1.     PROJECT DESCRIPTION  

The main objective of the GLOMIG Project is to foster international cooperation between the EU and the INCO countries on global migration.  Towards this aim, the Centre for Black Sea and Central Asia (KORA) of the Middle East Technical University and its partner institutions will organise workshops in order to provide a milieu for interaction for academics, policy-makers, and non-governmental organisation (NGO) representatives through which they can develop new strategies for dealing with problems related to global migration and formulate policy recommendations.

The GLOMIG partners [1] are comprised of eight academic institutions, research centres, think-tanks and NGOs from the regions that include Western Balkans; Caucasus; Russia, Eastern Mediterranean and Turkey, in addition to the EU member states. The selection of the partners has been carefully made with special consideration of their capacity to influence the policy making process and public opinion formation in their respective countries as well as their complementarities in providing a good representation of both the EU perspective and the INCO countries' perspectives on (im)migration. More specifically, the project aims to contribute to the European Research Area through the creation of a common platform. It will enable interested parties from the EU and abovementioned INCO countries to share their insights, experiences, and know-how on migration. Through the creation of platforms described in the work plan, the regional perspectives can provide the stakeholders in the EU with a crucial perspective on the local perspectives of the INCO countries about the causes and consequences of migration as well as impact of the EU migration policies and implementations on these countries.

Addressing the Research Area 8.3.3 of the Work Programme of Priority 7 Citizens and Governance in a knowledge-based society, the GLOMIG aims to promote and facilitate comparative, collaborative, and interdisciplinary approaches to global migration and its opportunities and challenges in terms for the EU and the INCO countries.

The Global Commission on International Migration set up in 2003 and the World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization formed in 2002 have to be considered as important developments in reaching a common understanding of cross-border movements of people. Referring to the Global Commission’s report, it is expressed that “benefits of globalization must be more equitably distributed. One of the features of the existing imbalance is that ‘goods and capital move much more freely across borders than people do.” [2]

This is an issue the GLOMIG want to address in the context of this project. In addition to the study of the political, economic, and social causes and consequences of migration, there will be a special focus on new dimensions like security, human rights and democracy, gender issues, as well as the formal and informal networks involved in the initiation, realization, and perpetuation of migration.  Moreover, further attention will be paid to key subheadings such as; causes, forms, routes, and consequences of smuggling and trafficking, efficacy of preventative and combating measures, and international cooperation in these respects.  Besides advancing existing research on migration through the introduction of new issues and dimensions, the GLOMIG will also create avenues through which regional perspectives and insiders’ views can be reformulated and integrated into novel frameworks.

Through the GLOMIG, consortium aims to facilitate transnational cooperation in comparative impact analysis on the repercussions of migration. Additionally, the examination of the policy implications stemming from present knowledge and the provision of a strategic and integrated approach to understanding contemporary and future migration dynamics are among the proposed outcomes.  In an attempt to remedy the shortcomings arising from the blind spots of academic overspecialization, the GLOMIG team will emphasize multidisciplinarity and interdisciplinarity, which in turn might provide the infrastructure for comparative research designs for future policy-oriented projects such as into the Dialogue Workshop to be organised by the European Commission on “Migration, Social Cohesion and Diversity” planned for 2006.

The dissemination of knowledge shall benefit policy makers, academics and NGO representatives in developing strategies on issues related to migration. Overall, by offering in-depth and knowledge-based policy responses, the GLOMIG aims to assist policy makers in the EU and wider Europe in their attempts to comprehend and respond to the complex interactions among immigration, social policy, international politics and security, not only in sending and receiving countries, but also in those through which migrants transit. 

In that sense, for the coordination and carrying out of the project, Turkey provides good location. Turkey is a key country in global migration owing to its strategic location on the transit routes to and from Europe, the broader Middle East and North Africa, the Black Sea and the Balkans, Russia, the Caucasus and beyond. The GLOMIG team is also interested in focusing on international migration “Directed At,” “Passing Through,” or “Leaving” Turkey.

Within the above mentioned context, the GLOMIG aims to provide a needs assessment; capacity building, awareness rising, and finally, coordinated management. This will be realised through a series of workshops in which the participants are expected to develop policy strategies as part of multi-level networks. The workshop setting will allow participants to interact with each other and thus will provide a direct dialogue among them. This will give the participants greater opportunities to elaborate on strategies at a micro level and still become part of macro decision making processes. As part of the proposed outcome of the workshops, policy papers will be produced by the participating experts. A main motive behind this procedure is to provide dissemination of the results of the project activities to a wider public. The planned events in the dissemination phase will have a political orientation to maximise the impact on policy formulation.

 Overall, the project goals shall contribute to the following five areas as its strategic objectives. These issues  will also constitute the following core themes of the GLOMIG; each of which will constitute the theme of a workshop.  First of all, the project will examine the continuity and change of migration in the global era.  The second area of the importance is the exploration of the challenges and opportunities of migration for Europe.  The third task is to raise awareness of the perspectives of the INCO countries with particular attention on their economic and cultural dilemmas.  Fourthly, prospects for institutional cooperation and dialogue shall be assessed.  The final aim is to draw attention to new dynamics, future strategies, and constructive visions in improving the further understanding between the INCO countries of the designated region and the European Union in a fashion that can be translated into policy proposals.

2.      CORE THEMES OF THE GLOMIG [3]

i) Migration and Policy Interventions (Workshop I)

ii) Migration to EU: Challenges, Rights, and Opportunities (Workshop II)

iii) Perspectives of the Neighborhood Countries on Migration: Economic, Cultural, and Political Dimensions (Workshop III)

iv) Migration Policies: Prospects for Institutional Co-operation and Dialogue (Workshop IV)

v) Global Migration: New Dynamics, Strategies, and Visions in the EU and its Neighbourhood  (Dissemination Conference)