The Migration & Diaspora Podcast

Hello and welcome to a very special episode of the Migration & Diaspora Podcast, in which we have our first-ever repeat guest. Great friend of Homelands Advisory and star guest of episode 2, Dr Martin Russell, AKA Doctor Diaspora, is back on the show to talk about the state of the diaspora engagement sector now four years on from that first interview.

About Martin

Everyone who works on diaspora engagement is more than familiar with Martin but for those of you who aren’t, Martin is the founder of the Global Diaspora Insights (GDI), a consulting firm. He completed his PhD at the Clinton Institute (University College Dublin) where his research focused on the role of the Irish diaspora in the Northern Ireland Peace Process specifically looking at diaspora media, diaspora philanthropy, and diaspora politics.

What we talk about

In today’s episode, we both reflect on our collective experience working on diaspora engagement in more than 50 countries, including: 

• The evolving differences between migration and diaspora. 

• The state of the diaspora engagement sector (progress made and opportunities missed). 

• Diaspora diplomacy as an outsized opportunity area for governments. 

It’s a bit of a “no holds barred” talk in which we try not to pull any punches. We’d like to thank you for tuning in and we hope you enjoy the show.

Links

• Global Diaspora Insights: https://www.globaldiasporainsights.com/ 

• Connect with Martin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martin-russell-0530131a5/ 

• MDPcast Ep2: https://www.homelandsadvisory.com/podcast/episode/f9e3585d/episode-2-doing-diaspora-lessons-learned-from-dr-martin-russells-diaspora-engagement-work-worldwide 

• Ireland’s Emigrant Support Programme: https://www.dfa.ie/global-irish/support-overseas/emigrant-support-programme/

• Kingsley Aikins: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kingsleyaikins/ 

• Global Diaspora Strategies Toolkit: https://thenetworkinginstitute.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Diaspora-Toolkit-Book.pdf 

• European Union Global Diaspora Facility (EUDiF): https://diasporafordevelopment.eu/ 

• Global Citizens 2030 - Ireland’s Talent and Innovation Strategy https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/012d7-global-citizens-2030-irelands-talent-and-innovation-strategy/#:~:text=Global%20Citizens%202030%20is%20Ireland's,and%20research%20and%20innovation%20systems. 

• HBR article on diaspora marketing: https://hbr.org/2013/10/diaspora-marketing  

• John Hume Novel Lecture: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1998/hume/lecture/

• Routledge International Handbook of Diaspora Diplomacy: https://www.routledge.com/Routledge-International-Handbook-of-Diaspora-Diplomacy/Kennedy/p/book/9781032080567 

• Paul Quinn obituary: https://www.irishtimes.com/obituaries/2023/11/11/paul-quinn-obituary-pioneer-of-peace-process-who-did-not-seek-plaudits/

• President Biden’s African Diaspora Advisory Council: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/09/26/president-biden-announces-the-inaugural-members-of-the-presidents-advisory-council-on-african-diaspora-engagement-in-the-united-states/#:~:text=In%20accordance%20with%20Executive%20Order,the%20continent%20and%20the%20Caribbean. 

• Ghana Year of Return: https://www.yearofreturn.com/ 

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Migration & Diaspora Podcast, produced by Homelands Advisory, your independent migration agency. In case this is your first time tuning in, we spotlight projects, research and stories related to people on-the-move.

Today, we’ve got a heavyweight of the migration world, Rob McNeil from the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford, on the show to get his take on contemporary public debate on migration.

About Rob

Rob is the Deputy Director and Head of Media and Communications at the Migration Observatory, where he leads on public relations strategy, parliamentary and community outreach and news and commentary work. Rob was actually part of the team who launched the Observatory in 2011 and, since then, has been working to embed its analysis in public debates. Rob also participates in Oxford University and the Centre on Migration, Policy and Society’s (COMPAS) research projects, examining the social environments from which news stories and narratives about migration and migrants emerge, how media debate affects migration policy decisions (and vice versa), and how information gaps affect how these issues are discussed. Rob is a former journalist and previously served as Media Director for the US environmental organisation Conservation International, PR manager for Oxfam GB, Senior Press Officer for WWF-UK, and as a journalist for the Evening Standard, The Daily Mirror, Time Out and BBC Wildlife, among other publications.

What we talk about

That’s quite the track record. In today’s far-reaching, perhaps meandering, interview, I learn from Rob’s extensive media and academic experience studying migration narratives and debates, especially in the UK and Europe (though parallelling discourse in many other countries). We discuss the nature of these migration debates and, in particular, which factors seem to lead to more balanced and less toxic debates on migration. I’m sure you’ll agree this is a very timely conversation. 

I thoroughly enjoyed having Rob on the show because he not only speaks from his eminent position at the Observatory, but also draws from his experience working on different topics in different countries. I’d like to thank Rob for coming on the show and thank you for listening. And without further ado, please sit back and enjoy the episode.

Links

• Migration Oxford Podcast: https://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/series/migration-oxford-podcast  

• MDPcast Ep37: Communicating migration with Marco Ricorda:  https://www.homelandsadvisory.com/podcast/episode/52bc36f7/episode-37-communicating-migration-with-marco-ricorda 

• Connect with Rob: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-mcneil-060b1822/ 

• Is it time to turn down the volume on the migration debate?: https://feps-europe.eu/is-it-time-to-turn-down-the-volume-on-the-migration-debate/ 

• Communicating on migration (policy brief series): https://feps-europe.eu/publication/communicating-on-migration/ 

• Reporting migration: A handbook on migration reporting for journalists: https://www.icmpd.org/file/download/50559/file/Handbook0on0Reporting0Migration0EN.pdf#page=39 

• Unpicking the notion of ‘safe and legal’ routes: https://mixedmigration.org/unpicking-the-notion-of-safe-and-legal-routes/ 

Hello and you’re listening to the Migration & Diaspora Podcast, a show that shines light on some of the most impactful trends, projects and people working in the field of migration and diaspora engagement. And I’m your host, Loksan Harley, Executive Director of Homelands Advisory - your independent migration agency specialised in research, policy development and trainings. 

About Bashàïr

Today, I’m joined by Dr Bashàïr Ahmed, CEO of Shabaka, a diaspora-led organisation specialised in research, policy and practice contributing to the role of diaspora and migrants in humanitarian preparedness, response, and recovery. Based in Brighton, UK, Bashàïr has over 20 years’ experience working with United Nations agencies and international organisations focused on fragile and conflict-affected countries. Bashàïr has consulted on a wide range of migration and diaspora initiatives, including the protection of irregular migrants, the development of e-trainings on humanitarian principles for diaspora organisations, and providing guidance on diaspora engagement in development and humanitarian response. Bashàïr holds a doctorate in Migration Studies from the University of Sussex, where she also serves as a Research Associate; her academic interests include humanitarianism, diasporas, migration and development, and intergenerational engagement.

What we talk about 

• The state of play of diaspora engagement in humanitarianism. 

• How diasporas contribute to response to and recovery from different forms of crisis. 

• How traditional humanitarian organisations currently work with diaspora organisations. 

• Constraints on diaspora groups’ humanitarian involvement. 

• The shifts required to amplify diaspora groups’ impact in humanitarian contexts as well as their critical role in localising aid and humanitarian responses. 

For those of you whose interest in the topic is piqued by this conversation, I recommend tuning into Episode 12 on the same topic, which you can find on homelandsadvisory.com/podcast where you’ll also see a form at the top of the page allowing you to subscribe to the podcast to never miss an episode. 

Anyway, without further ado, I’d like to thank Bashàïr very much for coming on the show and I very much hope that you enjoy our conversation.

• Cluster system: According to UN OCHA, the humanitarian cluster system is a coordination mechanism used by the UN and other humanitarian organizations to respond to crises. It is designed to organize humanitarian actors into core sectors, such as water, health and food security. 

• Shabaka’s website: https://shabaka.org/about-shabaka/our-team/ 

• Connect with Bashàïr on LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bashair-ahmed/ 

• Twitter: @Shabaka_org

• MDPcast Episode 12 with Daniela Villacrez: https://www.homelandsadvisory.com/podcast/episode/2a7391e0/episode-12-how-to-engage-diasporas-in-humanitarian-assistance  

• British Red Cross Diaspora Humanitarian Programme: https://www.redcross.org.uk/about-us/what-we-do/diaspora-humanitarian-partnership-programme-grants#:~:text=What%20is%20the%20Diaspora%20Humanitarian,at%20engaging%20with%20diaspora%20communities. 

• “The switchboard”:  https://shabaka.org/about-switchboard/ 

• Why these 10 humanitarian crises demand your attention now: https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/analysis/2024/01/08/why-these-10-humanitarian-crises-demand-your-attention-now 

  All the MDPcast episodes: https://homelandsadvisory.com/podcast

Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Migration & Diaspora Podcast, where we discuss topics, projects, ideas, and everything else related to migration and diaspora engagement.

Today, we’ve got a podcast about, well, podcasting. We’ve got Ana Lucía Gutiérrez González on the show to share her wonderful story connecting with fellow Peruvian diaspora women through the Granadilla Podcast that she hosts. 

About Ana

Ana interviews Peruvian women around the world and shares their stories as a form of inspiration and motivation for future female migrants while creating a space to empower them. She is currently pursuing a PhD in migration, focusing on Peruvian migrant women while running operations for a startup in Israel. She is married and has a dog. Ana loves travelling, good food and long naps. BTW, these introductions I include at the beginning of each episode are the bios that guests share with me and I love that having a dog and enjoying naps feature in Ana’s. 

What we talk about 

• Ana’s experience being a Peruvian diaspora woman. 

• Building a podcast in the midst of a pandemic to connect with other Peruanas por el mundo.

• How Ana ended up turning that podcast into an organisation that not only tells diaspora stories but that also now connects, supports, trains and empowers Peruvian women.

I really enjoyed having Ana on the show and I thoroughly recommend checking out the Granadilla Podcast, whether you’re a Peruvian or Latina migrant or if you’re simply interested in hearing some wonderful stories of identity and human connection. And listen out for the curious story behind the name of Ana’s podcast. 

Last but not least, thank you so much for tuning in and without further ado, please sit back and enjoy the show. 

• Tune into the Granadilla Podcast: https://granadillapodcast.com/ 
• Connect with Ana on LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/analuciagutierrez/ 
• Follow @RandomAnaG on X: https://twitter.com/RandomAnaG 
• Special 1 (in English): The Journey of the Granadilla:  https://open.spotify.com/episode/3zKDfGxAZXcuDv3BcpQL5U?si=3910ab7890ef4922 
• Episode 3 with Katherine in England: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2U908W46GwJRjHOhq0VGM9?si=2bfd6ce60ad24ac8
• Episode 19 with Nadian in the US: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2LOJTgRSR4cLhFJ0Vrr5FW?si=c181cfb5b5834a8b 

Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Migration & Diaspora Podcast, where we discuss topics, projects, ideas, and everything else related to the movement of people. 

