The migration industry in global migration governance

Abstract

The “migration industry” (defined as the range of actors who, primarily motivated by profit, engage in activities relating to human mobility) and “markets for migration” (defined as the way in which human mobility is increasingly subject to processes of commodification and competitive exchange) are playing a central and growing role in facilitation, control and rescue in the area of migration1 (see also Chapter 6 and Chapter 11, this volume). From smugglers and “coyotes,” to business associations, anti-immigrant vigilante groups, airline companies, border security firms, private interest groups, travel agents, human rights non-governmental organizations (NGOs), philanthropists seeking to improve the rights of migrants and refugees, academics, and employers, a range of private actors have a stake in the migration industry. Meanwhile, many of the functions of migration, traditionally associated with sovereignty and the state, are outsourced or privatized to private actors through competitive bidding processes (see Chapter 5 and Chapter 7, this volume). These processes are significant and well documented throughout thisvolume. The existing literature on the migration industry and markets for migration-and most of the work in this volume-examines those processes within the context of migration governance within or at the border of the nation-state. It mainly explores ways in which the state delegates functions to private actors or ways in which a particular state’s sovereignty is bypassed by licit or illicit private actors. However, this chapter argues that these processes do not exist only at the level ofthe state but also at the global level and that processes of what the chapter refers to as “global migration governance” are increasingly influenced by the migration industry and markets for migration. Migration and human mobility are increasingly subject to forms ofregulation that transcend individual nation-states. Global governance exists across a range of trans-boundary policy fields, and relates to the process by which states engage in forms of collective action to address common challenges. It results in the creation of norms, rules, principles and decision-making procedures that constrain and constitute the behavior of states. In recent years, a debate has emerged on global migration governance.2 While there is no formal or coherent United Nations (UN) institution for addressing migration, a complex tapestry of multilateral, regional and bilateral forms of institutionalized cooperation has emerged. As this chapter shows, the migration industry and markets for migration are a growing facet of global migration governance. A range of private actors are increasingly central to agenda setting,negotiation, monitoring, implementation and enforcement within global migration governance.3 Private actors may play important roles in global migration governance through, for example, lobbying, corporate social responsibility (CSR), private rule-making and standard setting, the development of voluntary codes of conduct, public-private partnerships, philanthropy, and innovation and the role of expert knowledge, for example. Yet despite this, private actors remain relatively neglected in looking at the international politics of migration. This comparative neglect contrasts notably with the extent to which private actors have been considered in relation to other areas of global governance.4