Internationale und zwischenstaatliche Organisationen im Bereich Reisen und Migration

This report aims to present findings of the research conducted in Poland within the Work Package 1 of the Welcoming Spaces project, namely “Welcoming spaces” in relation to economic viability, social wellbeing and political stability in shrinking regions. The main aim of the mentioned research was to examine how welcoming initiatives are organised and implemented in the selected shrinking localities in Poland. In particular, the creation of welcoming initiatives concerning social wellbeing, economic viability and political stability was assessed. To accomplish this objective, five localities were selected purposefully, namely Łomża (city with powiat status) and Zambrów (urban commune) in Podlaskie Voivodeship and Łuków (town), Wohyń (rural commune) and Zalesie (rural commune) in Lubelskie Voivodeship. Within these localities, 23 welcoming initiatives were identified, out of which 12 were chosen for in-depth research. The field research was conducted in all five localities between March and December 2021. During this period, the SGH Warsaw School of Economics team conducted 43 interviews with institutional stakeholders (representatives of local governments, schools, non-governmental organisations – NGOs, religious organisations and private companies) and individuals (both migrant newcomers and native residents). In addition, local government representatives were surveyed to compare their policies, measures and stances toward migrant inhabitants and local development. The research was also complemented with the literature review, policy documents analysis, and local media outlets discourse analysis. Until February 2022 and the outbreak of war in Ukraine, welcoming spaces in Poland were scarce and spatially limited to the big cities like Warsaw, Cracow, Wrocław, Gdańsk, Lublin or Białystok, governed by liberal mayors and city councils open to accept migrants and treat them as a valuable human asset of the city community. However, in smaller cities, towns and rural areas, especially in shrinking regions, welcoming spaces have been highly conditioned by welcoming initiatives carried out mainly by civil society organisations (CSOs). It is very likely that the war in Ukraine will completely change the situation we write about in this country report. However, this crisis and its consequences were not the subjects of our desk research and fieldwork in Poland, which ended in December 2021. As of late July 2022, the number of border crossings from Ukraine to Poland is almost 5 million and the number of forced migrants registered for temporary protection or similar national protection scheme concern 1.3 million people (UNHCR 2022). However, the number of those who have decided to stay in Poland is estimated at around 1.5 million (Duszczyk and Kaczmarczyk 2022). Such a large influx of forced migrants from Ukraine within five months already affects the demographic situation in the country and access to public services, mainly in large and medium-size cities1 . Depending on the development of events in Ukraine and the number of migrants who will decide to stay in Poland in the following months, the functioning of the domestic labour market, education, health service, and social assistance may significantly change. The following months may also bring new changes in the law relating to foreigners, aimed at their easier integration in the country. Access to housing in cities is already a considerable challenge, which may result in measures to encourage foreigners to settle in smaller towns and rural areas. Given these dynamic changes in the migration situation of the country, as well as in the area of admission and integration activities, Poland seems to be slowly becoming one great welcoming space. It is worth mentioning that the main institutional actors in this area have been NGOs and local governments since the beginning of the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine. An important supporting and coordinating role has also been played by international organisations such as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which launched its inter-agency Regional Refugee Response Plan (RRRP) in early spring to address the most urgent needs of the population of forced migrants and their host countries in this part of Europe (UNHCR 2022a; UNHCR 2022b; UNHCR 2022c). Based on the number of newly emerged welcoming initiatives and the pace of this emergence, they will soon become an everyday reality for every municipality in Poland. Therefore, it is difficult to find more up-todate circumstances for the “Welcoming Spaces” project objective, which is “to rethink ways forward in creating inclusive space in such a way that it will contribute firstly to the successful integration of migrants in demographically and economically shrinking areas and simultaneously to the revitalization of these places”. Furthermore, the initiatives we selected as case studies for our research should be widely promoted and treated as a model of migrants’ inclusion into the new communities. On the other hand, we need to emphasize here that the empirical material was collected between March and December 2021, before the outbreak of war in Ukraine. As such, it does not reflect the new reality in Poland

