Prospects for International Migration Governance

Mid-Term Report Summary - MIGPROSP (Prospects for International Migration Governance)

Prospects for International Migration Governance (MIGPROSP) is a five-year research project that analyses the drivers of migration governance. The project’s focus is on how “actors” within migration governance systems (for example, political leaders, government officials, NGOs and important interests such as business and trade unions) understand international migration – its causes and effects and key risks and uncertainties – and how these understandings then shape or affect institutional responses now and in the future. By knowing more about these understandings the MIGPROSP project aims to develop our insight into the drivers of migration governance.

The project explores factors at individual and organisational levels that shape the decision-making context within migration governance systems in four world regions: Europe, North America, South America and Asia-Pacific. By learning about these drivers of migration governance, we ask how the context of choice influences the capacity of these systems to respond to the challenges associated with international migration now and in the future.

The MIGPROSP project is led by Professor Andrew Geddes in the Department of Politics at the University of Sheffield, who is working with a research team comprising Professor Nicola Phillips (Department of Politics, University of Sheffield), Dr Diego Acosta Arcarazo (School of Law, University of Bristol), Dr Marcia Vera Espinoza (Research Associate, Department of Politics, University of Sheffield) and Jason Freeman (Project Manager, Department of Politics, University of Sheffield). Michaela Bruckmayer, Luca Lixi, Andrea Pettrachin and Laura Foley hold PhD studentships linked to the project.

The research so far has focused on three issues: understandings of the causes and effects of international migration; views on whether these causes and effects are likely to remain stable or change; and attitudes to risks and uncertainties.

The first stage of the project started in September 2014. Since then, the MIGPROSP team has conducted 302 interviews in 29 countries with ‘actors’ within governance systems in each region. By actors we mean those who seek to make, shape or influence policy at local, national, regional or international level. Interviewees include political leaders, government officials, civil servants, business leaders, trade union leaders, representatives of NGOs and regional and international organisations, among others. We finished the first stage of the project in November 2016.

The interviews focus on the understandings of international migration by exploring a range of issues including:

• The personal background and experience of the interviewee and how this impinges on his or her understanding of international migration.
• Whether particular events or incidents have had shaping effects on interviewees’ understanding of international migration.
• What interviewees see as the main causes and effects of international migration and whether these might change in the future.
• Interviewees’ views on key risks and uncertainties and how to respond to them.
• Interviewees’ networks and the sources of information upon which they rely for their understandings.

Through a combination of re-interviewing and workshops in each of the four regions, the project’s second phase (2016-18) will focus on the susceptibility of attitudes to change. The working assumption is that a status quo bias in major destination countries is likely to impede innovation in regional/global migration governance. We are keen to understand the conditions under which prevailing assumptions and understandings that might inform a status quo bias might be susceptible to change or adjustment.

Mid-Term Report Summary - MIGPROSP (Prospects for International Migration Governance)

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