International and intergovernmental organisations in travel & migration

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.

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.

'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.'

(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.

The HEUNI report "Unseen Victims" presents the manifestations and consequences of gender-based violence and the challenges in assisting victims of violence in the migration context. With this report the authors aimed to increase the understanding of policymakers on the structural challenges asylum-seeking and refugee women who have experienced gender-based violence face.

Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) have been part of the “Balkan route” for smuggling people, arms and drugs for decades, but also a migrant route for people who have been trying to reach Western Europe and the countries of the EU in order to save their lives and secure a future for themselves. While in 2015, when millions of people arrived in Europe over a short period of time, BiH was bypassed by mass movements, the situation started changing after the closure of the EU borders in 2016, and later on, in 2017, with the increase of violence and push backs in Croatia, and other countries at the EU borders. This report offers insight into the situation on the field: is there a system responsible for protection, security, and upholding fundamental human rights? What has the state response been like? What is the role of the international community?

The purpose of this handbook is to describe a counselling method for assisting refugee women who have been victims of gender-based violence (GBV). The handbook was developed during 2017-2019 in a project titled “Co-creating a counselling method for refugee women GBV victims (CCM-GBV)” funded by the European Commission through the Rights, Equality and Citizenship (REC) Programme.

The research's overarching objective was to explore the level of mental health issues and the situation surrounding the provision of mental health care utilization as a result of the conflict in eastern Ukraine. This includes both Internally Displaced People (IDPs) in Ukraine and people who were not affected by war (the general population) in government controlled areas. A mixed methodology was used, consisting of national surveys with IDPs (n=1000) and the general population the (n=1000) with a representative sample reflecting age, gender, and a territory. Also, interviews with professionals in mental health support and representatives of charities and international organisations were conducted (n=21).

Over the past 150 years, non-territorial autonomy has been one of three models for dealing with linguistic or ethnic minorities within several European states. Compared with the other two, i.e. the recognition of minority rights as individual rights and territorial self-rule, non-territorial autonomy has received little attention. This project proposes to write the first history of non-territorial autonomy as an applied policy tool in minority protection and as an intellectual concept with a chequered history across Europe. Intellectuals, politicians, and legal scholars across the political spectrum from the far left to the far right supported this idea, although they were aware of the risks of strengthening national differences by promoting such a collective approach to minority protection. The project explores how this idea of granting cultural rights to a national group as a corporate body within a state, as a means of integrating diverse nationalities, travelled and transformed throughout the Habsburg Empire from 1850 to the present. We propose to 1) trace the development/circulation of theoretical conceptions and political applications of non-territorial autonomy within the Habsburg Empire, by mapping the networks of scholars as well as politicians who advocated for it; 2) explain the continuities in the development of the idea, and its manifestations in policies adopted by interwar Central and Eastern European nation states, where communists, socialists, liberals and fascists alike were able to translate elements of non-territorial autonomy into their ideologies and programs; 3) analyse the treatment of non-territorial autonomy, which was advocated by minority lobby groups, in international minority protection in the 20th century despite strong opposition to practices based on it by international organisations. We rely on a mixture of historiographical methods developed in nationalism studies to analyse the idea’s translation in entangled transnational spaces.

This report provides a unique, in-depth analysis of the impact of EU policies in addressing the socalled European migration or refugee ‘crisis’ in 2015 and 2016. Crossing the Mediterranean Sea by Boat undertook 257 in-depth qualitative interviews with a total of 271 participants across seven sites in two phases: Kos, Malta and Sicily from September-November 2015, and Athens, Berlin, Istanbul and Rome from May-July 2016. Uniquely, the project focused directly on the impact of policies upon people on the move, drawing together policy analysis and observational fieldwork with in-depth analysis of qualitative interview data from people making – or contemplating making – the dangerous journey across the Mediterranean Sea. As such, the report provides previously-unconsidered insights into the effects of policy on the journeys, experiences, understandings, expectations, concerns and demands of people on the move. In addition to providing seven site-based case study analyses, the project also provides the first detailed assessment of policies associated with A European Agenda on Migration in terms of policy effects both across routes (eastern and central Mediterranean) and over time (2015 and 2016). The findings and analysis summarised in this report are presented with the aim of informing policy developments, moving forward.

