Migration

RESOURCES ON MIGRATION

International Council on Human Rights Policy (2010) “Irregular Migration, Migrant Smuggling
and Human Rights:Towards Coherence” Geneva. Retrieved from: www.ichrp.org/files/reports/56/122_report_en.pdf

Migration policies across the world are driven by three core concerns: law and border enforcement, economic interest, and protection. This report argues that official policies are failing partly because one of these concerns, protection, has been marginalised. Intensified efforts to suppress migration have not deterred people from seeking security or opportunity abroad but drive many into clandestinity, while the promotion of open economic markets has attracted millions of people to centres of prosperity but tolerated widespread exploitation. As a political consequence, discussion of migration is widely polarised and distorted by xenophobia and racism. The report suggests that it is in governments’ interest to affirm their legal and moral responsibility to protect everyone, including migrants. Human rights law provides a baseline of essential protection for migrants, and also some key components of a more balanced and rational policy approach. A substantial appendix summarises the rights of irregular migrants in international law.

NATHAN, Max. (2009) “Your Place or Mine? The Local Economics of Migration.” Institute for Public Policy Research Working Paper. Retrieved from: www.ippr.org.uk/publicationsandreports/publication.asp

This working paper is the first from ippr’s Economics of Migration project. The project aims to improve understanding of the economic impacts of migration in the UK, and how policy should respond to that migration in order to maximise its economic benefits, and minimise its costs. This working paper makes clear the variety of ways in which migration may have affected local firms and economies. While some impacts of migration – such as filling local skills gaps – are quite visible, migration also affects local economies in less noticeable ways, such as by boosting local markets. The paper brings these out, and underlines the importance of looking at migration’s longer-term impacts in local areas, as well as its short-term effects.

OBEROI, Pia (2010) “Empowering migrants: human security, human rights and policy.” Human
Security and Non-Citizens: Law, Policy and International Affairs. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

The past decades have seen enormous changes in our perceptions of 'security', the causes of insecurity and the measures adopted to address them. Threats of terrorism and the impacts of globalisation and mass migration have shaped our identities, politics and world views. This volume of essays analyses these shifts in thinking and, in particular, critically engages with the concept of 'human security' from legal, international relations and human rights perspectives. Contributors consider the special circumstances of non-citizens, such as refugees, migrants, and displaced and stateless persons, and assess whether, conceptually and practically, 'human security' helps to address the multiple challenges they face. (From: www3.cambridge.org/uk/catalogue/catalogue.asp)