Circular Migration

The paper focuses on the (re)emergence in the late twentieth century of a specific form of cross-border labour migration--viz. guest-work or circular/managed migration--that is designed to keep migrants from settling in receiving countries. The paper is part of a larger project that situates this form of transnational work-mobility regimes within the larger historical debates over the slippery line between free labour and forced labour. Specifically, it traces the genealogy of guest-work, and makes some preliminary observations about the specificity of contemporary circular / managed migration as it becomes incrementally normalized as a desirable policy tool across the world.

Konwencjonalne wyobrażenie o migracjach tradycyjnie niesie ze sobą przekonanie o pojedynczej zmianie miejsca zmaieszkania i osiedleniu w nowym miejscu. Jest ono jednak w coraz większym stopniu podeażane przez rosnące znaczenie migracji międzynaroodwych zasługujących na miano "czasowych". Charakteryzują się one różna długością oraz sąnaznaczone przejściowością i nietrwałością, a często także powtarzalnością. Wzrost roli mobilności czasowej jako efektu postępu iprocesów modernizacyjnych przewidział już Wilbur Zelinsky (1971) w swojej koncepcji przejścia mobilności (czasowo-przestrzennej) (zob. wykład 1).

The study presents the defining characteristics
of temporary emigration of Romanians in the 2000s. The theoretical frame is built by reference to the concepts of life
strategy, human, social, economic and community capital and innovation diffusion. International migration strategies are more and more adopted in the context of poverty increase within the country, globalization and constitution of international migration networks. Temporary emigration
is hardly marked by positive selectivity , rural Vs urban differentiation and variability function of the migration waves. These waves follow the patterns of a social innovation
diffusion .Community social capital of ethnic or religious origin plays a very important role at the beginning of the process of emigration. Analysis is based on survey data at national level, community studies and multilevel approach.

Drawing on a year’s fieldwork in the Mumbai BDD Chawls neighborhood, this paper analyses an urban migration phenomenon called the gramastha mandal. Gramastha mandals are village-run committees that buy chawl (tenement) rooms and rent them to single male migrants from their own villages. Save a few studies and cursory references, gramastha mandals have received limited academic attention, especially in today’s climate of economic liberalization following the widespread closure of Mumbai’s cotton mills. Through an examination of gramastha mandal living arrangements, working patterns and social activities, I answer three broad questions. Firstly, how have the gramastha mandals been impacted by the closure of the mills that once provided a major source of employment? Secondly how does living in a gramastha mandal room impact migrants’ relationships with the city around them and, thirdly, how does this arrangement perpetuate societal divisions from the village? I suggest that most gramastha mandal residents remain more part of their villages than of Mumbai’s social structures, and that this alienation has increased since the mills closed and opportunities for forging a working-class urban solidarity correspondingly declined. Moreover, through strict eligibility criteria, gramastha mandals replicate, rather than erode, village fault-lines between caste Hindu and Dalit Buddhist communities, a phenomenon that shows only limited signs of changing.

Armut und Verwundbarkeit prägen das Leben vieler Menschen in Afrika. Für die Sicherung ihrer Existenz spielen Wanderungen zwischen Land und Stadt und die aus ihnen resultierenden ortsübergreifenden sozialen Netzwerke eine weitaus größere Rolle als bisher von der Forschung angenommen. Das Buch zeigt dies am Beispiel Südafrikas.
Die Entstehung, die innere Dynamik und die entwicklungspolitische Relevanz informeller Land-Stadt-Verflechtungen werden anhand einer bilokalen Fallstudie untersucht und veranschaulicht.
Malte Steinbrink eröffnet eine translokale Perspektive, die dazu geeignet ist, die aktuelle Diskussion um das Verhältnis von Migration und Entwicklung in Afrika maßgeblich voranzubringen.

This article investigates the formation of contemporary Puerto Rican farm labor in the United States and is based on a survey of farmworkers conducted from July through November of 2010 in the Northeast. We argue that this labor force is constructed, organized, and maintained by the following: labor-market conditions, including high unemployment in Puerto Rico and higher wages in the United States; circular migration and social networks among seasonal agricultural workers; U.S. citizenship of Puerto Rican workers and the legal requirements of employers to give native workers preference in hiring for agricultural jobs; and, finally, factors contributing to the social isolation of Puerto Rican seasonal workers, such as few ties to the local communities in which they work and poor English-language skills. Puerto Rican farmworkers offer a prime example of open-border seasonal migration for examination by scholars and policy makers concerned with agricultural guest-worker programs. This case study provides insights into how policies, experiences, and conditions in farm labor may or may not be related to the workers' legal status, but rather to the labor-market dynamics and social conditions affecting them. [Key Words: farmworkers, labor migration, circular migration, working and living conditions]

Artykuł ma przybliżyć koncepcję migracji cyrkulacyjnej i jej wprowadzanie w życie  w Unii Europejskiej (UE). W ostatnich dwóch dekadach migracja cyrkulacyjna będąca formą czasowych przemieszczeń ludności głównie w celach zarobkowych zyskała w UE wielu zwolenników. Stało się tak w dużej mierze za sprawą założenia, że odpowiednio zarządzana migracja cyrkulacyjna przynosi korzyści wszystkim zaangażowanym stronom (państwom wysyłającym, krajom przyjmującym i migrantom). Mimo dużego zainteresowania migracją cyrkulacyjną ze strony unijnych instytucji, praktyczna realizacja tej formy wielokrotnych zmian miejsca pobytu między państwami członkowskimi a krajami trzecimi okazuje się istotnym wyzwaniem dla Unii Europejskiej. Partnerstwa na rzecz mobilności oraz dyrektywy UE regulujące legalną imigrację i mające wspierać migrację cyrkulacyjną w niewielkim stopniu spełniają swoje zadanie. Kluczowe jest zatem pytanie o szanse na realizację tej koncepcji i jej przyszłość w UE.

