Abstract
In the mid-1990s, international organisations started releasing research produced and situated in the local realities of aid-receiving countries, calling it ‘local knowledge’. Over time, local knowledge became a new standard to design development projects by taking into account local complexities and a way to improve project implementation through the use of local solutions. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) has also been keen on including local knowledge in its knowledge production schemes. This chapter examines how the IOM produces knowledge on migration in Tajikistan, where it has been operating since 1993 and how it incorporates local knowledge in its projects. It does so by taking a case study of a 2016 IOM research project on the vulnerability of Central Asian labour migrants returning from Russia, in which a strong argument about the ‘radicalisation potential of returning migrants’ was made. The chapter highlights by whom and how knowledge is produced at the IOM; what meaning local knowledge gains for different actors involved in the process; and if, and how, local knowledge is adapted to fit international settings. By way of example, this chapter argues that production of knowledge at the IOM is embedded in a broader economic and geopolitical context in which the organisation operates, questioning the possiblity of including pure, unfiltered local knowledge.
This research 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 ‘Tomsk State University Competitiveness Improvement Programme’ (Mendeleev Fund, grant number 8.1.27.2018). I am thankful to all interviewees for their openness to discuss the IOM’s interventions, as well as Rick Fawn, Elena Kim, Martin Geiger and Antoine Pécoud for their comments on earlier drafts.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, independent Tajikistan became an observer state of the IOM in 1992. The IOM began working in the country in 1993, initially by supporting the return of internationally and domestically displaced people as a result of the Tajik Civil War. When the war officially ended in 1997, the IOM started assisting the country with a steadily increasing number of labour emigrants in tackling emigration-related issues by implementing projects, participating in policymaking and providing expertise. See http://www.iom.tj/index.php/en/about-us/iom-tajikistan
- 2.
All persons mentioned in this chapter and interviewees are anonymised. I do not provide details on their background and current positions because this could make them easily recognisable among readers familiar with Tajikistan.
- 3.
The IOM’s research project concerned three countries: Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan. However, this chapter focuses only on knowledge production on Tajik migrants.
- 4.
- 5.
While mid-ranking employees of ministries earn US $80 per month and ministers about US $1000, the salaries of the lowest-level project assistants in IOs start at around US $700 (compared to employees of local NGOs, who earn between US $300 and US $600 per month).
Works Cited
Interviews
1: High-level official from the Ministry of Labour, Migration and Employment in Tajikistan, January 2016.
2: International researcher, IOM, April 2017.
3: International researcher, IOM Tajikistan, April 2017.
4: International researcher, IOM Tajikistan, April 2017.
5: Employee of IOM Tajikistan, July 2017.
6: Former employee, IOM Tajikistan, July 2017.
7: Local researcher, IOM Tajikistan, July 2017.
8: Local researcher, IOM Tajikistan, August 2017.
9: Employee of an NGO partner of IOM Tajikistan, August 2017.
Published Sources
Abu-Lughod, L. 1990. The Romance of Resistance: Tracing Transformations of Power Through Bedouin Women. American Ethnologist 17 (1): 41–55.
Agrawal, A. 1995. Dismantling the Divide Between Indigenous and Scientific Knowledge. Development and Change 26 (3): 413–439.
Andrijasevic, R., and W. Walters. 2010. The International Organization for Migration and the International Government of Borders. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 28 (6): 977–999.
Arce, A., and E. Fisher. 2003. Knowledge Interfaces and Practices of Negotiation: Cases from a Women’s Group in Bolivia and an Oil Refinery in Wales. In Negotiating Local Knowledge: Identity and Power in Development, ed. J. Pottier, P. Sillitoe, and A. Bicker. London: Pluto.
Ashutosh, I., and A. Mountz. 2011. Migration Management for the Benefit of Whom? Interrogating the Work of the International Organization for Migration. Citizenship Studies 15 (1): 21–38.
Asia Plus. 2017. ‘Омбудсмен: нет никакой автоматической амнистии после добровольного возвращения из Сирии’ [Human Rights Ombudsman: There Will Be No Automatic Amnesty After Returning Voluntarily from Syria]. 6 August. At https://news.tj/ru/news/tajikistan/laworder/20170804/ombudsmen-net-nikakoi-avtomaticheskoi-amnistii-posle-dobrovolnogo-vozvratsheniya-iz-sirii1/3
Bahovadinova, M. 2016. Ideologies of Labour: The Bureaucratic Management of Migration in Post-Soviet Tajikistan. Unpublished PhD Thesis, Indiana University-Bloomington.
Boswell, C. 2009. The Political Uses of Expert Knowledge: Immigration Policy and Social Research. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Brachet, J. 2016. Policing the Desert: The IOM in Libya Beyond War and Peace. Antipode 48 (2): 272–292.
Bradley, M. 2017. The International Organization for Migration (IOM): Gaining Power in the Forced Migration Regime. Refuge: Canada’s Journal on Refugees 33 (1): 97–106.
de Jong, S., and P. Dannecker. 2017. Managing Migration with Stories? The IOM “I Am a Migrant” Campaign. Journal für Entwicklungspolitik 33 (1): 75–101.
