Migration and Developmentwith African countries

Samuel PerrinoAna Ramírez

Outline 1. The Migration-Development concept 3 R Debate: positive or negative? 2. The EU’s Migration-Development

approach Securitarian approach Shift towards a Migration-Dev. approach The development of migration approach in the EU-

Africa relations 3. The case study of the Todgha Valley 4. Conclusions

1.The Migration-Dev. concept

1. The Migration-Dev. ConceptIntroduction

Migration-development approach-- Migration as a tool of development

-- “Migration is no longer simply seen as a failure of development, but increasingly as an integral part of the whole process of development with a potentially important role in the alleviation of poverty” (World Bank, 2003)

1. The Migration-Dev. Concept

“3 R” Recruitment: Worker

recruitment creates networks linking rural and urban communities in sending countries with specific labour markets in receiving countries

Remittances: Economic source for substaining the daily living, create investment and improve the trade balance

Return: The role of the migrants in the sending countries

1. The Migration-Dev. Concept Debate: Positive approach

Transfers of capital from North to the South

No “direct” control by the authorities. Better allocation of resources.

Tool for political change and mentality

1. The Migration-Dev. Concept Debate:Negative approach

Depopulation of entire regions, with privation of the slightly more skilled workers.

Create “rentier” economies

Allow governments to escape their responsabilities (safety valve)

Progressive disinterest in the countries of origin

2. The EU’s focus on Migration-Development Nexus

2. The EU’s focus on Migration-Dev. NexusSecuritarian approach

European focus regarding migration was based on a securitarian approach:

-- Improvements of control capacities for the admission and rejection of third country nationals

-- Use of development cooperation as a mean to control immigration

2. The EU’s focus on Migration-Dev. Nexus

Why the change?

Shock of the events in Ceuta (Sebta) and Melilla in 2005

Intensification of migration-development discourse in the international institutions

Precedents:

ILO: ILO Convention of Migration (1949) IOM: Migration for Development Programme (1964)

Recent events:

Global Comission on International Migration, 2003: “International migration has the potential to play a very positive role in the process of human development, bringing benefits to people in poorer and more prosperous countries alike”

Global Development Finance Annual Report, World Bank, 2003: remittances as a source of external development finance

International meeting on migrant remittances in London 2003, organized by the DfID, the World Bank and the IMP.

Conference on Migration and Development, by the Belgium gov., the IOM, the World Bank and the EC, March 2006.

2. The EU’s focus on Migration-Dev. Nexus

Why the change?

2. The EU’s focus on Migration-Dev. Nexus What type of instruments?

EC-UNDP Joint Migration and Development Initiative: Building the capacities of small-scale actors – local authorities, NGOs and diaspora groups – to become more active and effective in the development opportunities associated with migration

African Remittances Institute: Facilitate the effective and safe sending of remittances

Diaspora Outreach Initiative: Encourage the diaspora in the development of Africa

Remittances- Adress to the financial

institutions: Make easier the sending of remittances (19–25 % more expensive in the African countries)

- Adress to the beneficiaries: Encourage the use of the remittances in productive sectors such as SME

2. The EU’s focus on Migration-Dev. Nexus What type of policies?

Avoid brain-draining- Blue Card Directive: Directive

on the conditions for entry and residence of third-nationals for highly qualified employment

-- EU MS and states of origin can decide not to apply this directive in sectors with a lack of qualified workers in the countries of origin

-- Blue Card holders are allowed extended periods of time outside EU without losing their resident status, in order to encourage mobility

2. The EU’s focus on Migration-Dev. Nexus What type of policies?

Migrant rights-- Legal right of non-discrimination protected by different

institutions (ECJ), and instruments (ECHR, Charter of Fundamental Rights…) both European and International

-- The possibility of keeping the social security when moving back to their countries is dependent on multilateral agreements

2. The EU’s focus on Migration-Dev. Nexus What type of policies?

Cooperation at regional level ACP-EU relations

(Cotonu Agreement, 2000)

Rabat process, 2006 2nd Summit, Lisbon

(2007) MME Partnership JAES

Dakar Strategy (2011) 4th Summit, Brussels

(April 2014)

2. The EU’s focus on Migration-Dev. The migration approach with African countries

3. The case study of the Todgha Valley (Morocco)

3. The case study of the Todhga Valley The specificities of Morocco

2 M. of Moroccans living in Europe

Morocco is the 4th larger remittance receiver

Remittances flow is five times higher than development aid and it exceeds the incomes from tourism or FDI

3. The Case study in Todgha Valley

Economic growth No loss of population Positive effects in:-- Agricultural sector-- Investment-- Standards of life-- Inequalities

3. The Case study in Todgha ValleyModernization of the agricultural sector

Investment in pumps (15 % of non-immigration household vs. 43% of international migration households)

New agricultural frontiers in the desert (10 % of non-immigration households vs. 25 % of international migration households)

International immigrants households represent 68% of the total investment in private business.

Investment in low-risk enterprises

3. The Case study in Todgha ValleyInvestment

Since 1975, between 80 and 90% of immigration households invest in new houses (compared with 54% of non migration households)

Better sanitary facilities and more privacy (nuclear families)

Controversial issue

3. The Case study in Todgha ValleyStandards of life

High inequalities between non-immigration and immigration householders

Shift from hereditary inequality based on kinship to an economic-oriented inequality, based on the access to the immigration resources

More social mobility and improvement of the status of certain sectors (women, semi-slaves, serfs and sharecroppers)

3. The Case study in Todgha ValleyInequalities

4. Conclusions

Progressive importance of Migration-Development Nexus in the EU since 2005.

Migration development nexus as a global problem

The Todgha Valley as a case of success.

4. Conclusions

Thank you!

Is the migration-development approach used as a strategy to contribute less with official development aid (ODA) in third countries?

How do you perceive this nexus in your country ?

Future prospects: Do the recent events (i.e. Lampedusa or Arab

Spring) reinforce the migration-development approach?

OR Does the economic crisis bring the securitarian

approach back?

Questions for debate

What prospects for the future?