According to UN assessments, there are 214 million international migrants worldwide and another 740 million internal migrants . The OECD highlights that there seems little likelihood of substantial reductions in numbers of international migrants in the current decade . Rises in global population, new demographic trends including ageing population, environmental deterioration and an increased globalisation of the economy are some of the factors which will encourage emigration flows in coming years. International migration, firmly at the top of the EU’s political agenda, must be analysed from the integration perspective as the key factor for the future cohesion of European societies. The INTEGRIM programme is developed by a sound and well established network of 8 full partner academic institutions and 6 non-academic associated partners from the private and public sector, civil society and international organisations with outstanding research and training credentials on migration and integration issues. The aim of this programme is to structure the existing high-quality research capacity on migration and integration policies and processes in Europe through 480 person-months of Early-Stage Researchers. INTEGRIM will consider processes and policies concerning integration of foreign nationals within EU countries, including third-country nationals and European nationals migrating to other European states when they face substantial integration difficulties. The existing fruitful collaboration among the Network’s partners through existing research networks such as the EC acknowledged network of excellence IMISCOE has evidenced the capacity and added value to pool the talent to the benefit of a common critical mass and enhancement of the academic knowledge. INTEGRIM aims to enhance academic research capacity, encourage policy-relevant research on integration and diversity management and facilitate the use of that research by governments and non-governmental organisations.

According to UN assessments, there are 214 million international migrants worldwide and another 740 million internal migrants . The OECD highlights that there seems little likelihood of substantial reductions in numbers of international migrants in the current decade . Rises in global population, new demographic trends including ageing population, environmental deterioration and an increased globalisation of the economy are some of the factors which will encourage emigration flows in coming years. International migration, firmly at the top of the EU’s political agenda, must be analysed from the integration perspective as the key factor for the future cohesion of European societies. The INTEGRIM programme is developed by a sound and well established network of 8 full partner academic institutions and 6 non-academic associated partners from the private and public sector, civil society and international organisations with outstanding research and training credentials on migration and integration issues. The aim of this programme is to structure the existing high-quality research capacity on migration and integration policies and processes in Europe through 480 person-months of Early-Stage Researchers. INTEGRIM will consider processes and policies concerning integration of foreign nationals within EU countries, including third-country nationals and European nationals migrating to other European states when they face substantial integration difficulties. The existing fruitful collaboration among the Network’s partners through existing research networks such as the EC acknowledged network of excellence IMISCOE has evidenced the capacity and added value to pool the talent to the benefit of a common critical mass and enhancement of the academic knowledge. INTEGRIM aims to enhance academic research capacity, encourage policy-relevant research on integration and diversity management and facilitate the use of that research by governments and non-governmental organisations.

The overall objective of EUROMED Migration IV (2016-2019), a programme financed by the European Union and implemented by ICMPD, is to support EU Member States and ENI Southern Partner Countries in establishing a comprehensive, constructive and operational dialogue and co-operation framework, with a particular focus on reinforcing instruments and capacities to develop and implement evidence-based and coherent migration and international protection policies and activities. In order to achieve this objective, EMM4 builds upon the results of the first three phases of the programme (2004-2015) and tailors its activities around two pillars: the first pillar facilitates an effective North-South and South-South regional co-operation dialogue in the area of migration and international protection-related issues (legal migration, irregular migration, migration and development and international protection). The second pillar focuses on capacity-building, applying a new outcome-oriented approach which includes sub-regional activities, tailor-made national training programmes and a targeted technical assistance package for small-scale concrete actions. Both pillars are supported by a horizontal and cross-cutting component, with a particular focus on communication through the dissemination of reliable information in order to contribute to a more balanced narrative on migration. The EMM4 is inclusive in its approach and actively engages with a broad variety of stakeholders including government authorities, international organisations and civil society representatives, academia, and the media in the implementation of its activities.

