Imagining Europe from the outside. On the role of democracy and human rights perceptions in constructing migration aspirations and decision towards Europe

Principal investigator Christiane Timmerman (Coordinator), Walter Nonneman (Partner), Dirk Vanheule (Partner)
Description
By means of a non-Eurocentric, theoretically and empirically sound cross-country and cross-region research design, EUMAGINE studies the impact of perceptions of human rights and democracy on international migration aspirations and decisions. Special attention goes to human rights (including women’s rights) and democracy perceptions on Europe, specific European countries, and the relative popularity of Europe in comparison and competition with the US, Russia, Canada and Australia. The core idea of the project is that macro and meso level discourses on human rights and democracy influence micro level perceptions on these themes in countries of origin and transit, which in turn influence migratory aspirations and decisions. To obtain its objectives, the consortium of EUMAGINE (consisting of seven partners, Universiteit Antwerpen (Belgium, coordinator), University of Oxford (United Kingdom), International Peace Research Institute, Oslo (Norway), Koc University (Turkey), Université Mohamed V (Morocco), The Kennan Institute (Ukraine) and Université Cheikh Anta Diop de Dakar (Sénégal)) will study four major ‘source’ and ‘transit’ countries, namely Morocco, Senegal, Turkey and Ukraine. For research purposes, the consortium is divided in four Geographical Duo Teams (each composed of a EU and non-EU partner). Based on a multidisciplinary, mixed-method approach (survey, in-depth interviews and observations) and by adopting a case study approach and comparing and contrasting a diversity of important international emigration countries, various types of regions within these countries, several modes of migration, various types of influential discourses, and different profiles of potential migrants, EUMAGINE will provide insights on how perceptions on human rights and democracy are related to migration aspirations and decisions. EUMAGINE is a gender sensitive project in the way that the team will address gender issues in all stages of the research cycle. Dissemination of the (intermediary) project results will be planned carefully and formulated in a program of dissemination elaborated from the start of the project.
Year 2010

Taxonomy Associations

Migration processes
Migration consequences (for migrants, sending and receiving countries)
Cross-cutting topics in migration research
Disciplines
Methods
Geographies
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