Unmanaged migration and the role of MNEs in reducing push factors and promoting peace: A strategic HRM perspective

Migrants, migration policies, and international business research: Current trends and new directions

“…With this in mind, Gamlen (2019) provides a thorough explanation for how diasporas are governed nationally through diaspora engagement institutions like the Zambia Diaspora Liason Office, regionally through bilateral and multilateral agreements protecting migrant rights in areas such as employment and housing, and globally through international institutions like the UN's International Organization on Migration. Among the special issue articles, Reade et al (2019) draw an IB connection to these developments in migrant governance. They explain greater MNE interest in employing refugees as a CSR response to emerging international (UN) standards for the treatment of refugees.…”

“…Two articles in the special issue investigate MNEs and IB executive decision-making in unusual contexts. Reade et al (2019) ask why MNEs operating in countries prone to sudden economic dislocation and political violence might reach out and employ refugees affected by those threats. We should ask why those MNEs are in these fragile states in the first place.…”

“…In fragile states refugees can be highly skilled but unemployed. Here is where Reade et al (2019) analyze different HRM strategies to understand which MNEs are more likely to employ refugees, perhaps to gain greater legitimacy with host-country stakeholders, perhaps to meet perceived social responsibilities to host-country communities, perhaps to do both.…”

“…The articles we curated for the special issue address these and other new or renewed MMP issues confronting IB executives and investors. They analyze IB research and practice implications of: a dramatic rise in the value of migrant remittances to and the number of migrant ministries in many developing countries ; an escalating battle for skilled migrants only a few developing countries are producing but many developed-country MNEs need (Chand & Tung, 2019;Emmanuel, Elo, & Piekkari, 2019); a change in the mix of migrants ''pulled'' to host countries by economic opportunity versus migrants ''pushed'' from home countries by conflict, violence, and persecution (Christensen, Newman, Herrick & Godfrey, 2019); a debate about how migrants influence the direction of FDI from their host countries (Kunczer, Lindner & Puck, 2019); a shift in home-country citizen attitudes that now treat migrants living abroad as role models rather than renegades (Kautto, 2019); a trend among MNEs operating in ''fragile states'' to hire and train refugees as hedges against political risks and demonstrations of corporate social responsibility (CSR) (Reade, Oetzel, & McKenna, 2019); and a growth in public-private partnerships between government-run investment development agencies offering financial incentives to attract inward FDI and non-governmental migrant community organizations able to identify firms abroad more likely to respond to those incentives (Poliakova, Riddle, & Cummings, 2019).…”

“…It is, perhaps, the oldest question in our field with ''modern'' answers dating back to Stephen Hymer's dissertation research (1970Hymer's dissertation research ( /1960. In the special issue, Reade, Oetzel, and McKenna (2019) explain why MNEs emerge and recruit migrant refugees in countries prone to political violence. Why do entrepreneurs go abroad to establish new ventures that force them to carry liabilities of both ''newness'' and ''foreignness'' so often fatal to those ventures?…”