The Global Governance of Migration: Competing Theories, Comparing Regions

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

Migration – forced or voluntary – has emerged as one of the main pressing issues of international politics. The massive displacement of refugees due to conflicts or climate change and the intensification of labor migration together with the rise of far-right anti-immigrant rhetoric have put migration at the center of public discourse. Simultaneously, the attempts to govern migration at the regional and global levels have been incrementally developed into a multilayered and fragmented regime complex (Alter and Meunier 2009; Betts 2009).

This panel examines the global governance of migration using multiple theoretical lenses and comparing different regions. Abramson and Bar-Tuvia adopt a constructivist approach to investigate the compliance of states with international norms regarding refugees. Comparing Israel and Turkey, Abramson examines when states decide to delegate authority to the UNHCR and when they challenge its mandate and take such authority back. Bar-Tuvia compares Israeli and Italian refugee policies to show how states find tacit ways to evade normative pressures to host refugees. In contrast, Hollifield and Takeuchi’s paper takes a rationalist approach, most associated with liberal-institutionalism. Focusing primarily on labor migration in North American, Europe, and Asia, they identify mechanisms to overcome collective action problems in managing migration. Tsourapas also takes a utilitarian position but examines authoritarian regimes in North Africa and their extra-territorial policies. In contrast to much of the literature that focuses on immigration governance in Western democratic settings, his paper sheds light on emigration and diaspora policies in non-Western and non-democratic settings.

Together, the papers bring multiple theoretical perspectives on various issues related to the governance of human mobility, looking at different geographical regions and different political settings.

Sub Unit

• DIVISION 52: Migration and Citizenship

Individual Presentations

• Tacit Compliance: State Sovereignty and the UNHCR's Authority - Yehonatan Abramson, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

• The Challenge of Global Migration Governance: A Rationalist Approach - James F. Hollifield, Southern Methodist University; Hiroki Takeuchi, Southern Methodist University

• Authoritarianism and the Drivers of Migration Governance in the Middle East - Gerasimos Tsourapas, University of Birmingham

Chair

• Helene C. Thiollet Sciences Po

Discussant

• Helene C. Thiollet Sciences Po