While the 2030 Development Agenda was being prepared, Europe experienced a massive inflow of refugees. In response, many western European donors pointed to the need to bring about 'development' in the regions of origin, in an attempt to halt the inflow of people. As such, development is often conceptualized as a place-bound process that focuses on enabling people to achieve a better quality of life 'at home', implying that migration is an indicator of development failure. Moreover, the mobility of some is celebrated, whereas that of lower skilled migrants is framed as problematic. Such interpretation of development was also reflected in the millennium development goals, which hardly referred to migration. During the preparation of the 2030 Agenda, there were insistent demands to include migration in the new development agenda. In this article, we analyse the 2030 Agenda and its framing, and consider the potential strengths, weaknesses, potentials and risks in relation to migration. The article questions the ability of the Agenda to reflect the translocal and de-territorialized characteristics of our global economy, and the complex relationships that link livelihoods and lifestyles across distant places. We argue that the tension between migration and development is not a new phenomenon and that the 2030 Agenda will not be able to deliver fundamental changes to the present placebased notion of development and do justice to a mobile world.

Immigrants and their activities occupy a central position in the debate on the migration and development nexus. The focus used to be on remittances and brain drain, but as immigrants are now participating in co-development programmes, they are often regarded as a new channel for development cooperation.Although there are high expectations concerning the contribution of immigrants and their organisations to development, research on co-development initiatives and their impact is scarce. This contribution draws on experiences from the Netherlands, France and Spain in order to address co-development programmes, the value-added of immigrant involvement in development cooperation and the implications for immigrant organisations (IOs). We argue that the value-added of immigrants in co-development programmes is highly context-specific, and that the current model of co-development programmes -namely forcing IOs into the framework of established development NGOs -not only is accessible to only a very few IOs, but also brings to the fore the main principle of co-development: the specific value-added of immigrants and their organisations. Based on this, we conclude that the importance attached to co-development -as it is expressed in the academic and professional debate -is not accompanied by substantial budgets.We also observe that due to the model applied, the current co-development approach is not that new and innovative, but simply more promising young wine in old barrels.

The importance of strengthening local governments is widely recognised as local governments face new challenges against the backdrop of global decentralisation processes. Municipal International Cooperation (MIC) contributes strategically to such processes by peer-to-peer learning within existing local institutions, a development process that is both efficient and provides continuity. Empirically, the paper draws upon the findings of an evaluation of the Dutch support programme for MIC called LOGO South. The main conclusion is that partnerships between local authorities do strengthen local governments in the South; the unique approach of the LOGO South programme adds important spillover effects in mutual learning, resulting in both policy transfer and mobility. By creating multilevel governance networks, knowledge circulation was also strengthened. This paper contributes to the debate by showing that locally based, multilevel hybrid networks are strategic for governance processes.

The implications of migrants' transnational engagements for processes of change and development in the regions of origin are attracting increased attention from both policymakers and academics. Rather than addressing the positive effects of migration and transnationality on local development, this special issue suggests a focus on the relationship between this phenomenon and broader societal transformation, thereby acknowledging the renewed importance of place and locality. To this end, this introduction provides an overview of the current debate on transnational dynamics in relation to societal transformation, local development, and inequality. Central to our analysis is the way in which migrants' transnationality engages with the hierarchies that exist between and within localities, and how this reproduces social inequalities. This introduction thus also reflects the key themes that are addressed in the five papers that make up this special issue on transnational dynamics, transformation, and locality.

International migration is an integral part of the lives of many people in the South, and many households add remittances to their income in order to finance the daily costs of living that cannot be met by their traditional source of income. In the literature, a debate has emerged on the impacts of these remittances on development, focusing in particular on the micro level, namely the impact on households. Many studies also contend that national governments should try to redirect the impacts of remittances. However, the role of actors in local governance structures seems to be overlooked in this discussion. We argue that in the discussion on managing development through remittances, local governments and other stakeholders at the local level -such as NGOs -might also play a role, especially in those countries that have implemented decentralization. However, thus far, interventions aimed at leveraging remittance flows and facilitating migration processes are only in an initial phase. Our study of 12 municipalities in Bolivia shows that a lack of knowledge and capacities among local governments and NGOs is a decisive factor.