PEPP Seminar “International Migration: Human Security and Development Dimensions” (June 29)
2016/06/09
Title: “International Migration: Human Security and Development Dimensions”
Presenter: Dr. Tsuneo AKAHA (Professor of International Policy and Development, Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey)
Date: Wednesday, June 29th, 2016
Time: 15:30-17:00
Venue: 3K Building, Room 311 (Central Area)
Coordinator: Prof. Jeet Bahadur SAPKOTA
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Abstract
International migration is a global phenomenon receiving growing attention among policymakers, academic researchers, and mass media around the world. Migration flows across national borders tend to attract media coverage more for their negative aspects than for their positive contributions in both the countries of origin and countries of destination even though moderate net positive effects of international migration in most countries’ economies are shown in more careful studies by academic and policy circles, including those by the United Nations, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and the Global Commission on International Migration (GCIM). It is true that favorable economic impacts are not uniform across countries at all levels of development. There are also noticeable differences in the sense of wellbeing that migrants and their families express as a result of the migrants’ experience relative to their expectations. This is a particularly important point to stress from the perspective of human development – a perspective that emphasizes the centrality of opportunities for individual persons to realize their full potential as members of the human community. Moreover, the perspective of human security, with its three pillars of freedom from fear, freedom from want, and life with dignity, sheds light on the particularly grave and wide-spread threats to the human security of migrants and their family members, as well as their rights which are enshrined in the Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrants and Members of Their Families.
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