Providing international protection to people fleeing persecution, torture and other inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment is recognised both in the US and EU as an important international obligation. Both the US and the EU have ratified international instruments which require states to provide international protection for an ever wider group of persons. At the same time, non-governmental organisations, academics and even international organisations have decried the reluctance of both the US and EU Member States to afford protection to specific individuals. This policy paper will provide some proposals how to bridge the divide between the US and EU commitments to provide protection and an apparent reluctance actually to accord that protection to individuals.

The MIGGOV seeks to break new ground in the analysis of international organizations (IOs) as key objects of study in the broader research field of international migration governance and of international governance more generally. The key questions are: to what extent, how and why do IOs impact upon and shape international migration governance in the absence of a global migration regime. In order to address these questions the project shifts the focus from international governance as a (changing) structure to international governors as sources of agency and to the outcomes that flow from interactions between various agents. As most international migration governance takes place under conditions of uncertainty about future migration scenarios, this project will specifically explore the issues of the production and the use of expert knowledge by IOs striving to impact upon international migration governance. The project will study the involvement of eight IOs in migration governance in Central Asia, which has been selected for analysis because it has so far escaped the attention of scholars despite evidence of multi-layered migration governance in the region. The project will specifically look at four Central Asian countries: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan that share many similar features, but also exhibit some distinct political and socio-economic differences that make them highly relevant objects of study. The focus on Central Asia is also justified by the strategic importance that many international actors, including the EU, ascribe to the region. In addition to the Central Asian regional case study and intra-regional comparisons, the MIGGOV will produce overarching comparisons with the EU’s ‘Eastern Neighbourhood’. The project addresses topics on which the EU has called for further research in its 2013 Work Programme, namely those within activities 8.3 ‘Major trends in society and their implications’ and 8.4 ‘Europe in the World’.

The core intellectual aim of BIOSEC is to explore whether concerns about biodiversity protection and global security are becoming integrated, and if so, in what ways. It will do so via building new theoretical approaches for political ecology. Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and Executive Director of UNEP recently stated ‘the scale and role of wildlife and forest crime in threat finance calls for much wider policy attention’. The argument that wildlife trafficking constitutes a significant source of ‘threat finance’ takes two forms: first as a lucrative business for organised crime networks in Europe and Asia, and second as a source of finance for militias and terrorist networks, most notably Al Shabaab, Lord’s Resistance Army and Janjaweed. BIOSEC is a four year project designed to lead debates on these emerging challenges. It will build pioneering theoretical approaches and generate new empirical data. BIOSEC takes a fully integrated approach: it will produce a better conceptual understanding of the role of illegal wildlife trade in generating threat finance; it will examine the links between source and end user countries for wildlife products; and it will investigate and analyse the emerging responses of NGOs, government agencies and international organisations to these challenges. BIOSEC goes beyond the ‘state-of-the art’ because biodiversity protection and global security currently inhabit distinctive intellectual ‘silos’; however, they need to be analysed via an interdisciplinary research agenda that cuts across human geography, politics and international relations, criminology and conservation biology. This research is timely because in the last two years, the idea that the illegal wildlife trade constitutes a major security threat has become more prevalent in academic and policy circles, yet it is an area that is under researched and poorly understood. These recent shifts demand urgent conceptual and empirical interrogation.

