At the fringes of Europe: transit migration in Ukraine
Focusing on migrants and refugees, civil society organizations and government agencies, this study aims to explore the interrelation between transitory movements, refugees and legal restrictions, in order to identify the conditions that determine transit migration.
Background
It is observed that migrants and refugees transit Central and Eastern Europe, and other regions in the South, often irregularly, on their way to the European Union. Their arrival is then recorded in various EU countries, such as Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, and others. Some will travel on to other EU destinations, others will apply for asylum and some will be apprehended and returned. These phenomena have become a major policy concern.
Simultaneously, the conditions of migrants stranded in transit countries, or losing their lives in desperate attempts to depart from such countries raise serious human rights concerns. For various reasons transit migrants even whilst upholding the aspiration to move on often turn out to be in de-facto immigrants.
The EU and its neighbours - the latter often responding to EU policy pressure – aim to enhance immigration controls and stop transit migrants. As a result, migration controls are externalized. On the other hand, migrants are increasingly jeopardising their lives by choosing dangerous deviations to reach their final destination. For a number of reasons, the issue is as politicized as it is blurred and categories such as: forced migration, illegal migration, smuggling, trafficking and immigration, are often confused.
Aims and objectives
The COMPAS research cluster on ‘The dynamics of migration’ will focus on the institutions, practices, relationships and networks that shape experiences of life on the move, investigating how their interplay and dynamics influence the outcomes of migration in sending, transit and destination countries.
This particular project focuses on transit migration to Europe and the expansion of the European migration regime, from core countries to their immediate neighbours taking Ukraine as a case study.
The case study aims to investigate seven key areas:
(1) Social, economic and political conditions that encourage or force migrants to leave Ukraine and move on, or that prevent them from reaching their final destination, specifically, interactions between migration controls and immigrants’ strategies.
(2) Decision-making processes in course of complex migration trajectories, changing aims and directions and the particular timing of decision making.
(3) Migration networks, systems and transnational ethnic corridors that facilitate transit migration.
(4) The geography of transit migration, e.g. transit zones, hubs and bottlenecks.
(5) Living and working conditions; interaction with host society, citizens and agencies; survival strategies in transit countries, and potential social and human rights.
(6) The nexus between transit migration and asylum, as well as between irregular migration and smuggling.
(7) The expansion of the EU asylum and migration regime, key actors and policy processes, and the implementation and enforcement of advanced migration control policies, including practices of detention and deportation in transit countries.
Methods
This is a multi-perspective, multi-disciplinary and multi-sited case study based on mixed methodologies.
Overall the approach will be qualitative, backed by small scale surveys; beyond literature and document survey, expert interviews and in-depth semi-focused narrative interviews with migrants will be conducted. Field work shall be conducted in a transit countries, Ukraine and two EU countries, Slovakia and Hungary. It will be supported by further interviews in other transit and receiving countries.
The following methods will be used during the project:
(1) Expert interviews.
(2) Interviews with relevant NGOs, dealing with potential transit migrants, refugees and other migrants.
(3) Interviews with EU and non-EU government agencies and with international organizations on policy making and enforcement.
(4) Interviews with migrants - self-identified as transit migrants.
Output
Düvell, Franck (2008). Migrants and refugees on the fringes of Europe: Transit migration, mixed flows and new policy challenges, Metropolis World Bulletin, 8(Oct 2008), 29-32.
Düvell, Franck (2008). Ukraine – immigration and transit country for Chechen refugees. In Janda, Alexander; Leitner, Norbert; Vogl ,Mathias (eds) Chechens in the European Union. Vienna: Österreichischer Integrationsfonds, Federal Ministry of the Interior, pp. 79-92 (2008).
Yaroslav Pylinskyi, 2008, Irregular Migration in Ukraine. Clandestino country report.
Düvell, Franck (2006). Ukraine – Europe’s Mexico? Research resource report 1. Oxford: COMPAS.
Düvell, Franck (2008). On The Fringes of Europe: Refugees in Ukraine. Research resource report 2. Oxford: COMPAS.
Düvell, Franck (2008). Ukraine – Immigration and Transit Country for Chechen Refugees. Research resource report 3. Oxford: COMPAS.
Düvell, Franck (2006). At the Fringe of Europe: Transit Migration in the EU’s New Immediate Neighbourhood. Working Paper. Oxford: COMPAS
Düvell, Franck (2009). Asylum protection vs. border controls: an unattainable balance? Evidence from Central and Eastern Europe and CIS countries.
Brief presented to EPC workshop, 3 June 2009, Brussels.
Conference papers
Düvell, Franck (2008). Transit Migration in Europe. Paper presented to ‘First Conference on Illegal Migration’, 18-19 /6/2008, Tripoli, Libya.
Düvell, Franck (2006). Questioning Conventional Migration Concepts: The Case of Transit Migration.
Paper presented to workshop on ‘Gaps and Blindspots of Migration Research’, 25/6/2006, Central European University, Budapest.
Researcher: Dr. Franck Düvell
Collaborator: Yaroslav Pilinsky, director, Kennan Institute, Kiev.
Funder: COMPAS Core Funding
Timetable: A ‘State of the Art’ work was produced in 2006; two years of fieldwork were completed in 2008; Analysis, Reports, Publications are forthcoming