Regional Migration Governance: The Approach of the EU and ASEAN during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Migration is a historical issue that exists along with the evolution of humanity. It becomes more pressing when society faces new challenges such as a pandemic. Unless governed by appropriate legislation, policy, and practice under the rule of law consistent with international norms, migration entails numerous social and economic problems including abuse and exploitation of migrants at work, denial of social protection, disruption of social cohesion, family disintegration, reduced productivity, and lost opportunities for development. Due to its urgency and comprehensiveness, impossibility of reducing only to the state level, the contemporary approach to the issue of migration should include policy analysis of the activities of international organizations. This paper theorizes the dynamics of regional migration governance as well as the interaction, the relationship between countries, and multilateral institutions within a region. The purpose of the research is to investigate the current role and practical course of activities of these two typical regional institutions (the EU and ASEAN) and examine whether and to what extent there was an approach to migration issues due to the COVID-19 pandemic.