Business-led governance of migration and development: a challenge for civil society

Abstract

The present article addresses the making of transnational migration governance as part and parcel of an enduring hegemonic pursuit of neoliberal globalisation, involving global governance making, asymmetric development governance and the shift from multilateral to multistakeholder global governance. It argues that the inclusion of migration into Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and the endorsement of the GCM, which emphasize a solidarity-based, «whole-of-society» approach to migration, development, migrants, and human rights, have been hijacked by the corporate-driven multistakeholder approach, propelled by the World Economic Forum (WEF). This new development approach, also embraced by the global development agencies, projects multi-stakeholder governance, a voluntary global cooperation of selected state and non-state actors and a Global Risk Management framework to control the implementation of sustainable development. The main question is if and how civil society organizations promote a comprehensive, solidarity-based approach to migration and development against the challenges of business actors as main development agents and their managerial plan.