Use 'Print preview' to check the number of pages and printer settings.
Print functionality varies between browsers.
Printable page generated Thursday, 27 March 2025, 11:37 AM
Unit 2 Migration debate
Introduction
In Unit 1 you learned that equitable
In this Unit, you will watch a short animation about the planning of an imaginary Evidence Café on migration in Kenya. None of the characters in the animation are real; they have been created by the course team to illustrate some of the issues around different
In Section 2.1 you’ll view an Evidence Café scenario.
2.1 Evidence Café scenario
You will now watch a short animated video of some migration
Activity 2.1 Evidence Café scenario
As you watch Video 2.1 consider these ideas:
- In Evidence Cafés it is important to try to understand where a participant is ‘coming from’ and how this shapes their views. What do you believe each character's job and status is and what are the goals that they seek to achieve?
- A key issue in an Evidence Café is to overcome a natural desire to convince others of our opinions rather than listening to different viewpoints. How well do these stakeholders listen and comment on each other's opinions? Reflect on your own biases when listening to the evidence that each stakeholder gives while remaining neutral and not judging their opinions.
Transcript: Video 2.1 Evidence Café discussion
Make notes in the text box below, which you will revisit in Unit 6 when we re-watch the video.
Discussion
In the video we heard a group of people talking about their perspectives on migration, which were not obviously connected – each one simply stated their issues and concerns. The discussion was in its early stages, but it was being facilitated by Sophie. The key to an Evidence Café is that the discussion between people is structured around a common focus and is facilitated by a dedicated person. In this discussion you will have seen that the stakeholders weren’t listening to each other and often were more focused on defending their own position, convincing others that they were right, or getting their opinions or evidence to be the most important evidence in the debate. Some simply talked about their personal needs and how certain obstacles were preventing them reaching their goals. Others spoke more ‘for’ their institution, which felt more like a policy position rather than a personal aspiration. The one person moderating this debate seemed to try to connect and focus the different people on a common thread and discussion.
2.2 Evidence Café process and discussion objects
For an Evidence Café to function appropriately there are two key components that must be included:
‘Champions’ (who facilitate and moderate the Evidence Café) manage the process of
A discussion object is an artefact that can be produced on paper, in a technical application or through a series of different resources e.g. Post-It notes. The discussion object is tailored to the specific topic’s needs, and facilitates meaning-making and the development of changed understandings for the group.
A good discussion object will enable all viewpoints to be added and valued equally, ensuring the Evidence Café is productive for all involved. It is important when coordinating the Evidence Café that you share the final conclusions results from the discussions and the discussion objects with the participants to support effective sustainable impacts from the activity. You will learn more about these in Unit 5.
It is important when planning an Evidence Café that you consider who the participants are and what they might bring to the café in terms of different types of evidence. Doing this should help you decide what an appropriate discussion object would be.
Figures 2.1 and 2.2 are two examples of discussion objects that can be used in an Evidence Café, which we will discuss in more detail in Unit 5.
The evidence typology
2.3 Understanding migration: theories, perspectives and stakeholders
In the last section you were introduced to an Evidence Café ‘in action’ and how
Migration overview
Migration is a major issue in the world. It fills newspapers and websites, politicians discuss it, and you may have migrated yourself – or know people who have. But how common is it, how has it changed, and what does the data tell us about the sorts of migrants we have just discussed, in terms of motives and destinations?
Click on each of the circles in the interactive image below and listen to the audio for each one. To pause the audio, simply double-click.
Migration terminologies
In the previous interactive, you will have seen some ways of categorising migrants. However, these are not watertight and any individual migrant could sit in one or more of these categories, or move between them over time.
While no system of categorisation is perfect, there are three broad categories of migrants: Economic, Displaced and Irregular. Click on each of the circles in the interactive image below to read more about each of these categories. To see a larger version, click on 'view interactive version' below.
Migration theories
Because migration is such an important and complex issue, social scientists have devised many different theories and concepts to try and explain, predict, or manage it. Like any concept these migration theories reflect the assumptions and values of the person developing them, so we also see lots of disagreements! Importantly, there is no ‘right’ answer to the questions of who migrates. why, and with what outcomes? This short course we can’t go through all of these different theories but it does provide you with some sources should you wish to deepen your knowledge of them (see below). Broadly speaking we can summarise the theories depending on what is emphasised most, and we have put these under sociological, economic, geographical and unifying categories.
