Title:	The Global Economic Crisis and the Future of Migration: Issues and Prospects
Authors:	Bimal Ghosh
Keywords:	Issues and Prospects
Issue Date:	2013
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan
Description:	More than four years ago the world was afflicted by the worst economic crisis since the 1930s. At the height of that crisis, in 2009, several international organizations, including the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Hague Process on Refugees and Migration (THP), became increasingly concerned about the impact of the crisis on international migration. Out of this concern, the two organizations asked me to carry out a comprehensive analysis of how exactly the economic crisis would affect the origin and destination countries and what should be the policy responses to the issues involved in both short and long term. In 2011, my book, The Global Economic Crisis and Migration: Where Do We Go from Here? came out in compliance with the IOM/THP joint request. In writing a foreword to the book, William Swing, Director General of the IOM and Peter Sutherland, United Nations Special Representative on Migration and Development said in part1: The corrosive effects of the Great Recession ... are driving changes in migration policies and patterns – changes that can significantly influence social peace, inter-state relations and the pace of global economic recovery. Yet these migration issues have thus far received little attention, with recession-related policy debates and public discussions mostly focused on financial rules and reform. Into this void comes Bimal Ghosh’s new book – which bridges the policy gap and offers a fresh outlook on the future of migration. I have been encouraged by the response the book has since received and I am thankful to all those who have cared to write or speak to me personally in this connection. Why should I then write another book on the economic crisis and migration? It seems worthwhile to explain the reasons. Since the publication of my previous book in 2011 (with December 2010 used as the cutoff date) there has been no lessening of the pressure on the world migration system. Indeed, in many ways the strain on the system has increased. Anti-immigrant parties and lobbies have been gaining strength; and migration policies have become more restrictive and inward-looking. In many parts of the world, the immigration climate has become markedly tense. Public polls (May 2012) in 15 European countries,2 for example, revealed that while migrants in general rated their wellbeing worse than the native-born in these countries, the newcomers (those who arrived in the previous 12 months) were more likely to hold this negative feeling. At the same time, host societies were becoming less tolerant of migrants. Results of a survey (published in August 2011)3 by London-based Ipsos research firm, in nine European countries showed that as many as 56 per cent of people felt there were too many migrants on their soil and only 17 per cent thought immigration had a positive effect. In austerity-bitten Europe, there is evidence of a growing anti-immigrant feeling, as reflected in a warning from Human Rights Watch that xenophobic violence has reached alarming proportions in parts of Greece.
URI:	http://10.6.20.12:80/handle/123456789/52567
ISBN:	978-1-137-29130-1
Appears in Collections:	Population Studies

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