Benin

During this Fellowship, I will expand my PhD research on the politics and practice of anti- human trafficking policy in Benin, by conducting a comparative study of Benin and Italy. I aim to examine whether the trends I found in Benin apply to the anti-trafficking field more generally, and my hypothesis is that they do. Specifically, I wish to investigate the way anti-trafficking policy and related discourse de-politicise human migration, fail to reflect or respond to empirics, and work to reinforce institutional status quos more than to protect or aid ‘victims’ and ‘the vulnerable’. The comparative nature of the study and my proposed methodology –combining political-economic analysis, interviews and participant observation with migrant sending and receiving communities, and interviews and discourse analysis with policy actors at all levels of the policy chain– make it unique in its field. Carrying it to fruition and developing the methodological, organisational and advocacy skills necessary to do so will cement my transition from promising PhD to pioneering researcher and field leader in my own right. Moreover, by enabling me to conduct comparative work, the Fellowship removes me from the silos of ‘African studies’ and ‘Trafficking’ and establishes me as a scholar of migration studies more broadly. The intended outputs of the project are various, including 3 referred journal articles, an intersectoral academic/policy-maker conference, the creation of advocacy links between institutions involved in the field, and widespread public dissemination of findings. I believe this will ultimately contribute towards establishing the EU as a world leader in anti-trafficking policy and strategy, addressing and offering remedies for the significant problems that exist internally (in the example of Italy) and externally (through donor relations in Benin). Critically, I believe that this will in turn benefit the individuals who so often suffer as a result of misguided EU policy.

L’étude des migrations selon le genre s’impose en ce sens qu’elle permet de mettre en évidence certaines inégalités et iniquités entre hommes et femmes, ainsi que les progrès accomplis ou non vers leur réduction. Ainsi, la présente étude portant sur les migrations internationales hors et vers le Niger a permis de faire ressortir certains faits intéressants montrant notamment que, concernant l’immigration, les femmes sont également concernées et peuvent poursuivre leurs propres objectifs dans le domaine de la mobilité internationale. Concernant la population nigérienne résidente dans les pays de l’OCDE, la proportion des femmes se rapproche de celle des hommes en France (49%), principale destination de la zone, pour 66% des émigrants nigériens ; une forte présence féminine (43%) est également observée pour l’ensemble des pays membres. Cependant, au niveau du marché de travail de cet espace développé, les femmes ne représentent que 35% de l’effectif des actifs employés. Par rapport à la situation dans l’emploi, les émigrées nigériennes montrent une situation très défavorisée : le taux d’activité selon le sexe diffère largement en passant de 74% parmi les hommes à 59% chez les femmes ; le taux de chômage est même plus défavorisant en atteignant 25% pour les femmes (vs 15% chez les hommes). Enfin, elles occupent principalement des emplois peu qualifiés : 58% travaillent dans les secteurs de la santé, du travail social, de l’éducation et d’autres services. S’agissant de la population étrangère résidente au Niger, les résultats suivants méritent d’être soulignés : l’effectif des femmes est très proche de celui des hommes. De même, certaines provenances géographiques principales sont dominées par les femmes (Togo, Ghana et Bénin) lesquelles sont devenues progressivement plus nombreuses en ville que les hommes. Par ailleurs, elles s’intéressent de plus en plus au marché de travail même si la majorité d’entre elles sont encore sans emploi. Quant à leur profil socioéconomique, elles ont un faible niveau d'éducation et sont employées principalement dans des occupations peu qualifiées. / A gender approach in migration studies shows the inequalities between the sexes and the evolution of these inequalities. This study focuses on the gender dimension in international migration in and from Niger and aspects of Nigerien migration pertaining to this. As far as emigration patterns are concerned, women seem to have, today, the same propensity to emigrate and independent emigration has been rising among them. In OECD countries, Niger women represent 43% of all emigrants, 49% in France, the OECD country which hosts the majority of Nigerian emigrants (66%). However, their socio-economic profile shows that women represent only 35% of the total active Nigerien population. In the labour market, meanwhile, Nigerien women are in a very disadvantaged position with respect to their male counterparts : the activity rate equals 74% for men and drops to 59% among women ; the rate of unemployment is 25% for women and 15% for men. Finally, Nigerien women residing in OECD countries are mainly employed in low-skilled occupations : 58%, indeed, are concentrated in the health, social work, education and other service sectors. As to foreign nationals residing in Niger, there is gender parity, and some foreign communities (e.g. Togo, Ghana and Benin) are made up predominantly of women. Women have gradually acquired increasing importance in urban centers, where their participation in the labor market is rapidly increasing. As to their profile, female foreign nationals in Niger tend to be poorly-educated and are employed in low-skilled occupations.

