A Game Changer in EU-Turkey Relations: The Opportunities and Pitfalls of Migration Policy

ABSTRACT

The mass migration from Syria has been a major turning point and an important ‘game changer’ in EU-Turkey relations, as it marks a watershed in immigration and asylum between two periods: from 1999 to 2011 and from 2011 to the present. During the first period, the EU was one of the driving forces of change in Turkey’s immigration and asylum policy, along with significant migration movements from the Middle East. Although EU demands were largely implemented due to the country’s changing migration profile, there was also ongoing resistance and reluctance towards the EU, thus a certain degree of conditionality. With the Syrian mass migration in 2011, however, and in particular the so-called ‘European refugee crisis’ in 2015, Turkey started to use migration as a foreign policy tool with which to oppose EU conditionality.     

In search of solace and finding servitude: human trafficking and the human trafficking vulnerability of African asylum seekers in Malta

This article presents the findings of a 12-month ethnographic study of the development of human trafficking vulnerability among African irregular migrants in Malta. It illustrates the role that European migration and asylum policies have played when fostering the development of trafficking vulnerabilities amongst asylum seekers following their arrival through the gates of Fortress Europe. It critically evaluates the discourse and discursive frameworks that have held dominion over the way in which academics and policy-makers have understood human trafficking practices, drawing attention to forms of human trafficking exploitation that are underrepresented within both trafficking literature and empirical studies.     

Settlement of refugee women and children following the Second World War: challenges to the family

Abstract

Following the Second World War, refugees that were displaced as a result of conflict became a global concern. Many of these displaced persons were resettled under the auspices of the International Refugee Organization. Large numbers of European displaced persons settled in Australia, with significant numbers living in Queensland. The wartime and migration experiences of refugees have the potential to influence settlement experiences, and for displaced persons who settled in Queensland, these prior experiences continued to resonate within the family throughout the settlement process. Many refugee children became separated from their families, and while some were reunited, the process was lengthy and not without its difficulties. The effect of separation and loss experienced by these families dominated the post-war experience. It presented challenges to mothers, children and families as they negotiated the uncertainty of displacement and the potential for resettlement, and affected their approaches to separation and reunification. The separation and reunification of children and families played a significant role in the settlement process, influencing interactions with Australian organisations and the development of familial and social network connections during settlement. The legacy of conflict and separation continued to resonate within families and influenced perspectives of the ongoing settlement process for child refugees.     

美国K类签证对中国立法的启迪

美国K类签证,又称外籍公民入境与美国公民结婚的一种签证。由于K类签证拒签率较低,对申请人的语言要求不高,已经成为美国公民的外籍配偶合法移民的重要途径。鉴于越来越多的发展中国家公民试图通过涉外婚姻而达到移居发达国家的目的,因此出入境管理部门及普通百姓了解K类签证的申请程序,有助于中国研究制定相应的立法对策。     

保持我国军事人口迁移可持续发展的原则与途径

我国市场经济条件下的军事人口迁移,面临着军事建制单位人口迁移活动与涉及地区(单位)或群众利益补偿需求不尽一致、部队对兵源素质要求越来越高与社会兵员征集质量难以确保、城镇兵员征集相对容易与退役安置难度较大等矛盾。为此,我国军事人口迁移应以确保国家安全和社会稳定为原则、以服从社会主义现代化建设为大局、以良性循环为大计,从健全军事人力资源动员机制、改进平时新兵征集工作、拓展退役官兵安置渠道和规范复退、替补性军事人口迁移的责权与秩序等方面,为军事人口迁移的可持续发展夯实基础。     

Rethinking the future-seeking narrative of child migration: the case of Ethiopian adolescent domestic workers in the Middle East

ABSTRACT

Recent research on child migration has largely departed from the early trafficking narrative and has tended to highlight young people’s agency and the ways in which children’s migration can play a key role in their ‘future-seeking’. While we acknowledge that Ethiopian girls migrating to the Middle East in order to undertake domestic work primarily move voluntarily for economic reasons, our research – which used a multi-layered, qualitative research approach with girls and their families in the West Gojjam and North Wollo Zones of the Amhara National Regional State – found that the financial, physical, and psychological costs of such migration can far outweigh the benefits. Indeed, we conclude that the earlier trafficking narrative may, in this case, represent the most appropriate lens through which to view girls’ choices and experiences.     

