Sustainable Development Goals and Migration

P. Sivakumar, S. Irudaya Rajan, P. Sivakumar, S. Irudaya Rajan

• Publisher: Routledge India
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000481112
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Economics
• Subtopic: Sustainable Development
• Index: Economics

This book looks at migration in contemporary society and its interrelations with development. It presents the complexities and dilemmas associated with migration, the changes in theoretical and historical perspectives on migration and development, and the role of policies and the sustainable development goals in this context.

The volume views migration as a phenomenon for advancing human development outcomes. It deals with wide-ranging issues including labour migration, the idea of decent work, migration and transnationalism, remittances, social networks and capital, and addressing poverty. The chapters highlight the focus of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and its relevance on migrant rights, safeguarding livelihoods and health. They also offer insights into regional and international co-operation on policies for migration, social growth and protection, and citizenship. With comparative analyses of data, trends and development indicators as well as various case studies, this volume examines the impact of migration on international relations and politics, labour market outcomes, gender, youth and education among others. It also discusses the loss of lives and livelihoods due to the Covid-19 pandemic, its impact on migration and the effects of the pandemic on the contemporary discussions on migration and SDGs.

Rich in empirical data, this book will be an excellent read for scholars and researchers of migration and diaspora studies, development studies, refugee studies, public policy and governance, international relations, political studies, political economy, sociology and South Asian Studies.

1 Contours of migration and development in the SDG agenda

P. Sivakumar and S. Irudaya Rajan

DOI: 10.4324/9780429346866-1

Introduction

The Nobel laureate economist, Amartya Sen, places his concept of development by quoting Immanuel Kant’s most famous dictum “So act as to treat humanity, whether in thine own person or in that of any other, in every case as an end withal, never as means only”. His argument postulates that the process of development must treat every person as an end in themselves rather than as a means alone. This proposition is most critically valid in the context of migration and development in the contemporary scenario. Migration needs to be viewed as advancing human development outcomes and also fosters overall development. However, every aspect of migration cannot be treated in this direction as migration also occurs in stressful situations let it be forced migration or unsafe migration. There are plentiful literature highlighting the significance of migration’s contribution towards poverty reduction and human development (Afsar, 2003; Deshingkar, 2006; Tandoh-Offin and Awuse, 2013; Zachariah, Mathew and Rajan, 2003; Zachariah and Rajan, 2012). As human development principles underscore people as real wealth of nations, it is important to understand the linkages between migration and development in the context of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Migration and development – outgrowing definitional boundaries

The nexus between migration and development cannot be limited in the way we define migration (Rajan, 2012; 2015) The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) defines an international migrant as “any person who changes his or her country of usual residence” (UNDESA 1998). The definition given by the International Labour Organization (ILO) in the context of labour migration is that “migrant for employment means a person who migrates from one country to another with a view to being employed otherwise than on his or her own account”(ILO 1999), whereas the International Organization for Migration (IOM) defines migrant as “a person who moves away from his or her place of usual residence, whether within a country or across an international border, temporarily or permanently, and for a variety of reasons” (IOM 2018). All these definitions fail to capture the complexities involved in migration and development. Migration is an end and the means as well for development as highlighted in Sen’s perspective on development. It is very difficult to separate migration from development and difficult to envisage development without migration (Skeldon1997).

The dominant literatures on migration emphasize on the importance of remittances and economic development, but what also to be seen is the non-economic benefits and most importantly the human development outcomes due to migration. The Human Development Report of UNDP in the year 2009 argues that three forth of international migrants migrate to the countries having high human development compared to their home countries (UNDP 2009). People who migrate to countries of better human development as part of international migration are enhancing their capacities endowed with better capabilities in accessing education and health (Kandemir 2012). At the same time, the development disparities and migration out of distress, social and living conditions of migrants, particularly internal migrants in the case of India, raise certain developmental issues in connection with human development. The linkages between internal migration and development have been ignored (DeWind and Holdaway 2008) and there are very little studies in this direction.

Over the period, the word “development” also has undergone tremendous transformations. The vocabulary of development has been changing in tune with the changing times. Robert Chambers argues that the thinking and actions of development professionals on development can be evaluated by reflecting on the context of the words used by them over the period (Robert Chambers 2005). The same is illustrated in Table 1.1.

Table 1.1 Development Vocabulary

The human condition	Capabilities, deprivation, entitlement, livelihood, poverty, vulnerability, well being
Organization, power and relationships	Accountability, consumer, decentralization, empowerment, ownership, participation, partnership, process, stakeholder, transparency
Domains and dimensions	Civil society, environment, globalization, governance
Values	Democracy, diversity, equity, gender, human rights, pluralism sustainability
Source: Robert Chambers (2005).

Mahbub ul Haq in his article “The Human Development Paradigm” (Fukuda-Par and Shivakumar2004) elaborates the functions and purpose of development as follows:

• Development must put people at the centre of concerns
• The purpose of development is to enlarge all human choices and not just income
• The human development paradigm is concerned both with building human capabilities (through investments in people) and with using those human capabilities more fully (through an enabling framework for growth and employment)
• Human development has four essential pillars: equity, sustainability, productivity and empowerment. It regards economic growth as essential, but emphasizes the need to pay attention to its quality and distribution, analyses at length its link with human lives and questions its long-term sustainability
• The human development paradigm defines the ends of development and analyses sensible options for achieving them.

The above pointers are conjoining with migration and development, and, in fact, the migration-development nexus has to be centred around these pointers, which gives us a comprehensive understanding. The mainstream development strategies typically involve major human costs and suffering (Des Gasper 2004), which in other words, indicate the plight of migrants in informal sector, where they are engaged in 3D jobs (dirty, dangerous and demeaning). What is required in this context is to enhance the capabilities of migrants and subsequently create decent and sustainable jobs in labour market. This can be illustrated through the following Figure 1.1:

Figure 1.1 Responsible Well-Being

Robert Chambers argues that livelihoods and capabilities are both ends and means in development thinking, whereas the concept of equity and sustainability are the principles that makes livelihood to qualify responsible well-being (Robert Chambers 2005). The migration-development nexus in 2030 agenda needs to be built around these frameworks.

Theoretical approaches

The heterogeneous nature of migration and development puts the theoretical approaches in “Migration and Development” studies in a complex perspective. Though migration studies and development studies are the interdisciplinary in nature, there is hardly any interdisciplinarity is visible until recently (King and Collyer 2016). One such notable attempt is by Caroline Brettell and Hollifield (2015) who tried to summarize the principal research questions, methodologies and dominant theories in various disciplines in relation to migration (Table 1.2)

Table 1.2 ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• List of Contributors
• Preface
• 1 Contours of migration and development in the SDG agenda
• 2 Migration and SDGs: Towards new data approaches
• 3 An overview of migration-specific SDGs in the Indian context and the way forward on target 10.7
• 4 SDG implementation: A policy analysis of internal migration in India
• 5 Migration governance and the global compact on migration
• 6 Moving towards a better future: Education through placemaking with migrant children
• 7 Young migrant women from South Asia in the UAE: Issues and challenges
• 8 Young bonded labourers: From the lens of migration and the SDGs
• 9 Recruitment practices of Gulf migrants in Telangana: A boon or bane?
• 10 Subcontracting and construction sector labour migration to Kerala: Challenges to achieve sustainable development goals on decent work
• 11 Potential migration: A case study of youth from Kerala
• 12 Epilogue: Impact of COVID-19 on achieving migration-specific SDGs
• Index