Rethinking Migration in the 2030 Agenda: Towards a De-Territorialized Conceptualization of Development

Abstract

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.

Postgraduate migration behaviour of international university students supported from the Czech Development Cooperation scholarships

“…Together with the relatively low intention to return, the low return Another option not examined in this study would be to depart from the human capital theory as a main framework for understanding the programme's theory of change. Indeed, the human capital model has been contested (e.g., Campbell, 2017;Campbell & Mawer, 2018;Nguyen, 2016;Tan, 2014) and the adoption of alternative approaches to understand development outcomes of international scholarships such as the human capabilities perspective (Campbell & Mawer, 2018;Novotný et al, 2019) and the related deterritorialized thinking about migration-development linkages (Nijenhuis & Leung, 2017) may be more appropriate from the point of view of the current development theory. However, practical applications of these alternative approaches are less straightforward and more complex compared with the intuitively appealing human capital model that has been (implicitly) embedded in the process of programme's design.…”

Managing or restricting movement? Diverging approaches of African and European migration governance

“…B2, Bb11). This can be linked to a territorialised form of development to prevent migration (see Nijenhuis & Leung, 2017). For example, in Article 13 of the Cotonou Agreement, the nexus between development and migration is highlighted as aiming to 'normalise migration flows' though reducing poverty (Bb4).…”

“…Ccc7), which also include negative incentives if cooperation on returns is lacking (Ccc15). This principle is not new, a link between readmission agreements to visa facilitations agreement already dating back to the GAMM (C2) or the Valetta Action Plan for 2015 (B11, see also Nijenhuis & Leung, 2017;Van Criekinge, 2016). Nonetheless, in the European Agenda on Migration from the same year, the language is already more forceful, stating that one aim is to 'ensure a humane and dignified treatment of returnees and a proportionate use of coercive measures, in line with fundamental rights' (emphasis added, C1).…”

“…Out-migration may lead to more remittances, but also brain-drain of professionals. Moreover, development may also be considered as a territorialised process (decoupled from globalisation), resulting in migration policies that favour development at home in order to 'prevent' migration (Nijenhuis & Leung, 2017).…”

Migration transforms the conditions for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals

“…The discourse of migration in the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development reflects the global political tensions surrounding the issue of migration at the time of its negotiations, culminating in 2015, when many countries, particularly in Europe, experienced major influxes of refugees from Syria and other conflictaffected countries. 5,6 In effect, the 2030 Agenda frames migration as a temporary and unplanned phenomenon that needs to be managed, rather than as an inherent and longstanding part of sustainable development and social transformation. The table documents how sedentary framing of development leads to the relevant current goals, targets, and indicators within the SDGs.…”