About the ISS Research Cluster

The Research Cluster on International Migration and Human Security studies the links between migration and social change, focussing on different levels of interactions that contribute to the shaping of different migration systems and their implications for migrants’ wellbeing.

We seek to contribute to new understandings about migration in a global age by working across national boundaries, using a multi-sited approach and collaborating with regional and global research networks to share experiences. We are primarily concerned with how research can impact on policy developments in ways that address aspects of social justice more coherently.

Members of the Cluster

The interests of the cluster members are diverse. We intend to maintain this diversity and will bring different perspectives and research interests together in a mutually supportive manner. The cluster remains open to new members and we will keep the lines of research flexible so that new members can determine more easily how they can situate their research interests and develop organic links with us.

Issues Addressed and Approaches Taken

This research cluster addresses issues of migration and development from the perspective of social justice. Members of the cluster are working on questions of means in policy approaches as well as questions of ethical ‘ends’. The cluster works with Human Rights, Human Development and Human Security as three aspects of an inter-connected approach, which is centred on the protection of human dignity as the main goal.

The cluster adopts a multi-site research strategy, considered necessary for the subject of migration which involves multiple locales – sending, transit and receiving. We analyse and compare the complexity of different locales and situate and embed issues of human security and their meanings in a contextual manner. The aim is to generate new findings and reflections that are helpful to policy in making well-considered judgements and policy decisions.

Recently, the cluster organized an international conference on Migration, Gender and Human Security in an Era of Global Structural Change and Crisis at the ISS on 1-2 July 2010 in the context of the EU-Asia Link project funded by the European Union. The cluster also co-organised a conference with the Dutch 3R Foundation on Rights in Exile: Global Perspectives on Legal Assistance for Refugees on 21 June 2010. Earlier in 2007, the cluster organised an international conference on International migration, multi-local livelihoods and human security: Perspectives from Europe, Asia and Africa.

In 2011, the ISS will welcome PhD students from the Centre for Migration Studies at the University of Ghana as well as visiting scholars through the IDRC Programme.

The cluster also continues to be engaged in a number of collaborative externally funded activities, including with IDRC, to enhance human resources in higher education through international collaboration in research and teaching in migration studies. In January 2012, the Research Cluster organised a workshop on behalf of IDRC for partners from Asia, Africa and Latin America.

The current thematic issues covered by the cluster are:

• Forced Migration, Human Trafficking and State Policies

• Migration and Development Nexus: Critical Perspectives on Multi-Local Livelihoods, Social Networks and Remittances

• Human Security and Migration in a Global Age: Re-invigorating Development Ethics

• Migration, Culture and Urban Governance: Citizenship-in-Practice