International Migration最新文献

This article examines the vulnerability of Ukrainian refugees to trafficking, abuse and exploitation in Poland and Romania following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Drawing on survey data from the International Organization for Migration's Displacement Tracking Matrix and qualitative interviews with key informants, the study applies a multi-level, intersectional framework to assess personal, situational and contextual dimensions of vulnerability. It introduces a ‘continuum of vulnerability’ model, recognising that risks are dynamic, relational and shaped by structural inequalities. Quantitative analysis identifies financial insecurity, age and discrimination as key predictors of harm, whereas qualitative findings highlight the impact of conditional protection regimes, housing insecurity and healthcare barriers. Although few trafficking cases were officially identified, the findings suggest that a well-funded and coordinated rights-based response helped mitigate risks. The article argues that such protection frameworks must remain in place for as long as necessary and that vulnerability should be continuously monitored across all three dimensions.

The understanding of sexual orientation as the basis for a Particular Social Group under the Refugee Convention is a contentious issue. Conventional thought suggests that sexual orientation (SO) claimants often face unfavourable treatment by asylum decision makers. Although much extant knowledge derives from in-depth qualitative and doctrinal studies, only a few jurisdictions (e.g., Canada, the UK) have been analysed using large-scale data or experimental methods. To complement this work, this article analyses a representative sample of SO asylum decisions from Sweden, aiming to elucidate the factors influencing refugee status determination outcomes. The findings reveal that emotional responses narrated in relation to the discovery of SO play a significant role in shaping decision makers' understanding of sexuality. This emphasis on internal accounts over observable practices poses challenges in verifying the credibility of SO claimants, raising questions about the reliability of credibility assessments. These insights underscore the need for nuanced approaches to assessing the credibility of SO claimants and ensuring fair treatment in asylum processes.

This study used an interpretive research method to assess the effectiveness of policy reforms in ensuring safe migrant labour from Indonesia, a major sender of low-skilled workers. The findings indicate that inadequate implementation infrastructure can exacerbate human rights abuses rather than prevent them. While the central government emphasises official protection mechanisms, local governments lack physical and human resources for effective implementation. Furthermore, structural dependence on market-savvy sending agencies has emerged. The study suggests that Indonesia's labour migration policy needs to shift from a framework of detailed regulations to a flexible mechanism more in line with implementation capacity and market realities and recommends the establishment of public support centres, the standardisation of cost structures, the expansion of skills certification systems, and the strengthening of public-private partnerships.

Most immigrants have entered the UK as students in the last decades—and student mobility is on the rise worldwide. Is student mobility inherently distinct and different from other sources of migration? Currently, the literature on student mobility remains largely disconnected from core migration studies. To inform both scholarly and policy debates, this paper examines the respective contributions of scholarship and self-funded students to overall migration to the UK, both in the short and long term. Utilising comprehensive administrative data, including an exclusive panel dataset obtained from UK authorities, the author shows that (1) self-funded students have become a significant source of immigration into the UK; (2) the majority of international students leave within 6 years, but a fifth stay in the UK for more than 10 years; (3) stay rates vary by country of origin and source of funding, with a higher proportion of self-funded students from poorer countries staying in the UK for 10 years or more, as compared to scholarship students or students from richer countries who are more likely to leave. In other words, while student migration has outnumbered other work or family migration in the last decade, it remains mostly temporary. Only 2% of former international students transition to citizenship within 10 years. Most students leave the UK, potentially contributing to the circulation of knowledge and knowhow across borders, as well as fostering valuable transnational ties.

Guestworker schemes have increased in geographical extent and numerical importance in the twenty-first century. In the southern hemisphere, Australia and New Zealand developed schemes primarily drawing workers from small Pacific island states to meet horticultural needs. Proponents of guestwork pointed to a triple win for farmers, workers and source countries, couched in economic terms. In small Pacific states, such economic gains were less evident at workers' household level, while growing numbers of participants created increased social problems for workers' households and source countries, evident especially during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Increased demand for workers in destination states and new geopolitical tensions in the region enabled Pacific states to demand structural changes to the schemes that would remedy social costs. However, Antipodean schemes retained the structural problems of guestworker schemes elsewhere, but emphasised by skill losses, a permanently temporary precariat, and impacts affecting the entirety of small states that challenge the simplicity and ubiquity of ‘Triple win’ discourses.