The Migration & Development group

Radboud University, Utrecht University

Who we are

In an effort to bundle expertise on migration, globalization and development at the Radboud University Nijmegen (RU) and Utrecht University (UU) we have formed the Migration & Development research group (M&D). This is a team of dedicated geographers who, in their focus on migration, globalization and development issues maintain a special interest for the position of countries of the global south without, thereby, excluding their links to countries of the north. Given our interests and orientation our research is not limited to scholarly interests in theories on migration. We also maintain that our research needs to concern issues affecting society. Such research can therefore take the form of academic support to development activities of grassroots organizations such as Diaspora organizations and development aid organizations. The policy recommendations we deduce from our empirical findings also help the formulation of policies concerned with the relationship between migration and development.

Source: Daily Mail, 29 May 2007

The core research members of our Migration & Development group are:

• Annelies Zoomers - UU/RU, main geographical orientation: Latin America, Africa
• Ton van Naerssen - RU, main geographical orientation: Asia
• Annelet Broekhuis - UU, main geographical orientation: Africa
• Lothar Smith –RU, main geographical orientation: Africa, (south-east) Asia
• Gery Nijenhuis - UU, main geographical orientation: Latin America
• Roos Pijpers - RU, main geographical orientation: (eastern) Europe
• Joris Schapendonk - RU, main geographical orientation: Africa, European border regions
• Femke van Noorloos- RU/UU, main geographical orientation: Latin America

In our research activities and exchanges we are affiliated with a number of organisations and research institutes. These include:

• International Migration Institute (IMI), Oxford, United Kingdom (de Haas)
• Human Resources Development Centre, Lagos, Nigeria (Adepoju)
• Centre for Migration Studies, Ghana (Awumbila, Quartey, Manuh) )
• Institute for Statistical, Social and economic Research (ISSER), Ghana (Anarfi, Owusu) )
• Forced Migration Studies, Witwatersrand University, South Africa (Landau) )
• NIMAR, Rabat, Morocco, (De Mas, Hoogland) )
• International Peace research Institute, Oslo, Norway (Horst, Carling) )
• SMS Vluchtelingen, Utrecht, The Netherlands (Awil) )
• Oxfam-Novib, The Hague, The Netherlands (Rispens) )
• Cordaid, The Hague, The Netherlands)
• PSO, The Hague, The Netherlands (Seh)
• MDF, Ede, The Netherlands)
• African Studies Centre (ASC), Leiden, The Netherlands (De Haan, Rutten) )
• Amsterdam Institute for Metropolitan and Development Studies, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands (Dietz, Mazzucato) )
• Institute for Social Studies, The Hague, The Netherlands (Truong, Messkoub)
• Centre for Latin America Research and Documentation (CEDLA), Amsterdam, The Netherlands (Baud) )
• Nijmegen Centre for Border Research (NCBR), Nijmegen (Van Houtum, Ernste, van der Velde) )

Main Activities

1. Research programme: International Migration & National Development: Viewpoints & Policy Initiatives in Countries of Origin

Outline

In May 2006 the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SPL, DPV and DCO) and the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment commissioned our research group to conduct research on the relationship between migration and development. This research programme was entitled: International migration and national development: Viewpoints and policy initiatives in the countries of origin. The main aim of this research programme was to explore:

1. Current perceptions - as seen from the perspective of the countries of origin - of the links between international migration and national development, and
2. Current trends in policy making which aim at minimizing negative effects, while optimizing the development impact of migration.


Source: traffickingproject.blogspot.com

Output and dissemination

Expert meeting

An integral part of this research programme was the organisation of an expert meeting at the end of 2006, at which migration scholars from different regions (Europe, Asia, Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa), met with policy makers, NGO representatives and members of the African diaspora in the Netherlands, to debate a range of topics all related to migration-development. This provided direct input to the UN High Level Dialogue Top in New York (September, 2006). Furthermore a selection of key papers, along with main issues that ensued from this at this expert meeting, were bundled in the following edited volume:

Book

Adepoju, van Naerssen and Zoomers (eds.) (2008) International Migration and National Development: Viewpoints and Policy Initiatives in the Countries of Origin. Leiden: Brill.