'The SOCIALCATH research project deals with the intercultural connection between Socialism and Catholicism in two cases in which this meeting was very evident: the French 'Parti Socialiste Unifié' (PSU) and the Italian 'Partito Socialista Italiano di Unità Proletaria' (PSIUP). PSU and PSIUP put together Socialists and Catholics who did not accept the main strategy of their respective political families. PSU and PSIUP wanted represent a radically democratic form of modernity, giving great attention to social ferments and to defend all discriminated or under-represented categories: workers, women and young people. PSU and PSIUP were libertarian and they refused the hierarchical structures of a mass party, adopting a fluid organisation totally open to different cultural models. The political relationship between PSU and PSIUP, their ideological exchanges and the contacts between their members have never been explored within a scientific context. The SOCIALCATH project aims to fill this scientific gap, bringing to light many unedited documents. The interdisciplinary approach, the multi-methodological analysis and the comparative nature of the SOCIALCATH project are all new instruments to be used in these arguments. The SOCIALCATH project aims to reach three main objectives: 1. to describe the meeting between opposite cultural areas such as Socialism and Catholicism, in order to support the policies for intercultural dialogue promoted by the EU and other international organisations such as UNESCO. 2. to highlight alternative aspects of Socialist and Catholic cultures, in order to discover the anti-dogmatic spirit of the 60s and its today's inheritance in the collective European conscience. 3. to explore the relationship between the PSU and PSIUP's political class and the new social issues of the 60s (feminism, 'the young' issue, etc.), in order to compare those events with the present attitude of the European leading class towards society and collective issues.'

La mobilité globale fait aujourd’hui partie de la texture sociale de la mondialisation et des relations internationales. Elle est à la fois une cause et une conséquence de la mondialisation et les réponses des institutions politiques nationales et internationales sont un enjeu clef de l’analyse de la gouvernance et des transformations sociales à l’échelle globale. Elle est un des points de tension de la modernité politique à l’échelle nationale et internationale. En s’intéressant tout à la fois aux organisations internationales, aux politiques migratoires nationales et régionales des Etats, aux modes d’organisation des espaces de vie des migrants et des réfugiés et aux dynamiques sociales transnationales de structuration de la mobilité, on observe le phénomène migratoire sous plusieurs angles et à différentes échelles. Les chercheurs impliqués dans ce projet ont choisi de privilégier une démarche empirique associée à un effort de systématisation qui emprunte à la science politique, à la sociologie, à l’anthropologie et à l’économie politique. Ils ont aussi choisi de lier leurs objets de recherche fondamentale à des enjeux politiques et sociaux immédiatement contemporains et à s’ancrer dans une réflexion scientifique sur l’action publique nationale et internationale, ses normes et ses principes vis-à-vis de la mobilité. Ce projet a pour vocation de donner une description précise de la mobilité et de ses dynamiques politiques et sociales, notamment en s’intéressant à l’observation empirique des pratiques des acteurs de la gouvernance de la mobilité (Etats, organisations internationales, migrants, réfugiés, réseaux). Il a pour objet d’élucider les représentations à l’œuvre dans ces pratiques, les dispositifs normatifs, idéologiques et identitaires qui les structurent. Le premier axe de ce travail concerne les pratiques et les représentations de la gestion de la mobilité en politique internationale. Il a pour enjeu la mise en questionnement de la notion de gouvernance globale de la mobilité, incluant migrations économiques et flux de refugiés. Les organisations internationales, leur interaction avec les acteurs non gouvernementaux de la politique des migrations internationales et des flux de réfugiés sont au cœur d’un dispositif politique qui est à la fois fait de discours et de pratiques. Le deuxième axe de ce projet observe les enjeux politiques de la gouvernance régionale des migrations dans deux espaces différenciés mais fortement marqué par leur contexte régional, l’Europe et le Moyen Orient. Il s’agit de déterminer la place de l’Etat dans la gouvernance de la mobilité à l’échelle régionale notamment dans le cas européen entre la fin du vingtième et le début du vingt-et-unième siècle. La « gouvernance » oscille entre intégration et « retour de l’Etat » dans la gestion des migrations internationales notamment avec la crise économique et financière, et on étudie les manifestations de cette « réaction souverainiste » sur la mobilité des personnes. Le troisième axe de ce projet s’attache à l’étude ethnographique des lieux de vie des réfugiés, les camps en ‘intéressant aux transformations sociales à l’œuvre dans ce espaces sociaux transnationaux institutionnalisés. Il s’intéresse notamment aux modes de gouvernance mise en œuvre par les acteurs humanitaires dans des contextes de conflits ou de crise et à l’autonomie (agency) des populations concernées et analyse celle-ci à travers la structuration et la matérialité des espaces de relégation et/ou confinement des réfugiés à l’échelle globale. Le quatrième axe de ce projet présente un dispositif prospectif qui vise à décrire les dispositifs contemporains les plus visibles de limitation de la mobilité –les murs et explorer des scenarii politiques d’ouverture des frontières et de libéralisation de la mobilité. Il constitue un complément et un prolongement théorique de l’ensemble des connaissances et analyses déployées dans le cadre de ce projet.

