Mayors Mechanism will become part of the #GFMD this year – Thouez: “bolsters position of GFMD in supporting implementation of Global Compact #ForMigration “

The Mayors Mechanism (MM) will become a process within the structure of the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD), starting with the Ecuador chairmanship and summit this year. This is a direct result of the 5th Mayoral Forum on Human Mobility, Migration and Development, held in the “migration week” in Marrakesh last November. I was able to participate in the event and conduct a follow-up interview with Dr. Colleen Thouez, Director of the Welcoming and Integrated Societies Division of the Open Society Foundations. For her, the new cooperation brings many mutual benefits: “Local governments’ input bolsters the position of the GFMD in the context of GCM implementation and follow-up as an all-inclusive venue for dialogue and as a platform to mobilize partners for implementation.”. Red the full interview here:

Interview: Bedeutung und Auswirkungen des #Migrationspakt – und wie geht es weiter?

Die internationale Gemeinschaft hat am 11. Dezember mit großer Mehrheit den Globalen Pakt für sichere, geordnete und reguläre Migration angenommen. Brot für die Welt hat mit mir ein Interview über die Bedeutung des Pakts, regionale Prozesse, Auswirkungen für Deutschland und meine Einschätzungen zur zukünftigen Umsetzung geführt, das ich hier gerne teile:

Auf gut Deutsch: Meine Beiträge zum #Migrationspakt

 

Migration wird am Besten global verhandelt – deshalb ist dieses Blog in der Regel auf Englisch gehalten. Da die Debatte zum Migrationspakt aber mittlerweile auch in Deutschland an Fahrt aufgenommen hat, stelle ich in diesem Blogpost eine Auswahl meiner Beiträge auf Deutsch zusammen (wird fortlaufend aktualisiert).

Egal wie man zum Migrationspakt steht, sollte die Diskussion evidenzbasiert erfolgen. Nachdem das Thema in Deutschland lange ignoriert wurde, stellen viele Medien mittlerweile auch Hintergrundinformationen zur Verfügung (Auch wenn so ziemliche sämtliche Beiträge zum Migrationspakt mit Aufnahmen von Geflüchteten illustriert werden – warum nicht einmal eine philippinische Krankenpflegerin in Deutschland oder – ja, auch die gibt es – ArbeitsmigrantInnen mit heller Hautfarbe, z.B. aus Deutschland?). Hier sind die Links:

Interview on the Marrakesh PGA: “Equality of Rights for Everyone, Everywhere”

The People’s Global Action on Migration, Development & Human Rights (PGA) is a long-established Civil Society event that started in New York in 2007 and will take place for the 13th time this year in Marrakech – right after the GFMD and before the Intergovernmental Conference to adopt the Global Compact for Migration. How does the PGA relate to these events, what is this years’ main agenda, what are the envisioned outcomes? These are some of the questions I asked Felix Braunsdorf from the German Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES),  which supports progressive coices in gathering such as the PGA (and hosted the 2017 Meeting in Berlin):.

Updates on Marrakesh #ForMigration Week(s)– events, themes, locations… #GFMD

(s)A full calendar is awaiting everybody that will come to Marrakech for the migration week(s) starting on December 1 and ending December 11. I have compiled an updated list of the major invents which you can find below. Besides the participation of the “usual suspects”, for this year I expect a much higher public/media interest than during previous gatherings such as the GFMD. This is in large parts due to the right-wing disinformation campaign against the Global Compact spreading across Europe in particular. While the motivation might be dubious, the increased attention could nonetheless provide stakeholders with the opportunity to reach a larger audience for their causes and advocacy…

Here is the latest schedule:

New Special Issue: “Migration, Civil Society and Global Governance” #ForMigration #GFMD

A Special Issue of the journal “Globalizations” has been published on the theme “Migration, Civil Society and Global Governance”. It was guest edited by my esteemed colleagues Carl-Ulrik Schierup, Branka Likić-Brborić, Raúl Delgado Wise & Gülay Toksöz and focusses specifically on “the positionality and capacity of civil society to influence the Global Forum for Migration and Development”. My own contribution is titled “Angry birds of passage – migrant rights networks and counter-hegemonic resistance to global migration discourses”. Several of the articles are open access and you can find them here:

Events and dates for the “migration week(s)” in Marrakech – #GFMD application has started #ForMigration

In December, the “migration week(s)” will bring U.N. member states, international organizations, migrant civil society and other stakeholders to Marrakech, Morocco. The major “official” events will be the Intergovernmental Conference to Adopt the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) and the 11th Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD), for which the application process has now started. But migrant civil society organisations will also organize their own parallel and counter-events. Once more, I have compiled an outlook to central events on migration governance from above as well as from below.

Global Compact #ForMigration has been agreed upon – but questions regarding the modalities of adoption remain

On July 13th, the Global Compact #ForMigration has been agreed upon – but that much-lauded event by no means constitutes the end of the process. The formal adoption will take place in the “Migration Week” in Marrakech. At the center of this week (actually closer to two weeks) will be the Intergovernmental Conference to Adopt the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) to be held on 10-11 December (plus the 11th Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) taking place the week before). There has been some uncertainty regarding the exact modalities of the GCM-conference – and while the U.N. modalities resolution might bring some clarity, it also raises further questions:

Out now: Our Special Issue(s) on “Challenging State Sovereignty: A Multi-level Approach to Southeast and East Asian #Migration “

The multi-level dimension of migration governance is gaining increasing attention – and that includes the regional and sub-regional level. As a contribution to this research, Nicola Piper, Jürgen Rüland and yours truly have guest edited a two-part special Issue for the European Journal of East Asian studies (EJEAS). The theme is “Challenging State Sovereignty: A Multi-level Approach to Southeast and East Asian Migration” and the topics of the articles range from “Mobility Norms in Free Trade Agreements” to the migration industry, securitization of migrant, refugee protection, migrant domestic workers as agents of development and pilgrimage migration to Mecca. The seven empirical studies in this Special Issue thus

Out now: articles on regional ( #ASEAN ) and global governance #ForMigration #GFMD

Two new special issues (SIs) on regional and global migration governance have been published and I had the opportunity to contribute articles to both of them. The first SI is dealing with multi-level “Migration Governance in an Era of Large Movements”, the second is called “The Social Governance of Transnational Migration: Perspectives from the Asia Pacific”. Also, I wrote a comment on the draft of the Global Compact for Migration. Find all the details here: