The Key to Sustainable Migration Management : Building up Cohesion, Capacity and Choices in the European Union Migration Partnership Framework

Abstract

This thesis examines how the European Union Migration Partnership Framework represents a partial shift in the European Union policies in a new direction, where migration and development policies are seen intertwined and mutually beneficial in order to manage migration in a sustainable manner that works for all partners. The European migration crisis has caused turmoil within the EU and its Member States, and the Migration Partnership Framework presents various tools that ought to affect the irregular movement of people to the EU.

The material of this research is compiled of the EU documents on the Migration Partnership Framework that was launched in June 2016. Since its launch, five progress reports and various additional papers on the implementation and experiences of the Framework have been published. The analysis of the material has been conducted by following the principles of theory guided content analysis and the chapters of analysis have been constructed based on the notion that policies configured on the idea of partnership are looking for a ‘win-win-win’ solution.

The choice of the EU to emphasise the notion of partnership and harness development for the purpose of managing migration invoked my interest to study the Framework through a neoliberal point of view, especially focusing on the theoretical debate concerning neoliberal governance. Due to the focus on the migration-development nexus, it is also relevant to discuss the relation between governance and development within this thesis.

This research into the European Union Migration Partnership Framework has revealed that even though there is a shift towards the empowerment of the partner countries in migration and development policies, the actions presented in the name of partnership are in fact characteristic of the forms of neoliberal governance. The tools presented in the Framework attempt to build up cohesion, capacity and choices, but in a way that is most suitable for the EU.