Migration Policy Centre - MPC

Join us for the next session of the Migration Working Group with these presentations:

Migration governance on social media? The circulation of information risk campaigns, by Verena Brändle, Visiting Fellow, Migration Policy Centre (EUI) & Senior Research Fellow, University of Vienna

Abstract

This paper investigates the circulation of governmental information campaigns for potential migrants in the European context. Focusing on social media, we apply social network analysis on three different campaigns on Facebook and Twitter respectively and analyse the actor types engaged in sharing campaign content. The paper helps to uncover the international online networks of top-down and bottom-up actors that promote European migration management discourses. In this way, we also shed light on governance actors’ more informal and still underexplored attempts to steer and dissuade irregular migration.

Discussant: Christiern Santos Rasmussen, PhD Researcher SPS (EUI)

Doing the math to end the refugee crisis: Is it possible? A policy brief modeling responsibility-sharing in refugee response, by Stephanie Acker, Policy Leader Fellow, School of Transnational Governance (EUI)

Abstract

The number of refugees has doubled since 2010 and now exceeds 20 million worldwide. At the current rate it will take 18 years just to meet today’s refugee resettlement needs. The scale of the problem and scale of the solutions do not add up. Referenced almost every other page in the Global Compact on Refugees, responsibility-sharing is largely viewed as what would make the solutions add up. The problem: no one agrees on what it means. What numbers would it take to solve the refugee crisis? Could we make the math work? This policy brief models an example of responsibility-sharing in order to make a significant decrease in the number of refugees by 2030. Using principles of operations management, it seeks to demonstrate how many refugees we could expect in 2030, the solutions that would be needed in response, and what it would look like to fairly divide up who provides them. While the model highlights numerous challenges in accurately and feasibly answering these questions, there is value in creating a concrete, numerical example of responsibility-sharing in order to quantify the scale of responsibility that needs to be shared, set ambitious and impactful goals, and help states compare what is needed with what they are offering. Any industry that wanted to achieve an ambitious goal would know the numbers needed to do that and then work to develop quantifiable plans to achieve that. This brief starts us on that path.

Discussant: Lenka Dražanová, Research Fellow, Migration Policy Centre (EUI)