These were some of the questions on the role of research in migration management May-Len Skilbrei addressed at the Nordic Migration Research Conference. According to Skilbrei; what is researched and what we know about migration and migrants is political because it is influenced by priorities from different authorities.
These are core themes in the research project MIGMA - Transnationalism from above and below supported by the RCN which Skilbrei leads.
The politics of migration research
In addition to her paper about the role of research in migration management Skilbrei also headed a session on unequal returns together with Erlend Paasche at the Nordic Migration Research Conference. By unequal return they point to how social inequality affects practices and outcomes of return policies. At the session Skilbrei presented a paper on how how assumptions about migratory decisions are integrated in European politicians’ attempts to reduce the number of arrivals of third country nationals.
When Norwegian Minister of Immigration, Sylvi Listhaug, make statements on making Norwegian immigration policies to ‘send signals’ to prospective migrants, she seems to assume that this will be heard and responded to in a predictable way. But such ‘signals’ might as well produce other outcomes or drown in or be cancelled out by all the other information migrants receive from friends, family, NGOs, social media and human smugglers, Skilbrei contends.