Today, I’m joined by David Martineau, Senior Programme Manager at the International Organization for Migration (IOM), who tells us all about the Migration Governance Indicators (MGI) programme. 

About David

Working within IOM’s department of policy and research, David works to build governments’ capacity to understand how their policy frameworks could better respond to emerging challenges and opportunities stemming from current migration dynamics. In his decade working at IOM, he has worked on the organisation’s engagement on the Sustainable Development Goals, New Urban Agenda and other multilateral processes. He was deployed to Moldova for the Ukraine response and worked on UN partnerships in New York. Before IOM, David studied and worked in Germany, Ukraine, Russia and Canada. David holds Masters degrees from the Munk School of Global Affairs (University of Toronto) and Queen’s University in Canada.

What we talk about

It was an absolute pleasure to have David on the show to tell us all about:

• How IOM helps different countries from around the world to assess their migration governance frameworks. 

• What migration governance constitutes. 

• The indicators used to measure migration governance.

• Knock-on effects that the MGI assessments have produced for the countries and municipalities who have benefited from the programme.

Links

• MGI webpage: https://www.migrationdataportal.org/overviews/mgi 

• MGI success stories: https://publications.iom.int/books/migration-governance-indicators-success-stories-2023 

• Connect with David on LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-martineau-0ba24136/ 

  All the MDPcast episodes: https://homelandsadvisory.com/podcast
  

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Migration & Diaspora Podcast, a show about all things migration hosted by yours truly, Loksan Harley from Homelands Advisory. 

Today, we’ve got a fascinating episode featuring my friend Salvatore Petronella from Labor Mobility Partnerships (LaMP).

About Salvatore 

Salvatore Petronella is a migration governance specialist focusing on the EU external dimension, with a special focus on labour mobility and the smuggling of migrants. He is currently the Knowledge and Influence Lead at LaMP, developing proof-of-concepts for EU Member States and engaging with industry representatives and international institutions. 

Salvatore previously coordinated the launch and implementation of the Migration Partnership Facility (MPF) at the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD). He also worked at ICF International, leading various evaluation and impact assessments as well as serving as a senior expert to the European Migration Network (EMN). He previously worked at the European Commission (DG HOME) as a seconded national expert on integration policies. 

What we talk about

I was keen to get Salvatore on the show to talk about his work at LaMP, as I’d been seeing and hearing a lot about this relatively new organisation and was curious to learn more. And because I was curious, well, I thought some of you might be curious about LaMP as well. 

So listen closely as Salvatore and I talk all about:

• LaMP and their work to develop new labour mobility schemes and partnerships. 

• The broader demographic trends that are creating a need for labour mobility partnerships. 

• How labour mobility is currently regulated. 

• How labour mobility partnerships have the potential to match growing labour demands and shortages around the world. 

As always, I’d like to thank you very much for tuning in and hope you enjoy the show. 

• Connect with Salvatore: https://www.linkedin.com/in/salvatore-petronella/ 
• Labor Mobility Partnerships (LaMP): https://lampforum.org/ 
• All the MDPcast episodes: https://homelandsadvisory.com/podcast
  

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Migration & Diaspora Podcast, a show about all things migration. Today, I’m delighted to welcome Elana Wong from the Civil Society Action Committee (CSAC) to the show to talk about multi-stakeholder engagement in global migration governance.

About Elana 

Elana is a young advocate for migrant rights, and civil and whole-of-society representation, currently serving as part of the secretariat for the CSAC and Global Forum on Migration & Development (GFMD) Civil Society Mechanism, housed under the International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC). She formerly served as Co-Director (2021-2023) and Asia-Pacific Regional Lead (2020) for the Migration Youth & Children Platform, where she led youth participation in multiple migration advocacy processes at the global and regional processes, including the 2020 Global Compact for Migration Asia-Pacific Regional Review, the 2021 GFMD, and the 2022 International Migration Review Forum, as well as for cross-cutting international policy forums for UNESCO, WHO, and United Cities and Local Governance (UCLG). Originally from Malaysia and Singapore, she currently resides in the UK.

What we talk about

• Elana and CSAC's work to engage in global migration governance processes like the Global Compact for Migration (GCM).
• Perspectives on how the GCM, adopted in 2018, has gone thus far with respect to civil society engagement.
• How the GCM's commitments to multi-stakeholder engagement compare with the realities of its implementation.
• How to enable meaningful multi-stakeholder engagement in global migration governance.

I’m so glad to have Elana on the show to update us on this topic after her colleague and legendary civil society activist, Colin Rajah, came on the podcast (Episode 16) a couple of years back to share some really valuable insights. I highly recommend you tune in to that one too.

As always, thank you for listening and I hope you enjoy the show. 

Links

• CSAC: https://csactioncommittee.org/ 
• Connect with Elana Wong: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elana-wong/
• MDPcast #16 with CSAC's Colin Rajah on the messy but beautiful world of civil society engagement: https://www.homelandsadvisory.com/podcast/episode/262a4909/episode-16-messy-but-beautiful-how-civil-society-engages-in-global-migration-governance

• IMRF 2022 Assessment Paper: https://csactioncommittee.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/IMRF-2022-ASSESSMENT-PAPER-Final-7.pdf

• GFMD Civil Society: https://gfmdcivilsociety.org/
• All the MDPcast episodes and show notes: https://homelandsadvisory.com/podcast

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Migration & Diaspora Podcast. We're taking a break from recording at the moment as we are in a particularly busy period delivering projects for several of our clients, but in case you were missing us, we wanted to make sure that we got this discussion to your airwaves ASAP.

I really enjoyed this conversation with Julien Simon, who is Head of Mediterranean Region at the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD), who tells us all about the ICMPD's new #MigrationCapacityPartnerships.

About Julien Simon

Julien has had a highly distinguished two-decade career in migration, holding various positions at ICMPD since 2001, including Senior Programme Manager, Head of the Secretariat of the Mediterranean Transit Migration Dialogue, and Team Leader of the EUROMED Migration III.

In 2016, Julien headed to Malta where he assumed the position of Regional Coordinator for the Mediterranean and set up ICMPD’s first regional office, entering his current position and Head of that Regional Office in 2021. That same year, Julien launched the concept of Migration Capacity Partnerships for the Mediterranean and oversaw the inauguration of the Training Institute for Migration Capacity Partnerships for the Mediterranean based in Valletta.

In our conversation, Julien shares with us some of his incredible experiences and learnings from more than a decade of experience working on migration in the Mediterranean, which has for centuries been such a fascinating and eventful theatre of migration and mobility issues.

What we talk about

• ICMPD's new Migration Capacity Partnerships: how ICMPD's new approach is set to revolutionise the way in which countries work together to strengthen migration governance.
• Migration challenges in the Mediterranean region.
• The European Union's New Agenda for the Mediterranean policy, adopted in February 2021 last year.

Thank you so much for listening. All the things we reference can be found in the show notes at homelandsadvisory.com/podcast. And, last but not least, we thank you very much for listening and hope you enjoy the show.

Links

• Connect with Julien on LI - https://www.linkedin.com/in/julien-simon-4317597/
• Follow the hashtag #MigrationCapacityPartnerships for more info in the coming months.
• EUROMED - https://www.icmpd.org/our-work/projects/euromed-migration-v-emm5
• EUROMED on LI - https://www.linkedin.com/company/euromedmigration/
• EUROMED on Twitter - https://twitter.com/Euromedmigr
• EU New Agenda for the Mediterranean - https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_426
• Training Institute on Migration Capacity Partnership for the Mediterranean - https://www.icmpd.org/our-work/projects/training-institute-on-migration-capacity-partnership-for-the-mediterranean
• Training Institute on LI - https://www.linkedin.com/company/mcpmedti/

• Connect with Zidi Circle: Website / Instagram / Twitter / Facebook
• Connect with Fridah: Linkedin / Twitter
• Check out all our episodes and subscribe at homelandsadvisory.com/podcast!

• Connect with Omek: Website / Instagram
• Connect with Kemo: Website / LinkedIn
• Read more about Omek’s psychographic segmentation of the African diaspora here: Understanding the complexity of the African diaspora
• Check out all our episodes and subscribe at homelandsadvisory.com/podcast!

• Connect with Sonia / Follow @plazasonia
• Leveraging Economic Migration for Development: A Briefing for the World Bank Board
• Migration and Development: A Role for the World Bank Group
• Groundswell Part 2 : Acting on Internal Climate Migration
• KNOMAD: The Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development
• The World Bank
• You may also like: Episode 17 on M&D, Episode 19 on wage theft
• Check out all our episodes and subscribe at homelandsadvisory.com/podcast!

• Hidden hardship of an unnoticed workforce: The economic lives of refugees and migrants in Tunisia: https://mixedmigration.org/resource/hidden-hardship-of-an-unnoticed-workforce/
• Assessing the needs of migrant communities & host communities in Tunisia: https://tunisia.iom.int/sites/g/files/tmzbdl1056/files/documents/OIM%20Tunisie%20-%20Needs%20Assessment%20Synth%C3%A8se%20Tunisie%20-%20mise%20%C3%A0%20jour%202018%20VF.pdf
• How Immigrants Contribute to Developing Countries' Economies: https://read.oecd.org/10.1787/9789264288737-en?format=pdf
• Is migration good for the economy?: https://www.oecd.org/migration/OECD%20Migration%20Policy%20Debates%20Numero%202.pdf
• Journalist's Guide to Media Coverage of Migration: https://tunisia.iom.int/fr/resources/guide-du-journaliste-sur-la-couverture-mediatique-de-la-migration
• Jenny's new blog: migrantsguide.org (upcoming)
• Follow Jenny on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenkatetc/
• All our episodes: https://www.homelandsadvisory.com/podcast

• Ashoka's Changemaker Index: https://www.ashoka.org/el/ashoka-changemaker-index
• Related diaspora engagement episodes: Episode 2 ("doing diaspora"), Episode 38 (Global Diaspora Summit), Episode 23 (The "Who", "What", and "How" of diaspora engagement)
• Ashoka's website: https://www.ashoka.org/
• Connect with Asier: https://www.linkedin.com/in/asier-ansorena/
• Building a community of African diaspora leaders Africa 2.0 España & Ashoka: https://diasporafordevelopment.eu/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Action-Info-Sheet-Africa-2.0-and-Ashoka-v.2.pdf

Hello and welcome to the Migration & Diaspora Podcast, with me your host Loksan Harley.

In today's episode, I'm delighted to be joined by Colleen Thouez, one of the foremost experts in the field of city-level migration governance. 

About Colleen

Colleen Thouez is currently a senior fellow at the New School’s Zolberg Institute, where she directs the Global Cities portfolio. She is also a senior visiting fellow at SciencesPo Paris where she advises French cities, and the Africa-Europe Mayors Dialogue on Growth and Solidarity. As the inaugural director of the Welcoming and Inclusive Cities Division at the Open Society Foundations (OSF), she conceived the Mayors Migration Council (MMC) and its Global Cities Fund (2019), the Africa-Europe Mayors Dialogue (2020), and the University Alliance for Refugees and At-Risk Migrants (2018).

