In order to manage the long-term challenges of global migration, Europe must create effective and coherent policies for engaging with countries of origin and transit. Effectiveness and cohesion depend on the real-world mechanisms at work: How do the root causes of migration operate? What do prospective migrants see as alternatives to migration? How do policy measures interact with other factors in shaping migration outcomes?
The project’s overall objective was to contribute to more effective and coherent migration management through evidence-based understanding of the linkages between development and migration.
Steps toward this objective comprised extensive research in ten strategically relevant countries of origin and transit, including Afghanistan, Guinea, Somalia, Nigeria and Turkey. Indeed, MIGNEX researchers collected data in 26 research areas across 10 countries, engaged with 13,174 young adults through surveys, conducted 104 focus group discussions, 516 key informant interviews and 168 policy expert interviews.
Correctly identifying two-way causal mechanisms between migration and development is imperative but very difficult. The project design incorporated two innovative responses to this challenge. First, it followed a principle of disaggregation, which, among other things, entails specific attention to local-level mechanisms. Second, the analysis combined conventional methods, such as multivariate regression, with Qualitative Comparative Analysis, which is a technique that allows for identifying complex causal relationship on the basis of in-depth case studies.
The major findings from the MIGNEX project were synthesized in the three flagship reports: “New insights on the causes of migration”; “New insights on the development impact of migration” and “Towards migration policy coherence”.
