Constitutive legitimacy crisis of the neoliberal migration governance

Abstract

From the early 1990s, migration management was being promoted to turn migration into a more orderly, predictable, and manageable process for the benefit of all involved. Since then, we have witnessed the emergence and evolution of fragmented global migration governance composed of a diverse set of processes, institutions, platforms, and networks. Today, neoliberal migration governance guides migration policy, shapes the discourse, defines the actors that are involved, and policies to be implemented. The paper argues that neoliberal governance of global labor mobility seeks to secure “cheap” and “disposable” labor that creates conditions conducive to increase (irregular) migration, while simultaneously seeking to restrict it. Within this context, the paper addresses how global migration governance works for the benefit of “some” by prioritizing the interests of transnational capital and states and by reinforcing asymmetric power relations rather than enabling and empowering migrants. Therefore, the very constitution of global migration governance creates a legitimacy crisis, which encompasses input and output legitimacy crises but extends beyond them. To problematize the market-led governance of migration as the main source of the constitutive legitimacy crisis, the paper elaborates on the profit-driven working of the migration industry, privatization of migration management, and outsourcing of migration control and detention, and the role of the neoliberal state regarding migration governance. The paper concludes by making the case for a rights-based approach that would inform and inspire the construction of global migration governance based on equity and solidarity.