Migration for Development and Equality (MIDEQ) is a think tank established and funded by the British government with additional support from the Irish government. ¹ The organization promotes and funds research concerning migration and immigration, particularly migration between countries in Africa, Asia, and the so-called “Global South.” MIDEQ’s explicit goal is to “decolonize” migration research by deemphasizing Western perspectives that have allegedly biased research against pro-immigration perspectives. ^{2 3}

Decolonizing Knowledge

Migration for Development and Equality’s objective is what it calls “decentering knowledge” or “decolonizing knowledge.” According to MIDEQ, the Western world has an inaccurate and negative view of migration between countries in the Africa, Asia, and the so-called “Global South” due to “Eurocentric” assumptions of researchers from the West. These views include the belief that migrants receive more government benefits than native citizens, which “have produced anxieties around migrants and refugees.” MIDEQ also claims that the “centering” of knowledge in the West has deemphasized knowledge and research methods produced in the so-called “Global South,” “such as oral histories and other indigenous knowledge systems.” A MIDEQ spokesperson has referred to MIDEQ as having an explicit “decolonizing agenda.” ^{2 3}

Activities

Migration for Development and Equality publishes articles, and promotes articles published by other nonprofits, concerning empirical and theoretical research on south-to-south migration produced by researchers from the Africa, Asia, and the so-called “Global South.” For instance, MIDEQ cross-posted a September 2024 research discussion from the Arnold Bergstrasser Institute on the intersectionality of migration research and feminism, including the “social construction of migration and their effects on social realities.” ⁴ MIDEQ also promoted an April 2022 paper from the International Organization for Migration concerning the primary motives of policymakers controlling West African immigration policies. ⁵

MIDEQ’s research focuses on 12 countries and six migration corridors: Egypt-Jordan, Ethiopia-South Africa, Burkina Faso-Côte d’Ivoire, China-Ghana, Haiti-Brazil, and Nepal-Malaysia. ³

Much of the research that MIDEQ promotes focuses on the legal treatments of migrants in their new host countries. ⁶ For instance, MIDEQ criticized U.S. immigration policy set by the Biden administration that raised barriers to Haitian and Central American immigrants and refugees attempting to enter the United States. MIDEQ has also criticized the Jordanian government’s neglect of migrant protections that result in high rates of worker coercion and modern slavery. ^{7 8}

MIDEQ promotes research claiming that global migration and immigration contribute to progress towards achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). ⁹

MIDEQ funds its own research projects on south-to-south migration. ¹⁰ For instance, MIDEQ has funded projects concerning the organization of Haitian migrants in Brazil, research on “non-Western” forms of justice in South Africa, support for Nepalese women maintaining homes while their husbands work abroad, and funding for arts that “tells the story of the different ‘look and feel’ of justice in different contexts within the Global South.” ¹¹

MIDEQ has supported research conducted by the Migrant Justice Institute concerning alleged wage theft against migrant workers in Australia. ¹²

Funding

Migration for Development and Equality is funded by the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF), a fund of UK Innovation and Research (UKIR), an organization sponsored by the United Kingdom’s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology. As of December 2025, MIDEQ’s website stated that the organization was funded by a five-year grant from 2019 through 2024. MIDEQ’s website does not comment on its funding after 2024, aside from receiving “additional, complementary funding” from Irish Aid, a program of the Irish government. ¹

Leadership

As of 2025, Heaven Crawley was the director of Migration for Development and Equality, the head of equitable development and migration at the United Nations University Centre for Policy Research, and the chair in international migration at Coventry University. She previously worked as the head of asylum and migration research at the U.K. Home Office, associate director at the Institute for Public Policy Research, and ran her own international research consultancy. ^{13 14}

1. “About Us.” MIDEQ. Accessed December 14, 2025. https://www.mideq.org/en/about-us/.
2. “Decolonising knowledge production on South-South migration.” MIDEQ. March 25, 2022. Accessed December 16, 2025. https://www.mideq.org/en/decentring-knowledge/decentring-knowledge-resources/decolonising-knowledge-production-on-south-south-migration/.
3. “What is MIDEQ?” Future Learn. Accessed December 14, 2025. https://www.futurelearn.com/info/courses/teaching-migration-through-data-and-storytelling/0/steps/161538.
4. Ghimire, Anita. “Feminist Migration Futures? The Paradox of a Feminist Migration Policy.” MIDEQ. Accessed December 16, 2025. https://www.mideq.org/en/decentring-knowledge/decentring-knowledge-resources/feminist-migration-futures-the-paradox-of-a-feminist-migration-policy/.
5. “Critical migration policy narratives from West Africa.” MIDEQ. Accessed December 16, 2025. https://www.mideq.org/en/decentring-knowledge/decentring-knowledge-resources/critical-migration-policy-narratives-from-west-africa/.
6. “Justice.” MIDEQ. Accessed December 16, 2025. https://www.mideq.org/en/justice/.
7. Cela, Toni. “US migration policy changes towards Haiti: hope, conflict, and human capital loss.” MIDEQ. January 27, 2023. Accessed December 16, 2025. https://www.mideq.org/en/justice/justice-resources/us-migration-policy-haiti/.
8. Halaseh, Ayman; Abu Taleb, Hala; Rbihat, Rawan. “Addressing Egypt’s migrant workers’ challenges in Jordan.” MIDEQ. Accessed December 16, 2025. https://www.mideq.org/en/justice/justice-resources/addressing-egypt-migrant-workers-jordan/.
9. Nalule, Caroline. “The economic contribution of migrants vs their access to justice: a case for enhanced consular services.” MIDEQ. September 4, 2023. Accessed December 16, 2025. https://www.mideq.org/en/justice/justice-resources/economics-contribution-migrants-access-to-justice-consular-services/.
10. “Impact Interventions: building capacity.” “MIDEQ. Accessed December 16, 2025. https://www.mideq.org/en/impact/impact-resources/impact-interventions-building-capacity/.
11. Nalule, Caroline; Crawley, Heaven. “Access to justice interventions.” MIDEQ. Accessed December 16, 2025. https://www.mideq.org/en/impact/impact-resources/access-to-justice-impact/.
12. “Migrant Workers’ Access to Justice for Wage Theft.” Migrant Justice Institute. Accessed October 16, 2024. https://www.migrantjustice.org/wagethefta2j.
13. “Heaven Crawley.” LinkedIn. Accessed December 16, 2025. https://www.linkedin.com/in/heavencrawley/?originalSubdomain=it.
14. “Professor Heaven Crawley.” MIDEQ. Accessed December 16, 2025. https://www.mideq.org/en/about-us/our-team/professor-heaven-crawley/.