Reflections on Be // Longing
This blog originally appeared on the Manchester Migration Lab website
Blog by James Shraiky, PhD Candidate, HCRI, The University of Manchester
The Migration Lab Conference explored some of the most contemporary, complex, and current migration issues facing our modern time. Participants arrived from all corners of the world; North America, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. Presenters came from diverse, interdisciplinary, and overlapping backgrounds such as; Medical Anthropology, Political Science, Migration Studies, History, Conflict Studies, and Humanitarian Research. While the conference theme centered on “World on the Move: Migration, Societies and Change,” presentations touched on migration and migrants culture, political landscapes, policy, education, creative methods, technologies, and many other related subjects. Conference presentations encompassed a broader spectrum of migration issues; from individual slavery stories, all the way to the larger future migration policy. The first day sessions focused on “Brexit and Migration;” the second day interrogated migrants’ rights and migration policies, and the third day sessions discussed specific case studies on migration issues. All days covered issues concerning countries from all over the world including countries from Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and North America. read more…
From Syria to Gateshead: Reflections
This blog originally appeared on the Manchester Migration Lab website
Blog by Dr Ghalia Sarmani, Head of Arabic Languages, Al Nimra Qur’an School, Manchester
Earlier this month I attended the ‘World on the Move; Migration, Societies and Change’ conference hosted by the University of Manchester’s Migration Lab. The two-and-a-half day conference was rich in providing a ground for intellectual debate, and for developing further research projects.
On the third day of the conference; I attended a workshop titled ‘From Syria to Gateshead’. The project is part of a larger, cross-national participatory arts-based study of belonging among resettled Syrian refugee youth in regional cities in Australia and the UK. This workshop characteristics music works and visual art created by resettled refugee-background, mainly young Syrians in Gateshead. Artworks emerged out of a participatory arts-based study conducted by Durham University, GemArts, and Gateshead Council and researcher and project coordinator is Dr Caitlin Nunn, Durham University. read more…
Is the World on the Move?
This blog originally appeared on the Manchester Migration Lab website
Blog by Gabriele Restelli, PhD Candidate, HCRI, The University of Manchester
The title of the conference World on the Move made me think: Is the world on the move? Are we witnessing an era of unprecedented migration?
Indeed, in absolute terms, more individuals are moving; but that’s simply because the world population has increased to 7 billion. Global migration data show no evidence of discontinuity in overall international migration trends. The total number of people living outside their country of birth (migrant stock) has remained relatively stable as a percentage of the world’s population since 1960, ranging from 3.1% to 3.3% in 2015. Similarly, only 0.75% of the world’s population emigrated in 2014 (migrant flow) – just like in 1995. read more…
In Conversation: Prof Diana Mitlin, Jack Makau and Joseph Muturi
Prof Diana Mitlin spoke to Jack Makau (Director of Slum Dwellers International in Kenya) and Joseph Muturi (community leader, activist and Coordinator of the Kenyan Slum Dwellers Federation) when they were visiting Manchester to guest lecture on GDI’s innovative “Citizen Led Development” course. They discuss the challenges faced by slum dwellers, such as the lack of secure tenure rights, access to basic services and threat of violent evictions – and how community organising and activism is allowing people living in informal settlements to effect change and make their voices heard. Jack and Joe also talk about building partnerships with city and national government, collaborating with researchers to quantify the ‘poverty penalty’ in Mukuru, and not putting too much hope in politicians.
read more…
Progress on drinking water, sanitation and hygiene? Not for those with low-incomes
Prof Diana Mitlin, Managing Director, Global Development Institute
The United Nations has a specialist unit to measure and monitor progress on provision for water, sanitation and hygiene, the Joint Monitoring Programme (JMP). JMP’s regular progress reports are an essential stocktake that enables us to assess the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6. Unfortunately they are often congratulatory rather than critical, leading to complacency rather than action. This is particularly true of the 2017 report and its discussion of affordability.
To recap, the Millennium Development Goal 7 called for halving (by 2015) the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation. It did not mention affordability. SDG 6 mandates the world to achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water, and access to adequate and equitable sanitation by 2030. Affordability is mentioned in the context of water, and implied for sanitation. But sadly, the goal’s indicators do not require measurement of the costs and access. In the context of extreme poverty and commodified basic services, consideration of affordability is critical. Adequate access without affordability is meaningless and risks making us believe that SDG 6 has been achieved when it has not.
Creative Methodologies… notes and musings from a fledgling researcher
This blog originally appeared on the Manchester Migration Lab website
By Thea Soltau, PhD Candidate HCRI, The University of Manchester
As a fledgling researcher, my attention is almost equally divided between my research interests and the research methodology itself. With a background in theatre, education and community arts I am particularly interested in the experiences of academics and practitioners who are employing creative methodologies to conduct their research. The intention of this blog is to reflect briefly on some of the challenges which were raised by the panel entitled ‘Creative Methodologies’ at the Migration Lab’s recent World on the Move conference. read more…
Is gender inequality still on the margins?
Professor Bina Agarwal was recently presented with a Balzan Prize for her work on gender and development.
She was cited for “challenging established premises in economics and the social sciences by using an innovative gender perspective; for enhancing the visibility and empowerment of rural women in the Global South; for opening new intellectual and political pathways in key areas of gender and development.”
Changing migratory configurations: the challenge of our time
This blog originally appeared on the Manchester Migration Lab website
By Professor Aderanti Adepoju, Founder/Coordinator, Network of Migration Research on Africa
In the twenty-first century, the world has come to a crossroads: economically, politically and demographically. In the process, a number of important events or phenomena have shaped the architecture of international migration. These are: globalisation, the economic-financial crisis, the emergence of new market economies, the huge remittance flows from North to South, and also from South to South, the so-called migration crisis of 2015, and the rise of the far right notion of zero immigration. The underlying long-term demographic dynamics of an ageing population in the North and a booming youthful population in most of the South underpin the upsurge of public discourse on international migration and concomitant policy-creation that have propelled migration from an unknown and unregarded realm to a place in the forefront of international political and economic relations. read more…
East Asia, the developmental state and globalisation
Structural change and premature deindustrialisation: lessons from Dani Rodrik
Alejandra Ortiz Garcia, PhD research Global Development Institute
Last month, Dani Rodrik, Professor of International Political Economy at Harvard University, paid a visit to Manchester to talk about his most recent work and share his views on the current state of affairs in the world. The Harvard professor had a busy few days at the Global Development Institute, delivering the GDI Annual Lecture, a Masterclass for PhD students, a workshop with our academics and was interviewed for the GDI Podcast. Dani Rodrik has been contributing to Project Syndicate for almost twenty years and has had his own blog for more than ten, so I am surprised he wasn’t also asked to write this blog!
The Ford Professor (and Twitter celebrity) touched on several topics that are worth discussing in depth: how globalisation gave rise to the welfare state and fuelled protectionism, how right and left wing politicians have taken advantage of ethnic and social class differences to promote populism, how economists seem to have contributed to tensions arising from globalisation even when economic theory predicted such tensions, and why the premature transition from manufacturing to services in a number of developing countries is likely to stunt their recent spells of economic growth.
Although these are all interesting subjects, I’ll focus on the last one, since it aligns with my research on economic growth and distributive issues in Mexico. read more…