The cooperation on migration governance between the European Union (EU) and its neighbourhood can only be accurately evaluated in light of the tensions between states’ obligations to comply with internationally recognized standards on the protection of human rights, on the one hand, and their attempt to control migration and borders through legal means and policy provisions, on the other. Against this background, the course will identify various frictions or points of contention, especially with reference to:
- The sharing of competences between supranationalism and intergovernmentalism, especially since the entry into force of the Treaty of Amsterdam. Cooperation on deportation is emblematic of such tensions;
- The contingencies and priorities of the actors involved, be they state or non-state actors, having implications for their perceptions, subjectivities and, last but not least, definitions;
- The highly diverse policy, legal and geostrategic factors shaping the cooperation on migration governance with the “neighbours”.

This course examines current policies within the broader context of deterrence and externalisation, considering the way in which international law (in its ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ forms) acts as a tool for both enabling and resisting such policies. In so doing, part of the course examines relevant developments and substantive case law to understand the implications of current EU migration policies for procedural safeguards and human protection. Finally, the course calls for a broader reflection on the hyper visibility of the cooperation on migration governance, especially cooperation on deportation and deterrence, by showing that its implications for human rights observance are inseparable from the ways in which state-citizen relationships have been altered over the last decades.


Sessions 1 & 2: Migration governance under tension
- Premises and challenges
- Diverse contingencies and priorities
- From the 2001 IAMM to the 2018 GCM and beyond


Session 3: Governance systems: Between bilateralism, supranationalism and multilateralism
- International cooperation on the governance of migration (through the lens of IR studies)
- Power and interdependence
- The hyper-diversity of (state and non-state) actors involved
- Governance for whom and by whom?

Session 4: Cooperation on migration governance and international politics
- Case studies: Perceptions from the South
- Capitalizing on migration and border controls?
- Empowerment and reverse diffusion

Session 5: The making of reverse conditionalities in international cooperation
- Reciprocity, reputation and iteration in international cooperation theory
- Reverse conditionalities
- Case studies

Session 6: The governance of migration through the lens of IR theories
- Realism
- Liberalism
- Structuralism
- Social constructivism

Session 7: The gradual centrality of readmission in the EU’s migration governance
- Historical trends: From the Treaty of Amsterdam to the Treaty of Lisbon
- Patterns of cooperation
- The dual approach to cooperation on readmission

Session 8: The hybridity of the EU’s readmission system
- Intergovernmentalism vs. supranationalism?
- The contingency gap
- Lessons learned and unlearned

Session 9: The drive for informalization
- Global trends: informal intergovernmental organizations/consultations
- Historical perspectives
- Implications for migration governance

Session 10: Issue linkage in international cooperation on the governance of migration
- Issue linkage in IR theories
- Case studies

Sessions 11 & 12 : Practices of readmission (exercise with students)
- Analysis of agreements linked to readmission (1 for each group)
- Grafting readmission onto other issue-areas
- Collective reflection on why patterns of cooperation differ so much

Session 13: Time contraction, procedural safeguards and access to rights
- The mobility mantra: origins and implications
- Labour temporariness and beyond
- Procedural safeguards and the drive for “operability”

Session 14: The grey zone
- Repertoire: notions and language
- Production and reproduction: the need for migration governance
- Attributes of the grey zone and implications

Session 15: A grounded approach to the governance of migration (viewed by the governed)
- Exploring field data
- The issue of reintegration
- Access to rights and time contraction

Session 16: Through the looking-glass of migration governance
- Coercion
- Regulation
- Legitimation

Session 17: Political action and counternarratives in times of consensus
- Drawing on previous experiences
- Lessons learned

Session 18: Wrap-up session

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