Migration decision-making: beyond political rhetoric and guesswork

Over recent years in the UK, EU, and countries across the world, immigration policies have often prioritised deterrence and border control. At the same time, dominant political and media rhetoric dehumanises migrants, who are often depicted as either victims or predators.
In the UK, a focus on ‘criminal gangs’ and ‘human smugglers’ has fuelled the demonisation of irregular migration and the arrival of refugees via ‘small boats’.
The perceived criminality of those who assist migrants in moving has been leveraged politically to justify the implementation of ever more securitised border control policies. Yet the inequalities in ‘passport power’ and the lack of access to safe and legal routes that drive the use of smugglers and other brokers are typically ignored in political narratives.
The MIDEQ Hub and ODI have sought to deepen understanding of the influence of policies on migration decision-making, including how fundamental inequalities influence engagement with those who facilitate their journeys.
This roundtable is an opportunity to hear the latest evidence on migration decision-making and the role of inequalities in migrants’ use of intermediaries. We will engage in discussion of the implications of this evidence for advocacy towards a more progressive agenda on migration in the UK. Our discussion will not just focus on the UK context. We will also draw on research in Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. It is therefore relevant to global contexts.
Key questions:
Why have smugglers and brokers have become so central to the migration debate, and is the way they are depicted always reflective of the reality?
Why does the issue of inequality matter so much to migrants’ engagement with intermediaries, including smugglers?
What are some of the less visible factors at play in the decision to migrate - like emotions and social norms - why is this important for policy, and can this help to 'normalise' migration for a UK audience?
How can the evidence on inequalities, intermediaries and decision-making contribute to advocacy aimed at influencing more progressive agendas on migration?
Speakers:
Sherine El Taraboulsi-McCarthy (Chair), Founding Director, National Centre for Social Research
Angela Afzal, Policy Adviser on Refugees, Asylum and Migration, RAMP ( Refugee, Asylum and Migration Policy) Project
Fizza Qureshi, CEO of the Migrants' Rights Network
Priya Deshingkar, Professor of Migration and Develpment, University of Sussex
Nando Sigona, Professor of International Migration and Forced Displacement, University of Birmingham
Amanda Gray Meral, Research Fellow, ODI Europe
Heaven Crawley, Principle Investigator, MIDEQ Migration for Development & Equality Hub
Katharine Jones, Co-Director, MIDEQ Migration for Development & Equality Hub
Daphne Jayasinghe, Policy Director Protracted Displacement, International Rescue Committee
Jessica Hagen-Zanker, Senior Research Fellow, Migration, ODI