Overseas immigration liaison officers: ‘Knowledge brokers’ and transnational spaces of mid-level negotiations shaping extraterritorial migration control practices

Abstract

AbstractA significant yet overlooked aspect in many states’ extraterritorial migration control efforts is their immigration liaison officers (ILOs) posted to foreign jurisdictions, who make decisions and take actions abroad to support their country’s immigration goals. Importantly, this occurs within an interconnected system of nation-states, requiring mid-level officials from multiple states to co-operate. Yet, there is very little analysis on what happens in these foreign jurisdictions where officials from across national and organisational boundaries interact and negotiate the management of migration flows. This article aims to fill this gap by drawing on empirical research on the UK’s overseas immigration liaison network. Analysis is based on original interviews with Home Office officials, Freedom of Information requests, and documentary research. I find that UK ILOs are a main contact point between the country they represent, local authorities in the host state, and Global North counterparts from other states, making them key sites for the transnational exchange of information, ‘intelligence’ and ‘know-how’. In this way, they are like ‘knowledge brokers’, contributing to a ‘global–local diffusion’ of ideas. Despite power hierarchies, this is not a one-way transfer from the Global North to the South. Instead, I find Global South actors are also key subjects in this process. By going beyond policies on paper and formal inter-state agreements, this study offers important insight into a largely hidden yet central part of a state’s extraterritorial migration control: informal spaces of negotiation between mid-level officials from across national and organisational boundaries who negotiate and contest migration control practices.