Monitoring and Evaluation Support for Collaborative Learning (MESCLA) Activity - Civic Engagement and Migration: Review of the Literature

The framework identifies the importance of considering immobility as well as mobility when seeking to understand migration, since most people do not migrate. This framework is essential for USAID/Honduras programming surrounding civic engagement and civil society to make informed decisions. The review begins by outlining several key concepts and defining a framework for understanding mobility and immobility. It proceeds with a discussion of indirect and direct effects of civil engagement and community on migration propensity, with a principal focus on direct impacts. The framework developed highlights the importance of considering immobility as well as mobility when seeking to understand migration. The review emphasizes that those who migrate must have both the capability and aspiration to do so. Conversely, those who do not migrate may do so because they lack the capability, because they do not aspire to migrate, or both. Reliably identifying the distinctions between these groups is crucial to understanding the linkages between development and migration and how increasing civic engagement and strengthening civil society interact with this relationship. To understand the effect of civic engagement and civil society on mobility, it is necessary to consider the role of a range of factors that are not strictly economic. The review highlights that some capital is "territorially restricted" and location can offer advantages that are tied to a specific place, thus retaining people despite what would seem to be clear economic incentives to migrate. As such, it is expected that the longer one lives in a place (and the older they are) the less likely they are to emigrate. Social factors can serve to retain people in a place, making emigration less likely. These can include the presence and extent of local ties to family and friends as well as different forms of community engagement and community cohesion. Research has shown that the structure of community institutions, from voluntary associations and churches to public gathering spaces and local businesses, are found to increase the rootedness of populations and decrease mobility. The review also considers the "exit, voice, loyalty" model developed by Albert Hirschman, which highlights one way to think about how USAID/Honduras might think about the implicit contradiction present with the dual goals of increasing development while reducing migration. This model emphasizes the importance of considering how to increase the likelihood that people will use enhanced capabilities to improve their home communities instead of to migrate in search of more favorable conditions abroad. Finally, the review briefly highlights the potential indirect effects of strong civil society and civic engagement on migration. A comprehensive review of this literature is well beyond the scope of the present review. However, to the extent to which more accountable, democratic, and well-governed states, with stronger institutions, increase peoples' aspirations to stay rather than migrate, it follows that programs to increase civic engagement and enhance civil society could indirectly decrease the propensity to migrate.