(En) Understanding the legal framework in force in the SEM countries is of paramount importance in order to grasp the functioning of the labour market and the influence that it can have on migration. The analysis presented here focuses on 11 countries (Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Syrian Arab Republic, Tunisia, Turkey) and deals with those aspects of the legal regulation in force which can be considered responsible for shaping the employment relationship in term of rigidity or flexibility. The Report is divided in a series of country-studies where the various legal components of the labour market are presented and critically analysed following the same structure for each one in order to enhance comparability: rules concerning hiring, flexible contracts, working time, dismissals, and work inspections. The results, which draw mainly upon international organisations’ sources and upon the analysis of legal texts and laws in these countries, are preliminary. In the concluding remarks, it is explained that if the most valuable research output of this report is to provide cross-comparative analysis to a vast legal material critically organised, the main limitation resides in the fact that it is mainly cantered on the black-letters of the rules and therefore further research must be done on the multifaceted aspects that contribute to shaping a labour market, namely the social dialogue, the case-law and the actual functioning of labour market institutions such as labour inspections, employment agencies, social security, in order to mange to paint the full picture of the SEM countries’ labour market. A preliminary critical assessment of the labour markets is however provided, combining the data on the legal framework in force with the analysis of the independent international reports prepared by various international institutions and NGOs on labour rights’ violations. (Fr)Il est de toute première importance de bien comprendre le cadre légal en vigueur dans les pays du Sud et de l’Est de la Méditerranée (SEM) afin d’y saisir le fonctionnement du marché du travail et son influence potentielle sur les flux migratoires. L’étude porte sur 11 de ces pays soit l’Algérie, l’Egypte, Israël, la Jordanie, le Liban, la Libye, la Mauritanie, le Maroc, la Syrie, la Tunisie et enfin la Turquie. C’est principalement, les éléments juridiques qui affectent les relations de travail en termes de rigidité et de flexibilité qui sont analysés. Ce rapport s’appuie sur une série de cas d’étude nationaux. Les aspects juridiques du marché du travail y sont décrits et analysés dans une perspective critique. Chacun des systèmes légaux nationaux a été soumis à la même grille d’analyse afin d’assurer la comparabilité des données. Sont donc envisagées de manière systématiques: les dispositions relatives à l’engagement, à la flexibilité des contrats, au temps de travail, aux préavis et aux inspections du travail. Les conclusions formulées, sont à ce stade tout à fait préliminaires. L’un des intérêts manifestes de cette recherche est de rendre accessible en Anglais, de manière systématique et critique, un large éventail de dispositions juridiques. La principale limite de cette étude est certainement son aspect formel puisque les modalités de mise en œuvre de ces dispositions et la pratique des relations de travail échappent, en grande partie à la perception son auteur. De plus amples recherches devraient être menées sur les divers facteurs qui contribuent à déterminer les dynamiques du marché du travail dans les SEM, soit le dialogue social, la jurisprudence et le fonctionnement réel des institutions de régulation du marché du travail telles que l’Inspection du Travail, les Agences pour l’Emploi et la Sécurité Sociale. Ce rapport suggère néanmoins une première évaluation critique résultant de la combinaison des données juridiques recueillies et de l’analyse des rapports internationaux élaborés par diverses institutions internationales et des ONG actives dans le domaine de la violation des droits du travail.