In 2021, she was appointed by the National Association of (University) System Heads, to assist in securing housing and sponsorship for recently arrived Afghan families on university campuses across the US. Dr. Thouez previously served for 17 years at the United Nations in leadership positions in adult education and international migration. She continues to advise national governments, municipal governments, regional bodies, and United Nations agencies, amongst others.

What we talk about

Colleen starts by introducing us to city-level migration issues and governance challenges, drawing from her truly global experiences working with municipalities from Barranquilla to Bristol. We then talk through some of her recent research and work on how cities have an increasingly powerful role in shaping migration governance on the global stage - in part thanks to some of the incredible examples of how many cities have supported their migrant residents during the COVID-19 pandemic. We close with some of Colleen's top principles for effective city-level migration governance.

I'd like to thank Colleen for coming on the show and thank you for tuning in. Without further ado, please enjoy the show.

Links

• New power configurations: city mobilization and policy change: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/glob.12357
• Cities as emergent international actors in the field of migration: https://brill.com/downloadpdf/journals/gg/26/4/article-p650_8.xml
• Follow @ColleenThouez: https://twitter.com/ColleenThouez
• Connect with Colleen: https://www.linkedin.com/in/colleenthouez/
• SDG 11 on inclusive cities: https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal11
• All our episodes: https://www.homelandsadvisory.com/podcast

Larisa is the Transnational Communities and Digital Communications Officer at IOM headquarters. Larisa works to advance IOM’s policy and programming work in the area of digitalization as it relates to labour mobility and human development, with a specific focus on the IDiaspora.org (which I highly recommend checking out). Larisa also acts as a global diaspora engagement focal point.

Larisa completed her joint PhD in Migration Studies and in Social and Political Sciences at the University of Paris and the University of Liège. She also holds masters degrees in Migration Studies from the University of Oxford and in Conflict, Security, and Development from King’s College London. She has published multiple academic articles and policy papers specializing in transnationalism and diaspora engagement.

What we talk about

Today's interview is all about the the Global Diaspora Summit 2022. The Summit was organized by IOM and the Government of Ireland in Dublin and represented a milestone in the high-level recognition of Objective 19 of the Global Compact for Migration, focusing on the developmental contributions of migrants and diasporas beyond remittances. Larisa tells us all about how the discussions went down, what learnings she gained from the extremely hard work that she, her colleague Roberto and the rest of her team put in to organize such a Summit, as well as the Summit's outcomes and next steps.

Links

• Global Diaspora Summit report: https://www.idiaspora.org/en/learn/resources/public-information-materials/global-diaspora-summit-report?fbclid=IwAR1PYayvyPFONSiuYZyCZWXmglA28Kvt49eYWTqLQ_xAjb-p5Ewu_iLYci4 
• Connect with Larisa: https://www.linkedin.com/in/larisalarag/
• Follow Larisa: https://twitter.com/LarisaLaraG
• Global Diaspora Summit - press release: https://www.gov.ie/en/press-release/7d010-dublin-castle-global-diaspora-summit-concludes-with-adoption-of-the-dublin-declaration/
• MDPcast episode 23 with Larisa's colleague Roberto: https://www.homelandsadvisory.com/podcast/episode/36791685/episode-23-the-who-what-and-how-of-diaspora-engagement-roberto-cancels-insights-from-a-global-diaspora-career
• MDPcast episode 33 on the Chinese diaspora in the UK: https://www.homelandsadvisory.com/podcast/episode/1d9b66db/episode-33-serving-the-the-chinese-and-global-diasporas-the-story-of-the-ukfcp-and-the-global-diaspora-confederation
• IOM's iDiaspora platform
• Online certificate programme: Migration governance and diaspora engagement
• All our episodes: https://www.homelandsadvisory.com/podcast

Marco was previously a Member of Cabinet for the President of the European Parliament Antonio Tajani, Head of Social Media of the European Parliament's liberal group - the ALDE Group - as well as of its leader, Guy Verhofstadt; Social Media Manager at the European Commission, and Press Officer at Bruegel, the Brussels-based think tank for international economic policy.

Since 2017, Marco has been listed as one of the #EUInfluencers on Twitter.

Marco has some pretty interesting personal interests as a competitive fitness athlete, but I'll invite you to check out his website marcorecorder.com for more on that.

In our far-ranging conversation, we get Marco's take on a number of migration communications challenges, from how narratives on migration are formed, how they're influenced, and how international organisations working in the field of migration can communicate better with their stakeholders. We also get Marco's take on how the media has been reporting on the ongoing forced displacement situation in Ukraine.

Before we start, I'd just like to note that Marco is speaking in a personal capacity and not on the behalf of his current employer, and all views expressed are his own.

Thank you for tuning in and we hope you enjoy the show.

Links:

• Marco's website: https://marcorecorder.com/about/
• Connect with Marco: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marco-ricorda/
• Follow Marco on Twitter: @marcoricorda
• Shalom Schwartz' 10 basic human value types: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Shalom-Schwartz-10-basic-human-value-types-and-their-motivational-emphases_tbl1_228244313
• What policy communication works for migration? Using values to depolarise: https://www.icmpd.org/file/download/48401/file/What0policy0communication0works0for0migration0Using0values0to0depolarise0EN.pdf
• The Salah Effect: https://stanfordmag.org/contents/the-salah-effect
• All our episodes: https://www.homelandsadvisory.com/podcast

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Migration & Diaspora Podcast - a show about all things migration, with me your host, Loksan Harley from Homelands Advisory.

Today, we're going local. We're talking all about city-level migration governance with Lamine Abbad from the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) and Fátima Fernández of United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG).

Lamine

Lamine manages the Mediterranean City-to-City Migration project (MC2CM), which he'll tell us more about in a few moments. Previously, he was a project officer at UCLG in charge of mainstreaming migration in local governments’ agendas and localising the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). He also worked for several years within the Arco Latino transnational cooperation network. 

He holds Master's degrees in Mathematics Applied to Social Sciences, Inter Mediterranean Mediation, and Science of Organisations and Institutions, specialising in decentralised cooperation.

Fátima 

Fátima is a Project and Policy Officer in charge of human mobility at UCLG, where she is the focal point for the MC2CM project and coordinates local and regional participation in global migration governance processes. Fátima holds a PhD in Regional Development and Economic Integration with a focus on the Political Economy of Euro-Mediterranean relations.

What we talk about

I'm delighted to present to you our discussion about migration at the local level in the Mediterranean context. We start by talking about the relevance and importance of local migration governance and about how so many aspects of policy-making and administration at the city level impact migrants. We then discuss vertical policy coherence and how to achieve coherence between national and local migration policies. We close with some of Lamine and Fatima's insights into some of the exciting city-level migration policies and initiatives from across the Mediterranean.

We'd like to thank you so much for tuning in and we hope you enjoy the show.

Useful links

• ICMPD - https://www.icmpd.org/
• MC2CM - https://www.icmpd.org/our-work/projects/mediterranean-city-to-city-migration-mc2cm
• UCLG - https://www.uclg.org/
• MC2CM (@urban_migration) - https://twitter.com/Urban_Migration
• @UCLG_org - https://twitter.com/uclg_org
• See also Episode 18 on the Rabat Process dialogue - https://www.homelandsadvisory.com/podcast/episode/2fbc15bd/episode-18-what-do-inter-state-migration-dialogues-do-and-how-do-you-run-one-insights-from-the-rabat-process
• The Migration & Diaspora Podcast - https://www.homelandsadvisory.com/podcast
  

Hello and you're listening to another episode of the Migration & Diaspora Podcast - a podcast about all things migration. Today, I'm thrilled to welcome human trafficking expert, Lori Mann, to the show to talk about trafficking in persons legal cases in which the victims of trafficking themselves are on trial as defendants.

But first, about Lori. Lori is an independent consultant with more than 20 years of experience in the fields of international human rights and the rule of law, with a strong focus on women's rights and gender equality, including violence against women and human trafficking.

Lori founded an international women's rights NGO dedicated to strategic litigation, Women's Link Worldwide, and has since worked primarily as a consultant for United Nations agencies and the Council of Europe in diverse countries around the world. She has a JD from Columbia Law School and a BA from the University of California at Berkeley.

Today, Lori talks us through the findings of some research that she conducted for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), which looks at cases involving victim-defendants of trafficking for sexual exploitation.

We have a truly fascinating conversation about some of the harrowing experiences that victims of trafficking undergo while being trafficked and then during court proceedings later on. We talk about the nature of these cases and how the victim-defendants can be coerced by their traffickers to commit various crimes, as well as the associated gaps in both developed and developing legal systems.

It's a really interesting talk. I enjoyed recording it and we very much hope you enjoy tuning in. Without further ado, here's our interview.

Useful links:

• The study itself -  https://www.unodc.org/documents/human-trafficking/2020/final_Female_victims_of_trafficking_for_sexual_exploitation_as_defendants.pdf
• Connect with Lori on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/lori-mann-21698a1a/
• UNODC's SHERLOC database - https://sherloc.unodc.org/cld/en/st/home.html
• Womens Link - https://www.womenslinkworldwide.org/en
• UN Global TiP report - https://www.unodc.org/unodc/data-and-analysis/glotip.html
• United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the Protocols Thereto (including the Protocol on trafficking) - https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/organized-crime/intro/UNTOC.html
• Other episodes related to human trafficking: 3, 11, 13, 19
• The Migration & Diaspora Podcast - https://www.homelandsadvisory.com/podcast
  

• Connect with Aurélia - linkedin.com/in/aurélia-donnard-3267bb12
• MMC - https://mixedmigration.org/
• MMC West Africa - https://mixedmigration.org/regions/west-africa/
• 4Mi - https://mixedmigration.org/4mi/4mi-interactive/
• Migration in the Sahel: Putting Human Rights and Cooperation on the Map - https://www.ispionline.it/it/pubblicazione/migration-sahel-putting-human-rights-and-cooperation-map-29297
• Related Episode 24 on the Missing Migrants Project - https://www.homelandsadvisory.com/podcast/episode/20457abd/episode-24-the-missing-migrants-project-tracking-missing-and-deceased-migrants
• Related Episode 5 on Children on-the-move in West and Central Africa - https://www.homelandsadvisory.com/podcast/episode/20c80d46/episode-5-children-on-the-move-in-west-and-central-africa-context-vulnerabilities-and-protection-needs
  

Hello and you're listening to another episode of the Migration & Diaspora Podcast, powered by Homelands Advisory.

Today, we've got Peter Kwok with us, who is the Chair of both the newly-formed Global Diaspora Confederation and the UK Federation of Chinese Professionals.

