirical insights and new frameworks for analysis, with key policy implications, that can enrich our discussion of these topics. They focus on issues that relate to national and sub‐national level governance and policy, speaking both to the impact of diverse governance structures and policies on the well‐being of migrants and host communities, and of the policy‐making process itself and the factors influencing that process. In so doing, they point toward promising directions for future work on these topics and underscore the value of multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and cross‐regional analysis. This essay provides an introduction to the studies included in this collection, framing their contributions in the context of research in development and ongoing global discussions on migration policy.     

Looking Back and Moving Forward: The Research Agenda on the Global Governance of Mixed Migration

There is no international regime to comprehensively govern transnational migration in all of its facets. But scholars and policymakers acknowledge and study the existence of the global governance of migration. Though most have focused on disaggregating the global governance of migration into its separate regimes (refugees, labour, travel, etc.), I argue here that much of this architecture addresses the phenomenon of mixed migration. I define the global governance of mixed migration as involving a range of legal regimes impinging on actors simultaneously; shared understandings about the nature of mixed migration, including motivations and drivers; and the existence of different bilateral, regional and global arrangements for addressing the phenomenon. I critically review the interdisciplinary research agenda on the global governance of mixed migration, covering its emergence over the last twenty years, its broad empirical and conceptual dimensions, the major debates and promising directions for future research.     

The European Democratic Deficit,the Market and the Public Space: A Classical Liberal Critique

This article argues that attempts to utilize a Habermasian conception of the public space as a remedy for the democratic deficit deemed to be inherent within the political institutions of the European Union (EU) are unlikely to prove successful. It is argued that the instrumental goal demanded of the public space is contrary to the communicative rationality intrinsic to the Habermasian model. Moreover, the Habermasian conception of the public space as an arena independent of both the market and the state is non-operational because a public space independent of the market is inconceivable. An alternative conceptualization of the public space, focusing on the role of the market as a communicative process, and an alternative remedy for the European democratic deficit, focusing on liberal representative democracy, are proposed.     

Gendering Global Governance

In this article I map out the major debates on global governance and the feminist critiques of the mainstream interventions in these debates. I argue that the shift from government to governance is a response to the needs of a gendered global capitalist economy and is shaped by struggles, both discursive and material, against the unfolding consequences of globalization. I suggest feminist interrogations of the concept, processes, practices and mechanisms of governance and the insights that develop from them should be centrally incorporated into critical revisionist and radical discourses of and against the concept of global governance. However, I also examine the challenges that the concept of global governance poses for feminist political practice, which are both of scholarship and of activism as feminists struggle to address the possibilities and politics of alternatives to the current regimes of governance. I conclude by suggesting that feminist political practice needs to focus on the politics of redistribution in the context of global governance.     

Alain Guilloux: Taiwan,Humanitarianism and Global Governance

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations -     

Religion and Migration around the Globe: Introducing the Global Religion and Migration Database

International migration is a global phenomenon involving nearly 215 million people, equivalent to 3% of the world’s population. Previous databases of global migration catalog international migration using a variety of variables (sex, education, age); however, religion is rarely addressed within these data sets. Representing nearly half a million data points, the Global Religion and Migration Database (GRMD) was constructed – the only global database estimating the global migrant population (stock) by origin, destination, and religious affiliation. This research note serves as an introduction to the GRMD, detailing the construction of the database and providing key findings from a global perspective.     

中东恐怖主义、全球治理与中国的反恐政策

中东反恐斗争是国际反恐中最关键、最具影响的组成部分,也是国际社会面临的全球治理问题之一。它与当代的国际体系转型和政治经济秩序的重建分不开,又同中东伊斯兰国家在经济全球化深入推进的形势下,如何处理现代化进程中的改革与发展、实现制度变迁和社会转型直接相关。从中东恐怖主义产生的根源、发展和蔓延的轨迹看,中东恐怖主义既蕴含着错综复杂的历史、社会、宗教、民族等内部因素,也掺杂着外来侵略、占领、干涉以及地区国家之间领土、资源和利益等方面的矛盾和冲突等外部环境因素。中国的反恐政策既出于保护海外利益的需要,也折射了中国独特的全球治理理念和治理模式。     

欧美在中东民主治理上的分歧与合作

欧美在中东展开的民主治理是各自全球治理的重要组成部分,双方成为在中东实施民主治理的两个最大国际行为体,尽管它们对民主的侧重点、伊斯兰与民主关系、中东战略地位以及中东民主化的主导权等方面虽有不同认知,但对民主和中东民主的必要性与有效性存在相同认知,深究其因,双方中东民主治理的差异源于欧美所处的历史阶段、发展起点与路径以及利益攸关地区的根本不同.只有打破将西方视作铁板一块的旧有观念,才能对中东与欧美在民主等问题上的关系产生更理性的认识.     