Internal migration is a major driving force for urbanization all over the world and is of concern in Asia due to its rising magnitude. Most studies on internal migration focus on the migrant in the process of migration and a large majority of studies are interested in understanding the conditions of the migrant at the destination for policy concerns. This paper makes a case for studying the source of migration and the role that circular migration plays in processes of urbanization at the source of migration. This is particularly important in the context of the growing urbanization away from cities in India. Using the case of a dryland village in North Eastern Karnataka, this paper attempts to understand the role that circular migration for construction work to cities has in the process of localized urbanization in the village. 

Environment and Urbanization ASIA 8 (1): 105-119, March 2017

This paper by Piyasiri Wickramasekara, Senior Migration Specialist of ILO, focuses on the international debate on the movement of highly skilled persons from developing countries to the developed world (termed as" the brain drain). The objective of the paper is ...

Comments should be addressed by email to the author(s). The paper discusses how gaps in both the data on migration and the understanding of the role of migration in livelihood strategies and economic growth in India, have led to inaccurate policy prescriptions and a lack of political commitment to improving the living and working conditions of migrants. Field evidence from major migrant employing sectors is synthesised to show that circular migration is the dominant form of economic mobility for the poor; especially the lower castes and tribes. The authors argue that the human costs of migration are high due to faulty implementation of protective legislation and loopholes in the law and not due to migration per se. The paper discusses child labour in specific migration streams in detail stressing that this issue needs to be addressed in parallel. It also highlights the non-economic drivers and outcomes of migration that need to be considered when understanding its impacts. The autho...

This chapter analysis two in-depth case study participants (PhD candidates) and seven stakeholders' views on the push and pull factors and policy solutions driving students' or academics' international mobility and remigration decisions to a home country with unfavorable socio-economic trends.  Although returnees share optimistic views about the possibilities of applying their skills and knowledge gained abroad,  in reality, those who do return often find few job offers, few career prospects and few opportunities for knowledge transfer. They also face serious administrative and political obstacles to return and integrate their newly obtained skills and knowledge from abroad. The study shows that tertiary international mobility, although it has certain benefits, still produces significant constraints in a country with unfavorable socio-economic trends and unsustainable policy measures related to skilled migration, which can lead to further negative (re) emigration processes and brain drain.

En el presente trabajo abordamos críticamente el papel que ha jugado la principal organización empresarial catalana, Unió de Pagesos (UP), como gestora de proyectos asistencialistas en Cataluña y de codesarrollo en Colombia, establecidos al alero de las contrataciones en origen de temporeros agrícolas. Desde el establecimiento de las primeras contrataciones colectivas de trabajadores en origen en Cataluña, UP ha desarrollado y perfeccionado un modelo de corte filantrópico basado en la asistencia social en destino y la generación de programas de codesarrollo en origen, que sirve al propósito de la legitimación de su sistema de suministro de mano de obra. Ha sido gracias a su fundación Agricultores Solidarios que este modelo filantrópico asistencialista se ha desarrollado tanto en lo que a los proyectos de formación y asistencia social se refiere, como en lo tocante a los cursos de formación de agentes de codesarrollo y a la implementación de los proyectos de codesarrollo. La realización del trabajo de campo nos proporciona material para la interpretación de estos programas asistencialistas, como proyectos de disciplina social útiles a la legitimación del sistema de reclutamiento e importación de mano de obra.

Bulgarian migration to the UK has been consistently increasing since the country’s EU accession and
removal of barriers to free movement and labour across the EU. The continued popularity of the UK
as a migration destination despite the multiplicity of hurdles faced by Bulgarian immigrants poses
a paradox that cannot be explained with the ‘push-pull’ and cost-benefit calculation models prevailing
in migration research. In its attempts to provide a better understanding of people’s decisions to
migrate and different migration patterns this article challenges existing scholarly explanations by
analysing ethnographic material dedicated to the pre- and post-migratory experiences of Bulgarian
working class migrants. By exploring the effects of the informal institutional restrictions faced by
Bulgarian newcomers after January 2014 the article reveals a mechanism through which permanent
settlement has been limited in favour of circular labour mobility. The benefits of such regulating
mechanisms for the capitalist state have come at the expense of migrants’ longings for a ‘normal’
existence.

The philosophical debate on the freedom of movement focuses almost exclu- sively on long-term migration, what I call, migration as settlement. The normative justifications defending border controls assume that the movement of people across political borders, independent of its purpose and the length of stay, refers to migration as settlement. “Global mobility,” “international movement,” and “immigration” are oftenused interchangeably. However, global mobility also refers to the movements of people across international borders for a short length of time such as travel, short-term and circular migration. While most scholarly attention has focused on long-term migration, the vast majority of cross-border movement of people (approximately 85% of all cross-border movements in 2019) is short-term. The existing literature offers normative arguments for border con- trols, which are grounded on states’ right to self-determination, the freedom of (dis)association, the welfare state, the duty to compatriots, and brain drain. In this paper, I argue that these arguments do not justify excluding travelers, short-term and circular migrants from the territory.

Available via this link: https://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/TS5DHGKDMKQXDUV6YGFF/full?target=10.1080/13698230.2022.2040202