Peter is originally from Hong Kong but has spent much of his career and life in the UK. In addition to his chairpersonships, he is also involved in 10 other diaspora associations and has held board positions at a further six community organisations in the UK and China. He has advised public, private and third sectors, including the Scottish Government, local councils, universities, and SMEs on diaspora strategies.

Peter received the Alumni Award for Excellence in Achievement from Cranfield University in 2019 and the Freedom of the City of Glasgow award in 2020. He was nominated Finalist for Charity Chair of the Year in the UK for his contributions to global diasporas.

We've got a dual episode for you today. We start by discussing something that's very personal to me, which is the Chinese diaspora in the UK, of which I'm a proud member, and the UK Federation of Chinese Professionals' work to support our community. We talk about how the Federation functions and Peter's own learnings from his vast experience supporting the Chinese and Southeast Asian diasporas across the UK.

We then move onto Peter's more recent work cooperating with diaspora organisations across the world, which has led to his latest project to pioneer the new Global Diaspora Confederation.

Peter is a very driven, insightful and passionate diaspora advocate and so without further ado, sit back (or continue running, cooking, or whatever you do while listening to this podcast), and enjoy the interview!

Useful links

• Connect with Peter - https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterkwok/
• UKFCP - https://www.ukfcp.com/
• Global Diaspora Confederation - https://www.linkedin.com/company/theglobaldiaspora/
• iDiaspora - https://idiaspora.org/
• Press release from the Global Diaspora Coalition (precursor to the Global Diaspora Confederation): Message of Solidarity with Victims of COVID-19 Related Xenophobia, Discrimination - https://www.iom.int/news/global-diaspora-coalition-message-solidarity-victims-covid-19-related-xenophobia-discrimination
  

Good morning and you're listening to another episode of the Migration & Diaspora Podcast, with me your host, Loksan Harley from Homelands Advisory.

I'm delighted to present to you today a lovely interview with a team member and diaspora participant of the Connecting Diaspora 4 Development (CD4D) programme, which is implemented by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in the Netherlands.

CD4D engages members of the Afghan, Iraqi, Nigerian and Somali diasporas to support the development of their countries of origin through the transfer of knowledge and expertise.

We're very lucky to be joined by Nina Staal, the CD4D Programme Coordinator, and Zuhur Mohamed, who was a participant to the CD4D programme in her country of heritage, Somaliland, and now one of CD4D's ambassador.

A bit about both our guests. Nina leads the IOM's Dutch office's migration and development team, including their work with local diasporas in the Netherlands. Prior to joining IOM in 2012, Nina also worked for VluchtelingenWerk Nederland and the Dutch Embassy in Eritrea.

Zuhur considers it her mission to ensure equal opportunities for everybody, regardless of their origin. She and her mother came from Somaliland to the Netherlands when she was three years old. After internships in London and New York, she worked as a financial adviser at the Dutch bank ING. Three years later, Zuhur felt the need to give back to her country of origin and, after some searching, found IOM’s CD4D programme. She started with automating financial systems at the Somaliland Ministry of Justice and soon applied her skills in other departments. During her last assignment she even co-wrote the national development plan.

Really enjoyed getting to know how CD4D is run and what's in it for both its participants and the countries of origin that receive them. I especially enjoyed learning about Zuhur's wonderful journey of discovery of Somaliland through CD4D. Of course, we also touch on some more challenging issues, such as how CD4D identifies willing diaspora participants and receiving institutions, and why there is not a private sector solution to the issue that a programme like CD4D seeks to address.

As always, I'd like to thank you very much for listening. Remember, you can listen to this podcast on Spotify, iTunes, Google Podcasts and most other worthy podcasting platforms, and our website homelandsadvisory.com/podcast has links to them all. Without further ado, please do enjoy the show.

Useful links

• CD4D promotional video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CekiOIyopMY&feature=emb_title
• CD4D project website - https://www.connectingdiaspora.org/
• CD4D assignment vacancies - https://www.connectingdiaspora.org/vacancies/
• CD4D Ambassadors - https://www.connectingdiaspora.org/ambassadors/
• Dossier on Diaspora Inclusion - https://www.thebrokeronline.eu/category/project/diaspora-inclusion/
• IOM iDiaspora platform - https://idiaspora.org/en
• Connect with Nina on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nina-staal/
• Connect with Zuhur on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/zuhur-jamila-mohamed-442899aa/
  

• Connect with Almaz - https://www.linkedin.com/in/almaznegash/ https://twitter.com/almaznegash?lang=en
• African Diaspora Network - https://www.africandiasporanetwork.org/ https://twitter.com/AfricanDNetwork
• African Diaspora Investment Symposium (ADIS) - https://www.africandiasporanetwork.org/what-is-adis/
• Accelerating Black Leadership and Entrepreneurship (ABLE) - https://africandiasporanetwork.org/able/
  

Today, I am most excited to share with you this interview with Oleg Chirita, Head of Global Initiatives at the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD), about his experiences as an engaged member of the Moldovan diaspora, as well as he and ICMPD's work to support governments worldwide to engage their diasporas.

Oleg joined ICMPD in 2009, working extensively with ICMPD's programme of technical assistance to governments (the MIEUX programme). Over the years, Oleg rose through the ranks and is now Head of the Global Initiatives Programme, under which the MIEUX+ programme sits. Oleg is Moldovan and Romanian, and studied International and European Law at universities in Moldova, Sweden, Poland and Belgium.

We're really lucky to have Oleg with us to share his insights from his many years of migration and diaspora work. I personally enjoyed how Oleg relates his own diaspora experience with the global diaspora work of ICMPD. So we start with Oleg's background and experience with his own diaspora, before moving on to talk about what diaspora homeland governments - that's governments in countries of origin - are doing - and can do - to engage their overseas populations. We close with some thought-provoking observations (from Oleg, that is 😉) about policy and practice transmission and to what extent we can identify a selection of so-called "good diaspora engagement practices" for replication across countries.

As always, thank you for tuning in. If you want to support this channel, please do feel free to share this episode on the socials (tag us @TheMDPcast) and leave us a review on iTunes. In any case, I hope you enjoy the show.

Useful links

• Connect with Oleg - https://www.linkedin.com/in/oleg-chiri%C8%9Ba-4875511/
• Follow Oleg - https://twitter.com/Oleg_Chirita
• ICMPD - https://www.icmpd.org/
• ICMPD European and Global Initiatives - https://www.icmpd.org/our-work/capacity-building/european-and-global-initiatives/
• Oleg's blog post on diaspora engagement - https://www.icmpd.org/news-centre/news-detail/expert-voice-diaspora-engagement-an-unfinished-business/
• Oleg's interview with Free Europe on engaging the Moldovan diaspora - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMX6aaahDz4&t=65s
• EU Global Diaspora Facility - https://diasporafordevelopment.eu/
• The MIEUX programme - https://www.mieux-initiative.eu/en/
• DAR 1+3 programme - https://www.md.undp.org/content/moldova/en/home/presscenter/pressreleases/2020/diaspora-dezvoltarea-localitatilor-de-origine-devine-o-practica-nationala-prin-programul-DAR.html
  

• Connect with Shabari - https://www.linkedin.com/in/shabari-nair/
• Shabari's ILO profile - https://www.ilo.org/global/topics/labour-migration/WCMS_662429/lang--en/index.htm
• ILO in India and South Asia - https://www.ilo.org/newdelhi/lang--en/index.htm
• UN DESA - International Migration Report 2020 - https://www.un.org/en/desa/international-migration-2020-highlights
• ILO General principles and operational guidelines for fair recruitment and definition of recruitment fees and related costs - https://www.ilo.org/global/topics/fair-recruitment/WCMS_536755/lang--en/index.htm
• UN Network on Migration - https://migrationnetwork.un.org/
• The MDPcast Ep 19 on migrant worker wage theft - https://www.homelandsadvisory.com/podcast/episode/30cff438/episode-19-seeking-justice-for-wage-theft-for-migrant-workers-in-asia
  

Today's guest is Oula Tarssim, the German Development Cooperation's (GIZ) Tunisia Coordinator for the Migration & Diaspora Programme.

Oula was born and raised in Germany to Tunisian parents. She started her career in marketing and management consultancy in Germany, before moving to Tunisia to work with the German-Tunisian Chamber of Commerce and Industry as an integrated expert, as part of a GIZ collaboration. She went on to manage several German and EU-funded projects on youth employment, vocational training, and the engagement of diaspora talent.

In today's far-reaching discussion, we talk all about Oula's lessons learned from her work with the Tunisian diaspora. We start by hearing about Oula's own diaspora experience, from growing up in Germany to her diaspora "return" - which, as you'll hear, wasn't so much returning as moving to a new place! Oula then shares with us her lessons learned from several years of identifying and mobilising Tunisian diaspora talent, including how she managed to build long-term networks within the confines of the development cooperation project model. 

We close with some of Oula's ongoing work to build an online diaspora entrepreneurship ecosystem, including her fascinating ideas about how to "tokenise" diaspora engagement.

There's so much value in this episode so without further ado, thank you for listening and please do enjoy the show.

Useful links

• Connect with Oula on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/oula-tarssim-b21b72163/
• GIZ Programme Migration & Diaspora - https://www.giz.de/en/worldwide/78803.html
• Subscribe to The Migration & Diaspora Podcast and view the archive - https://www.homelandsadvisory.com/podcast

Good morning and welcome to another episode of the Migration & Diaspora Podcast, where we discuss everything to do with the movement of people. Today, we've got Glen Hodgson from Free Trade Europa on the show to talk about a trend that has certainly defined my life, but also the lives of many others, and the global economy. I'm talking about the platform economy and how it affects migrants.

So a bit about today's guest, Glen. Glen has over 20 years' experience in communications, public affairs and lobbying. He is the founder of the think tank Free Trade Europa, which focuses on promoting free trade, liberalisation and the rule of law within the EU and internationally. Glen was previously responsible for the Nordics, Baltics and Central & Eastern Europe at an international communications agency. Prior to this, he worked for the EU institutions as well as governments, blue-chip international companies, startups and NGOs as a lobbyist, strategist and communications advisor. Glen was also the Secretary General of a European trade association for five years. 

On today's show, we're talking all about how migrants interact with the platform and gig economies. You'll hear Glen explain these terms far better than I can, but broadly speaking, we're talking about freelance work that is done through online platforms, like Upwork, Fiverr, Uber, Deliveroo, and the many other apps that are emerging.

We talk about the findings of Glen's two recent research studies commissioned by the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD), focusing on the phenomenon across Europe and several Silk Routes countries, namely Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Iran, Iraq, and Pakistan, as well as Glen and Free Trade Europa's ongoing work on the platform economy. In particular, we learn about migrants' participation in the platform economy and the challenges and opportunities that it implies, along with the policy implications.

