News

Join STATAFRIC and IOM GMDAC for an online event on “Migration data in times of COVID-19” 

About this Event 

We are pleased to invite you to an event on “Migration data in times of COVID-19: Trends and policy implications in Africa” that will be held online 11 November 2020 (12:00 – 14:00 CET). The joint event is organized by the African Union Institute for Statistics (STATAFRIC) and IOM’s Global Migration Data Analysis Centre (GMDAC). 

On 4 September 2020, Prof. Melissa Siegel contributed to a live webinar organised by the Oxford Consortium for Human Rights (OCHR) entitled ‘Migrants, Displaced People and the COVID Crisis’. 

On 5 October 2020, Elaine Lebon-McGregor successfully defended her PhD dissertation entitled ‘International Organizations and Global Migration Governance’. 

On 9 July 2020, Prof. Melissa Siegel and Dr. Katrin Marchand were invited to provide input in a webinar for the staff of the German Development Cooperation Office (GIZ) on ‘Remittances, their role for economic development and how they are affected by the corona crisis’.

The challenges for protection for people on the move along the Central and Western Mediterranean routes remain great in both scope and complexity. Extensive political and media attention has been focused on the cross-Mediterranean dimension of these mixed movements,[1] resulting in a lack of dedicated fora and attention for the task of developing strategies to provide protection for persons of concern who do not cross to Europe. This is the case for refugees and migrants in North Africa whose numbers are growing and where there is a growing need to support the management of mixed movements in a sustainable manner. Addressing the drivers of conflict and instability in countries of origin and weak capacities to deliver effective protection in host countries also needs renewed focus. 

UNDERSTANDING REFUGEES’ AND MIGRANTS’ VULNERABILITY 

Refugees and migrants who undertake the journey along the Central Mediterranean Routemove in response to a diverse range of factors, including to seek refuge from conflict, crisis, and political oppression and/or to seek out a better future as part of a livelihood strategyor personal aspirations. Their mixed migration journeys can be long and perilous and over the past few years, news outlets, NGOs, and watchdogs have extensively documented the dangers that they face in transit and destination countries in West and North Africa. 

We are pleased to invite you to the first BD4M Webinar session Estimating migrant stocks and flows using social media data on Tuesday 3 November 15:00 – 16:00 (CET).

MPC Webinar 
‘There, and Elsewhere: The Making of Immigrant Identities in a Globalized World’ 
by Tahseen Shams, University of Toronto 
 
4 November @15:00 – 16.00, CET 
The link to the Webinar will be provided following registration. 

DigiD is known as the quick and easy identification system for use of government websites. Sadly, in the past frontier workers seemed to be excluded from this service. Until now, that is. The government has recently granted frontier workers the possibility to apply for a DigiD. Expertise centre ITEM reports how this decision came about and what it means. 

Dr. Sonja Fransen will lead a new, six-month project for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), combining two recently awarded projects on ‘Comparative Reintegration Outcomes in Forced and Voluntary Returns’ and ‘Understanding and Implementing Gender-Sensitive Sustainable Reintegration’.

The third phase of the project “Strengthening Migration Management Authorities in Kosovo” (MIMAK II) was launched in July and was commissioned by the Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC). 

Following the success of the first cohort of the Kenya Post Graduate Diploma Programme in Migration Studies (PGDPMS) which took place in Kenya in 2019, the Migration and Development group launched the second cohort in September 2020.