migracja cyrkulacyjna w świetle polityki imigracyjnej unii europejskiej Celem niniejszego artykułu jest przedstawienie koncepcji migracji cyrkulacyjnej w kontekście polityki imigracyjnej Unii Europejskiej. Na początek pragnę przedstawić krótki rys historyczny przybliżający pro-ces powstawania pierwszych regulacji w dziedzinie polityki imigracyj-nej w kolejnych traktatach UE, wcześniej Wspólnot Europejskich. Następnie analizie poddałam najważniejsze komunikaty Komisji Europejskiej z ostatnich 20 lat. Wzięłam pod uwagę zapisy, które pośrednio lub bezpośrednio dotyczą kwestii związanych z migracją cyrkulacyjną. Istotne znaczenie w pracach nad tworzeniem wspólnej polityki imigracyjnej mają wybrane dokumenty Rady Europejskiej, które również wspomniane są w publikacji. Postanowienia i rekomen-dacje w nich zawarte stanowią dla Komisji Europejskiej podstawę, na której bazuje, przygotowując swoje własne zalecenia, i dają zielone światło dla dalszego rozwoju tej ważnej dziedziny. Szczególny nacisk położyłam na kwestie będące tematem przewodnim opracowania, czyli na koncepcję migracji cyrkulacyjnej i jej realizację z wykorzysta-niem partnerstw na rzecz mobilności. Publikację kończy podsumowa-nie i ocena zaprezentowanych dokonań w sferze polityki imigracyjnej, z uwzględnieniem zaleceń dotyczących migracji cyrkulacyjnych. Imigracja zawsze była delikatną kwestią, leżącą tradycyjnie w ge-stii suwerennych państw, które – biorąc pod uwagę uwarunkowania 137 * Katarzyna A. Morawska – doktorantka na Wydziale Prawa i Administracji Uniwersytetu Gdańskiego.

This article analyzes the main factors involved in the decision making process of returning from Argentina to Spain. The return represents the last stage of a two-way migratory process, it consists of one phase of the migration cycle that should not be viewed as necessarily final and permanent. We understand this mobility as an intimate process of social interconnection in conjunction with the logic of emigration and immigration and other processes of social transformation. So it raises a frame work of epistemic-methodology that allows the local, national, global and transnational interconnections. The first findings of the research emphasize that the determinants of the returns are just products of the logical interdependence. From a qualitative approach we analyze the case of Argentina through 35 in-depth interviews to post-returnees who returned from Spain between 2008 and 2016. Analytically the macro-structural contexts are determinants that also impact the elements that make up the micro-meso level, mainly linked to the type of migration of the subject, since this also affects the decision to return.

The paper deals with the importance of neighbourhood ties in the social networks of circular migrants. While existing research shows that social networks constitute a crucial element in the process of circular migration, not much is known about the extent to which these networks are territorialised. The paper discusses this issue by analysing the case of Ukrainian migrants in Warsaw and its suburbs, who are close to the receiving society in both cultural and geographic terms and thus make this group a unique case compared to immigrants travelling to Europe from more distant places.. The analyses are based on data collected in a survey on Ukrainian migrants carried out in 2010 by the Centre of Migration Research, University of Warsaw, with the help of Respondent Driven Sampling (RDS). The studied sample consists of 342 respondents with different duration of migration from Ukraine to Poland. The paper argues that neighbourhood ties do not play an important role in the social capital and mobility patterns of Ukrainian circular migrants. The social relations of migrants are formed through ethnic and kinship ties, which are not related to a specific local area. The analyses also confirm earlier findings which show that Ukrainian migrants do not tend to concentrate spatially in the Warsaw metropolitan area, but which do point to the existence of small ethnic clusters. However, these seem to be determined by structural factors such as the availability of flats rather than individual preferences to live close to co-ethnics, which altogether suggests that there is a limited potential for local community formation among Ukrainian migrants.

In order to examine the linkages between urbanization and poverty in Africa it seems necessary to call the conventional dualistic spatial classifications of ”the rural” and ”the urban” into question. The distinc¬tion between rural and urban poverty lacks analytical value, as a large proportion of Africa’s poor is embedded in social contexts that are spanning the rural/urban divide. Facing this fact, a change in per¬spective is needed. This paper presents a proposal for an alternative view.
The starting point is an outline of a socio-spatial perspective as a counterdraft to the conventional geo¬graphic-spatial perspective, which still dominates analytical models in development studies. The char¬acteristics of rural-urban linkages are interpreted as translocal socio-spatial structures.
In order to conceptualise translocality in this context, a basic model is presented which takes into ac¬count the di¬alec¬tical relation between the socio-spatial structure and translocal action. In compliance with this, the rural-urban links are interpreted as an outcome as well as a condition of a recursive prac¬tice. In order to understand its underlying rationale, the observable action will be analysed in the con¬ceptional frame of vulnerability and livelihood approaches. Thus, translocal actions are conceived as strategic actions in the face of exposure to existential risks and uncertainties and as integral parts of translocal livelihood systems which span rural/urban demarcations.
The analytical model outlined here will be exemplified by a bi-local case study from South Africa.
The paper intends to explain the nature and dynamic of social rural-urban linkages by investigating their meaning for the livelihood organisation. The description of findings will focus on the role of migrants’ informal social networks in town and their importance for the actors’ livelihoods.

The Movement known as La Sape is a socio-cultural phenomenon which proves to be a unique example of circular transnational migration and the social imaginations expressed through it. Its adherents constitute largely of young men from Brazzaville in the Republic of Congo, and Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Having emerged from a political, social and economic environment of deprivation, the formation of a subculture based predominantly on opulence, consumption and material gain provides a fascinating insight into collective efforts at reclaiming agency. The  journey towards Europe and back is a way of re-constructing personal and social identity, where enhanced social status can act as powerful substitutions for actual class mobility.

Due to the increasing trend towards globalisation, mobility of labour (whether in the form of permanent, temporary or circular migration) now constitutes a major force of change, which has serious socio-economic implications. There is increasing evidence that it can be a powerful pro-development tool as it directly increases the incomes of the migrants (who remain citizens of the source country even after migrating). But migration has important implications for source countries as well via multiple channels such as remittances, labour market effects, return migration and network effects. Such implications as we argue in the paper are particularly important for many developing countries including Least Developed Countries (LDCs), which are the source countries of many millions of migrants around the world.

