
Aiding Autocrats
Migration Management, Governance, and Repression in Africa
Cambridge University Press
Will be published approx. on 31. August 2026
Book
Paperback/Softback
256 pages
978-1-009-72912-3 (ISBN)
Description
Migration management aid has increased exponentially since 2016, often funding repression in the process. Drawing on global datasets and in-depth country case studies of Kenya, Ethiopia, Egypt, and Sudan, Kelsey P. Norman and Nicholas R. Micinski present a theoretical framework for this form of foreign assistance. This study traces the historical roots and evolution of migration management aid, explaining its politics, its impact on governance, and its long-lasting, deleterious effects on migrants, refugees, and citizens alike. While wealthy countries tout migration management aid as a way of increasing development and stopping emigration from the Global South, Aiding Autocrats exposes how this type of assistance funds authoritarianism by perpetuating colonial systems of extraction and repression and allowing local elites to leverage aid for their own purposes. Aiding Autocrats is an essential contribution to scholarship on migration management, foreign aid, development, and democratization as well as Middle Eastern, African, and European politics.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
Worked examples or Exercises
ISBN-13
978-1-009-72912-3 (9781009729123)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Kelsey P. Norman | Nicholas R. Micinski
Aiding Autocrats
Migration Management, Governance, and Repression in Africa
Book
approx. 08/2026
Cambridge University Press
€136.50
Not yet published
Persons
Kelsey P. Norman is a Fellow for the Middle East and Director of the Women's Rights, Human Rights, and Refugees program at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy. She is the author of Reluctant Reception: Refugees, Migration, and Governance in the Middle East and North Africa (2020). Nicholas R. Micinski is an Assistant Professor in the School of International Service at American University. He is the author of Delegating Responsibility: International Cooperation on Migration in the European Union (2022) and UN Global Compacts: Governing Migrants and Refugees (2021).
Author
Rice University, Houston
American University, Washington DC
Content
1. Introduction; 2. Defining migration management aid; 3. Migration management aid in global perspective; 4. The European union and migration management aid; 5. Kenya: encampment, aid dependency, and incremental reform; 6. Ethiopia: politicized aid and broken promises; 7. Egypt: improving infrastructure and supporting patronage networks; 8. Sudan: capicitating border security ahead of civil war; 9. Conclusion; Appendix I. Qualitative coding; Appendix II. Interviewee list; Appendix III. Quantitative codebook; Index.