Migration Control as Communication? Voluntary Returns, Information Campaigns and the Justification of Contested Migration/Border Governance

Abstract

ABSTRACT Assisted-voluntary returns and information campaigns are common tools in immigration policy. They participate of a communicative strategy, whereby migrant-receiving states do not only exercise their sovereign right to control their borders, but communicate with migrants about borders and migration. This article discusses the relationship between control and communication. On the one hand, communication is showed to be tactically used to complement and achieve control, leading to the strategic (and usually untruthful) diffusion of negative messages about migration. On the other hand, and like all communication, assisted-voluntary returns and information campaigns rely on a rational/normative basis, by putting forward sensible arguments (for example about the risks associated with unauthorized migration) that appeal to the rationality of the audience and have, to some extent, the performative effect of increasing the acceptability of immigration policy.