Despite its importance, the role of labour migration in the economic development of the world’s poorest countries has not received adequate attention in the run up to UN LDC IV. This paper looks at the evidence on the effects of migration on source countries and in particular on LDCs in order to provide some policy suggestions for a labour mobility agenda in LDCs which may maximise the developmental benefits of migration while minimising its costs. The evidence available tends to dispel the myth of migration as “brain drain”, i.e. an important reason for skills’ scarcity in LDCs, which is rather linked to the low generation of skilled workers in countries. On the other hand some evidence suggests that under certain conditions migration can act as a powerful stimulus for human capital formation. Taken at its face value the evidence available suggests that migration can have net positive benefits for source countries both through a direct (often large) increase in the income of the migrants (and who usually remain citizens of the home country even after migrating) and through the indirect channels that benefit the non migrants in the home country (including remittances, migration and network effects). these benefits are likely to apply at least equally and in certain instances (as in the case of remittances) even more strongly to LDCs, which on the other hand suffer from a higher incidence of educated migrants in home country population than for other source countries. Although this is not necessarily a problem - due to the positive effects on human capital accumulation that skilled migration could trigger – there is much more scope to increase unskilled and semi-skilled than skilled migration from LDCs. These countries have a large supply of relatively unskilled idle labour, which often constitutes a major comparative advantage in LDCs.
Unfortunately this is also the type of migration that receiving countries are more worried about. This is not a sufficient reason for LDCs (and developing countries in general) not to place unskilled and semi-skilled migration at the heart of their labour mobility agenda, but it may suggest some notes of caution in crafting the policy agenda on these issues.

Restricting migration is therefore not a useful strategy to tackle skills’ shortages in LDCs as migration is not the root cause of such shortages and in fact such strategy is likely to be detrimental for LDCs as it prevents the possible benefits of migration from materialising. However migration restrictions are an important feature of the policy environment of destination countries, particularly in Europe, today. The attitude towards immigration has deteriorated even further with the recent economic crisis and discussions about permanent migration from developing countries are difficult. Temporary migration appears a more feasible option in such environment. We show that this type of migration can be more beneficial than permanent migration due to the higher remittances sent back by temporary migrants and the higher level of return migration.

There are a fairly large number of managed migration schemes currently in place and we review some of those in OECD countries. It is difficult to generalise lessons from best practices also because it is not clear the extent to which the various programmes have been successful. However we review some lessons from a particularly successful temporary migration scheme between New Zealand and
the Pacific Islands, which point to the importance of an effective design and management of the scheme and in supporting capacity building of the source countries as key factors in the success of the programme.

On the basis of the analysis of the evidence reviewed, we formulate some policy suggestions for LDCs, dividing them into those involving mainly the source LDCs (over which the government may have a high degree of control), those which would need cooperation between sending and receiving countries and those which are essentially in the hands of receiving countries. We focus essentially on the first two sets of policies as LDCs have very little control over the third set (they can perhaps exert only some diplomatic pressure), which is nonetheless extremely important especially for migrants’ welfare.

Source country policies for LDCs

Source countries’ policies should put an emphasis on the expansion along with the retention of skills (based on incentives not on restrictions) while at the international level they should try to promote migration especially of the lowly skilled. A substantial expansion of skills at home is the most effective way to tackle the problem of skills’ shortages in LDCs. At the same time this would allow LDCs’ citizens to reap some of the benefits of increased demand for certain skilled and semi-skilled professionals in host countries. In fact we are not calling for an explicit ‘labour export’ strategy by LDCs, especially as far as certain occupations, such as in health and education, are concerned. In such sectors the priority in LDCs should be to satisfying the source country’s needs by having sufficient numbers of professionals to run the systems, which are in fact too often over-stretched as we have seen. However we do argue that the existence of an unsatisfied demand for goods or services in one country may provide opportunities for another country to fulfil such demand. An orderly expansion of the skills’ basis in the sending country is a key to trigger virtuous circles from migration. In this respect, public policies may be crucial to co-ordinate and fund such an expansion as well as to oversee it. This fairly general rule has different implications for different sectors. For instance, health care and IT differ in several respects. In particular, governments strongly influence the demand and supply of health care services, while IT services are largely produced and consumed by the private sector. However, a case could be made for the crucial role of domestic policies in facilitating, and in some cases subsidising, education in sectors where the demand for specific professional services overstrains the domestic capacity. In low income countries with tight fiscal constraints the expansion of the skill base in service for labour migration is not likely to occur without the involvement of the private sector. As this is fairly under-resourced in most LDCs, foreign educational institutions may be important in expanding the training capacities within a relatively short time. This involvement may require an effective regulatory body for the education system and a fairly liberal competition regime in the educational sector. Guaranteeing the quality of training in the face of an expansion in the skills’ base may be challenging especially in countries with weak institutional capacities, such as several LDCs. In this case external technical assistance by donors may be important, especially from destination countries which benefit from the migration of trained individuals from LDCs.

Second, while coercive measures to prevent departure appear to have been largely ineffective and violating human rights, strengthening incentives to stay for workers in certain sectors and countries faced with critical shortages may be a key for the functioning and the sustainability of these sectors.

Third, reinforcing incentives for return migration may be important to reap one of the major potential returns of migration, i.e. the possibility for the country of origin to benefit from the increased skills and the training acquired by the migrant abroad.
Fourth, a way to enhance public benefit is to provide incentives for a more profitable use of remittances, for example by encouraging migrants to invest in productive assets in their home economies.

Fifth, mobilising skilled expatriates to contribute their expertise to the development process in their home country is likely to be an increasingly important strategy.

Joint destination-host country policies

The hiring of certain service professionals from LDCs by high income countries, especially for health care and education, may constitute a ‘perverse subsidy’ by a poor country to the public sector of a high income country, which does not have to incur the costs of training. If one is interested in reducing such inequalities, receiving countries could consider paying sending countries a compensation for this subsidy.

