Re-thinking the drivers of regular and irregular migration : evidence from the Euro-Mediterranean

Abstract

Migration is likely to remain one of the world’s most important and complex political challenges throughout the 21st century. Not only does migration have vast economic consequences, but its governance raises profound legaland rights-based questions for millions of people worldwide. Variation in propensity to emigrate—regularly and irregularly—increasingly represents a major parameter for policymakers when setting migration policy. The debate is granted further gravity and complexity by the highly charged political questions of identity, values, and community that arise when discussing the topic of migration. As such, understanding what levels of propensity to emigrate are, why individuals vary in this propensity and what interventions are likely to affect it—negatively or positively—is of overwhelming practical importance for advocacy organisations, governments, communicators, policymakers, and those working in politics who either want to know what is likely to be a sustainable migration policy framework or how to communicate on migration.