When IOM encounters the field: localising the migration and development paradigm in Tajikistan

ABSTRACT

This article analyses localisation of the migration and development paradigm, promoted worldwide by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), by unpacking transformations that this approach undergoes in aid-receiving countries assisted by this organisation. Drawing on insights from International Relations and the anthropology of development, and taking the case of a specific policy transfer initiated by IOM in post-Soviet Tajikistan, which involved setting up a local state-operated labour recruitment system for industries abroad, the article advances three arguments. First, the crucial relevance of actors in the field, namely brokers who arrange and navigate IOM's collaborations with various actors on the ground, reveals that the authority of IOM in Tajikistan is personalised and relational, rather than institutional. Second, the existence of brokers points to an ideological heterogeneity within IOM, which on the surface seems united in its pursuit of the migration and development agenda. Third, this article problematises the role of IOM in Tajikistan, showing that the organisation interferes in state-citizens relations and that its rhetoric of migration and development justifies a market-tailored export of local labour, serving the global capitalist economy. The article contributes to research on IOM, as well as global-local interactions and international organisations in the field.

KEYWORDS:

• International organisations
• migration
• development
• norm localisation
• IOM
• Tajikistan

Acknowledgements

I am indebted to all interviewees for their openness to share insights on IOM’s interventions in Tajikistan. I am also very thankful to two anonymous reviewers, Rick Fawn, Malika Bahovadinova and Benedikt Erforth for their helpful suggestions how to improve this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Salaries of local staff at IOM (up to 1000 USD) are significantly lower than those of international staff of IOM. However, in comparison with average wages in Tajikistan (150 USD as of 2019), their salaries are comparable with the official monthly income of ministers.

2 Labour Migration. IOM. Retrieved from https://www.iom.int/labour-migration.

3 Two other agencies which participated in the project included UN Women and the World Bank. This shows that while IOM competes with other IOs over leadership in the migration and development field, it also cooperates with them when this is strategically beneficial for the organisation. See Korneev (2018) for an account on the World Bank's role in CARMP.

4 Regional Migration Programme in Central Asia. DFID. Retrieved from https://devtracker.dfid.gov.uk/projects/GB-1-114520.

5 Migration Management Projects: Central Asia Regional Migration Programme. IOM. Retrieved from http://www.iom.tj/index.php/en/publications/105.

6 IOM. Migration and Development. No date. https://www.iom.int/migration-and-development.

7 For an alternative account see Bahovadinova (2016) who sees the migration policy of post-Soviet Tajikistan as a direct continuation of Soviet policies of resettlement. She writes that the Tajik government has been systematically and actively promoting export of labour.

8 In 2013 remodelled as Ministry of Labour, Migration and Employment.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the following projects: ‘Around the Caspian’ (the European Union Horizon 2020 Programme, grant number SEP-210161673); ‘Contested Global Governance, Transformed Global Governors? International Organisations and “Weak” States’ (the French National Research Agency, grant number ANR-16-ACHN-0034); and ‘The Tomsk State University Competitiveness Improvement Programme’ (Mendeleev Fund, grant number 8.1.27.2018).