Moreover LDCs could negotiate temporary labour mobility agreements at bilateral, regional and multilateral levels. While the multilateral negotiations within the WTO have the potential advantage of opening the labour markets of all member countries, the downside is that the process at the WTO could drag on for years, bearing heavily on the already resource-constrained developing countries. There is also the tendency in terms of making commitments — for trade liberalization — to always settle for the lowest common denominator. For these reasons, it is still beneficial to maintain regional integration arrangements, which can coexist alongside the LDCs’ negotiations at the WTO level. Importantly, these different negotiating fora could serve complementary purposes for different skills:

• Skilled migration: this is the more easily accepted form of migration, and therefore LDCs may not need to focus much effort in negotiating schemes to promote this type of migration.
• Semi-skilled migration: the ease of migration tends to be an inverse function of the skills of the perspective migrants, therefore this type of migration is likely to be based more on managed migration programmes than skilled migration. LDCs could keep leveraging on the special clause in GATS to try to gain preferential access in certain semi-skilled professions within the negotiations on Mode-4. Moreover the regional level represents a geographic dimension particularly suitable for semi-skilled migrants as the demand of middle income countries neighbouring LDCs is likely to be less skewed towards skilled labour than that of high income countries. Bilateral temporary migration schemes are also possible to negotiate for such migrants in certain professions.
• Low-skilled migration: it is virtually impossible to contemplate any realistic permanent migration options for the relatively unskilled because of the perceived and real, fiscal and/or socio-political costs. For similar reasons even temporary migration options may be problematic for LDCs to negotiate at the multilateral level in GATS. However promoting this type of migration is likely to be particularly beneficial for developing countries, especially LDCs. Therefore more targeted and circumscribed access to specific markets at the bilateral and perhaps regional level may be sought by LDCs.
• For specific occupations, especially those for which the demand of employers in the host countries is higher, it would also be worth for LDCs governments to explore the possibility of cooperating directly with employers’ associations to lobby host country governments for the development of managed migration schemes.

Cet article traite du rapport contraint au temps (de travail) de la main-d’œuvre migrante employée dans les zones industrielles qualifiées (QIZ) en Jordanie. En m’appuyant sur une enquête qualitative réalisée sur les lieux de production, de travail et de vie des travailleurs, je propose une réflexion sur les effets de la migration circulaire sur les temporalités du travail des migrants. Dans une industrie textile tournée vers l’exportation et dominée par des entreprises étrangères, je montre que l’ajustement du temps de séjour sur le temps de travail tend à réduire ces migrants à leur seule fonction de force de travail. Leur confinement dans des bâtiments dortoirs situés à proximité des usines accentue encore leur captivité. Il s’agira ici de (1) situer le temps long des politiques migratoires jordaniennes en les articulant au mouvement de libéralisation qui a présidé à la création des QIZ ; (2) comparer les conditions de mise au travail – et leurs effets sur le temps de travail – des mains-d’œuvre jordanienne et étrangère dans les QIZ ; (3) montrer comment les travailleurs migrants, parce que soumis à un temps contraint, sont plus vulnérables aux injonctions à la productivité et à la disponibilité que leurs homologues jordaniens.

This paper deals with the coerced relationship to (work) time among migrant labour working in the Qualified Industrial Zones (QIZs) in Jordan. Based on a qualitative survey conducted in production, work and workers’ living places, I explore the effects of circular migration on the temporalities of migrants’ work. In an export-oriented textile industry dominated by foreign firms, I suggest that the adjustment of residence time to work time tends to reduce these migrants to their sole function as a labour force. Their confinement in dormitory buildings located close to the factories further accentuates their captivity. The paper (1) situates the long-time frame of Jordanian migration policies by linking them to the liberalization movement that presided over the creation of the QIZs; (2) compares the working conditions – and their effects on work time – of both Jordanian and foreign workers in the QIZs; and (3) illustrates how migrant workers, because they are subjects to a coerced time, are more vulnerable to productivity and availability injunctions than their Jordanian counterparts.



Este artículo aborda la relación al tiempo (laboral) impuesta a los trabajadores migrantes empleados en las Zonas Industriales Cualificadas (ZIC/QIZ) de Jordania. A partir de una pesquisa cualitativa realizada en lugares de producción, trabajo y vida de estos trabajadores, propongo reflexionar sobre el modo en que la migración circular afecta las temporalidades del trabajo de los migrantes. En una industria textil orientada a la exportación y dominada por empresas extranjeras, el hecho de que el tiempo de residencia se ajusta al tiempo de trabajo tiende a reducir a estas personas a su única función de mano de obra. Su confinamiento en viviendas-dormitorio próximas a las fábricas acentúa aún más su cautiverio. El objetivo de este trabajo de investigación es: (1) resituar las políticas migratorias jordanas y sus temporalidades de largo plazo, vinculándolas al movimiento de liberalización que condujo a la creación de las QIZ; (2) comparar las condiciones en las que los trabajadores jordanos y extranjeros son puestos a trabajar en las QIZs - y sus efectos en el tiempo de trabajo; (3) mostrar cómo los trabajadores migrantes, al estar sujetos a una limitación constreñida del tiempo, son más vulnerables a los mandatos de productividad y disponibilidad que sus homólogos jordanos.

El artículo presenta algunos lineamientos para la discusión de una investigación doctoral en curso que se interroga acerca de los condicionantes que operan en los procesos de decisión de retorno de argentinos que en su momento residieron en España y después de la crisis económica global del 2008 retornaron a la Argentina. A través de una investigación empírica, con la realización de entrevistas en profundidad a argentinos retornados, el artículo muestra algunos resultados preliminares en torno al análisis de los procesos de decisión de estos migrantes. Para dar cuenta de la diversidad de factores que dan lugar al retorno, así como de los modos en que éstos se imbrican e intersectan entre sí, nos basamos en un modelo de análisis múltiple (o análisis multinivel) que permita dar cuenta de la influencia de variables contextuales sobre las actitudes o los comportamientos medidos a nivel individual o relacional.