Europe’s response to the so-called ‘migration crisis’ has been driven almost exclusively by a border control agenda. This has significantly reduced the number of refugees and migrants arriving in Greece, for the time being at least, but has done nothing to address the drivers or causes of migration to Europe, including the movement of people from Libya which continues unabated, or the protection and integration needs of those who are already here. The research aims to: • Shed light on the dynamics (determinants, drivers and infrastructures) underpinning the recent unprecedented levels of migration across, and loss of life in, the Mediterranean; • Provide insights into the interaction of refugees and migrants with a multitude of non-State actors (for example smugglers, facilitators, and Non- Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and State actors (for example, the navy / coastguard) in order to better understand their decision making processes; and • Explore how the decisions made by refugees and migrants on their journeys interact with dramatically changing global economic, security and political contexts.

The dashboard of indicators for measuring policy and institutional coherence for migration and development (PICMD) is a user-friendly tool that has been developed by the KNOMAD Thematic Working Group on Policy and Institutional Coherence. The dashboard aims to measure the extent to which public policies and institutional arrangements are coherent with international best practices to minimise the risks and maximise the development gains of migration, and can be used by domestic policy makers and other stakeholders such as researchers, civil society and international organisations. For policy makers, the dashboard should serve as a particularly useful tool during the policy formulation, evaluation and adjustment process. Indicators are organised around the following five policy dimensions: promote institutional coherence, reduce the costs of migration, protect the rights of migrants and their family, promote reintegration, enhance the development impact of migration. There are two distinct dashboards – one from the perspective of countries of origin and the other from the perspective of countries of destination – with separate indicators except in the area of institutional coherence. Any given country can be considered both a country of origin and a country of destination. The Thematic Working Group is currently operationalising the dashboard in 15 pilot countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cabo Verde, Germany, Jamaica, Kenya, Moldova, Morocco, the Philippines, Portugal, the Netherlands, Serbia, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, and Trinidad and Tobago.

In 2015 over one million people crossed the Mediterranean to Europe in search of safety and a better life. Thousands died along the way. The MEDMIG project seeks to better understand these unprecedented movements in the region by examining the journeys, motivations and aspirations of refugees and migrants in Italy, Greece, Turkey and Malta.

The Brief focuses on four main themes: The factors affecting the decision to leave; Journeys and routes taken to reach Greece; Intended destinations of those migrating; The use of smugglers to facilitate the journey.

Upon request by the LIBE committee, this study examines the reasons why the Dublin system of allocation of responsibility for asylum seekers does not work effectively from the viewpoint of Member States or asylum-seekers. It argues that as long as it is based on the use of coercion against asylum seekers, it cannot serve as an effective tool to address existing imbalances in the allocation of responsibilities among Member States. The EU is faced with two substantial challenges: first, how to prevent unsafe journeys and risks to the lives of people seeking international protection in the EU; and secondly, how to organise the distribution of related responsibilities and costs among the Member States. This study addresses these issues with recommendations aimed at resolving current practical, legal and policy problems.

The Migrants in Countries in Crisis project aims at providing accessible, methodologically robust and policy relevant data on the migration implications of crisis situations in host countries. It does so with the broader objective of informing efforts to strengthen the preparedness of countries of origin, transit and destination and of other relevant actors to address and respond to future crises. Research objectives: Crisis situations investigated include natural disaster, violent conflict or civil unrest, which have led to a breakdown of or serious challenges to public order, and, as a result, entail a serious threat to the personal safety, physical and psychological integrity and protection of migrants. While focusing on longer term impacts of and responses to crises in countries of destination, origin and transit, the research will also investigate the availability of relevant mechanisms ensuring the protection of migrants before, during and after crisis in countries covered by the research. Six crises situations have been selected as case studies for in-depth research: Central African Republic (civil unrest 2014); Cote d'Ivorire (civil unrest 2000-2011); Lebanon (2006-today, impact on migrant domestic workers); Libya (civil unrest 2011); South Africa (xenophobic violence 2008-2015); Thailand (natural disaster 2011). The research is conducted as part of a wider project led by ICMPD supporting the global Migrants in Countries of Crisis Initiative. It is coordinated by the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) and is conducted in partnership the International Migration Institute (IMI) of Oxford University. In addition, local research partners are involved in the fieldwork and analysis for the case studies. The Research employs an interdisciplinary approach to assess the impact of crises on migrants in the countries under study. The research will combine secondary desk research and primary research in the field with relevant stakeholders, including migrants, policy makers and public officials, representatives of international organisations, civil society stakeholders and humanitarian organisations, diaspora organisations, academics and journalists, and employers and recruitment agencies Project Partners: International Migration Institute (IMI), University of Oxford