Working papers

Beyond the expert meeting and its key academic output we also published a range of online papers to disseminate the main findings and results of the studies conducted by various migration scholars in various countries, for a range of themes, under the auspices of this research programme:

1. International Migration and National Development: Viewpoints and Policy Initiatives in the Country of Origin (proposal and working programme) - Annelies Zoomers and Ton van Naerssen
2. Proceedings of the Experts' Meeting in Nijmegen - Aderanti Adepoju, Ton van Naerssen and Annelies Zoomers (eds.)
3. Report on the Experts' Meeting in Nijmegen - Joep Kusters, David van Moppes, Joris Schapendonk, Roald Plug, Marleen van der Veen (eds.)
4. African exodus? Trends and Patterns of International Migration in Sub-Saharan Africa - Ernst Spaan and David van Moppes
5. An Overview of Migration Routes in Sub-Saharan Africa - David van Moppes
6. International Migration and National Development: Conflicting Viewpoints and Policy Initiatives in the Countries of Origin. The Case of Nigeria - Hein de Haas
7. International Migration in Burkina Faso: Viewpoints and Policy Initiatives - Babacar Ndione and Annelet Broekhuis
8. Migration International et Développement. Points de Vue et Initiatives au Sénégal (available in French only) - Annelet Broekhuis
9. Migration Internationale et Développement National: Points de Vue du Rwanda (available in French only) - Dieudonné Muhoza and Pierre Claver Rutayizire in collaboration with Annelet Broekhuis (ed)
10. Findings, Views and Policies on Migration in Kenya - Marcel Rutten and Koki Muli
11. Een inventarisatie van migratiebeleid volgens de Nederlandse Ambassades in Sub-Sahara Afrika, het belang van migratie in PRSPs, en een overzicht van belangrijke beleidsdocumenten (available in dutch only) - Marleen van der Veen
12. Afrikaanse migrantenorganisaties in Nederland. Ontwikkelingsactiviteiten en opinies over ontwikkelingssamenwerking (available in Dutch only) - Ton van Naerssen, Joep Kusters and Joris Schapendonk
13. Een inventarisatie van Afrikaanse migrantenorganisaties in Nederland betrokken bij ontwikkelingssamenwerking (available in Dutch only) - Joep Kusters, Roald Plug, Joris Schapendonk and Ton van Naerssen
14. International migration and national development in sub-Saharan Africa. Viewpoints and policy initiatives in the countries of origin (final report) - Annelies Zoomers and Ton van Naerssen
15. International migration and national development in sub-Saharan Africa. Viewpoints and policy initiatives in the countries of origin (executive summary) - Annelies Zoomers (ed.)

Follow up activity

As a follow up to the above research programme, Joris Schapendonk and David van Moppes conducted research on transit migration of Africans. This is still ongoing at present. Nonetheless some of their findings have been published in a number of working papers (see below). Other follow-up research has focused on the role of bilateral and multilateral agreements between countries of the European Union and Africa for the management of migration.


As a follow up project of the above research programme the following four papers on African transit migration have been produced:

1. Migration and Information: Images of Europe, migration encouraging factors and en route information sharing.,/a> - Joris Schapendonk and David van Moppes
2. The Migration Process: The balance between migrants' flexibility and dependency. - Joris Schapendonk and David van Moppes
3. Migration and Migrants' Economic Activities. - David van Moppes and Joris Schapendonk
4. Migration as Booming Business. - David van Moppes and Joris Schapendonk

2. Capacity building programme: Centre for Migration Studies (CMS), Accra, Ghana

Outline

The Centre for Migration Studies was formally inaugurated in October 2006. Located at the University of Ghana, just outside Accra, Ghana’s capital, the CMS has the aim of becoming a central hub in Ghana and West Africa with regard to research, education and dissemination related to migration. The establishment of the Centre is timely given an increasing demand from policymakers on academics to supply information helping them understand the nature, scale and impact of migration –domestic, regional and international. It is also timely in providing Ghana (and the surrounding region) with the necessary capacity to respond to offers and demands from other regions of the world –notably Europe- to stem and manage migration flows.



Source: Website CMS (2008)

The Netherlands Cooperation for International Organization (NUFFIC), through its Netherlands Programme for the Institutional Strengthening of Post-secondary Education and Training Capacity (NPT), has provided financial means to the CMS to help it achieve its objective of becoming a prime player in the field of migration for Ghana, West Africa and beyond. Thereby the NPT programme especially focuses on capacity building. Thus NUFFIC will support the CMS in establishing various interrelated research (Ma and PhD), education (Ma, applied courses) and dissemination (NGOs, government) activities. Following an open tender procedure the Migration & Development Group (Nijmegen), in consortium with the MDF (Ede) and the Institute for Social Studies (ISS), has become involved with the CMS through this NPT project. Thereby we hope not only to provide the required support to help the CMS achieve its goals, but also to realize a sustained, reciprocal and equal relationship with the CMS through a range of future education and research projects.