Physician Migration in the Global South between Cuba and South Africa

Transnational physician migration has concerned states' health and migration policies for many years. Recent developments have increased attention to the outcomes of these flows in the global south, where physician emigration is undermining public health policies. Cuba's exporting of medical professionals presents an alternative dynamic, based upon both an ideology of humanitarian solidarity and a need to secure hard currency earnings. The benefits and challenges arising from a bilateral agreement between Cuba and South Africa to supply Cuban doctors to South Africa and training at the Latin American Medical School (ELAM) for South African medical students are addressed. The benefits of skills enhancement and professional development are noted, as well as the economic benefits for both the Cuban government and individual doctors, while concerns with the appropriateness of the medical training provided at ELAM for the South African health context and the sustainability of the current policy are discussed.

Policy Implications

• Strategic bi‐lateral agreements offer a productive route towards more sustainable management of skilled migration.
• When migration agreements include skills training, attention is needed to ensure the training provided is appropriate to the destination context: attention needs to be paid to the appropriateness of the medical training afforded to South African medical students in Cuba for health requirements in South Africa.
• International migration agreements can form part of a broader policy suite aimed at realizing public health and other development priorities. However, attention must be paid to the suitability and sustainability of the outcomes of these practices.

     

全球安全治理视野下的核安全

本文梳理了核安全的定义及内涵,提出核安全既包括防止核武器扩散,也包括确保核材料、核设施及和平利用核能等的安全,分析了全球核安全所面临的挑战和严峻形势,即恐怖主义获取核材料及技术的能力和意图不断上升、全球大量核材料安保状况令人担忧以及和平利用核能存在潜在的事故风险。接下来探讨了核安全峰会等全球核安全治理机制的现状,指出在落实核安全峰会工作计划以及强化国际社会在核安全合作上存在的问题,并在此基础上提出了建立一个普遍、有效的核安全体系的对策与建议。     

The Governance of Forced Labour in the Global Economy

Abstract

The problem of forced labour in the contemporary global economy is attracting increasing attention in global governance debates and policy circles. The effectiveness of governance initiatives depends on underlying understandings of the root causes of the problem. We explore how the root causes of forced labour in global production networks (GPNs) are framed in global governance debates. Focusing on the dominant frameworks mobilized by international institutions, with some attention to cognate national-level and corporate governance strategies, we identify certain limitations to dominant interpretations, which derive from their ‘residual’ character and their associated neglect of the manner in which the roots of forced labour reach deeply into the organization of GPNs, the forms of exploitation which are integral to them, and the connections between exploitation and poverty. We set out an alternative, ‘relational’ perspective on the roots of forced labour in GPNs, based on the concept of ‘adverse incorporation’, and consider the implications of the insights generated by this perspective for contemporary governance frameworks.     

Contested Ground: Network Governance in Australia's Migration Industry

This article challenges current understandings of the Australian migration industry's position in a network governance framework by shedding light on Registered Migration Agents’ (RMA) lived experiences of their profession. Using qualitative interview data collected from ten migration intermediaries across Australia, this article examines their experiences of their role in relation to the state and industry bodies. Placing migration intermediaries at the meso‐level of analysis, between macro‐level forces of the state and micro‐level agency of their clients, I argue primarily that the migration industry of Australia is a “contested ground” where intermediaries are embedded within complex negotiations with the state and legal frameworks, whilst also negotiating their legitimacy in a stigmatised profession. The findings of this study reveal migration intermediaries’ experiences of network governance as pivotal stakeholders, operating within a space characterized by complex configurations of autonomy and bureaucratic control.     

Global Governance Organizations: Legitimacy and Authority in Conflict

Global governance organizations (GGOs) are frequently malignedas both illegitimate and ineffective. With the growing prominenceof entities that promulgate global rules governing trade, communications,finance, and transport, these shortcomings take on greater importance.This essay presents a theoretical framework to understand thechallenge of legitimacy for GGOs. It argues that GGOs tend toface trade-offs between legitimacy and authority, but that widespreadusages of these important terms conflate or confuse them andthus obscure critical issues in GGO politics. Once these termsare more clearly defined, we see more easily that GGOs mustsometimes violate democratic norms, sacrificing equality andbureaucratic neutrality, to satisfy key constituencies and thusretain power. The argument lays the foundation for an empiricalstudy that demonstrates how the structure and processes adoptedby GGOs are intended to satisfy the conflicting demands of legitimacyand authority.     

International Travel Security and the Global Compacts on Refugees and Migration

This article examines the security dimension of the Global Compact on Refugees and the Global Compact for Migration and explains how the global compacts expand international cooperation on travel security. Although the Global Compact on Refugees contains relatively few security‐related provisions, many of the Global Compact for Migration's commitments are largely devoted to increasing security by strengthening border controls, improving travel documents, collecting data, using new technologies, like biometrics, and sharing data. By agreeing to increase cooperation on international travel security aimed at reducing irregular migration, migrant origin states have won commitments from migrant destination states to improve conditions for their nationals working abroad. Given that both global compacts are non‐binding and states may take actions to realize some of the compacts’ commitments but not others, the actual consequences of the compacts may vary greatly and lead to unanticipated outcomes.     

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.