Migration and labour

Global transition and real-world experiences

In October this year, ISS celebrated its 72nd anniversary. Like all anniversaries, it provided an opportunity to celebrate the past but also, and maybe more importantly, to look ahead to the future. With a group of seven ISS alumni who graduated from the institute 30 years ago, the past was well represented. Looking to the future, the panel discussion with both young and more established researchers considered the direction of development studies and how the field can contribute directly to just transitions. Their discussion focused on three-fold fundamental transitions that societies are currently navigating: resources and food security, global connectedness, and knowledge acquisition and sharing.

In this DevISSues, we investigate these important transitions, moving them from the realm of theory to the real-life worlds and experiences of the individuals and communities dealing with them.

Our two themed articles by Siegmann and Hatmanti, investigate the lived realities of migrant labour working in the Dutch agricultural and domestic spheres. Lifting migrant workers, many of whom are living in a context of financial and legal precarity, out of the anonymous sphere of mere statistics, the authors clearly illustrate the interconnectedness of a globalized economy.

This theme is also taken up in the Staff-student discussion (Van Staveren and Ospina Celis) in their conversation about the fallacy of the free market economy. Moving beyond the question of the rights and wrongs of a global free market economy dominated by monopolistic and oligopolistic interests, they discuss some real-life alternatives that communities around the world are adopting to counter those interests.

In our Focus article (Papyrakis and Van Stapele) we highlight an innovative project investigating the specific challenges faced by LGBTQ+ youth and refugees, and how these can be addressed. Again, not just a theoretical investigation, this project has a strong autoethnographic component, foregrounding the experiences, knowledges and expertise of the very community it is investigating – young people and refugees who identify as queer.

This DevISSues therefore makes clear how global questions around resources, connectedness and knowledge are translated into real-world problems and solutions – solutions that are conceived and carried out by the communities most affected. And as it enters its 73rd year, ISS will continue to work with these global communities to investigate and address the questions raised in this issue.

Jane Pocock

Editor, DevISSues