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How is the prohibition of refoulement interpreted by United Nations Treaty Bodies UNTBs in their individual decision-making? Do UNTBs act as ‘soft courts’ that are more progressive interpreters than hard courts? 

Manby, B. (2021) Naturalization in African states: its past and potential future. Citizenship Studies. 

Melissa Siegel takes a look at the new RemitSCOPE platform that “compiles and analyses data on all 54 African countries providing multi-layered information on diaspora, remittances, regulation, access, market players and financial inclusion.” 

In this video Melissa Siegel uses data from the EU’s Atlas on Migration to look at the migratory situation in Spain. In doing this she looks at both the flows and stocks as well as at measures of social inclusion, education and participation in the labour market. 

In this new country case study series on the UK Melissa Siegel looks at the history of migration, migration policy and the modern situation in the United Kingdom. In her first video she addresses the history from the Norman Conquest through to the migration as a result of EU membership. In this she touches on various points in British migration history turning attention to internal migration and to Windrush migration. 

Lorena Rivera Leon, UNU-MERIT 

Melissa Siegel was the most recent guest on the SBE Podcast hosted by Louis Morgner (an International Business student). In it she discussed both her own migration and academic journey as well as some of the myths that exist surrounding migration.

A large part of research in migration studies focuses on urban centers. Context-specific social processes surrounding international migration to and diversity in rural regions, small villages and marginalized, or downscaled, areas have been widely omitted by scholarship and policy. However, the often specific social make-up, community structures and spatial developments in those areas, may bring about dynamics that are different from those in big cities. This workshop invites early career researchers, PhD candidates, post-Doc researchers and master students, who are keen to shift, decenter or broaden the focus on international migration into rural areas to come together.  The workshop consists of two parts: a first co-creation session in which we will explore topics/questions on conceptual and methodological issues of migration research in rural areas. The outcomes of this session will provide input for the second part, a panel discussion with notable rural scholars: Prof. Michael Woods, Prof. Birgit Glorius, Dr. Marlies Meijer, Prof. Sarah Neal and Dr. Rosario Sampredro. The panel will be followed by small-group workshops with the speakers, and provides the ability for the participants to further dive into a specific question or issue. 

The aim of the present work is to analyse engagement strategies regarding the Brazilian Diaspora of Science, Technology and Innovation (ST&I) by the Brazilian government. The specific use of the term diaspora for the migration of highly qualified people has developed throughout time, starting with the “brain drain” approach and moving towards the understanding of the positive effects of talent insertion in the international knowledge network (“brain circulation” and “brain networking”). At the beginning, the engagement strategies were focused on mapping the diaspora members, carrying out events and awarding prizes to outstanding diaspora members. More recently, the policy design became “high resolution”, articulating cooperation and engagement based on specific national problems. Thus, the challenge posed is twofold: not only mapping and engaging the diaspora, but, simultaneously, expanding the cooperation in strategic themes to home country problems, where the collaboration is a two-way road. The efficient engagement of the ST&I diaspora depends on strategies and policies that promote substantial behavioural changes, both at the diaspora level – so that this is motivated towards engagement with homeland projects – and at the sending country institutions – setting up more flexible and less bureaucratical mechanisms and tools. This means changes in the way diaspora issues are being understood and dealt with, setting up a favourable environment for the establishment of virtuous interaction circles.  The focus of the presentation will be the engagement strategies regarding the Brazilian Diaspora of ST&I in the United States of America by the Brazilian government, specifically the project named Rede Diáspora Brasil.  This project was developed from 2013 to 2016 by the Brazilian Industrial Development Agency (ABDI) and was funded by the Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex-Brasil). 

About the speaker 

Romain Houssa is a professor of economics at the University of Namur where  he undertakes his research  within the Institute of Development Finance and Public Policies (DeFiPP), including the  Center for Research in the Economics of Development (CRED) and the Center for Research in Finance and Management (CeReFiM). His research interests include the areas of applied macroeconomics, international macroeconomics, monetary economics, and development economics. Most of his work has been concerned with understanding the causes and welfare implications of macroeconomics as well as the micro and macroeconomic aspects of economic growth. His research appeared in Journal of Development Economics, European Economic Review, World Development, Ecological Economics, Journal of Productivity Analysis. Romain holds a PhD in economics from KU Leuven in 2008. 

Prof. Maartje van der Woude (Leiden University) announces an online conference organized by Oxford based research group Border Criminologies and the Network of Crimmigration scholars (CINETS) entitled “Borderlands – Getting to the core of crimmigation”.