Nation state centred military security suffers from weakness in addressing certain inter-state issues, both in developed and in developing countries. States, both in developed and developing worlds, are finding it rather difficult to implement the regulative and restrictive policies with regard to emigration and immigration. There is a growing tendency for people to take recourse to irregular and informal routes when regular and formal channels restrict their movements. The concept of human smuggling, for example, is increasingly gaining currency in recent years in international relations discourse. In order to understand irregular population movements, The Ford Foundation, New Delhi took up some collaborative research in South Asian countries. In November 2002, The Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU) was commissioned with the project title Population Movements: Non-Traditional Issue in South Asian Security Discourse. The aim of this project is collaborative research on population movements and its implications for state and human security in South Asia. It is a thirty months project started from 1 April 2004 and will end on September 2006.
The proposed research would entail enquiries into these forms of population movements. One is cross border movement of people involved in informal trade, another is cross border irregular labour migration and the other is irregular labour migration from South Asia to the rest of the world.
Objectives:
> To broaden understandings about ramifications of population movement vis-a-vis national security policies, issues and measures.
> To help develop a common legal framework conducive to orderly migration and ensure human security.
> To help formulate regional strategies to ensure human rights of irregular migrants in the destination countries.
>To underscore the beneficial aspects of migration for consideration of members of host communities and host governments. |
Activities:
Research on eight types of population movements:
1. Migration and Non-traditional threats to state security: the case of Karachi
2. Perceived Bangladeshi domestic workers in Delhi
3. Migration for livelihood between India and Nepal
4. Human security of trafficked in persons of South Asia
5. Bangladeshi Workers in Irregular Status
6. Migration from India & neighboring countries: Nature, Dimensions and Policy Issues
7. Experiences of return from Italy of irregular Sri Lankan migrants
8. Population movements for informal trade
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