I very much enjoyed this conversation, which is particularly meaningful to me given my experiences with independent working. Glen brings some much-needed nuance to the conversation by talking about how to address the very real issues of precarity that are normally associated with migrant participation in the gig economy, while also discussing ways to ensure that migrants are empowered to exploit the many opportunities of independent working.

As always, thank you very much for tuning in and we hope you enjoy the show. And you can access the podcast archive and get in touch via our new website, homelandsadvisory.com/podcast.

Useful links:

• Glen's latest study: A New Hope: The role of the Platform Economy in facilitating migrants into the Swedish labour market - https://freetradeeuropa.eu/platform-economy-study
• Glen's paper for the Prague Process: Migration and the Platform Economy - https://www.pragueprocess.eu/en/migration-observatory/publications/document?id=240
• Glen's Budapest Process briefing paper on the gig economy - https://www.budapestprocess.org/index.php?option=com_attachments&task=download&id=412
• Free Trade Europa - https://freetradeeuropa.eu/
• Connect with Glen - https://www.linkedin.com/in/glen-hodgson-36136516/
• Twitter - @TradeEuropa
  
  

Amanda is a Policy Officer at the European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM), an independent think tank based in Maastricht, the Netherlands, that wants to make policies in Europe and Africa work for inclusive and sustainable development.

Amanda, originally from Nigeria, has Master's degrees in International Law and Economics (World Trade Institute, Bern) and International Trade Policy and Trade Law (Lund University). She is currently also pursuing her part-time PhD on Regional Migration Governance (with a focus on West Africa) at the University of Nigeria.

Amanda previously worked at the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) as Head of Trade and Customs managing a project on regional integration and trade in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Before that, Amanda worked at the ECOWAS Trade Directorate, the National Association of Nigerian Traders and the Nigerian Bar Association. Her focus research areas are on migration agreements, labour migration, exploring the linkages between trade and migration in Africa, migration governance and the interplay between regional and national commitments.

Given her extensive work on the topic, Amanda was the ideal person to talk to us about regional migration governance in the African context, especially with regard to free movement of persons frameworks. Amanda starts by introducing us to what free movement of persons means (or, rather, how there is no universal definition), and explains how different regions of Africa, as well as the continent as a whole at the African Union level, have developed various frameworks that enable freer movement of Africans.

It's a bit of a long interview, in part because of some banter and tangents for which I'll take some responsibility but also because Amanda with her combination of academic, practitioner and life experiences injects so much nuance into the discussion. And it's worthwhile listening till the end, when I get Amanda's predictions for what free movement in Africa might look like ten years from now!

Without further ado, thank you so much for listening and we hope you enjoy the show.

Useful links

• About Amanda Bisong
• Amanda/ECDPM's study: Free movement in West Africa: Juxtapositions and divergent interests
• Africa's overlapping regional groupings (infographic)
• Africa Regional Integration Index
• The Development of the AU Free Movement of Persons Protocol: Origins, Objectives and Key Concerns (By Emmerentia Erasmus and Loksan Harley)
• MPI: Africa Moves Towards Intracontinental Free Movement for Its Booming Population
• AU Free Movement of Persons Protocol

Welcome to a very special episode of the Migration & Diaspora Podcast. Today I have on the show Christine Esson, Co-founder and CEO of the Scottish Business Network (SBN), and Walter May, Founder and CEO of GlobalWelsh.

First of all, a bit about of Christine, Walter, and their organisations.

Christine is a practically focused economic development specialist with significant expertise gained from working in global public and private sector organisations. Christine co-founded the SBN, a not-for-profit global community, facilitating greater communication and connectivity between the Scottish diaspora to support Scottish-based companies expand internationally.

Walter has held senior business leadership roles in a range of companies from IBM through to start-ups in manufacturing, financial services and the veterinary industry.  He lived outside Wales for 20 years and since returning has involved himself in all aspects of entrepreneurship, as well as being a coach and mentor to many, high-growth high-potential Welsh businesses. He is the Founder and CEO of GlobalWelsh, a grassroots, evidenced based and private sector funded organisation, whose origins are within the Welsh entrepreneur community.

I've been wanting to record this episode for a while now because after working on diaspora engagement myself with diaspora communities and governments around the world, and also from my own experience as a "Brit abroad" for 10 years, I've often reflected on the potential of diaspora engagement for my country, the UK. The latest UN data points to 4.3 million British migrants around the world. But going beyond this to talk about the diaspora - those with UK heritage or affinity - we can reasonably consider the size of the combined English, Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish diasporas to surpass 120 million. Despite this, the UK as a whole does not seem to have thought nearly enough about its own diaspora.

But hope is not all lost, because in today's show, Christine and Walter talk us through their exciting work to engage the Scottish and Welsh diasporas. Both represent innovative organisations that are really pioneering the engagement of their diasporas. We talk about how SBN and GlobalWelsh were founded and how they support their diasporas - especially their business diasporas. Tune in as well if you want to find out which Disney character and which famous Australian popstar are part of the Scottish and Welsh diasporas (not to mention a certain Mr President...).

• Connect with Walter on LinkedIn
• Connect with Christine on LinkedIn
• Scottish Business Network
• GlobalWelsh
• Welsh Government's Diaspora Engagement Action Plan 2020-2025, Ireland's Diaspora Strategy 2020-2025
• Other UK diaspora organisations: Northern Ireland Connections, Global Scot
• IPPR's 2010 paper:  Global Brit - Making the most of the British diaspora
• The Migration & Diaspora Podcast
  

Today I am excited to bring to your airwaves a discussion with Julia Black from the International Organization for Migration's (IOM) Global Migration Data Analysis Centre (GMDAC).

Julia coordinates IOM's Missing Migrants Project, which deals with data collection and identification of missing migrants worldwide. Julia is also the co-editor of IOM’s most recent report on migrant deaths and identification, Fatal Journeys 4, and has authored several other GMDAC publications. Before joining IOM, Julia ran a local non-profit in the San Francisco Bay Area. She holds a MA in International Affairs from the Hertie School of Governance, and a BA in Peace and Conflict Studies from the University of California, Berkeley.

In today's interview, we learn all about Julia's fascinating work with the Missing Migrants Project, which tracks incidents involving migrants, including refugees and asylum-seekers, who have died or gone missing in the process of migration towards an international destination. We touch on some of the headline data that the project has collected since its creation in 2014, as well as the main causes of migrant death and disappearance and the different migration corridors along which these tragedies occur. And we discuss how Julia and her relatively small project team collects data from a variety of sources to shine light on these very troubling things that are happening to migrants around the world.

I really enjoyed this interview and I was blown away by both the project's ability to collect and share so much data with such a small team. I also admire Julia greatly for her ability to explain the challenges, complexities and applications of the project's data work with such clarity.

As always I'd like to thank you so much for listening and if you are enjoying the podcast, why not subscribe at Homelandsadvisory.com/podcast. Thanks again and enjoy.

Useful links

• Missing Migrants Project
• Download Missing Migrants Project data
• Global Migration Data Analysis Centre
• Fatal Journeys Volume 4: Missing Migrant Children
• Connect with Julia on LinkedIn
  

Good morning and you are listening to the Migration & Diaspora Podcast, a podcast where we talk about all things migration. I'm your host Loksan Harley and as always I'm so happy to be bringing the best of the best migration and diaspora experts to your airwaves to share what they're working on and what they've learned. And today I'm joined by my friend Roberto Gil Cancel Comas, Senior Regional Labour Mobility and Human Development Specialist for South America at the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Part of the great puertorriqueño diaspora, Roberto has been working with migrants and diaspora groups for over a decade, with a focus on civil participation and migration and development. He has an extremely diverse set of work and life experiences, spanning from East Asia to Europe and North Africa to the Americas. Before taking up responsibilities in the Regional Office for South America, he worked for IOM in Egypt and Kosovo, and supported Latin American communities in Belgium. Previously, Roberto worked with Latin American migrants in the US to promote their civil and political participation. 

I'm excited to present to you our wide-ranging discussion on diaspora engagement, in which I picked Roberto's worldly brain on the roles that diaspora organisations and governments play (or should play) in engaging diasporas. We discuss regional differences in diaspora engagement and Roberto's fantastic work to bring diaspora organisations around the world together to share good practices via the iDiaspora platform. Also great to get to know Roberto's own migration & diaspora story (spoiler alert, it's a fascinating one!). 

Useful links

• iDiaspora platform
• IOM South America
• IOM’s 3E’s Strategy to Enable, Engage and Empower Diaspora
• IOM/MPI Handbook on Diaspora policy development
• Contributions and Counting: Guidance on Measuring the Economic Impact of your Diaspora beyond Remittances by Leon Isaacs, star of Episode 4
• Global Diasporas reacting to the COVID-19 crisis: Best Practices from the Field
• Related podcast episodes 2 (Doing Diaspora), 4 (remittances), 9 (diaspora investment), 12 (diaspora humanitarianism).
  

Hello, you're listening to the Migration & Diaspora Podcast, with me your host, Loksan Harley. Today, we've got Felipe Muñoz, Chief of the Migration Unit at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), with us to talk about Latin America's migration mega-trends.

A bit about Felipe. He's been in his current position leading IDB's migration practice since August 2020. Before that, for more than two years, he was advisor to the President of Colombia on the country's comprehensive response to migration from Venezuela, during which time he was in charge of coordinating government responses to the migration flows at the national and regional levels. Previously, Felipe was senior counselor to the IDB Board of Executive Directors. His vast experience in Colombia’s public sector includes serving as Private Security Superintendent, Director of the National Intelligence Agency, as well as adviser to Bogota’s Mayor and the Minister of Finance, among other senior roles.

I was really excited to get Felipe on the show today. He's gained some fantastic insights into migration and development issues, having both worked at the ground level, advising on his country's response to some of the highest levels of forced displacement seen worldwide, as well as at the international level as a pioneer of a truly cross-cutting approach to integrating migration into different areas of the IDB's development support to the region. As alluded to, Felipe starts by giving us his take on the big Latin American migration issues of today, including the far-reaching effects of the Venezuelan crisis, Central America's big migration trends, and the ongoing impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. We then talk in-depth about IDB's response to these issues, such as how it attaches migration support to its funding in other development sectors, as well as how Felipe and his team are going about placing migration at the centre of the IDB's development work.

I hope you enjoyed listening to this as much as I enjoyed recording it and if you're listening on Apple iTunes, we'd be grateful if you could leave a review to tell us what you think. Thank you so much for tuning in and without further ado, here's our interview.

Useful links

• IDB's migration website
• Episode 8 on Caribbean migration
• Episode 10 on mainstreaming migration
• MPI report on Managing the Pandemic and Its Aftermath: Economies, Jobs, and International Migration in the Age of COVID-19
• MMC's study about the impact of COVID-19 on refugees and migrants
• BetterTogether Challenge 
  

We really hope you enjoy listening to this one. And if you do or even if you don't, feel free to get and share your feedback via the website at loksanharley.com/podcast or via the Facebook and Twitter pages (the handle for both is @TheMDPcast). Without further ado, here's our interview.