The MACIMIDE Global Expatriate Dual Citizenship Dataset charts the rules that existed in near all states of the world since 1960 with regard to the loss or renunciation of citizenship after a citizen of a respective state voluntarily acquires the citizenship of another state. The central variable of the Dataset is the dualcit_cat variable. This is a categorical variable whose values may be used to interpret, in broad lines, the position of a country with regards to the expatriate dual citizenship. The dualcit_cat variable reflects what consequences the legislation and legal practice of a country attaches to the voluntary acquisition of a foreign citizenship. The value of this variable depends on a number of criteria, including whether a citizen of the reference country who voluntarily obtains a foreign citizenship automatically loses – in principle – the citizenship of the origin country, and whether a citizen of the reference country can renounce that citizenship. The value assigned to dualcit_cat reflects the position of the country on the 1st of January of the reference year. Any subsequent changes in legislation will be reflected in the dualcit_cat value of the following year and included in updated versions of the Dataset. The dualcit_binary variable is a recoding of the dualcit_cat variable. This variable can be used for broad comparisons of the dual citizenship positions around the world. The possible values reflect whether the legislation of a country, in a given reference year, provides for the automatic loss of the origin citizenship (1) or not (2). All data have been centrally collected and refer to specific provisions in national law.

Since the mid-1970s, the World Population Policies Database, last updated in 2015, provides comprehensive and up-to-date information on the population policy situation and trends for all Member States and non-member States of the United Nations. Among several areas, the database shows the evolution of government views and policies with respect to internal and international migration. The migration strand covers internal migration, immigration, emigration, and return. The Database is updated biennially by conducting a detailed country-by-country review of national plans and strategies, programme reports, legislative documents, official statements and various international, Inter-governmental and non-governmental sources, as well as by using official responses to the United Nations Inquiry among Governments on Population and Development.

The Inquiry gathers critically important data for monitoring the implementation of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development and other international agreements, including the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The Inquiry, mandated by the General Assembly in its resolution 1838 (XVII) of 18 December 1962, has been conducted by the Secretary-General at regular intervals since 1963. The Twelfth Inquiry consists of multiple-choice questions, organized in three thematic modules: Module I on population ageing and urbanization; Module II on fertility, family planning and reproductive health; and Module III on international migration. In 1994, Member States attending the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo agreed that “population-related goals and policies are integral parts of cultural, economic and social development” and recommended that actions be taken “to measure, assess, monitor and evaluate progress towards meeting the goals of its Programme of Action”. The year 2019 will mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Cairo conference and adoption of the ICPD Programme of Action, which continues to provide crucial guidance for addressing the fundamental development challenges facing the world today. Population issues are also at the core of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted in 2015. The United Nations Inquiry among Governments on Population and Development (the “Inquiry”) gathers critically important data for monitoring the implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action and other international agreements, including the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The Inquiry, mandated by the General Assembly in its resolution 1838 (XVII) of 18 December 1962, has been conducted by the Secretary-General at regular intervals since 1963. The most recent Inquiry, the Eleventh, was implemented in 2014.

The index is based on three types of entry visa restrictions: visa required, visa not required for short stays and visa not required. The author identifies country pairs which changed their visa regime during 1998–2010. This immigration policy index is constructed for all countries and territories in the world for both March 1998 and November 2009. This index is heterogeneous across destination and origin countries as well as over time.

Based on review of documentary sources on state-emigrant relations, the dataset reviews how 64 states relate to their diasporas. It shows how states constitute various extra-territorial groups as members of a loyal diaspora, through a diverse range of institutions and practices. Three higher-level types of diaspora engagement policy are identified: 1 - capacity building policies, aimed at discursively producing a state-centric ‘transnational national society’, and developing a set of corresponding state institution; 2 - extending rights to the diaspora, thus playing a role that befits a legitimate sovereign, and 3 - extracting obligations from the diaspora, based on the premise that emigrants owe loyalty to this legitimate sovereign.