Possible Futures? The New ‘UN Migration Agency’ and the Shifting Global Order

Abstract

This chapter discusses the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and its new status in the United Nations (UN) system. After having existed outside the UN system as an independent organisation for sixty-five years, in 2016 the IOM became a ‘related organisation’ of the UN. That same year, the IOM also became the lead agency for the Global Compact on Migration. While it is currently unclear to what extent this new framework on migration will become implemented, this chapter questions the possible future(s) of the IOM and its unique approach to ‘migration management’. By doing this, the chapter also situates the IOM in the broader global context. It argues that the IOM has always been more than a ‘migration agency’, and China’s new membership in the IOM, which notably also occurred in 2016, will likely have significant impacts on the IOM and global migration governance. At the same time this new partnership serves also as a clear demonstration of a significant shift in the global order, given the recent withdrawal of the US from the UN’s Global Compact process and its unwillingness to further cooperate in a multilateral governance of migration.