Useful links

• Connect with Jenna on LinkedIn
• Jenna's recent publication: Incongruous Objectives - Endeavouring to Realise Women Migrant Workers’ Rights through the Global Development Agendas
• Jenna's work for UN Women: Migrant Workers in South Asia and the Middle East, a policy brief series
• Jenna's blog post on COVID-19, gender and migration in Central Asia: reinforcing precarity
• Jenna's report: The impact of COVID-19 on migrants in Asia and the Pacific: Rethinking resilience
  

Hello and welcome to a US presidential special edition episode of the Migration & Diaspora Podcast, a show with me your host, Loksan Harley, about all things migration. Today, I have Jessica Bolter from the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) with us to talk about the newly-elected President Joe Biden's migration agenda.

Jessica Bolter is an Associate Policy Analyst with the U.S. Immigration Policy Program at MPI, a non-partisan think tank based in Washington, DC. Jessica's research focuses on migration patterns at the U.S.-Mexico border, immigration enforcement, and asylum and refugee issues. For the past four years, she has also been involved in tracking and analysing the hundreds of administrative changes the Trump administration made to the US immigration system. Jessica completed her degree in American studies and Spanish area studies from Kenyon College, where she focused on relations between the US and Latin America.

Sit back and enjoy your very own briefing on the Biden migration agenda, which has some similarities with Episode 7, where Jessica's Brussels colleague Timo Schmidt from MPI Europe briefed us on the EU's new Migration Pact. In today's episode, we start by looking back at what happened to US migration policy under President Donald Trump, before looking at what the Biden administration has already enacted since ascending to the White House proverbial throne a few weeks back, as well as what's in store for the rest of the new presidential term as regards migration.

As always, we really appreciate your time and we hope you enjoy the show.

Useful links:

• Follow @jessicabolter on Twitter
• Migration Policy Institute
• MPI's analysis: Biden Sets the Stage for a Remarkably Active First 100 Days on Immigration
• John Oliver's comedic but informative take on US immigration policy (YouTube)

William is the current regional coordinator of Migrant Forum in Asia (MFA), a regional network of grassroots organisations, trade unions, faith-based groups, migrants and their families and individual advocates in Asia working together for social justice for migrant workers and their families. represented in 26 countries across Asia and the Middle East. He is the former chairperson of the Global Coalition for Migration (GCM) and over the last twenty years, he has been at the forefront of international advocacy efforts engaging and influencing international and multilateral processes to promote rights-based migration and development policies, including co-chairing the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) Civil Society Days (CSD) in 2011. In addition, William is a member of the steering committee of the Asia Democracy Network (ADN), the regional executive committee of the Asia Pacific Movement on Debt and Development (APMDD), and the World Bank-led Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development (KNOMAD). At the regional level, William represents MFA in the Abu Dhabi Dialogue and the Colombo Process.

We're so lucky to have William here with us today to shed light on the issue of wage theft in Asia that many migrant workers have been exposed to. He gives us the lowdown on the scale and nature of the problem, where it's happening, and what its impacts are on the migrant workers and their families and communities of origin, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. And he walks us through the Justice For Wage Theft campaign he's been leading and the actions that he is calling on countries of origin and destination to take to both address the immediate needs of those afflicted by wage theft, as well as to build back better protections for migrant workers as we emerge from the pandemic. William is such a powerful advocate for migrant rights and it's an absolute pleasure to have him on the show, so without further ado, here's our conversation.

Useful links

• Justice For Wage Theft campaign
• Migrant Forum in Asia
• Twitter: @mfasia_
• Justice For Wage Theft and MFA's Facebook pages
  

Today I'm absolutely thrilled to be joined by Audrey Jolivel from the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) to talk about the role of inter-state migration dialogues in migration governance.

Audrey is the Coordinator of the Secretariat of the Euro-African Dialogue on Migration and Development, otherwise known as the Rabat Process Secretariat. She is also the West Africa Liaison at ICMPD. Audrey brings some 15 years of professional, policy and managerial experience in the migration field. She has since 2015 facilitated the Rabat Process dialogue, which is an intergovernmental dialogue on migration between West, North and Central Africa and Europe, involving more than 58 country partners, two regional organisations (European Union and the Economic Community of West African States), and some international organisations as observers.

Our interview really digs into the critical role that inter-state dialogues play in fostering exchange between countries and creating both formal and informal spaces for at times very divergent migration interests to converge and for consensus to be built. We also talk about Audrey's personal insights from seven years of experience coordinating the Rabat Process Secretariat. I think we can all imagine some of the complexities, challenges and opportunities inherent to managing a grouping of 58 country partners ranging from the Congo to Norway. And I really appreciated how Audrey speaks candidly about how she and her team at the Secretariat approach their work. Finally, we touch on some of the other inter-state dialogues out there and ICMPD's experiences and lessons learned managing several of them.

I know this is a bit of a new topic for some, so I've taken the liberty to share some useful links in the show notes, including a link to the Rabat Process website itself, some of the work its done (including some of my own work with the Secretariat (hashtag shameless self promotion!), and a link to a page on the International Organization for Migration's (IOM) webpage which lists all the inter-state dialogues currently in existence.

As always, thank you for listening. Get in touch at loksanharley.com/podcast to let me know what you think about this interview and to subscribe to never miss an episode. Without further ado, here's our interview.

Useful links:

• Rabat Process website
• Joint Valletta Action Plan
• My recent publication for the Rabat Process on diaspora engagement practices
• EU/Horn of Africa Migration Route Initiative (Khartoum Process)
• IOM's explainer on Inter-State Consultation Mechanisms on Migration (and list of current mechanisms in force)
• Expert Voice: Migration Dialogues in times of COVID-19
• Connect with Audrey on LinkedIn

Hello and welcome to yet another episode of the Migration & Diaspora Podcast, with me your host Loksan Harley. Today we're returning to the fascinating topic of migration and development and how each affects the other. And I have the ideal guest on to share her wisdom on the topic - Dr Melissa Siegel from the United Nations University Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (UNU-MERIT).

Melissa is a Professor and Head of Migration Studies at the Maastricht Graduate School of Governance and UNU-MERIT where she manages several migration research projects and coordinates the Migration Studies Specialization of the Master’s Program in Public Policy and Human Development. She is Co-Director of the Maastricht Center for Citizenship, Migration and Development (MACIMIDE). She currently holds the Chair of the UNU Migration Network and is a Research Associate at the Center on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS) at the University of Oxford. She is also on the advisory board of the Migration Policy Centre of the European University Institute (EUI). She has advised, worked on, trained, or headed projects for several governments and international organisations.

Her main research interests lie in the causes and consequences of migration with a strong emphasis on the linkages between migration and development. And those areas of her expertise are exactly the topics that we're focusing on today. In our interview, I was able to squeeze Dr Siegel for all the expertise I could get. We talk about how development affects migration (including the "migration hump") and how migration affects development, including the most common misconceptions about those relationships. We also elaborate on how those misconceptions then translate into misguided policies and the effects of those policies. Finally, we talk a bit about Melissa and UNU-MERIT's fantastic work to create a variety of content on migration that speaks to a diversity of audiences - from scholars and policy-makers to the general public - including through Melissa's excellent YouTube channel, through which she shares useful explainer videos on different migration themes. Without further ado, thank you so much for listening and enjoy the show. 

Show notes:

• Melissa @ UNU-MERIT
• UNU-MERIT
• Melissa's YouTube channel
• Connect with Melissa on LinkedIn
• Melissa's website
• Mygration Story: Giving back through transnational living
• The "migration hump" relationship between migration and development
• Melissa and Prof De Haas discuss migration and development
• Follow @MelissaSiegel1 on Twitter
• Episode 10 on mainstreaming migration

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Migration & Diaspora Podcast, with me your host, Loksan Harley. Today I've got Colin Rajah on the show to talk about, in his words, the "messy but beautiful" business of advocating for civil society in global migration governance.

Colin is the Coordinator of the Civil Society Action Committee (AC), the largest global platform of civil society organizations and networks engaging in global migration governance and policy advocacy, housed by the International Catholic Migration Commission (ICMC). He also serves as the Co-Coordinator of the Global Forum on Migration and Development’s Civil Society Coordinating Office, which coordinates the civil society mechanism for the GFMD summit. Colin was previously the International Organization for Migration’s (IOM’s) Civil Society Liaison (2017-2018) for the Global Compact for Migration negotiation process (GCM). Prior to that, he was a co-founder and International Coordinator of the Global Coalition on Migration (2011-2016), and held senior positions at the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (NNIRR) (2003-2011) and Migrants Rights International (MRI) (2006-2016). He also co-founded the People's Global Action on Migration, Development and Human Rights (PGA) (2006-2016) and co-chaired the Civil Society Forum during the 2013 United Nations High-Level Dialogue on Migration and Development (UNHLD). And if that wasn't enough, he co-founded the largest Malaysian global diaspora network and has been involved in a number of grassroots social justice groups.

As you've just heard, Colin has long been at the forefront of civil society engagement in global migration governance. In fact, with the thirteenth Global Forum on Migration and Development currently ongoing at this episode's release in January 2021, Colin has been present at every single one of the previous 12 GFMDs. He was therefore the ideal person to tell us about the work of the Civil Society Action Committee and civil society engagement in global migration governance more broadly. We talk about the shared migration interests of global civil society and how the Action Committee manages to channel the views of such a diverse set of organisations into coherent advocacy work, including at the GFMDs. We learn what "global advocacy" actually means in practice and how Colin's work at the GFMDs and in processes like the Global Compact for Migration then filters down to concrete action that benefits migrants. And I ask Colin for his big lessons learned from his extensive experience as a civil society advocate.

So here's our interview and, as always, thank you and I hope you enjoy listening to this as much as I enjoyed recording it.

Useful links

• Connect with Colin on LinkedIn
• Civil Society Action Committee
• Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD)
• GFMD Civil Society
• Information on the 13th GFMD summit (18-26 January 2021)
• Short video of Colin talking about civil society engagement with states in the Global Compact for Migration
• Subscribe to the Migration & Diaspora Podcast

Today I have the honour of being joined by Onyekachi Wambu, Executive Director of the African Foundation for Development (AFFORD-UK), to talk about his illustrious career spent engaging African diasporas in support of the African continent's development.

Onyekachi has had a distinguished career as a print and broadcast journalist, spending time as a senior producer and documentary director at the BBC and PBS. He has also written extensively himself on Africa and the African diaspora, including authoring the books Empire Windrush – 50 Years of Writing about Black Britain and Under the Tree of Talking – Leadership for Change in Africa.

Onyekachi now heads AFFORD-UK, a London-headquartered international NGO with a mission to expand and enhance the contributions of Africans in the diaspora to advance Africa’s development. AFFORD-UK is a real pioneer and innovator in the field of diaspora engagement, and their advocacy work has contributed significantly to UK and international recognition of the importance of African diasporas to the continent's development. Onyekachi has also appeared as an expert contributor to numerous migration and diaspora-related high-level panels and forums.