Meseret’s story: women,work, and betterment in an Ethiopia–Saudi Arabia return labor migration

ABSTRACT

This life-history examines the return migration of Meseret, an Ethiopian woman in her twenties, from Ethiopia to Saudi Arabia as a domestic worker. Meseret's successful labor migration is contextualized in hierarchical local and global economic and political structures as well as her personal goals and familial strategies for betterment or socio-economic improvement. An initial comparison will be made between Meseret's natal family and her affinal Rastafari family (her husband's family) in the Jamaica Safar or Jamaica neighborhood of Shashemene in Ethiopia in terms of livelihood, gender roles, mobility, and status. Meseret's high status as a returnee in urban Ethiopia will be juxtaposed against the low value still accorded to women's paid and unpaid domestic and care work in destination and origin countries. Recognizing structural factors and migrants' subjectivities enriches both qualitative and quantitative analyses, and has the potential to provide the groundwork for equitable migration and labor policies.     

An investigation into the experiences of female victims of trafficking in Ethiopia

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to tell the stories of female victims of human trafficking from Ethiopia. It discusses the causes of trafficking and how it affects the social and emotional well-being of women. The study is conducted using a constructivist framework and involves in-depth interviews with five returnees whose experiences as victims are explored. The goal is to provide insight into the challenges faced by the wider population. Emergent themes in the stories are discussed in line with relevant literature. The study shows lack of job opportunities, limited income, and false promises made by brokers as the major factors drawing women into human trafficking. The findings also show that even after return, the victims experience further difficulties as a result of post-traumatic psychological factors. Looking at the significance of the research outcomes, the gleaned information could be of value for organizations working on migration and countering human trafficking.     

Learning to live with irregular migration: towards a more ambitious debate on the politics of ‘the problem’

What might be gained by learning to live with ‘the problem’ of irregular migration, rather than attempting to solve it? This article engages two senses of ‘the problem’ at stake: first, the ongoing nature of displacement and migration and second, the contested justice claims that sit behind different policy perspectives. The second sense of the problem (its political dimension) is rarely addressed explicitly in public debate. Yet direct engagement with the political dimension offers the potential to unlock debate from a polarised impasse. To make this argument, I first diagnose debate on irregular migration in terms of three archetypal positions and examine their implicit justice claims. I then argue for a more ambitious debate that pushes contending justice claims to their logical extensions. Debate of this kind requires a more coherent defence of justice claims, whether they are based in communitarian, cosmopolitan, anti-capitalist or hybrid values with respect to citizenship and political community. The article concludes with an illustration of how this approach can generate momentum for less circular, more sustainable and politically achievable policy responses. The argument is made with reference to illustrative examples from Australia and Europe but holds for a variety of contexts where ‘the problem’ is framed in similar ways.     

Justified state partiality and the vulnerable subject in migration

According to David Miller, there exists a special relationship between migrants at the border and members of a political community that the migrant hopes to join. It is the task of a political philosophy of migration to define a state’s obligations toward individuals who are vulnerable to the state’s actions without being members of the political community. I define the vulnerability in question as lacking capacity to be autonomous for lack of options to realize one’s plan of life. I then discuss Miller’s claim that what matters is sufficiency of generic options rather than access to all options. Miller wants to say that sufficiency can be achieved by assuring the protection of human rights. This claim neglects the source of the individual migrant’s vulnerability. I therefore argue that Miller neglects the specific relationship he has identified between potential host state and hopeful migrant, and advocate instead that the potential host state has to consider the vulnerability that is due to its own policies, such as migration regimes. This grounds a causal responsibility to protect the basic interest in leading autonomous lives for the migrant at the border.