DoMiCoP · The Diffusion of Migration Control Practice. Actors, Processes and Effects.

The Diffusion of Migration Control Practice. Actors, Processes and Effects.

In an age of global integration, the capacity of states to control migration remains a key concern for the population of several European Member States. The loss-of-control theme provides a powerful narrative that pervades the media, political arenas and the society. The idea of re-establishing control has been underlying many recent political events and debates, within the European Union (EU) and beyond. Like climate change, migration is a global issue that is addressed both locally and internationally, therefore triggering cross-national learning and policy diffusion that DoMiCoP studies by reversing the focus from classical policy design and discourses to the understudied policy implementation. That is a distinct stage of the policy-making process in which policies take on practical meaning. Goals and results emerge. The implementation shapes outcomes more than the design. Other mainstream narratives tend to blame the work of the implementers in case of policy failure. That series of representations overlook the complex dynamics that characterize the implementation and the complex relation between policy on paper and policy in practice. When politicians seek to avoid thorny political issues, ambiguous policy is produced. In doing so, politicians effectively ‘pass the buck’ to the implementation stage. Organizations that put policies into practice find themselves in the position of deciding on matters that were not solved or were impossible to solve at the level of policy design. As a result, much policy-making is left in the remit of implementers most notably in the domain of migration control in the European Union. DoMiCoP puts the implementation of migration and border control first. It asks one main question: how and why do communities of practice develop and diffuse the knowledge required to put migration control into action? DoMiCoP considers communities of practices to be social venues for the interaction of different kinds of actors involved in the operational side of migration control. These understudied venues matter because practical knowledge about how to implement policies as well as understandings about the issues at stake in implementing those policies are developed and shared. DoMiCoP overall objectives are threefold: 1) Identifying venues at intermediate levels in which communities of practice take shape. 2) Analysing the communities of practice by focusing on the configurations of actors and organizations involved, the motivations underlying their involvement, the process of knowledge development in interaction, the conflicts and negotiations. 3) Revealing the role of non-state organizations (private for profit and not-for-profit). By taking the perspective of actors and organizations that implement migration control in several areas (such as asylum, returns and border management), DoMiCoP has revealed the relevance of the interactions with other public and private implementers and the informality characterizing those processes.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union