De toegang, toelating en uitzetting van vreemdelingen en het vreemdelingentoezicht is in Nederland geregeld in de Vreemdelingenwet 2000 (Vw 2000). Deze Vw 2000 is met de Wet biometrie in de vreemdelingenketen (Wbvk) per 1 maart 2014 gewijzigd. De wetgever achtte deze wetswijziging noodzakelijk om de betrouwbaarheid van de identiteitsvaststelling te verbeteren, waardoor fraude effectiever bestreden zou kunnen worden. Op verzoek van de Eerste Kamer is de wet voor het eerst geëvalueerd in 2016-2017. Toen bleek dat een vervolgevaluatie nodig was om de effecten van de Wbvk beter in kaart te krijgen. Die tweede evaluatie is in 2018-2019 uitgevoerd. Na de tweede evaluatie is de Wbvk verlengd met vijf jaar (tot in 2026). Daarbij is vastgelegd dat een nieuwe, derde evaluatie een verslag moet opleveren over de noodzakelijkheid, de doeltreffendheid en de effecten van de Wbvk. Dit rapport presenteert de resultaten van deze derde evaluatie. Daarbij zijn de volgende twee onderzoeksvragen gehanteerd: Hoe verhoudt de Wbvk zich tot relevante andere (Europese) wet- en regelgeving? Welke bijdrage levert de Wbvk aan de identiteitsvaststelling van de vreemdeling en daarmee aan de werking van de Vreemdelingenwet 2000?

De eerste representatieve cijfers over Oekraïense vluchtelingen in Nederland laten het beeld zien van een groep mensen die proberen hun draai te vinden in een nieuw land. Zij voelen zich over het algemeen thuis in Nederland en de meerderheid is van plan te blijven, in ieder geval op de korte termijn. Een belangrijk probleem dat volledige deelname aan de Nederlandse maatschappij in de weg staat, is het gebrek aan beheersing van de Nederlandse taal onder deze groep.

Naar verwachting neemt het aantal mensen dat naar Nederland migreert de komende jaren toe. Overheden zullen zich daarom steeds beter moeten voorbereiden op de komst van migranten, bijvoorbeeld door opvang te regelen. Toegenomen migratie houdt ook in dat de zogenoemde irreguliere migratie toeneemt, dat wil zeggen: het oversteken van een landgrens zonder de daarvoor benodigde toestemming of het verblijven in een land zonder de benodigde documenten. Deze vorm van migratie gaat gepaard met relatief grote risico’s zoals smokkel en uitbuiting. Tegelijkertijd is er slechts beperkt zicht op zowel de aantallen als de reisroutes van irreguliere migranten. Dit leidt tot verhoogde risico’s op smokkel en uitbuiting en tot beperkte beheersbaarheid van migratie vanuit overheden. Verschillende ketenpartners in de Nederlandse migratieketen hebben te maken met verschillende aspecten van irreguliere migratie. Ze beschikken daardoor (slechts) over data met betrekking tot de eigen specifieke domeinen. Dit kan bijvoorbeeld informatie zijn over reisroutes van irreguliere migranten die over land Nederland binnenkomen, of juist via luchthavens. Ook de dataverzameling bij deze ketenpartners kan specifiek afgestemd zijn op de aspecten waarmee zij te maken hebben.

Het huidige onderzoek heeft het doel meer inzicht te bieden in welke aan huisvesting en de woonomgeving gerelateerde zaken voor mensen afkomstig uit Syrië en Eritrea belangrijk zijn geweest voor het opbouwen van hun leven in Nederland, nadat zij een woning in een gemeente toegewezen hebben gekregen. Daarnaast wordt beoogd meer kennis te verkrijgen over ervaringen met het huisvestingsproces en opvattingen over het huisvestingsbeleid. Daartoe zijn de volgende onderzoeksvragen opgesteld: Welke factoren gerelateerd aan huisvesting en de woonomgeving zijn volgens mensen gevlucht uit Syrië en Eritrea zelf van belang voor het opbouwen van hun leven in Nederland? a Verandert het belang van deze factoren over de tijd? Hoe hebben mensen gevlucht uit Syrië en Eritrea het huisvestingsproces ervaren? Hoe kijken mensen gevlucht uit Syrië en Eritrea aan tegen het huidige huisvestingsbeleid (in algemene zin)?

