Governance

Planning for Climate Change and Human Mobility: The US Return to the Paris Accord on Climate Change

In the context of the US return to the Paris Accord on Climate Change, President Joseph Biden issued an executive order (EO) requiring a multi-agency report on climate change and its impact on human mobility. The report is to focus on forced migration, internal displacement, and planned relocation. Among the issues the EO stipulates will be addressed are the international security implications of climate-related movement; options and mechanisms to protect and, if necessary, resettle individuals displaced by climate change; proposals for the use of US foreign assistance to reduce the negative impacts of climate change; and opportunities to work collaboratively with others to respond to these movements. The order is a welcome step towards providing greater protection in the face of escalating impacts of climate change. It could also become a blueprint for other countries.

Migration Management and Changes in Mobility Patterns in the North and Central American Region

Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, changes have occurred in the regional dynamics of international migration and in the ways governments manage human mobility. This article argues that the migratory system connecting the three northern countries of Central America (Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras) with Mexico and the United States has not been accompanied by regional management of migratory flows. Instead, a succession of government plans and projects reveals a perspective marked by the effects of the “externalization” of US borders, leading to more complex migration routes and increased vulnerability of migrants. The article discusses how externalized control policies influence migratory spaces, routes, and timelines, and leave many stranded in transit countries before they eventually arrive at their intended destinations. Reconsidering the process of mobility in light of migration management policies would appropriately enlarge the traditional economic, social, cultural, and environmental factors that affect migration strategies.

Plenary Panel V: Overcoming Political Obstacles to Building Communities of Belonging

At a time of harsh and restrictionist federal policies, many states and localities have opted to treat immigrants and their families as full members of their communities, extending to them a range of services, programs, and benefits.

Plenary Panel III: Ireland’s Attempt to Build Communities of Belonging

Roderic O’Gorman, Minister for Children, Disability, Equality, and Integration, describes Ireland’s efforts to build communities of belonging.

State and Local Aid for Immigrants during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Innovating Inclusion

State and local governments have exercised unusual powers since the early days of the Coronavirus lockdowns, ordering businesses to open and close, the wearing of masks and much else. Amidst it all, renewed activism on immigration issues in some parts of the country has produced measures that offer emergency economic relief and access to health care for immigrants left out of federal programs, especially the undocumented. In other cases, governments have facilitated employment by immigrants considered “essential” from surgeons to farmworkers.

From Here and There: Diaspora Policies, Integration, and Social Rights Beyond Borders

Pau Palop-García of the Institute of Latin American Studies and German Institute of Global and Area Studies reviews From Here and There: Diaspora Policies, Integration, and Social Rights Beyond Borders by Alexandra Délano Alonso. This book examines how Mexico and...

Rules, Papers, Status: Migrants and Precarious Bureaucracy in Contemporary Italy

Tiziana Caponio of the Migration Policy Institute, EUI, and the University of Turin reviews Rules, Papers, Status: Migrants and Precarious Bureaucracy in Contemporary Italy by Anna Tuckett. In this book, Tuckett highlights the complex processes of inclusion and exclusion produced...

Recent Publications on the Global Compact on Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration and the Global Compact on Refugees

The Journal on Migration and Human Security (JMHS) has published three papers on the implementation of different aspects of the Global Compact on Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) and the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR). The papers have been...

Implementation of the Global Compact on Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration: A Whole-of-Society Approach

This is the third of three JMHS papers on the implementation of different aspects of the Global Compact on Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) and the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR). The papers have been produced by three think-tanks – the Scalabrini Migration Center (SMC) in Manila, covering the Asia-Pacific region, the Scalabrini Institute for Human Mobility in Africa (SIHMA) in Cape Town, and the Center for Migration Studies of New York (CMS). This paper argues that nations are best served by partnering with a wide range of societal actors to implement the objectives of the GCM. Such civil society actors may include non-profit organizations, faith-based groups, the private sector, trade unions, and academia, among other relevant stakeholders. Each of these actors brings unique strengths to the implementation of the GCM, filling gaps in the care and protection of migrants. They perform tasks that governments are unable or unwilling to undertake, especially in the area of irregular migration. A “whole-of-society” approach is the most effective method for managing migration humanely and in concert with the rule of law.

The Use of Executive Orders and Proclamations to Create Immigration Policy: Trump in Historical Perspective

This article examines presidential immigration policy making through executive orders (EOs) and proclamations. It finds that Donald Trump’s overall volume of EOs has been remarkably similar to that of other presidents, while his number of proclamations has been relatively high. However, his immigration-related EOs and proclamations diverge from those of his predecessors in several ways. Of the 56 immigration-related EOs and 64 proclamations issued since 1945, one percent of all EOs and proclamations have been immigration related, compared to eight percent of Trump’s EOs and 2.4 percent of Trump’s proclamations. In a sharp departure from previous presidents, a greater share of Trump’s EOs and proclamations have been substantive policy-making documents intended to restrict admissions of legal immigrants and increase enforcement along the border and in the interior of the United States. This article explores Trump’s unorthodox use of executive tools to make immigration policy, circumventing Congress and even members of his own administration. It recommends that Congress reassert its power over US immigration law and policy.