Migration and Development: New EU Migration Initiative in Mali

Birgitte Mossin Brønden interviewed in "Europa lige nu"

On 19 October, 2008, DR P1 (The Danish Broadcasting Corporation) carried an interview in Danish with analyst Birgitte Mossin Brønden, DIIS, in the programme “Europa lige nu”.

With the recently opened EU migration centre in Mali as point of departure Birgitte Mossin Brønden discussed questions regarding migration and development.

She proposed to regard the processes leading to the opening of such a centre in a broader perspective. Neither a clear-cut wish to stem outward migration nor a “pure” development perspective would seem adequate as explanations.

Presenting various schools of thought regarding the strong and increasing interest shown from particularly the migrant receiving countries in the migration-development nexus, she argued for a nuanced understanding of the possibilities and pitfalls connected to efforts to work with migration and development from a policy perspective.

She described the remarkable increase in the volume of remittance flows worldwide. According to the World Bank around 170 billion US $ were sent back to countries of origin in 2005 – twice the amount five years previously. Several analyses conclude that the volume of remittances is the size of foreign direct investments and development aid leading to a natural interest in the phenomenon from the side of donors.

Particularly regarding the Western African region she referred to the estimation that approximately 70 % of all transfers in Western Africa are done via one money transfer institute, which means that migrants must deal with monopolistic conditions, which implies very high transaction costs for the individual migrant remitting back to his or her home country. In that light it is pertinent that the new centre has among it’s many tasks to lower transaction costs.

However, the centre has only 25 employees and a broad range of tasks so it remains to be seen how much of a difference it can do. Nevertheless, it is an interesting new development and the centre could potentially have prospects for taking up some of the real challenges connected to migration and development.

Listen to the programme on P1 "Europa lige nu" .

The interview with Birgitte Mossin Brønden begins 39 minutes into the programme.

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