Having known Onyekachi for a while now, I relished this opportunity to dig into his background to find out what has driven him to dedicate so much of his career to advocating for African diasporas. After talking about his childhood in post-independence Nigeria and his subsequent migration to the UK, Onyekachi deconstructs the "African diaspora", providing his own conceptual framework to define who they are and to explain the different ways (or "transfers") in which they contribute to the continent. We then talk about the role of AFFORD-UK in engaging diasporas, including some of the work they've done to leverage diaspora interest in contributing their time, skills, money, and more. We close with Onyekachi's insights into the key areas of under-exploited potential in African diaspora engagement, as well as his own lessons learned from many years working at the forefront of this exciting field.

I really enjoyed this discussion, as Onyekachi is one of the few people I know who has the vision and wealth of life experience required to draw the linkages between diaspora engagement and broader societal themes of racial injustice and inequality. And it was also great hearing more about AFFORD-UK's work, which has not only fostered the diaspora's contributions to the African continent but has also brought the African diaspora into critical conversations in the UK on the societal issues of our time. I definitely recommend checking out AFFORD's website at afford-uk.org to learn more. And if you want to hear episodes on diaspora engagement, I recommend checking out episodes 2, 4, and 9.

As always, thank you very much for listening and I hope you enjoy the show.

Useful links

• AFFORD-UK's website
• Follow AFFORD-UK on Twitter
• Want more diaspora episodes? Check out Ep 2 ("Doing diaspora"), Ep 4 (remittances), and Ep 9 (diaspora investment). 
• Subscribe to the Migration & Diaspora Podcast

Hello, you're listening to the Migration & Diaspora Podcast, with me your host, Loksan Harley. It's January 2021 so a very happy new year to you and let's hope this year is much better than 2020; I mean, it really has to be, right. For those of you subscribed already to this podcast's mailing list, I hope you enjoyed the new year update that I sent you last week and I'd really like to hear back from you and how I can support your migration and diaspora goals in 2021, so feel free to get in touch.

Today I have my sister, Odette Bolly, on the show to talk us through her experiences providing technical assistance to governments across Africa in the field of migration. Odette, originally from Senegal, is currently working as a Programme Manager at the International Organization for Migration's (IOM) Uganda country office, leading their Labour Mobility and Human Development (LHD) work. Odette has worked for several country offices for IOM since joining the organisation in 2015. In particular, she led the delivery of over 20 technical assistance projects across Africa for the ACP-EU Migration Action programme, which is when I was fortunate to work with her myself. Before joining IOM, Odette worked for Oxfam and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, so she knows the United Nations system very well.

Given her vast experience designing and delivering technical assistance to governments across the African continent, Odette was the ideal person to talk to about how to do technical assistance well. We discuss what forms technical assistance can take, how to assess government needs for technical assistance, and the key ingredients to high-impact technical assistance. Stay tuned to find out how Odette "pre-cooks" (her own words!) technical assistance, as well as her key pieces of advice for people and organisations in the process of designing technical assistance. I especially appreciated the way in which Odette speaks with such candour and honesty, giving us some fantastic insights into what it's like to work with governments.

Given that a lot my own work has been supporting governments, I thought I'd write a short article about my own "lessons learned" from providing technical assistance in the field of migration, which I'll link to in the show notes. Check it out if you want to go deeper into the topic.

As a very important disclaimer, please note that the views expressed in this podcast episode are our own personal reflections and do not represent the views of IOM. Feel free to get in touch at loksanharley.com/podcast if you have any further questions.

Without further ado, thanks for tuning in and we hope you enjoy our interview.

Useful links:

• Loksan's Top 10: How to provide high-impact technical assistance in the field of migration
  
• Implementing ACP-EU Cooperation on Migration and Development A collection of good practices and lessons learned from the ACP-EU Migration Action (also by Loksan and some top experts)
  
• ACP-EU Migration Action programme
  
• Connect with Odette on LinkedIn
  
• Subscribe to the Migration & Diaspora Podcast
  

I thoroughly enjoyed speaking with Marika, who has so much experience on this topic, about the achievements and shortcomings of the Palermo protocols. We touch on some of the challenges inherent in how the protocols define trafficking and smuggling, why the trafficking protocol is getting more attention than the smuggling and firearms protocols, the oft-forgotten link between the UNTOC and the protocols, the ways in which (and reasons why) the definition of trafficking has expanded over the years, and the implications of the increasing focus on "modern slavery". I highly recommend paying close attention to this one, as our conversation certainly changed the way I think about human trafficking - especially how it relates to practices like forced marriage and forced military recruitment, which are often considered trafficking but which typically do not involve the types of transnational organised crime that the UNTOC sought to address. You might also want to head to loksanharley.com/podcast to check out episodes 3 and 11, which are also about human trafficking in case this episode leaves you wanting more.

This is our last episode of the year, so a very Merry Christmas and a happy new year in advance!

Anyway, without further ado, thank you very much for listening and I hope you enjoy the show.

Useful links

Follow Marika: https://twitter.com/Marika_McAdam

Check out Marika's book - Freedom from Religion and Human Rights Law: Strengthening the Right to Freedom of Religion and Belief for Non-Religious and Atheist Rights-Holders: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Freedom-Religion-Human-Rights-Rights-Holders-ebook/dp/B077G2ZZPT

• IOM publication on Diaspora engagement in humanitarian response: https://unofficeny.iom.int/sites/default/files/FINAL%20Paper%20-%20Diaspora%20and%20Humanitarian%20Response%20-%20May%202015.pdf
• BOND publication on What Development Means to Diaspora Communities: https://www.bond.org.uk/sites/default/files/resource-documents/what-development-means-to-diaspora-communities-1115.pdf
• Diaspora Emergency Action and Coordination (DEMAC) & Samuel Hall publication on Creating Opportunities To Work With Diasporas In Humanitarian Settings: https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/report-final-12052018.pdf
• EUDiF & Shabaka survey on diaspora response to humanitarian crises: https://diasporafordevelopment.eu/research-survey-launch-diaspora-response-to-humanitarian-crises/
• Connect with Daniela on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniela-villacres-a9638622/

Hello, I'm Loksan Harley and you're listening to another episode of the Migration & Diaspora Podcast, a show about all things migration. I'm joined today by Hannah Thinyane to talk about Apprise, which is a tool for screening vulnerable populations with the potential to unmask situations of forced labour and human trafficking.

A little bit about Hannah: Hannah is currently a Principal Research Fellow at the United Nations University Institute in Macau, where she leads the Migrant Tech Research Project. Since 2016 she has led a multi-disciplinary team, innovating and inventing ICTs to support proactive and consistent screening of workers in situations of labour exploitation and human trafficking. She has over 15 years’ academic and practical experience in the area of mobile computing, ICT for development, and human-computer interaction. During this time, she has undertaken applied computing research, conceptualizing, designing, developing and rolling out systems for underserved areas in Africa and Southeast Asia.  She has authored more than 90 peer-reviewed publications based on her research, publishing in both academic and policy circles. Hannah’s work has been presented at or showcased by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Trafficking and several other international forums. As you'll also learn, although somewhat obscured by her Australian accent, Hannah has grown up and worked in a number of different countries and considers herself part of the Welsh and UK diasporas, so listen out as I quiz her on her grasp of the Welsh language at the beginning of the interview!

Our discussion focuses on Hannah's experiences utilising technology to benefit migrants, especially those finding themselves in exploitative conditions. It's really worth listening to if you are curious about the different technological applications that can benefit migrants and the steps to take to develop such applications.

Key takeaways are to keep things user and solutions-focused (as opposed to tech-focused), focusing resources on working with target users to develop and pilot your tech solution. Anyway, all this will become apparent during our interview, so without further ado, I'd like to thank you for listening and I hope you enjoy the show.

Useful links:

• @Apprise: https://twitter.com/AppriseSolns
  
• Apprise website: https://www.apprise.solutions/
  
• Apprise research-facing website: https://cs.unu.edu/research/migrant-tech-apprise
  
• ICT skills training for survivors of sexual exploitation: https://cs.unu.edu/research/migrant-tech-survivors
  
• The app being used in the Philippines with survivors: https://neuroscape.ucsf.edu/technology/#ace
  
• Another tech project Hannah is working on to support survivors of exploitation in their reintegration: https://cs.unu.edu/research/migrant-tech-survivors
  
• Connect with Hannah on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannah-thinyane-b9704035/
  

Today, we are lucky to have with us Katy Barwise from the International Organization for Migration's (IOM) European Regional Office to talk about her and IOM's mission to "mainstream migration" into international cooperation and development, which broadly means taking into account the migration linkages within international development programmes and projects. Now if that still sounds like Greek or Chinese to you, do not worry because we'll explain all very shortly.

Katy is an unbelievably sharp and worldly programme manager who, before joining IOM Brussels in 2017, spent 12 years with the organisation in South Africa, Zambia, Mozambique and Australia (covering the Pacific). During that time, she developed and managed projects in the area of migration and health, diaspora engagement, labour migration, migration governance, migration and climate change, and community development. Katy holds a Master’s Degree in International Studies and Diplomacy and an undergraduate degree in African history, both from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London, which, in my completely unbiased view (wink wink), is a fantastic school.

It's because of this rich and varied background that she is the ideal person to talk about the linkages between migration and development, and the linkages between migration and different development sectors. And by the way, when we say "development sectors" we're talking about areas of work within international development, like education, health, rural development, environment and climate change, and so on. It's worth mentioning here that part of Katy's brief is also to provide technical assistance and capacity building to strengthen policy coherence between migration and development policies, in particular in the framework of the SDGs and the 2030 Agenda.

Just a quick disclaimer, I worked as a consultant to Katy's project for a good year and a half. 

• Learn more about the “Mainstreaming Migration into International Cooperation and Development” (MMICD) Initiative implemented by IOM and funded by the EU:
  - Webpage: eea.iom.int/mmicd
  - Linkedin: linkedin.com/company/mmicd/
  - Twitter: twitter.com/IOMatEU  (#MMICD, #MigrationConnection)
  
• Check out the series of videos developed under the MMICD Initiative that capture what integrating migration into development programmes means in practice for people and communities: youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPbTEMLeBi2nFhYF7OAJZzLo5k5dpDg-b
  
• Read more about IOM’s work on migration and sustainable development: migration4development.org
  

Good afternoon, you're listening to the Migration & Diaspora Podcast, a podcast where we discuss all things related to migration and diaspora, with me your host, Loksan Harley.

