The EU–ACP migration and development relationship

Abstract

In the 1990s, cooperation between north and south on the governance of global migration seemed highly unlikely. Nation states in the north believed that their territorial sovereignty was under threat from irregular migration from the south, and states in the south argued that their development prospects were being undermined by a crippling ‘brain drain’ to the north. Since 2000, international migration has moved to the top of the global governance and development agenda, and a whole range of bilateral and multilateral partnerships have taken shape. One of the less remarked-upon partnerships is the migration relationship between the European Union (EU) and the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP). This paper charts the evolution of this relationship over the last decade, arguing that it was enabled by five major features of migration and development discourse on which member states of the EU and the ACP could agree. The reasons for the focus on South–South, rather than South–North, migration in programming on migration and development are also explored.