Consultar el siguiente link para ver la corrección que se hizo a la tabla: https://www.academia.edu/35300514/TABLA_CORREGIDA_del_Art%C3%ADculo_RAIGAL_La_Migraci%C3%B3n_de_retorno_notas_en_torno_a_una_investigaci%C3%B3n_sobre_retorno_argentino_2008-2017

This article discusses the EU Seasonal Workers Directive alongside case study data of seasonal agricultural work in Spain. The conceptual contribution is to critically consider 'seasonality' and the related assumptions around temporary labour migration for agricultural work. This consideration informs an analysis of the Directive's policy approach alongside its three global objectives. It is argued that this Directive is likely to fail to meet all three of these objectives; the assumed timeframe for labour demands does not correspond with unmet seasonal challenges; the lack of options for undocumented workers already in the EU may compound their marginalisation; the policy approach of circular migration and limited worker protections does not do enough to prevent new seasonal workers from falling into situations of vulnerability and undocumented status.

La tesis de doctorado explora analíticamente el vínculo entre migración, desarrollo y remesas mediante el estudio etnográfico del programa de contratación en origen y codesarrollo del sindicato agrario Unió de Pagesos (Catalunya, Estado Español).  Éste se analiza como un sistema de trabajo migratorio (Burawoy, 1976) y como una experiencia de institucionalización de la migración (Goss y Linquist, 1997) en forma de empresa migratoria, que se articula en un campo social transnacional donde se conectan distintos actores con intereses lucrativos y políticos que fomentan la migración, instituciones estatales, ONGD y grupos domésticos.
Este programa de migración circular se erige como un instrumento de control y regulación de flujos, y alberga la misión de intervenir sobre poblaciones mediante el formato de estimular el retorno y la orientación en la inversión productiva y empresarial de la remesa, para generar desarrollo local y atacar la pobreza causante de las migraciones.
Describir su discurso y su misión de codesarrollo, así como analizar sus prácticas locales en un país de reclutamiento como Colombia, permite entrever un juego de lógicas e intereses entre distintos actores sociales, que se ubican en una estructura asimétrica y jerárquica, fundamentada en la desigualdad en la movilización global de mano obra. Y en esta misma estructura, la implementación del codesarrollo se asimila con las estructuras y los proyectos de cooperación internacional, ONGD y asociaciones campesinas que actúan en el país latinoamericano y que perciben el programa en términos de oportunidad de financiamiento.
La investigación muestra que existe un enfoque economicista e institucional que guía la experiencia, y revela como el reclutamiento de mano de obra en origen en Colombia y sus suministro hacia la agricultura catalana su fusiona con procesos informales de contratación y otros factores extraeconómicos, como el clientelismo, el patronazgo andino y el asociacionismo campesino, que devienen claves en el negocio del reclutamiento de mano de obra a nivel global, e implementación de codesarrollo a nivel local.
En la tesis se analiza el programa de reclutamiento y codesarrollo como una empresa de la migración, y focaliza en dos estudios de caso en el suroccidente del andino (Norte del Cauca y Nariño), donde se implementaron proyectos colectivos de codesarrollo entre los años 2001 y 2013. Además, se observa el problema desde las poblaciones en origen y desde la posición de las personas –gran parte de ellas mujeres-, grupos domésticos y agentes sociales radicados en origen. Las obligaciones morales, el retorno de favores, la reciprocidad y las economías del cuidado impregnan sus estrategias migratorias familiares y colectivas, y los usos y significados de mandar y recibir remesas.
Mediante la antropología económica y la economía feminista se analiza el fomento de comportamientos centrados en el homo oeconomicus para empresarizar a las poblaciones migrantes y hacerlas agentes de codesarrollo en sus localidades de origen. Este planteamiento invisibiliza una parte oculta de los procesos migratorios y la redistribución de los beneficios de la migración: el rol clave de los agentes locales, sus estrategias migratorias comunitarias, y el vínculo entre remesas sociales, diferenciación social y poder local. También, el hecho de que la mayoría de hogares involucrados en la experiencia transnacional se rigen por lógicas de la reproducción ampliada de la vida (Coraggio, 2004). Mirar desde la posición más oculta de este proceso glocal, revela la importancia de las lógicas basadas en la sostenibilidad de la vida (Carrasco, 2001). El papel de las mujeres y los grupos de parientes conectan el trabajo doméstico y las economías del cuidado con el trabajo asalariado en los países de destino. En un contexto de políticas neoliberales y control represivo de los flujos migratorios, las emprendimientos que fomenta esta experiencia de migración y codesarrollo se sustenta sobra las esferas más ocultas, pero más dinámicas, que forman parte de los procesos migratorios globales.

For some returning migrants in post-Soviet Georgia, their exile is made more painful by a brutal historic break with "time past", thus revealing the perception of another form of exile, which is of a social and temporal kind. This temporal exile shapes an original perception of time consisting of various disruptions told by migrants who mobilize various narrative tools to restore fragmented individual pathways in socially shared time. The narratives stage the inaugural pattern of the Fall and establish the link between migrating and the fear of national fragmentation. They also reveal social polarities that we understand as differentiated temporal perceptions. The disruption-continuity dialectic differs depending on the social position of the respondents. According to whether one was able to see the end of the post-Soviet "difficult years" or not, these will be considered as a completed transition or as a never-ending crisis, out of phase with the rapid political temporality of Mikheil Saakashvili’s government.
Thus, by combining the precarious rhythms of mobility, the temporal apprehension of migrants here can be grasped at the intersection of both historical perspectives and the perspective of migration and biographical trajectories.

L’exil des migrants de retour en Géorgie post-soviétique, en se doublant d’une rupture historique brutale et douloureuse avec le « temps d’avant », révèle la perception d’une autre forme d’exil, social et temporel. Cet exil temporel organise une perception du temps originale constituée de diverses ruptures qui sont mises en narration par les discours des migrants à travers la mobilisation de différents procédés narratifs destinés à restituer des parcours individuels heurtés au sein d’un temps socialement partageable. Ainsi, ces narrations laissent apparaître la mise en scène du motif inaugural de la chute ainsi que le lien entre migration et peur de la fragmentation nationale. Elles révèlent également des polarités sociales que nous comprenons comme des perceptions temporelles différenciées. La dialectique rupture-continuité diffère donc selon la position sociale des enquêtés. Selon qu’on ait pu clore ou non les « années difficiles » post-soviétiques, elles sont considérées comme une transition achevée ou bien comme une crise perpétuelle en décalage avec la temporalité politique rapide du réformateur Mikhaïl Saakashvili.
Ainsi, en se conjuguant aux rythmes précaires des mobilités, l’appréhension temporelle des migrants dont il est ici question se saisit au croisement de perspectives historiques et de celles des trajectoires migratoires et biographiques.