On this week's episode, we're joined by an absolute rockstar of a guest, Eric Guichard. Calling in from his home in Maryland, USA, Eric is CEO of Homestrings, which he founded in 2012 as a web-based crowdfunding platform, which offered the African diaspora access to investment opportunities. Homestrings raised over $25 million in capital from 5,000 members, which led to Eric being named 2013 Entrepreneur of the Year and 2014 African Financier of the Year in the UK. Harvard Business School, of which Eric is an alumnus, also published a case study on Homestrings' experiences with diaspora-based crowdfunding.

These days, Eric and Homestrings focus their energies on sharing their expertise and first-hand experiences by advising governments and private sector clients on diaspora investment. And I don't know how he finds the time but Eric also sits on several boards, including the African Development Bank's Diaspora Investment Advisory Board and the African Union's African Diaspora Initiative Steering Committee.

Eric was therefore the ideal guest to give us an overview of diaspora investment and talk us through the state of play of the sector, including what both diaspora origin and host countries can do to catalyse diaspora investment, in addition to relating diaspora investment to diaspora engagement and migration governance more broadly. I definitely recommend listening closely to this one as Eric reveals to us the few key priority actions that governments can take to really maximise the potential of diaspora investment. There are some linkages here with episode 2 on Doing Diaspora with Dr Martin Russell and episode 4 with Mr Remittances, Leon Isaacs so tune into those if you haven't already.

I had great fun recording this episode. Eric is so articulate and has such a unique perspective on this topic - no doubt informed by his own migrant and diaspora experiences growing up in Guinea, Senegal and the United States, as well as his extensive professional experiences working in private sector asset management and as a sovereign adviser at the World Bank.

As well as being the podcast's first American guest, Eric also happens to be the first Arsenal fan on the show, which is really the only character flaw I can pick out in Eric and does make me second guess his judgement!

Anyway, in spite of that, this episode is absolutely littered with industry-leading free advice and I do hope you enjoy listening.

Useful links

Homestrings, Inc.: Diaspora-Based Financing and the Crowd Funding of Development: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=45600

Homestrings: http://www.homestrings.com/

Connect on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eguichard/ 

https://www.linkedin.com/company/homestrings/

ADB report by Eric/Homestrings on Promoting Remittance for Development Finance: https://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/project-document/185098/48190-001-tacr-01.pdf

VC4A (mentioned by Eric): https://vc4a.com/

Previously, Jermaine worked as a Programme Officer for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), where he led the Caribbean interventions of the ACP-EU Migration Action programme, a technical assistance programme that I was fortunate enough to work with on several occasions. Jermaine coordinated the implementation of 13 migration-related technical assistance projects in support of governments and regional organisations across the Caribbean. And Jermaine has also had his own migration experience too, earning a Master's degree at the University of East Anglia in the UK as part of the Chevening Scholarship programme.

Jermaine is a really unique character who both lives and breathes the Caribbean in all the region's richness and diversity, while also bringing a global perspective that's so important to working on migration issues. In our conversation, we touch on many aspects of Caribbean migration, including the main flows and trends, intra-regional migration, extra-regional migration, freedom of movement frameworks within the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the Eastern Caribbean (OECS), human trafficking, migrant smuggling, the Venezuelan crisis, and the potential of the Caribbean diaspora to contribute to the region's development.

I highly recommend tuning in if only to enjoy that smooth Caribbean accent and to learn a few expressions of Guyanese Creole!

Just a quick apology for the sound quality. We had some technical issues but these seem to have been resolved about 15 minutes in so please do persist.

As always, I'd like to thank you for listening and hope you enjoy the show. And while I've got you, don't forget to subscribe to the mailing list on loksanharley.com/podcast. And share the podcast with your friends directly or via the socials, and review the podcast if your podcasting platform allows. Feel free to drop me a message too if you have any questions.

Now without further ado, here's our conversation.

Useful links

• ACP-EU Migration Action programme: https://acpeumigrationaction.iom.int/
  
• End-of-programme publication of the ACP-EU Migration Action programme (written by yours truly!): https://acpeumigrationaction.iom.int/sites/default/files/acp_eu_migration_action_final_publication_web_small_final.pdf
  
• Chevening Scholarship: https://www.chevening.org/
  
• Connect with Jermaine on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jermainegy/
  

Hello and welcome to today's episode of the Migration & Diaspora Podcast, a show in which we talk about anything and everything to do with migration; with me your host Loksan Harley.

For today’s episode, I was joined by a rising star in the migration world, Timo Schmidt, to talk about the European Union’s brand-new Pact on Migration and Asylum, which was released on the 23 September by the European Commission.

Timo works at the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) Europe, a Brussels-based think tank focused on migration and asylum policy. His areas of expertise are EU asylum and migration management, the linkages between development finance and migration, and migration forecasting. He has leveraged his experience to communicate evidence-based and practical research to policymakers and other key stakeholders, including the European Commission, the European Investment Bank, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Prior to joining MPI Europe, Timo worked in Jerusalem with the United Nations Development Programme’s Programme of Assistance to the Palestinian People. Alongside the great work he’s doing at MPI, Timo is also Director and Co-producer of a documentary project on migration in Europe, Refugee Roads (refugeeroads.com), which I highly recommend checking out, as well as sitting on the Editorial Board of the Oxford Monitor of Forced Migration. And he’s an Oxford man himself, having obtained his Master’s there in migration studies.

Consider this your very own one-hour briefing on the EU Migration Pact, which is a package of proposals of some 500 pages that aim to reform the continent’s migration and asylum system in light of the divergent views and interests among EU Member States on how to address the changing nature of migration and asylum flows. We try to cover everything from how the Pact differentiates the roles and responsibilities of Member States, allowing some to receive more migrants while ensuring others take more active roles in returning migrants. We talk about what “mandatory yet flexible” means in this regard, as well as the Pact’s new border procedure and how it aims to speed up asylum claims.

Useful links

• The Migration Pact: https://ec.europa.eu/info/strategy/priorities-2019-2024/promoting-our-european-way-life/new-pact-migration-and-asylum_en
• MPI’s analysis: https://www.migrationpolicy.org/news/eu-pact-migration-asylum-bold-move-avoid-abyss
• MPI Europe: https://www.migrationpolicy.org/programs/mpi-europe
• Refugee Roads website: https://www.refugeeroads.com/
• Refugee Roads trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCYP-pKIEz0&feature=emb_title
• Connect with Timo on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timo-schmidt?originalSubdomain=be
• Follow Timo (@TimoASchmidt) and MPI (@MPI_Europe)
• Cheeky plug to my (unrelated) work with MPI: https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/african-countries-relax-short-term-visa-policies-chinese

Today I'm joined by Paul Clewett to discuss the fascinating topic of strategic communications and behavioural-based migration interventions. Paul is an independent consultant specialising in research, evaluation and operations in fragile states. After developing a passion for migration at the Migration Policy Institute in Brussels, he spent several years at Seefar, an international social enterprise, where he supported the development of its global migration, modern slavery and justice programming. Years of research in Afghanistan, Ethiopia and Nigeria have convinced him that behavioural-based interventions have yet to realise their potential for protecting would-be irregular migrants.

In today's interview, we discuss Paul's work in West and North Africa and the Middle East, where he has worked on communications campaigns that look at how migrants make their decisions and how those decisions can be influenced or better informed to affect outcomes on irregular migration and modern slavery. We also touch on some of the ethics surrounding these types of interventions, which appear to have become popular in the wake of the so-called European migration crisis. It really is a thought-provoking and important debate!

As you'll hear in our interview, Paul is able to talk about a sometimes controversial subject while conveying the necessary nuance and candour. He's also able to draw from his diverse experiences working across different organisations and geographies, as well as his own experience as a migrant who now splits his time between his London and Mumbai bases. The only criticism I have of Paul is about his choice of football team as he unfortunately supports West Ham Football Club. Well, nobody is perfect.

Thank you very much for tuning in and I hope you enjoy the interview.

You can connect with Paul Clewett on Twitter (@PClewett) or LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulclewett/).

Amanda is the Children on the Move Regional Advisor for West and Central Africa at Save the Children International, so she's really THE person to talk to on the topic.

A few words about Amanda. She first studied pedagogy with a specialisation in The Reggio Emillia Approach, before going on to study International Relations and International Development. She then worked as part of a number of humanitarian crisis responses in the Middle East, Darfur, Uganda, and the Sahel, while also working in academia. She has been based in the beautiful city of Dakar, Senegal since 2009.

As keen listeners of the podcast know, I've been trying my hardest to get a diversity of guests on the show to discuss a diversity of topics. So this is a first episode on children-on-the-move and a first that focuses on West and Central Africa - a region I know well from my work. There are some linkages with episode 3 on trafficking in persons so I recommending giving that a listen too.

Amanda and I discuss a range of aspects of child migration in West and Central Africa, including the context of mixed migration flows against which child migration takes place, as well as why children move, how they move, the risks that they are exposed to, the impact of COVID-19, and how to provide protection, including what Save the Children are doing.

And of course, we also touch on Amanda's own fascinating migration story, from her Italian-Mozambique background to her migration experiences across Europe and Africa, which have no doubt informed her understanding of migration.

As always, thank you so much for listening and I hope you enjoy the show.

Useful links

Save the Children and the Mixed Migration Centre's publication, Young and on the Move in West Africa: https://resourcecentre.savethechildren.net/library/young-and-move-west-africa
Connect via LInkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanda-azzali-b51a7622/
Save the Children Senegal: https://senegal.savethechildren.net/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/savechildrenSN

Thanks for listening! Head on over to loksanharley.com/podcast, where you can subscribe to the mailing list and get in touch!

On today's episode we discuss a research study that I carried out for the International Organization for Migration (IOM) into trafficking in persons in South Sudan. I was lucky to be joined for this episode by my IOM project manager, Fitriana Nur (Programme Coordinator) - or "Ana",  whom I worked side by side with to design and execute the study.

Ana has 12 years of experience managing international development and counter-trafficking projects both in her native Indonesia and overseas, notably in the Middle East and now East Africa. Ana has worked on a range of projects, including policy advocacy and capacity development, in addition to conducting research - often in very challenging and conflict-hit contexts like South Sudan.

Our discussion touches on the various themes of the research. It's well worth a listen if you're interested in learning how to conduct research on human trafficking in a complex context like South Sudan, which has unfortunately faced a number of conflict and governance challenges in its short history since becoming independent from Sudan in 2011. In addition to talking about our methodology and the national context, we talk about the main forms of trafficking in South Sudan, the current counter-trafficking response, and some of the recommendations that we developed to strengthen that response and better protect victims of trafficking.

As a very important disclaimer, please note that the views expressed in this podcast episode are our own personal reflections and do not represent the views of IOM or the UK government. Feel free to get in touch at loksanharley.com/podcast if you have any further questions.

Thanks for tuning in and I hope you enjoy listening!

Useful links:

Link to the full study: https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/20200724%20TiP%20full%20report%20low%20resolution.pdf

Connect with Ana: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fitriana-nur-a8a0834/

IOM South Sudan: https://southsudan.iom.int/