Upon request by the LIBE committee, this study examines the workings of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS), in order to assess the need and potential for new approaches to ensure access to protection for people seeking it in the EU, including joint processing and distribution of asylum seekers. Rather than advocating the addition of further complexity and coercion to the CEAS, the study proposes a focus on front-line reception and streamlined refugee status determination, in order to mitigate the asylum challenges facing Member States, and guarantee the rights of asylum seekers and refugees according to the EU acquis and international legal standards.

This paper gives an outline of existing national and political discourse pertaining to integration policies and actions in Malta. We will show how, although the number of migrants residing in Malta has increased and doubled over the past decade, the same cannot be said of national integration actions or the implementation of a holistic national integration policy. In this regard, the author is not aware of any specific integration tools used in-country, nor of any tools or agreements used prior to departure in the country of origin. The paper also examines the role and position of non-state actors in Malta. Much of the public and political discourse relating to the integration of migrants is driven by international organisations present in Malta and locally registered non-governmental organisations (NGOs). However, an absence of migrant-led NGOs has also been noted. Finally, a brief overview of the existing bilateral and multilateral international agreements signed by Malta that may have an impact on the integration of migrants is also given.

Georgians is one of the largest immigrant groups residing in Greece.In fact, Greece is one of the most important destinations for Georgian migrants. However, few studies have been devoted to Georgian migrants, who are usually examined along with other groups within broader studies. This background report aims to summarise the existing knowledge concerning irregular migration between Georgia and Greece, based on both primary and secondary research. In this context, we have examined the existing literature, we have collected data from various sources and we have conducted a series of interviews with stakeholders both in Greece and in Georgia. For the purposes of this study we have conducted over ten interviews with state officials and other stakeholders, such as representatives of Non-governmental Organisations, International Organisations and Georgian associations in Greece and 6 interviews with similar actors in Georgia between February and April 2013. In addition, we have collected or requested data from various sources ranging from Labour Force Survey statistics, insurance statistics and residence permits data to visa application statistics.

'VALOGLOB project has the scope to analyse Faro-Convention (2005) using a research methodology based on a systemic approach (Morin, 2005), a cross-cultural comparative study (Demorgon, 2004) with the World Heritage Convention (UNESCO, 1972) and field case studies in Europe, Euro-Mediterranean area and Russia. These objectives have the aim to better understand theoretical and practical mechanisms of a legal text (Faro-Convention, 2005) with great impacts on civil society (museums and inhabitants). Since the Second World War, tens of Conventions, Recommendations and Declarations on cultural heritage were adopted by governments. These normative instruments are rarely studied in a cross-cultural approach with main focus on citizenship as a key actor regarding its implementation. Faro-Convention (2005) stresses its aims on the values of cultural heritage for society. In time of globalisation, cultural heritage cannot be anymore a topic discussed only by specialists, but a dialogue in permanent interaction with the civil society in order to build a common European identify based on “diversity” and “unity”. To carry out this project, the researcher (PhD) has a great research experience (temporary Lecturer at University of Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, France), has been involved in French and international projects (FP6, FP7, AECID, ANR), got a research award nomination titled “Cultural Policy Research Award” (CPRA, 2010), has published 3 peer-reviewed articles has an extended professional experience (Cambodia, Gabon, Sudan, Latin America, Russia, etc.) in international organisations (International Council of Museums (ICOM), UNESCO, APSARA, etc.). The IUEE, Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence, at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) will give to the applicant the opportunity to carry out her research project in a major European and multicultural centre for intercultural dialogue and cultural policies dissemination for the Mediterranean basin and beyond (Russia).'

