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Over the last decade both national and local actors in Spain have picked up on international trends encouraging a policy framework of migration and development. Policies of codevelopment are tied in with issues of migration management in the sense of linking current and future migration flows with processes of development in the country of origin. However, this article demonstrates how codevelopment policies and initiatives of local governments in Catalonia also relate to migrants' local process of incorporation in their country of residence. In so doing, the article seeks to bridge and contribute to studies of migration and development as well as issues of national and local citizenship and migrant incorporation. Importantly, the article highlights the role of receiving country local governments in the nexus between migrant transnational practices and processes of incorporation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Like other migrant groups in Catalonia, Moroccans can solicit financial and technical assistance to help better conditions in their localities of origin within the framework of co-development policies. This policy environment reflects international trends of integrating migration and development, including a strengthening of the participatory role of the migrants themselves. Drawing on a qualitative study of Moroccan migrant transnationalism in Catalonia, I analyse the interplay between Catalan actors' support for migrant civic transnationalism and the perception of and participation in projects of co-development among Moroccan migrants. One of the key aims is to explore to what extent timing, that is, the combination of recent patterns of Moroccan migration and the relatively intense debate on migration and development, influences the balance between top-down implementation of the migration development agenda and bottom-up initiatives from the Moroccan migrants. The paper shows how participation in co-development projects varies among Moroccan associations and outlines the main explanations for both involvement and non-involvement. Thus, the paper engages with the growing literature on the relationship of migrants' transnational practices with local and transnational power hierarchies, highlighting the role of receiving-country political actors, policy discourses and initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the Danish local and national elections in November 2001, the scale, intensity and tone of the debates on migration took both national and international commentators by surprise. Within the first year of the new right-wing government, supported by the influential Danish People's Party, Denmark has become one of the most exclusive and restrictive immigration regimes in Europe. This article takes a closer look at the recent politicization of migration issues in Denmark. While there is certainly concern with the compatibility of migrant 'otherness', in particular Islam, with Danish society and norms, then an equally, or even more central issue regards the 'cost of migration' for Danish social policy standards. Because of high unemployment rates, migrants and their descendants receive a relatively large part of Danish social contributions. This has raised the more general question of how to combine immigration with a tax-financed universal welfare system where all have rights to full social benefits immediately upon arrival. The answer of the government has been to cut both sides of the equation by implementing stricter entry rules for family reunification and asylum-seekers, as well as making a historical break with the principle of equal social welfare benefits for all legal residents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]