POLITICS AND THE MIGRATION-DEVELOPMENT NEXUS: THE EU AND THE ARAB SEM COUNTRIES Françoise de Bel-Air CARIM Research Reports 2011/05 Co-financed by the European University Institute and the European Union EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE, FLORENCE ROBERT SCHUMAN CENTRE FOR ADVANCED STUDIES Politics and the migration-development nexus: the EU and the Arab SEM countries FRANÇOISE DE BEL-AIR Doctor of Demographics and Social Sciences CARIM EURO-MEDITERRANEAN CONSORTIUM FOR APPLIED RESEARCH ON INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION RESEARCH REPORT, CARIM-RR 2011/05 BADIA FIESOLANA, SAN DOMENICO DI FIESOLE (FI) © 2011, European University Institute Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies This text may be downloaded only for personal research purposes. Any additional reproduction for other purposes, whether in hard copies or electronically, requires the consent of the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies. Requests should be addressed to [email protected] If cited or quoted, reference should be made as follows: [Full name of the author(s)], [title], CARIM Research Reports [series number], Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, San Domenico di Fiesole (FI):European University Institute, [year of publication]. THE VIEWS EXPRESSED IN THIS PUBLICATION CANNOT IN ANY CIRCUMSTANCES BE REGARDED AS THE OFFICIAL POSITION OF THE EUROPEAN UNION European University Institute Badia Fiesolana I – 50014 San Domenico di Fiesole (FI) Italy http://www.eui.eu/RSCAS/Publications/ http://www.carim.org/Publications/ http://cadmus.eui.eu CARIM The Euro-Mediterranean Consortium for Applied Research on International Migration (CARIM) was created at the European University Institute (EUI, Florence), in February 2004 and co-financed by the European Commission, DG AidCo, currently under the Thematic programme for the cooperation with third countries in the areas of migration and asylum. Within this framework, CARIM aims, in an academic perspective, to observe, analyse, and forecast migration in Southern & Eastern Mediterranean and Sub- Saharan Countries (hereafter Region). CARIM is composed of a coordinating unit established at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies (RSCAS) of the European University Institute (EUI, Florence), and a network of scientific correspondents based in the 17 countries observed by CARIM: Algeria, Chad, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Palestine, Senegal, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, and Turkey. All are studied as origin, transit and immigration countries. External experts from the European Union and countries of the Region also contribute to CARIM activities. CARIM carries out the following activities: - Mediterranean and Sub-Saharan migration database; - Research and publications; - Meetings of academics and between experts and policy makers; - Migration Summer School; - Outreach. The activities of CARIM cover three aspects of international migration in the Region: economic and demographic, legal, and socio-political. Results of the above activities are made available for public consultation through the website of the project: www.carim.org For more information: Euro-Mediterranean Consortium for Applied Research on International Migration Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies (EUI) Convento Via delle Fontanelle 19 50014 San Domenico di Fiesole Italy Tel: +39 055 46 85 878 Fax: + 39 055 46 85 755 Email: [email protected] Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies http://www.eui.eu/RSCAS/ Table of Contents INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................................. 1 I. EU POLICIES ON MIGRATION ......................................................................................................................... 3 Migration for the EU: a central issue ............................................................................................................ 3 Migration and development ........................................................................................................................... 5 EU policy towards the SEM countries: a bipolar security issue ................................................................... 7 Migration and development in EU-SEM relations: policies and debates .................................................... 11 II. ASSESSMENT OF THE APPROACH AND BACKGROUND OF EU MIGRATION- DEVELOPMENT POLICIES. .......................................................................................................................... 12 Neo-liberal reforms as conducive to employment ....................................................................................... 12 Neo-liberal reforms, politics and migration ................................................................................................ 13 The “root-causes approach” and the “migration hump” ........................................................................... 14 Engineering migration for development: from scientific debate to ideology .............................................. 15 III. ALTERNATIVE THEORIES ON MIGRATION AND DEVELOPMENT: MULTI-LEVEL APPROACHES ................................................................................................................................................... 20 Migration systems theory ............................................................................................................................ 21 Transnational networks and diasporas ....................................................................................................... 22 Political economy, social transformation and neo-institutionalist views .................................................... 22 Migration as an intrinsic part of development: the “human development” paradigm ............................... 25 IV. THE SOCIO-POLITICAL CONTEXT OF EMIGRATION DYNAMICS FROM THE SEM COUNTRIES ....................................................................................................................................................... 27 Migration dynamics from the SEM region .................................................................................................. 27 Reassessing the “root causes” of Arab SEM migration and its resilience .................................................. 29 V. SEM COUNTRIES’ MIGRATION-FOR-DEVELOPMENT POLICIES: A VIEW FROM POLITICAL ECONOMY AND NEO-INSTITUTIONALISM ...................................................................... 35 Migration and development policies in the SEM countries ......................................................................... 35 SEM countries’ migration-for-development policies: a response to what stakes, for what outcomes? ....... 47 CONCLUSION: MIGRATION AND POLITICAL TRANSITION IN THE SEM REGION .................... 53 BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES .................................................................................................................. 55 Abstract In the hope of regulating migratory flows, the European Council endorsed a “global approach” to migration in December 2005, an approach which is based on the correction of the “deep causes of migration”: poverty, unemployment and development gaps between North and South. Besides liberalising economies and trade systems, a set of measures are advocated in order to enhance home countries’ development by using “migration [as a] medicine against migration”: stimulating the remittance of funds back to the country of origin; expanding the role of diasporas settled in member states; reinforcing circular migration schemes and facilitating return movements; and improving the management of the emigration of the highly-skilled in order to curb “brain drain”. The paper focuses on the Arab South and East Mediterranean (SEM) countries. It challenges the views, implicit in EU migration policies, that migration is entirely rooted in economics and that migrants’ agency alone is able to spur development in the origin country. Using the theoretical background of political economy with a neo-institutional approach to migration, it explores the stakes, the outreaches and the outcomes of the migration and development nexus. By so doing, it re-politicizes migration and development and emphasises the structural and contextual dimension of factors pushing on migration and hampering development: unemployment and high professional turn over; economic liberalisation and deregulation policies, and socio-political “blockages” (gender inequalities, patronage, clientelism and corruption, lack of public expression). Moreover, the analysis of SEM country practices in the field of migration management and engineering migration for development shows how the design of policies and the channelling of flows respond to political and demographic stakes in the various national contexts. Migration patterns act as a political shield for regimes in the region that: allows these regimes to monitor political opposition; renews socio-cultural elites; and decreases the economic opportunities in national economies, due to corruption and patronage. Current policies also reconstruct state-society/expatriates relations, through (controlled) economic participation and socio-cultural solidarity. They do not, however, lead to political participation. The paper thus concludes that amendments to macro-political contexts in the SEM countries are more likely than liberalisation policies to curb emigration flows, by engineering global social and political development. As a