- Sociological factors are different social factors influencing the migration process from decision-making to integration in the
host country or back to the country of origin, e.g. attitudes to people of a different culture. - Economic factors are those financial in nature or leads to economic benefits for the migrant and their household, e.g. economic situation in a country.
- Geographical theories consider the physical features within the migrant's environment that push or pull the migrants to a particular destination, e.g. good infrastructural development or effects of climate change (drought, floods etc.).
- Unifying factors explain the systems created that help people maintain contacts across regions/places and considers the economic and social benefits of those connections, e.g. social media, mobile phones, sending money to family members.
If you want to find out more about the data and theories you can explore the resources below:
- The Age of Migration
- World Migration Report
- Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration
- International Organisation for Migration, Global Migration Data Analysis Centre (GMDAC)
By now, you should have a basic understanding of the types of
Migration realities
The theories of migration you have just studied need to be put in context. What does mass migration mean for the country that receives these migrants? Why did different migrants in different eras come to that country? How planned were these flows? Every context is different. But equally we can see similarities between places that we might not have thought share the same issues. The video in Activity 2.1 revealed the frustration of the migrant business person. Official data on migrant numbers and directions can be daunting; it’s hard to imagine what millions of people look like and dealing in such big numbers takes attention away from the very real lived experiences of migrants, or those seeking to help them.
Let’s look very briefly at the UK and Kenya. What are the similarities and differences between the migration flows to these two countries?
The UK
Migration to the UK has a very long history, though it has accelerated following the decolonisation of the British Empire. In terms of the theories of migration, these post-colonial flows were very much about economics (Hansen, 2000): the UK was rebuilding after the Second World War and the government needed labour to do this. Migrants from Africa, South Asia, Europe and The Caribbean arrived to work in sectors like transport, healthcare and manufacturing. Sociologically, many of these migrants came from countries formerly within the British Empire, and so had been educated under a British system. For example, many spoke English and so could work in the UK without having to learn another language. During the 1950s and 60s, migrants were often men, travelling ahead to build a new life in Britain so that eventually their spouses were able to join them. Yet they maintained connections with their home countries, with transport and communications technologies making this easier over time. However, these migration flows weren’t unproblematic, with prejudice raised against some of these migrants even though they were supposedly helping the UK to rebuild (Gilroy, 1987; Hansen, 2000).
Kenya
Kenya lies in the east of Africa and has long been a hub for migration. As such the country generates outward migrants but it is also a destination for many migrants from across the East African region and beyond. Kenya is also a transit country that international migrants, mostly from within the African continent, move through as party of a longer migration journey (IOM, 2015). However, the most dominant form of migration is internal, as men and women move to cities in search of opportunities lacking in their rural areas. The rural areas were often underdeveloped with limited resources and services which pushed many to migrate; that is economic factors dominated (National Council for Population and Development, 2013). Initially migration was primarily by men, especially to supply labour during the colonial era. Women migrated in smaller numbers but were unable to secure the same opportunities as men, which reflects certain social values around gender and work. Since Kenya became independent in 1963, migration restrictions have been removed, leading to increasing numbers of people moving from the country to the cities. This pattern continues today.
Since the early 1990s Kenya has also become a
When we compare migration to the UK and Kenya, we see that many of the migrants were economic migrants: people looking for work to improve their lives. These migration flows are also gendered, with men and women not always travelling together or being expected to do the same things. While the UK has taken refugees, particularly after the Second World War ended, these numbers have declined over the past few decades. But for Kenya, refugee inflows are high and have been for some years, which reflects conflict and instability in the Horn of Africa.
Summary
This Unit has introduced the various kinds of
Unit learning outcomes:
- This Unit has introduced the types of migrant stakeholders you may find in an Evidence Café and to begin to understand their modes of communication and collaboration.
- You have begun to engage with discussion objects as a way of constructing and communicating ideas.
- You have been introduced some of the key issues around migration and the types, numbers and theories that can be used to help understand this.
Next move onto Unit 3 The Evidence Pyramid where you’ll learn about how you can conceptualise different types of evidence and how analysis can turn