The IRMA project is informed by the wider theoretical framework of globalization studies which point to the erosion of the sovereignty and independence of the nation state. Globalization is a multi-faceted and multi-level phenomenon: economically it involves the elimination of countries’ trade boundaries and the development of global multinational corporations. At the cultural level it signifies to a large extent the spread of a borderless and boundless consumerism. However this also creates opposed movements of return to local cultures and local economies. At the social level, globalization involves a sense that politics and democracy are increasingly less relevant as global market forces seem to take the lead. At the same time the volatility of the global economy creates a crisis of legitimacy for the neo-liberal policies that advocate stripping away the protections that nation states used to provide to their citizens in the name of an unstoppable global model of development (George and Wilding 2002; Holton 2005, Milliot and Tournois 2010). Migration is deeply affected by globalization as the lifestyles, consumer habits, sense of relative deprivation as well as systems of production and politics of developing countries are shaped by the forces of social, political and economic globalization. People become more aware of the better prospects that potentially await them in developed countries. Information travels faster than before, and means to get connected through IT as well as means of transport are also cheaper and faster. The erosion of national boundaries create also more space and scope for local or transnational actors to be involved in irregular migration whether as local or transnational smuggling networks, or as local NGOs or international organisations. Globalization has been the buzzword of the last three decades, so widely used by such a wide range of actors that it often remains too vague and elusive to translate into meaningful content. On the other hand, migration is lately discussed in relation to globalization; yet, little empirical evidence to date clarifies precisely the relationship between the two (King 1995; Castles 2000; Urzua 2000; Tapinos 2000; Stalker 2000; Papastergiadis 2000; Koser 2007; Castles and Miller 2009; Solimano 2010). It is therefore necessary to begin by offering some conceptual definitions of globalization and exploring its links with international migration.

Over the past decade, the media, international organisations, as well as policy-making bodies have voiced increasing concern about a growing overlap between the criminal and political spheres in South Asia. Many 'criminal politicians' are accused not simply of embezzlement, but of burglary, kidnapping and murder, so that the observed political landscape emerges not only as a 'corrupt', but also a highly violent sphere. This project is a collaborative and cross-national ethnographic study of the criminalisation of politics in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Bringing together local-level investigation, surveys and historical analysis, the project will produce comprehensive political ethnographies in sixteen sites across the subcontinent, providing empirical material and theoretical directives for further charting of the virtually unexplored terrain of extra-legal muscular politics in the region. Central to the proposed programme of research are the following interrelated objectives: 1) To further develop the method of collaborative political ethnography by designing, collecting and producing case studies which will allow us to write thematically across sites; 2) To generate policy relevant research in the fields of security, conflict, democracy and development; 3) To produce capability by forging an international network of scholars on issues related to democratisation, violence, crime and support the work and careers of the project's 4 Post-docs. The study capitalises on previous research and skills of the PI in the cross-cultural study of democracy and muscular politics in the global South. All members of the research team have expertise in ethnographic research in the difficult spheres of criminal politics, informal economies, and political violence and are hence well and sometimes uniquely equipped to pursue this challenging research thematic.

The overall purpose of thi conference wasto reflect on knowledge and promote social dialogue on the role of labour unions and other organisations of civil society in the global governance of migration. These issues were discussed against the background of labour market restructuring and emerging international norms pertaining to labour rights as human rights. The conference was organised so as to systematipromote exchange of perspectives between leading scholars and representatives of international organisations, labour unions and activists in other civil society organisations on questions of migration, 'decent work' and global governance. Conference participants investigated jointly and elaborated on policy alternatives for promoting migrants', citizens', and labour rights, as well as conditions for equitable international coordination and a more inclusive role for civil society. The conference was organised by the Institute for Research on Migration, Ethnicity and Society (REMESO), Linköping University and the International Network for Migration and Development (INMD) in collaboration with the Swedish UNESCO-MOST Committee, Norrköping May 30-June 1st, 2012