Les saveurs venues d’ailleurs attirent les consommateurs des deux côtés de la Méditerranée. Dans ce contexte de mondialisation des pratiques culinaires, les entrepreneurs migrants marocains cherchent à développer de nouveaux marchés. En France, en complément de restaurants dédiés à leur gastronomie nationale, ils ouvrent des commerces ethniques proposant des produits de toutes origines. Au Maroc, ils n’hésitent pas à renouveler l’offre culinaire afin de satisfaire le besoin d’exotisme des couches sociales les plus aisées.

A raíz de la crisis económica global del 2008, la cuestión del retorno de los migrantes internacionales pasó a ser hoy un tema de actualidad tanto en agendas estatales como académicas. De ahí que surgieran estudios sobre este tipo de movilidad en términos de las motivaciones, los contextos y los medios utilizados por los migrantes para regresar al terruño, así como de su reinserción laboral y social que le sigue al proceso. En este sentido, en esta ponencia nos proponemos examinar el retorno en sus variantes de re-emigración y circularidad a partir de un estudio de caso sobre argentinos retornados de España en el periodo 2008-2017.

Aunque cuantitativamente existen evidencias de que los retornos hacia la región han ido aumentando estos últimos años, las políticas neoliberales que se vienen impulsando actualmente en Argentina permiten plantear el interrogante sobre ciertas reconfiguraciones en el patrón de retorno que hasta el momento parece ser el predominante: el de tipo “definitivo”. La hipótesis que sostenemos es que ante el actual  escenario político y económico argentino, ahora los retornos pueden cobrar características de tipo “circular”. Argumentamos que la razón principal que permite problematizar el redireccionamiento de dichos retornos tiene que ver con la posición que ocupan los retornados en el régimen de movilidad global en términos de movilidad-inmovilidad. De este modo, ante un contexto “expulsor”, el factor  transgeneracional como el de nacionalidad múltiple pueden ahora aumentar las posibilidades de realizar retornos temporales y de tipo circular.

Palabras claves: re-emigración, circularidad, migración de retorno, régimen de movilidad global, crisis económica global, retorno latinoamericano.

Short-term migration is a transfer of an economic activity but not the usual residence. There are number of studies in the field of migration in India as well as abroad. Majority of the studies conducted are confined to either macro level or based on secondary source of data. But the problem with secondary source of data is, it does not cover the short term movements like circular and seasonal out migration. In the present context of unavailability of secondary source of information on short-term movements like seasonal and circular migration the micro level investigation like this is very useful. Macro level studies may help us to understand the trend, reason and pattern of short-term migration but it will not help us to understand the real issues at the grassroots. Present study has been conducted in a second largest arid regions of the country i.e., Hyderabad-Karnataka region of Karnataka state. It has focused on the background of the short-term migrants with special reference to economic capabilities. The present study tried to analyse shortterm
migration as a livelihood mechanism of the rural labourers in the lean
season of agriculture with the intention to provide significant inputs to policy makers engaged in the design and execution of labour or employment policies.

