The New Politics of Migration Management

This book is about 'international migration management', a notion that has become popular to capture the renewed ways in which migration is addressed by governments and intergovernmental organisations and that designate proactive and concerted policies that aim at 'managing' the movement of people in a 'post-control' spirit. Yet, very little is known in terms of empirical evidence and of the actual practices that arise out of migration management. Available literature remains mostly at the level of advocacy, investigating what could or should be done rather than what is being done. The proposed book addresses this gap by documenting the developments taking place under the 'migration management' umbrella. It includes both empirical investigations of new forms of migration policy, and analytical explorations of their political and ideological foundations. It develops a critical perspective on the profound implications of 'migration management' for the politics of migration. It features case studies from all over the world (Mexico, West Africa, Eastern Europe or the Asia Pacific) and from different disciplines (law, political science, geography and sociology).
It argues that migration management is characterised by the emergence of new actors in the politics of migration (such as IGOs, NGOs or think tanks) that function as 'spin doctors' or 'service-providers' to governments - thus enabling an externalisation (or outsourcing) of migration politics. These actors contribute to the elaboration of new discourses and worldviews, around notions such as the 'migration-development nexus', 'circular' or 'temporary' migration, human trafficking, 'illegal' or 'transit' migration, etc. In turn, these new discourses determine and legitimate new practices, such as counter-trafficking efforts; training of civil servants in transit and sending countries; development of migration policies in countries lacking strategies in the field; return migration and readmission programmes, either forced or voluntary; and development-focused projects aiming at enhancing the positive impact of migrants, diasporas and remittances on regions of origin. These practices are characterised by their apolitical and technocratic nature, as they would not result from political choices but from 'technical' considerations and informal decision-making processes.
Yet, such practices convey normative guidelines on who should what and how, thus enabling the emergence of new and subtle forms of control.