Output and dissemination

The main objective of the CMS itself, but also of the NPT programme, is for the CMS to become financially and organizationally sustainable within a few years. This not only requires of the CMS that it has its education and research activities, but also various dissemination activities, in place; it also implies that the CMS needs to become financially self-sustainable. This requires of the CMS that they secure sufficient research funds from their partners and that they establish an ongoing, income-generating set of (short) courses for practitioners and policymakers. Beyond these targets, which will help the CMS secure a position as primary migration hub in the region, output and dissemination are further targets. These need to follow out of research and related dissemination activities. Hence the completion of PhD projects by 3 candidates, and Master degrees by 10-15 students, are set as explicit goals. In this endeavour the M&D group will play an important supporting role by helping the CMS identify and develop its research and education curricula, by providing supervision to its PhD candidates, and by helping it expand its network, amongst others providing access to its own network and the activities that come out of this.

3. Other activities M&D group

• Inaugural speech by Annelies Zoomers (28 September 2006). Annelies Zoomers held an inaugural speech, entitled “Op zoek naar Eldorado: over internationale migratie, sociale mobiliteit en ontwikkeling” (freely translated: “In search of Eldorado: On international migration, social mobility and development”) in acceptance of her human geography professorship, with a special interest for development issues and international migration, at the Radboud University Nijmegen.
• The ‘Transworld: Debating the Openness of Borders in the Age of Transnational Migration’ von Humboldt Lectures (throughout 2007). The von Humbold lectures were provided by renowned scholars of migration, transnationalism and border studies such as: Alejandro Portes, Frank Düvell, Joseph Carens and Thomas Faist. The series was organised by the Human Geography department of the Radboud University Nijmegen, and the lectures were held at the Lux Theatre, Nijmegen.
• DPRN-seminar ‘Migration and Development’ (21 December 2007). Coordinated by CEDLA/IDS –Development Geography (UU) in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ISS and University of Amsterdam, this seminar was occasion to an open discussion between academic scholars, policymakers and grassroots organisations on the relationship between migration and development.
• The international workshop ‘Revisiting Rabat: Reflecting on the politics of bordering migrants in the liminal spaces of the EU-African borderlands’ (2-5 January 2008). Expert meeting on border management and (transit) migration in the liminal spaces of Europe organised in Rabat under the auspices of the NCBR (Nijmegen), in collaboration with INSEA (Mohammad V University, Rabat) and the Dutch institute in Morocco (NIMAR).
• Conference Knowledge on the move (The Hague, 26-28 February 2008. Special session organized by IDS-Development Geography (Utrecht University) on migration in an urbanising and globalising world. In collaboration with Parvati Raghuram, Gaspar Rivera-Salgado, Mariama Awumbila, Tayikaa Manuh, Marla Assis, Nicola Piper and a number of Dutch scholars. Financed by NWO/ NUFFIC.

4. Forthcoming activities M&D group

• Spring 2008: Course for CERES Summer School on ‘Migration and Development’, in collaboration with various other scholars working on migration from CEDLA, ISS and the UvA, this Summer School provides a follow-up to the DPRN seminar on migration and development that was held on 21 December 2007. Financed by CERES.
• Summer 2009: International Seminar on Migration and Development, with collaboration of Alejandro Portes, Thomas Faist, Aderanti Adepoju, John Oucho, Düvell, and a selection of Dutch Scholars. To be financed by Utrecht University, Radboud University Nijmegen in collaboration with KNAW.
• Summer 2009: Marie Curie International Training Networks (ITN): Research initiative to support young scholars of both European and non-OECD origin in their research endeavours as related to the field of migration and development. Therein special focus will be on a range of transnational phenomena. Not only will this research programme provide research opportunities to young scholars, it also has the endeavour to substantiate linkages between the collaborating research institutes, based in and outside Europe (Germany, France, UK, Sweden, Turkey, Mexico, India and Ghana), in the field of migration and development through a range of workshops, conferences and other activities. To be financed by the EU.