Dit onderzoek komt voort uit de wens van de Nederlandse overheid om in kaart te brengen hoe en op welke gronden andere EU-lidstaten een lijst van veilige landen van herkomst hanteren in hun asielbeleid. De onderzoeksvragen luiden als volgt: 1. Hoe selecteren andere lidstaten de te beoordelen landen? 2. Op grond van welke bronnen en criteria voeren andere lidstaten de eerste beoordeling uit en hoe is die procedure vormgegeven? 3. Zijn de beoordelingen en herbeoordelingen openbaar? 4. Op grond van welke bronnen en criteria voeren andere lidstaten de periodieke herbeoordeling uit en hoe vaak verrichten zij die? 5. Worden er groepen en/of gebieden uitgezonderd binnen de aanwijzing veilig land van herkomst? Zo ja, op grond van welke criteria en is er een limiet aan het aantal uitzonderingsgroepen? 6. Hoe ziet de asielprocedure eruit voor personen afkomstig uit een veilig land van herkomst? Veilige landen van herkomst 7. Gelden er andere voorwaarden voor de opvang en terugkeer en hoe verloopt de terugkeer van asielzoekers uit veilige landen ten opzichte van die van andere afgewezen asielzoekers? 8. Is er relevante jurisprudentie beschikbaar, houdt het beleid stand voor de rechter en wat zijn de kwetsbaarheden? 9. Wat zijn de verschillen van deze lidstaten met Nederland waar het gaat om veilige landenbeleid?

Dit kennisbericht gaat over het toegenomen aantal alleenstaande minderjarige vreemdelingen (AMV’s) dat in Nederland asiel aanvraagt. In 2022 en in 2023 lag dat aantal hoger dan in de voorgaande jaren (respectievelijk 4.205 en 4.803 (tot en met oktober). Vanuit beleid werd de wens geuit te onderzoeken waarom deze aantallen stijgen, aangezien deze verhoogde instroom veel druk legt op de opvangcapaciteit en uitvoerende instanties als COA en NIDOS. De centrale vragen van dit onderzoek zijn: Wat kan er gezegd worden over de redenen van de recente toename in de instroom van AMV’s en de veranderingen in de samenstelling van de groep? Wat zijn de redenen voor AMV’s om in Nederland terecht te komen? Is het aannemelijk dat deze redenen anders zijn voor de huidige piek dan die voor in 2015? Dit vooronderzoek is gebaseerd op inzichten uit een quick-scan van de recente literatuur en een kennistafel.

Investigative report on the relationship between border practices, spatial changes in migrant trajectories, and the increased danger of crossing Niger's Sahara desert following the implementation of Law 2015-36. Given the methodological challenges posed by the existing literature on desert deaths and disappearances, the report developed innovative geospatial analysis and remote sensing methods.

1. Most seasonal workers in Member States are from neighbouring regions and the majority have been admitted under the Seasonal Workers Directive. Ukraine is the most common country of origin. The most common sectors where seasonal workers are employed include agriculture, tourism and manufacturing. 2. In most Member States seasonal workers are important to fill shortages in certain sectors and several Member States have measures in place to attract seasonal workers. These include shorter and simplified procedures, shortening of processing times and cooperation with third countries. 3. Some Member States have made use of the option to limit the rights and protection of seasonal workers, in particular regarding access to unemployment benefits and family benefits. 4. Across the Member States, several agencies are responsible for monitoring of working conditions. Still, cases of abuse might go undetected, as seasonal workers are highly dependent on employers and often do not know their rights. Several Member States have run information campaigns to provide seasonal workers with information on their rights. 5. Several Member States have introduced measures to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. These include extension of authorisations for seasonal workers already in the Member States, lifting of travel restrictions for seasonal workers, but also a mobilisation of domestic labour to fill the gaps. In some Member States seasonal workers have gained more visibility and recognition from the public during the COVID-19 pandemic.