Presentation about migration and development nexus with African countries in the framework of EU-Africa relations. College of Europe.

1. Migration and Development
with African countries
Samuel Perrino
Ana Ramírez

2. Outline
 1. The Migration-Development concept
 3 R
 Debate: positive or negative?
 2. The EU’s Migration-Development
approach
 Securitarian approach
 Shift towards a Migration-Dev. approach
 The development of migration approach in the EU-Africa
relations
 3. The case study of the Todgha Valley
 4. Conclusions

3. 1.The Migration-Dev. concept

4. 1. The Migration-Dev. Concept
Introduction
 Migration-development approach
-- Migration as a tool of development
-- “Migration is no longer simply seen as a failure
of development, but increasingly as an integral
part of the whole process of development with
a potentially important role in the alleviation of
poverty”
(World Bank, 2003)

5. 1. The Migration-Dev. Concept
“3 R”
 Recruitment: Worker
recruitment creates
networks linking rural
and urban communities
in sending countries with
specific labour markets
in receiving countries
 Remittances: Economic
source for substaining
the daily living, create
investment and improve
the trade balance
 Return: The role of the
migrants in the sending
countries

6. 1. The Migration-Dev. Concept
Debate: Positive approach
 Transfers of capital
from North to the
South
 No “direct” control
by the authorities.
Better allocation of
resources.
 Tool for political
change and
mentality

7. 1. The Migration-Dev. Concept
Debate:Negative approach
 Depopulation of entire
regions, with privation
of the slightly more
skilled workers.
 Create “rentier”
economies
 Allow governments to
escape their
responsabilities (safety
valve)
 Progressive disinterest
in the countries of
origin

8. 2. The EU’s focus on Migration-
Development Nexus

9. 2. The EU’s focus on Migration-Dev. Nexus
Securitarian approach
 European focus
regarding migration
was based on a
securitarian approach:
-- Improvements of
control capacities for
the admission and
rejection of third
country nationals
-- Use of development
cooperation as a mean
to control immigration

10. 2. The EU’s focus on Migration-Dev. Nexus
Why the change?
 Shock of the
events in Ceuta
(Sebta) and Melilla
in 2005
 Intensification of
migration-development
discourse in the
international
institutions

11. 2. The EU’s focus on Migration-Dev. Nexus
Why the change?
Precedents:
 ILO: ILO Convention of Migration (1949)
 IOM: Migration for Development Programme (1964)
Recent events:
 Global Comission on International Migration, 2003: “International
migration has the potential to play a very positive role in the
process of human development, bringing benefits to people in
poorer and more prosperous countries alike”
 Global Development Finance Annual Report, World Bank, 2003:
remittances as a source of external development finance
 International meeting on migrant remittances in London 2003,
organized by the DfID, the World Bank and the IMP.
 Conference on Migration and Development, by the Belgium gov.,
the IOM, the World Bank and the EC, March 2006.

12. 2. The EU’s focus on Migration-Dev. Nexus
What type of instruments?
 EC-UNDP Joint Migration and
Development Initiative:
Building the capacities of small-scale
actors – local authorities,
NGOs and diaspora groups – to
become more active and effective
in the development opportunities
associated with migration
 African Remittances Institute:
Facilitate the effective and safe
sending of remittances
 Diaspora Outreach Initiative:
Encourage the diaspora in the
development of Africa

13. 2. The EU’s focus on Migration-Dev. Nexus
What type of policies?
 Remittances
- Adress to the financial
institutions: Make
easier the sending of
remittances (19–25 %
more expensive in the
African countries)
- Adress to the
beneficiaries:
Encourage the use of
the remittances in
productive sectors
such as SME

14. 2. The EU’s focus on Migration-Dev. Nexus
What type of policies?
 Avoid brain-draining
- Blue Card Directive: Directive
on the conditions for entry
and residence of third-nationals
for highly qualified
employment
-- EU MS and states of origin can
decide not to apply this
directive in sectors with a
lack of qualified workers in
the countries of origin
-- Blue Card holders are allowed
extended periods of time
outside EU without losing
their resident status, in order
to encourage mobility

15. 2. The EU’s focus on Migration-Dev. Nexus
What type of policies?
 Migrant rights
-- Legal right of non-discrimination protected by different
institutions (ECJ), and instruments (ECHR, Charter of
Fundamental Rights…) both European and International
-- The possibility of keeping the social security when moving
back to their countries is dependent on multilateral
agreements

16. 2. The EU’s focus on Migration-Dev.
The migration approach with African
countries
 Cooperation at
regional level
 ACP-EU relations
(Cotonu Agreement,
2000)
 Rabat process, 2006
 2nd Summit, Lisbon
(2007)
 MME Partnership
 JAES
 Dakar Strategy (2011)
 4th Summit, Brussels
(April 2014)

17. 3. The case study of the
Todgha Valley (Morocco)

18. 3. The case study of the Todhga Valley
The specificities of Morocco
 2 M. of Moroccans
living in Europe
 Morocco is the 4th
larger remittance
receiver
 Remittances flow is
five times higher
than development
aid and it exceeds
the incomes from
tourism or FDI

19. 3. The Case study in Todgha Valley
 Economic growth
 No loss of population
 Positive effects in:
-- Agricultural sector
-- Investment
-- Standards of life
-- Inequalities

20. 3. The Case study in Todgha Valley
Modernization of the agricultural sector
 Investment in pumps
(15 % of non-immigration
household
vs. 43% of
international migration
households)
 New agricultural
frontiers in the desert
(10 % of non-immigration
households vs. 25 %
of international
migration households)

21. 3. The Case study in Todgha Valley
Investment
 International immigrants
households represent
68% of the total
investment in private
business.
 Investment in low-risk
enterprises

22. 3. The Case study in Todgha Valley
Standards of life
 Since 1975, between
80 and 90% of
immigration
households invest in
new houses (compared
with 54% of non
migration households)
 Better sanitary
facilities and more
privacy (nuclear
families)
 Controversial issue

23. 3. The Case study in Todgha Valley
Inequalities
 High inequalities between non-immigration and
immigration householders
 Shift from hereditary inequality based on
kinship to an economic-oriented inequality,
based on the access to the immigration
resources
 More social mobility and improvement of the
status of certain sectors (women, semi-slaves,
serfs and sharecroppers)

24. 4. Conclusions

25. 4. Conclusions
 Progressive importance of Migration-
Development Nexus in the EU since
2005.
 Migration development nexus as a global
problem
 The Todgha Valley as a case of success.

26. Thank you! 

27. Questions for debate
 Is the migration-development approach used
as a strategy to contribute less with official
development aid (ODA) in third countries?
 How do you perceive this nexus in your country
?
 Future prospects:
 Do the recent events (i.e. Lampedusa or Arab
Spring) reinforce the migration-development
approach?
OR
 Does the economic crisis bring the securitarian
approach back?

28. What prospects for the future?