Disentangling the migration-development nexus using QCA

ABSTRACT

Under what circumstances does human development facilitate or constrain emigration? Moreover, under what conditions is migration a driver for rather than an obstacle for development? Empirical evidence identifying the drivers of the two-way relationship between migration and development is still rather mixed, in part also because of conceptual and methodological shortcomings of the methods generally applied to this subject matter, which often cannot handle the complex links and interactions between migration and development. This paper engages with the opportunities and challenges of investigating the migration–development nexus using Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) as a methodological approach to explore the complex configurational two-way relationship between migration and development processes. We hereby address a methodological gap in the scientific literature investigating the migration-development nexus and propose QCA as a method for enriching the empirical base and expanding our knowledge and understanding of this complex relationship.

KEYWORDS:

• Migration and Development Nexus
• Qualitative Comparative Analysis
• methodolog

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. COMPASSS (COMPArative Methods for Systematic cross-caSe analySis) is a global network bringing together researchers involved in theoretical, methodological and practical developments of the QCA approach. See www.compasss.org [Last accessed: 26/11/2020].

2. Whereas 38 articles are tagged specifically with the keyword ‘Development’, the database refers to different types that can be classified as follows: Economic Development (12), Welfare State/Care Services (4), Conflict and Development (2), Conservation/Nature and Development (2), Human Development (1), Urban Development/Rural Development (1, 1), Institutional/National Development (2), Language Development (1), QCA Analysis (1).

3. For instance, at the 16^th IMISCOE Annual Conference Understanding International Migration in the 21st Century: Conceptual and Methodological Approaches (Malmö, 26–28 June 2019), only one paper (out of several hundred) was based on QCA methodology. The IMISCOE Network connects 50 member institutes and around 1000 individual members from within as well as beyond Europe and is central in the development of migration research (see 2019 conference programme: https://www.imiscoe.org/images/conference-2019/konferensprogram-imiscoe-2019.pdf.

4. In the MIGNEX project, we acknowledge that the concept of development is without question a contentious and complex one, which can be defined as ‘a multi-faceted process of social transformation with multiple, context-specific manifestations that are sometimes contradictory even within one country’ (Carling, 2019, p. 9). Within that perspective, ‘specific developments’ can be identified that are experienced at the local or regional level such as: major infrastructure projects, a rapid expansion of livelihoods, a collapse in livelihoods, a wide-ranging legal or policy change, the depletion of a natural resource, an increased security threat or new opportunities for education. All these specific forms of development can have either a positive or a negative impact on the population, they can be intentional or not, gradual or sudden, and they can be either entirely or partly the result of a policy intervention. They can also influence migration flows, aspirations and types of migration (see Carling, 2019).

5. Accessed in November 2020.

6. ‘Global’ refers to articles with a comparative perspective with one country or several countries in Africa Latin America, Asia, Middle East, North America and/or Europe.

7. Key words in the COMPASSS database used were the following: the OECD’s 37 members, ‘European Union’ and ‘OECD’. The range of studies with the ‘EU’ as research interest is probably even bigger. Running the query with ‘EU’, the result is 189 entries for the entire COMPASSS database.

8. The categories used for the analysis relate to various aspects of development used in the MIGNEX research project and which will be used later in various QCA analyses explaining migration and development outcomes, respectively (see Czaika & Carling, 2019).

9. See http://www.ippr.org/files/uploadedFiles/research/projects/Migration,_Equalities_and_Citizenship/Development_on_the_move.pdf.

10. ‘Migration’ can be represented by several types of conditions, including the scale of out-migration and return migration, the prevalence of migration aspirations and failed migration attempts, and the importance of remittances (see Czaika & Carling, 2019, p. 2).

Additional information

Funding

Funded by MIGNEX (Aligning Migration Management and the Migration-Development Nexus), a five-year research project (2018–2023) with the core ambition of creating new knowledge on migration, development and policy. MIGNEX is carried out by a consortium of nine partners in Europe, Africa and Asia: the Peace Research Institute Oslo (coordinator), Danube University Krems, University of Ghana, Koç University, Lahore University of Management Sciences, Maastricht University, the Overseas Development Institute, the University of Oxford and Samuel Hall.

Notes on contributors

Mathias Czaika

Mathias Czaika is a Professor of Migration and Integration and Head of the Department for Migration and Globalisation at Danube University Krems, Austria.

Marie Godin

Marie Godin is a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the Refugee Studies Centre (University of Oxford) and research associate at the University of Oxford’s Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS).