Managing or restricting movement? Diverging approaches of African and European migration governance

Bibliographic Data

ID13063751
AuthorsFranzisca Zanker (0000-0002-1345-0364, University of Freiburg, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume7
Issue1
Publication date2019-05-08
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueComparative Migration Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2214-594X • E-ISSN: 2214-8590
PublisherSpringer Nature (PUBLISHER • SG)
DOI10.1186/s40878-019-0115-9
OpenAlexW2947864889
LanguageEN
Citations received16
References cited18

Though a common EU-African agenda of dealing with migration goes back at least a decade with bilateral, regional and continental approaches, it has gained in visible importance in recent years. But what are the actual approaches and does the rhetoric they evoke speak to their actual practice? Unpacking 76 policy documents relating to the governance of migration from African and European institutions between 2005 and 2016, the paper finds that the rhetoric is diverting in itself (both managing and controlling mobility) but also surprisingly similar. There is however a pronounced difference between a management-orientated discourse and the restriction-orientated practice. This is likely tied to hidden agendas: for the EU moving migration controls away from Europe’s borders to the African continent, whilst simultaneously strengthening the rhetorical EU-African partnership. The rhetorical mirroring in African documents may also be an attempt by African states to achieve leverage in an otherwise asymmetric relationship

Corporate governance · Economics · Framing (construction · General partnership · Geography · Leverage (statistics · Management · Mirroring · Political economy · Political science · Rhetoric · Rhetorical question · Sociology · International Development and Aid · Law · Migration and Labor Dynamics · Migration, Refugees, and Integration

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