MigChoice

MigChoice is a research component of Outcome 4 of FCDO SSS II conducted by IOM in collaboration with University of Birmimgham which contributes to the evidence base on migration decision-making (regular and irregular) and the influence that interventions may have on this.  

The relationship between development and migration has long been a focus of practitioners, policy makers and academics alike. The literature on this topic is vast and the conclusion is that their relationship is highly complex and contextual. Researchers have highlighted how migration and development processes are inter-dependent and heterogeneous, and deeply connected to wider processes of social and economic change.   

MigChoice will focus on delivering an evidence base to understand migration decision-making in The Gambia, Guinea and Senegal that leads to both ‘regular’ and ‘irregular’ migration. IOM has contracted the University of Birmingham to systematically account for both the context-specific nature of the migration-development nexus as well as its complex and non-linear features using a multi-method approach. In particular, the project will focus on answering the overarching question: “How and to what extent do development interventions affect people’s migration aspirations, decision and movement, and on what timetable?”    
 
The aim is to explore a range of past, current and potential future policy interventions that are relevant to migration, drawing on a mapping of interventions provided by IOM. The study will shed light on the range of past, current and potential future migration corridors that individuals may choose (or reject) when they make migration decisions, focusing on the reasons why they make those choices, and the extent to which development interventions influence those choices.

Learning and dissemination activities

The learning and dissemination plan that accompanies the research results focuses on the sharing of knowledge and evidence-based data in order to enable actors (policy makers, potential migrants, community members) to understand the factors that influence the decisions-making on migration in a development or non-development context.

As part of this plan, IOM is creating a series of communication activities to help target audiences (potential migrants and their communities) better understand the project’s aim. One way of doing that is through storytelling and visualization. By tapping into the life experience of audience members, and translating their own stories into visual metaphors, the research and its outcomes become more accessible and understandable.

Please consult the IOM Resarch Series to access several videos about learning and dissemination activities in West and Central Africa.

Outcome 4 Visualizations

Ethnographic Research

The ethnographic research focuses on a broad range of interventions which include education, mining, agriculture, professional training and return and reintegration. In Guinea for example the following thematic interventions: education, environment, agriculture, mining and return migration will be the focus of the ethnographic fieldwork. Similarly, Senegal will be exploring the process of migration decision making and its connections with development interventions (agriculture; education; professional training; return and integration).  
 
IOM believes ethnographic research will produce better and richer data than an exclusive focus on semi-structured interviews and survey-based research that are already underway in other research projects.
 

Supporting Young entrepreneurs in the Gambia

Under FCDO SSS II Project, IOM proposes to implement an integrated program through which 400 youth (18-35 according to national definitions of “youth”) with entrepreneurial aspirations and young entrepreneurs in will be offered professional coaching and an unconditional grant to overcome some of the challenges associated with launching a business. The proposed intervention will thus increase self-sufficiency among said youth and create employment opportunities beyond the direct beneficiaries of the project as these businesses are launched and grow. Given the high mobility of the target group, the project will also contribute to safer migration through providing alternatives for them.
 

Agent-Based Model

Agent-based modelling is a relatively novel analytical method; it is a form of computer simulation where the programmer creates an artificial society of agents who are adaptive to their environment. The ABM allows a “natural” depiction of a system, which is very difficult to achieve using other analytical methods. This approach is especially well suited to study how migration systems work and the impact of perturbations to that system (through an intervention, say) given the non-linear and complex nature of migration system.