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.
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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.
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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
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