Gery Nijenhuis

Embedding international migration: the response of Bolivian local governments and NGOs to international migration

International migration is an integral part of the lives of many people in the South, and many households add remittances to their income in order to finance the daily costs of living that cannot be met by their traditional source of income. In the literature, a debate has emerged on the impacts of these remittances on development, focusing in particular on the micro level, namely the impact on households. Many studies also contend that national governments should try to redirect the impacts of remittances. However, the role of actors in local governance structures seems to be overlooked in this discussion. We argue that in the discussion on managing development through remittances, local governments and other stakeholders at the local level — such as NGOs — might also play a role, especially in those countries that have implemented decentralization. However, thus far, interventions aimed at leveraging remittance flows and facilitating migration processes are only in an initial phase. Our study of 12 municipalities in Bolivia shows that a lack of knowledge and capacities among local governments and NGOs is a decisive factor.

Rethinking Migration in the 2030 Agenda: Towards a De-Territorialized Conceptualization of Development

While the 2030 Development Agenda was being prepared, Europe experienced a massive inflow of refugees. In response, many western European donors pointed to the need to bring about ‘development’ in the regions of origin, in an attempt to halt the inflow of people. As such, development is often conceptualized as a place-bound process that focuses on enabling people to achieve a better quality of life ‘at home’, implying that migration is an indicator of development failure. Moreover, the mobility of some is celebrated, whereas that of lower skilled migrants is framed as problematic. Such interpretation of development was also reflected in the millennium development goals, which hardly referred to migration. During the preparation of the 2030 Agenda, there were insistent demands to include migration in the new development agenda. In this article, we analyse the 2030 Agenda and its framing, and consider the potential strengths, weaknesses, potentials and risks in relation to migration. The article questions the ability of the Agenda to reflect the translocal and de-territorialized characteristics of our global economy, and the complex relationships that link livelihoods and lifestyles across distant places. We argue that the tension between migration and development is not a new phenomenon and that the 2030 Agenda will not be able to deliver fundamental changes to the present place-based notion of development and do justice to a mobile world.

The Impact of Decentralisation on Local Development: The Case of Bolivia

In recent decades, decentralisation - the transfer of functions, responsibilities and financial resources to lower levels of government - has become quite a common element of public policy in developing countries. The implementation of decentralisation policies is often driven by economic motives. By transferring responsibilities to lower levels, planning in public policy can become more effective and public funds can be allocated more efficiently. Furthermore, decentralisation is believed to have a positive impact on public policy because projects implemented by lower levels of government are more responsive to local development-related demands. However, many authors also point to the limitations of the local level to generate local development: the capacity to generate external funds is often limited and the executed projects tend to focus on the social sector. This is often the case in relatively small rural municipalities.

Translocal Activities of Local Governments and Migrant Organizations

This chapter examines translocal relationships that link local governments and migrant organizations in a country of origin with those in a country of destination. Drawing on existing research, the discussion is guided by three interconnected questions: (i) What kinds of relations can be observed between local governments and immigrant organizations? (ii) What are the main driving factors for these relations? (iii) What is the impact of these relations on sending and destination societies? In addressing these questions, this chapter touches upon two overarching debates that are central in this publication. The first is the increasing prominence of the migration and development framework. Related to this, several European countries have established co-development programmes aimed at linking immigrants and their organizations to development processes in the region of origin, often with the intention of stimulating integration processes in destination countries as well. The second debate is related to this and centers on whether translocal linkages between migrant source and destination countries and integration in destination countries reinforce each other or are a zero-sum proposition.