Los estudios sobre la consolidación y expansión de los enclaves productivos agrícolas globalizados, y del fenómeno asociado de movilización de la mano de obra que a ellos se dirige, han ido en aumento durante los últimos decenios. Este desarrollo ha permitido conocer en profundidad las circunstancias productivas de las agriculturas globalizadas –así como de las industrias a ella vinculadas- y las dificultades que el sector experimenta en lo que a producción e inserción de su producto en mercados altamente competitivos refiere. Consecuencia del interés mostrado por la academia internacional a propósito del control de la migración mediante instrumentos, tales como el Programa de Trabajadores Temporales Extranjeros en Canadá , las visas H-2A en Estados Unidos , o los contratos OIM en Francia, y sobre el abastecimiento de fuerza de trabajo ha sido la proliferación de literatura sobre el respecto. A través de estos trabajos se somete a examen el efecto que los modelos altamente competitivos de producción “justo a tiempo” producen –entre otros- sobre el factor trabajo, la consideración del temporero contratado en origen como sujeto del cual servirse en los momentos cruciales de las campañas agrícolas, sus formas de reclutamiento y movilización intensiva, y su empleo dirigido a la exacción de la máxima plusvalía. En relación a España, tal interés se ha revelado a través de la producción de trabajos dedicados, entre otras materias, a la sostenibilidad social de los modos de producción intensivos en la agricultura, a la proliferación de enclaves agrícolas globalizados altamente dependientes de mercados externos, a los procesos de recomposición de fuerza de trabajo y la progresiva introducción de cadenas globales de trabajadores; como también a las consecuencias que de ello se derivan sobre las condiciones de explotación en las que el trabajo en la agricultura se lleva a cabo . Igualmente, en el terreno más específico de la contratación en origen, este interés ha dado como fruto investigaciones dirigidas a la interpretación crítica de los modos en que se emplean a los trabajadores extranjeros en las agriculturas globalizadas y los efectos que éstos producen, relativos a la precarización del trabajo, el cercenamiento de las libertades y el desgaste de los sistemas democráticos de derecho. En este sentido han resultado fundamentales los trabajos acerca de la gestión de los contratos en origen en Huelva , sobre la contratación en origen en Lleida  y en general en la agricultura hortofrutícola española .
La comprensión de éste y otros fenómenos asociados –tales como el establecimiento de proyectos de codesarrollo en los países de origen de los trabajadores, las estrategias migratorias de los grupos domésticos transnacionales y la lógica redistributiva del uso de las remesas  - ha requerido su estudio desde diversas disciplinas (Economía Política, Sociología, Antropología, Historia, Geografía, Derecho, entre otros), en lugares de consolidación de enclaves agrícolas. Continuar con esta labor de estudio y difusión de los resultados de aquéllas investigaciones dirigidas a la mejora de la interpretación de tales cuestiones es objetivo de este dosier monográfico. Por éste se pretende aunar los trabajos de gran parte de los principales investigadores españoles que se dedican al estudio de las movilizaciones humanas hacia los enclaves agrícolas globalizados, de los modelos de producción y de las estrategias de reclutamiento y uso de la fuerza de trabajo. Característica central de todos ellos es el uso del método propio de la Antropología, es decir el trabajo de campo, a modo de instrumento de obtención de datos cualitativos de los que se sirven los autores para la afirmación o refutación de las tesis propuestas. Valiosos son en este sentido los testimonios que estos trabajos ofrecen de los diversos actores que entran en relación en el escenario de la contratación en origen, como también valiosas son las observaciones de los autores que participaron de él, en cuanto que investigadores del mismo. Dotamos por todo ello de un valor excepcional a estos trabajos cuyo resultado ha dependido, entre otros de la observación en terreno de la materialización de la contratación en origen, bien desde lo que acontece en las sociedades de procedencia de los trabajadores antes, durante y con posterioridad al arribo de éstos a sus hogares; bien desde la perspectiva del estudio de las relaciones establecidas entre los actores que ponen en marcha tal procedimiento y los propios trabajadores. Esta cuestión metodología debe ser remarcada debido a su potencialidad en lo que a obtención de datos de la realidad y de validación de hipótesis de trabajo se refiere. Nos parece por ello fundamental resaltar esta característica propia del monográfico que se presenta y su valor científico, atendido el uso de esta metodología que incluye herramientas tales como la entrevista, la observación participante y el diario de campo, conveniente a la interpretación del objeto de estudio y al arribo de conclusiones lo menos afectadas posible de preconcepciones. Es igualmente remarcable la consecuente visión crítica que se deriva del análisis del contexto en terreno y de la contratación en origen en primera persona.
La singularidad del presente monográfico tiene también relación con la circunscripción de las investigaciones, que han dado como resultado los artículos que en él se presentan, al territorio del Estado español. No obstante esta particularidad se recoge aquí un trabajo de corte comparativo, destacado por cuanto evidencia la diversidad de modelos de movilización y reclutamiento de la fuerza de trabajo que el empresariado concibe o, simplemente, hace uso en los enclaves agrícolas internacionales. El análisis comparativo dota a los investigadores de gran abundancia de datos, que sin duda favorecen una comprensión más acabada del fenómeno objeto de estudio en nuestro país. Las experiencias de mayor relevancia y trascendencia en la materia a nivel estatal se encuentran también aquí reflejadas, siendo los casos onubense y leridano los que se abordan con mayor profundidad. Es por tanto en atención a tal necesidad de comprensión del fenómeno de la contratación en origen que se presenta este dosier monográfico dedicado a ella. Los investigadores que en él participan enriquecen con sus artículos la reflexión en torno a todas las cuestiones anteriormente mencionadas preocupándose de mostrar con rigor científico las causas históricas, económicas y sociales del establecimiento de los programas de trabajadores temporales en España que originaron la normativización de la contratación en origen, así como de describir las tensiones que motivan los modos de proceder de los diversos actores involucrados.

The main objective of this paper is to show the consequences that the system established by the agricultural union “Unió de Pagesos” to recruit, import and distribute foreign labor produces, that is a worker whose legal rights and liberties are embarrassed. Once the traditional family productive system of Catalonian agriculture is substituted by an industrial one, designed for exportation and which requires hired labor, the Union, aided by the State reconverts itself into an entity that provides different services, especially those related with the supply of labor force through their system –as we characterize the set of practices that make possible the recruitment of foreign workers, and their concentration in the lodgings managed by it. The migratory policy is responsible of the emergence of this system whose origin is in the symbiotic relation between the State and the Agricultural Union. Their interests –the “just in time” provision of labor and the social control of the migratory flow are harmonized by it. In the lodgings –infrastructure of the system- a transformation is operated through different devices –lodging regulation, presence of personnel in charge of the facilities, a visit regime, exit permissions, among others –close to other institutions as labor camps, where the tame of the individuality is aimed through the subordination to a dominating power in order to create a new subject, whose value is exteriorized in its obedience to the will of those who administrate the institutions. Finally, this system belongs to a tradition of devices designed with the purpose to fixation of manpower, whose most relevant precedents are to be found in social institutions as Roman slavery rental (II-I B.C.), English vagrancy and poor laws (XIV century) and specifically Prussian System of labor import applied by the Preuische Feldarbeiter Zentrale studied by Max Weber.

The paper proposes a reading of the urban periphery from a labor-centered perspective, according to which its relational geography is indexed to the mobility of marginalized migrant workers and labor processes. Specifically, it attempts to rethink the urban periphery from the vantage point of peri-urban brick kilns and brick kiln workers. The paper draws parallels between the displacement of brick kilns to the peri-urban and the precarious migration of brick kiln workers by highlighting the tenuous tie between brick kiln workers and the urban space embedded in both. The paper first outlines the historical process of the outward displacement of brick kilns from Delhi to peri-urban villages in Haryana as a result of various pieces of legislation, judicial rulings and planning discourses. It then turns to contemporary forms of circulation between the kilns and the core city. Drawing from fieldwork data generated out of kiln workers’ life histories, it explores the various factors conditioning mobility and the reasons why workers circulate between the brick kilns and different urban occupations at different moments in their lives. The paper argues that exclusionary urbanization processes, in tandem with migrants’ life cycle choices, produce migrant workers as peripheral subjects while they contribute to the production of the urban periphery.