Migration research and migration policy making : a study of Australia, the Philippines and Thailand

This article reports on a study to investigate the links between policy makers and social scientific researchers with respect to migration in the Asia Pacific region. It addresses the ways in which research networks inform the policy process and especially the extent to which, and how, migration research has an impact on migration policy. The major findings that emerge from the study include the following: knowledge of the political and economic context of each country varies and needs to be understood as it provides the context for policy making; the relationship between research and policy processes varies considerably across countries – in some countries the policy process is "tightly" managed by a single department (such as in Australia) while in others there is a more diverse administrative approach to migration policy (such as in Thailand); the impact of research is more direct and conclusive when research has been commissioned directly by government or involves close collaboration with government; migration policy processes in all case study countries appear increasingly responsive to public opinion, rather than the findings of academic research, and thus indicate the important (but more amorphous) indirect policy impact from academic research; given this situation, the need to disseminate results widely is evident; migration researchers are inevitably "biased" towards certain methodologies and theoretical perspectives and therefore a wide range of opinions is valuable.