What do policymakers think are the causes of migration?

Understanding what migration policymakers believe to be the causes of migration and how actual and future migrants respond to different types of policies is essential, as these beliefs shape policies that directly impact the lives of those migrating as well as migration flows. Common narratives often reflect specific policy approaches, but the assumptions behind these narratives and their effectiveness are not fully explored. Drawing from an ongoing study that maps policymakers’ beliefs about migration determinants through an innovative survey of policy actors in the field of migration in Africa and Europe, this post delves into why we need to understand policymakers’ decision-making processes. By examining these dynamics through new research, we can gain crucial insights that explain why specific migration policies succeed or fail and ultimately improve migration governance.

Words and Frames

Research shows that the use of words in migration governance is not neutral. Whether it is linking development with migration regulation or the externalisation of border controls and asylum procedures, the impact of various policy decisions needs to be analysed along two fronts: the effects it leads to and what it tells us about the policy-making processes behind it. The origins of a policy matter as much as its consequences. In fact, the two are often closely interrelated. Disciplines such as Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA), International Relations, Public Policy, Sociology, and Cognitive and Social Psychology, to name a few, have long provided important tools that scholars of migration policymaking have utilised to explain why decision-makers around the world may end up selecting one course of action over many possible others. They have also explained how certain policies, such as those associating development with migration, come into being. To the question ‘what’s in a (policy) name’, they have provided several answers: They have looked at the role of various incentive systems, models of bounded or strategic rationality, capture of the policy-making process by competing national and electoral interests, as well as organisational cultures and dominant modi operandi that can hinder or facilitate the adoption of decisions.

One recent strand of studies has focused on the decision-makers themselves, exploring both the role of the environment where the decisions are made (the so-called social context) and the sources of knowledge about the topic at hand. These studies recognise that migration policy actors have certain ways of interpreting the reality around them – they develop ‘frames’ about the nature of migration as a phenomenon – and that these frames may act like coloured lenses through which the landscape of migration is viewed. Migration can thus be seen as a security issue, an economic and development issue, or a climate-related one, to cite a few examples; several interpretations may also overlap. An abundance of qualitative empirical evidence shows that these frames and the policies selected to regulate migration are closely correlated. What may appear as a mere abstract thought exercise actually carries real-life implications.

Key questions we don’t have answers to

However, when we look at migration policymaking, there is much that we still do not know. For example, we have yet to determine which frames are prevalent in which geopolitical contexts and decision-making bodies, and whether their presence or absence tells us that policymakers in different countries and continents think differently about the causes of the migration process. We can see how this might matter by looking at European and African cooperation. While much ink has been spilt about the diverging interests, preferences and institutional contexts that make cooperation on migration between Europe and Africa a fragmented landscape of partially ineffective and frequently criticised agreements, focusing on how decisionmakers think about the drivers of migration highlights several critical questions.

For example:

• What if, in addition to these well-known factors, the roots of the relative lack of success in Europe-Africa cooperation on migration rested elsewhere? What if it stemmed from different understandings of the phenomenon of migration itself?
• What if those in charge of making decisions in migration governance in Africa and Europe thought differently about what causes migration in the first place?
• Going even further, what if what decision-makers think about what makes people migrate does not correspond to the actual behaviour of migrants?
• What are the consequences of decisionmakers’ assumptions about migration decisions for the policies that are meant to govern migration and the human impact of these instruments?

New research on decision-making and opportunity for YOU to participate:

As part of the EU Horizon 2022 project DYNAMIG, we are working to help answer these important questions by carrying out the first systematic survey of policymakers’ understandings of the causes of migration, and directly comparing these results with the decision-making process of potential migrants.

About the survey:

A first of its kind in its scope and ambition, the survey uses both traditional and experimental tools.

• It targets a wide population of policy actors in the European Union, European member states, international organisations, African regional organisations, and African Union member states.
• Developed through a joint effort of eight research teams in both Europe and Africa, the survey carefully considers local priorities, and different policy contexts at both national and continental levels.
• It aims to equip policy actors with a more thorough and nuanced understanding of the assumptions underlying their countries’ and institutions’ policy choices.
• It will also provide researchers who study how countries produce migration policy with new data on decisionmakers’ thoughts and how they developed that knowledge.

Ultimately, by shining a light on how those who govern migration make decisions that impact the lives of thousands, the study will act as a reality check on a contested and highly salient policy issue in both Europe and Africa.  

Who can participate:

• Your role: Work as a policymaker or practitioner and
• Your focus: On issues related to migration in Europe and Africa

The survey is now closed, we are currently studying how researchers think about the causes of migration from Africa to Europe. Take the survey here (15 minutes long).

Need assistance or have questions? 

Please contact Carlotta Minnella at [Carlotta.minnella@eui.eu]