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AbstractResearch on migration's internal dynamics has focused on labour migration and drawn heavily on cumulative causation theory. It is often believed that pioneer labour migrants of middling socioeconomic selectivity facilitate the migration of others in their networks by reducing the costs and risks of migration through practical assistance. Expanding migrant networks can allow for labour migration to grow although macrostructural conditions change. For asylum migration in the context of armed conflict, the mechanisms whereby migration grows may very well differ. For one thing, pioneer asylum migrants in such contexts are often social elites. What is the relationship between the movement of these elites and that of subsequent asylum migrants? This article traces the evolution of Iraqi Kurdish asylum migration to Europe from its inception by elite pioneer migrants to its continuation by non-elites, during four decades of altered contextual conditions. The analysis is based on 106 semi-structured interviews with Iraqi Kurdish migrants. An evolving interplay between exogenous and endogenous dynamics is observed, and so are commonalities with the social processes that underpin labour migration. The basic principles of cumulative causation seem to be operating, yet there is little to indicate that established migrants functioned as 'bridgeheads' for newcomers. The empirical analysis feeds into a concluding conceptual discussion in which I argue that, compared to labour migration, asylum migration from conflict-affected areas may be relatively less driven by the interpersonal networks that reduce costs and risks, and relatively more driven by what the article coins 'emulation', the observational learning of migration.

The Iraqi exodus has invoked security concerns among many international observers. Sectarian violence in Iraq prompted fears that the new arrivals in Syria, the main destination country for Iraqi refugees, would bring sectarian conflict. No such development has taken place, prompting
questions about whether Iraqi refugees embrace sectarian ideologies. Here I suggest that sectarianism has been actively resisted by Iraqi refugees in Damascus, offering explanations for why so many analysts have stressed the risk of 'spillover' of sectarian conflict. One central factor, I
argue, is that a sectarian master narrative has been imposed on Iraq.

Studies of migrant transnationalism are dominated by qualitative case studies. To take the field further, there is a need for more quantitative studies and for connecting quantitative and qualitative studies through a reiterative feedback loop. In order to contribute to this, we take two refined and original quantitative studies, one by Snel et al. and one by Portes et al., as a vantage point, commenting on the authors' organization of analytical categories and their operationalization of key concepts, in light of our own, qualitative data. These data come from a research project, EUMARGINS, where we analyze processes of inclusion and exclusion of young adult immigrants and descendants in seven European countries, using participant observation and life-story interviews in combination with statistical data. We conclude that the process whereby young migrants identify themselves in terms of ethnicity and belonging is context-specific, multidimensional, and hard to study quantitatively.

This article deals with how return programmes for rejected asylum seekers and irregular migrants construct and create vulnerabilities. Few studies have explored the role of assistance provided through such programmes for the sex worker returnees and victims of trafficking who return through them. Even fewer holistically examine a return programme through data elicited in both destination and origin locations, before and after return. That is what we aim to do in this article. We first look at the legal-bureaucratic construction of vulnerability in a host state, Norway, and the systemic logic of its efforts to return victims of trafficking. We then look at how returnees narrate their experiences of and perspectives on vulnerability upon return to their country of origin, Nigeria. This study, together with the broader research within this field, indicates that flaws in programme implementation can in fact exacerbate vulnerabilities rather than help returnees overcome them.

This research report has been published as part of the EU Horizon 2020 VULNER research project (www.vulner.eu). The VULNER research project is an international research initiative, the objective of which is to reach a more profound understanding of the experiences of vulnerabilities of migrants applying for asylum and other humanitarian protection statuses, and how they could best be addressed. It therefore makes use of a twofold analysis, which confronts the study of existing protection mechanisms towards vulnerable migrants (such as minors and victims of human trafficking), with the one of their own experiences on the ground. This research report presents some of the intermediate research results of the VULNER project, based on the first phase of the project, which consisted of mapping out the vulnerability assessment mechanisms developed by state authorities in Norway, including how they are implemented on the ground through the practices of the public servants in charge. The following research questions are addressed: What do the relevant domestic legislation, case-law, policy documents, and administrative guidelines reveal about how "vulnerabilities" are being assessed and addressed in the countries under study? Do the relevant state and/or aid agencies have a legal duty to assess migrants' vulnerabilities, and if yes, using which procedures, when and how? Following which legal and bureaucratic criteria? How do decision-makers (street-level bureaucrats) understand and perceive the 'vulnerabilities' of the migrants they meet on a daily basis? How do they address these 'vulnerabilities' through their everyday practices? What is their stance on existing legal requirements towards 'vulnerable' migrants? Which loopholes do they identify? To that end, the objective of the legal enquiry was to analyse and reflect upon how 'vulnerability' is being developed as a legal and bureaucratic concept in the Norwegian regulations. Legal sources include national laws and regulations related to immigration and welfare ...

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This research report has been established as part of the EU Horizon 2020 VULNER project, which aims to contribute to a better understanding of the experiences of 'vulnerability' as lived by migrants applying for a protection status (such as the refugee status and other complementary forms of humanitarian protection, including the one awarded to victims of human trafficking), and to critically assess the potentials and pitfalls of using 'vulnerability' as a legal and policy standard to guide the development and implementation of migration policies at EU and global level. The VULNER project starts from the common observation, widely documented in the scientific literature, that the requirement to address the specific needs of 'vulnerable' migrants, including asylum seekers, victims of human trafficking and unaccompanied minors, is flooding the legal and policy discourse on asylum and migration at EU and global level (as illustrated by the UN Global Compact for Migration and its objective to 'reduce vulnerabilities' in migration, or the current focus at EU level on resettlement programmes for vulnerable refugees namely). Yet, if not based on scientific data and analyses that provide a clear and non-stereotyped understanding of the vulnerabilities that are lived and experienced by migrants, such policy objectives risk failing to address vulnerabilities, exacerbating existing vulnerabilities, or even producing new ones. The overall objective of the VULNER project is to produce knowledge that will assist States in identifying suitable strategies to assess the 'vulnerabilities' of migrants and to address them. This research report presents some of the intermediary research results of the VULNER project, based on the first phase of the project which consisted in mapping the vulnerability assessment mechanisms as developed by state authorities in Norway, including how they are concretely implemented on the ground through the practices of the public servants in charge. The objective was to address the ...

The following books are reviewed: (1) "The Logic of Violence in Civil War" by Stathis N. Kalyvas (Cambridge University Press, 2006); (2) "Insurgent Collective Action and Civil War in El Salvador" by Elisabeth J. Wood (Cambridge University Press, 2003); and (3) "Inside Rebellion: The Politics of Insurgent Violence" by Jeremy M. Weinstein (Cambridge University Press, 2007). Adapted from the source document.