Dini, S. 2018. Migration Management, Capacity Building and the Sovereignty of an African State: International Organization for Migration in Djibouti. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 44 (10): 1691–1705.
Fine, S. 2018. Liaisons, Labelling and Laws: International Organization for Migration Bordercratic Interventions in Turkey. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 44 (10): 1743–1755.
Gammeltoft-Hansen, T., and N. Nyberg Sorensen, eds. 2013. The Migration Industry and the Commercialization of International Migration. London: Routledge.
Geiger, M. 2010. Mobility, Development, Protection, EU-Integration! The IOM’s National Migration Strategy for Albania. In The Politics of International Migration Management, ed. M. Geiger and A. Pécoud, 141–159. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
———. 2018. Ideal Partnership or Marriage of Convenience? Canada’s Ambivalent Relationship with the International Organization for Migration. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 44 (10): 1639–1655.
Geiger, M., and A. Pécoud. 2010. The Politics of International Migration Management. In The Politics of International Migration Management, ed. M. Geiger and A. Pécoud, 1–20. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Georgi, F. 2010. For the Benefit of Some: The International Organization for Migration and Its Global Migration Management. In The Politics of International Migration Management, ed. M. Geiger and A. Pécoud, 45–72. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Heathershaw, J., and D.W. Montgomery. 2014. The Myth of Post-Soviet Muslim Radicalization in Central Asian Republics. Chatham House Research Paper. At http://www.chathamhouse.org/publication/myth-post-soviet-muslim-radicalization-central-asian-republics
IOM. 2016. Migrant Vulnerabilities and Integration Needs in Central Asia. Root Causes, Social and Economic Impact of Return Migration. Regional Field Assessment in Central Asia 2016. At http://www.iom.kz/images/inform/FinalFullReport18SBNlogocom.pdf
Kalb, D. 2006. Use of Local Knowledge. In The Oxford Handbook of Contextual Political Analysis, ed. R.E. Goodin and C. Tilly, vol. 5, 579–599. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Keller, S. 2001. To Moscow, Not Mecca: The Soviet Campaign Against Islam in Central Asia, 1917–1941. Westport: Greenwood.
Kluczewska, K. 2014. Migrants’ Re-entry Bans to the Russian Federation: The Tajik Story. Security Brief of the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, OSCE Academy and Norwegian Institute of International Affairs. At www.osce-academy.net/en/research/policy-briefs/
Kluczewska, K. forthcoming. When IOM Encounters the Field: Localising the Migration and Development Paradigm in Tajikistan. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies.
Korneev, O. 2014. Exchanging Knowledge, Enhancing Capacities, Developing Mechanisms: IOM’s Role in the Implementation of the EU–Russia Readmission Agreement. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 40 (6): 888–904.
———. 2018. Self-legitimation Through Knowledge Production Partnerships: International Organization for Migration in Central Asia. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 44 (10): 1673–1690.
Lemon, E.J. 2016. Building Resilient Secular Citizens: Tajikistan’s Response to the Islamic State. Caucasus Survey 4 (3): 261–281.
Lemon, E.J., and J. Heathershaw. 2017. How Can We Explain Radicalization Among Central Asia’s Migrants? Open Democracy. May 2. At https://www.opendemocracy.net/od-russia/edward-lemon-john-heathershaw/can-we-explain-radicalisation-among-central-asia-s-migrants
Lemon, E.J., and H. Thibault. 2018. Counter-extremism, Power and Authoritarian Governance in Tajikistan. Central Asian Survey 37 (1): 137–159.
MacRae, G. 2008. Could the System Work Better? Scale and Local Knowledge in Humanitarian Relief. Development in Practice 18 (2): 190–200.
Nay, O. 2014. International Organisations and the Production of Hegemonic Knowledge: How the World Bank and the OECD Helped Invent the Fragile State Concept. Third World Quarterly 35 (2): 210–231.
Nygren, A. 1999. Local Knowledge in the Environment–Development Discourse: From Dichotomies to Situated Knowledges. Critique of Anthropology 19 (3): 267–288.
Olivier de Sardan, J.-P. 2005. Anthropology and Development: Understanding Contemporary Social Change. London: Zed Books.
Pécoud, A. 2018. What Do We Know on the International Organization for Migration? Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 44 (10): 1621–1638.
Pottier, J. 2003. Negotiating Local Knowledge: An Introduction. In Negotiating Local Knowledge: Power and Identity in Development, ed. J. Pottier, P. Sillitoe, and A. Bicker, 1–29. London: Pluto.
Tucker, N. 2015. Islamic State Messaging to Central Asian Migrant Workers in Russia. Ceria Brief 6. At http://centralasiaprogram.org/blog/2015/02/23/islamic-state-messaging-to-central-asians-migrant-workers-in-russia/
Warren, D.M. 1991. Using Indigenous Knowledge in Agricultural Development. Washington, DC: World Bank.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Kluczewska, K. (2020). Knowledge Production at the IOM: Looking for Local Knowledge in Tajikistan. In: Geiger, M., Pécoud, A. (eds) The International Organization for Migration. International Political Economy Series. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32976-1_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32976-1_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-32975-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-32976-1
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)