UNU-MERIT

Since the beginning of the so-called refugee crisis, migration has received increasing attention. The global number of international migrants rose, reaching 258 million in 2017, comprising diverse populations with complex, transnational exchanges.

Shifts in the demographic characteristics of migrant populations often signals more fundamental changes to the geographies and functions of migration.

Contrary to popular belief, the extent of displacement today is not without precedent, and the vast majority of the world’s displaced flee within their own country’s borders or to neighboring countries within the Global South. Nonetheless, the elevated interest in forced migration has encouraged further academic research on the topic, helping to build our collective understanding of the dynamics of displacement and inform policy and practice.

International student mobility and the internationalisation of higher education receive increasing attention for some time already, especially since they relate to sensitive topics of public concern including education, migration and development. Migration for education is not a new phenomenon. However, the number of foreign students enrolled in tertiary education worldwide rose significantly during the past decades, from 0.8 million in 1975 to 4.6 million in 2015.

Three questions need to be asked when we want to understand how corruption and migration are interlinked: 1) what do we mean with corruption in the context of migration; 2) how does corruption impact peoples’ decision to leave their home country?; and 3) how do people experience corruption throughout their migration journey?

Particularly in rural areas of the global South, environmental drivers of migration have a strong influence on people’s decisions to migrate (or not). In the context of climate change, the influence of these environmental drivers is increasing over time. How environmental changes precisely drive migration depends heavily on their context-specific interaction with other social, political, economic and demographic factors – however, the fundamental linkage is clear.