Informalization in migration governance: theorizing its forms and impact beyond the Global North

Abstract

Informalization, or the growing adoption of non-legally binding ‘instruments,’ ‘tools’ and ‘arrangements’, has become commonplace in the governance of migration across domestic and international arenas (Betts 2011; Terpan and Saurugger 2021; Slagter 2019). The literature has covered several aspects of this trend: the conceptual blurring between hard and soft law (Terpan 2015); the ambiguous motivations of states, international organizations or regional institutions for using soft law (Slominski and Trauner 2021; Pauwelyn, Wessel and Wouters 2014; Nassar and Stel 2019); the legal implications of such instruments for democratic decision-making, separation of powers and executive accountability (Wessel, 2021). Nonetheless, we still have limited knowledge of how informalization influences actual policy-making processes in migration governance, for example by (dis)empowering certain institutional actors and/or de(legitimizing) particular narratives/frames that limit available policy options. The issue of how informalization may further exacerbate current trends in migration policy, such as securitization or externalization of migration control to third countries, remains likewise underexplored. Considering the dominant focus of the literature on informalization in the Global North, we also lack a robust understanding of similar processes in the Global South and of how the latter may contribute to a more sophisticated theorizing of informalization (Natter 2021; Stel 2021). For this panel, we include papers that empirically (qualitatively or quantitatively) discuss the impact of informalization on migration governance, particularly regarding inter-institutional relations and/or policy outcomes. Papers may examine informalization across different geographical contexts (national, regional, cross-regional, global) and sub-policy fields (readmission and return, border controls, protection or legal migration). We also welcome papers that discuss diffusion of informalization practices across policy fields, geographical regions and institutional actors, as well as practices of contestation of informalization by institutional or non-governmental actors.

Title	Details
Strategic Non-Regulation as Migration Governance	View Paper Details
Risk of arbitrariness? Informal and formal administrative rulemaking in migration governance	View Paper Details
Law versus Politics? Understanding the Rise of Informality in EU Readmission Policy	View Paper Details
Unpacking the Safe Third Country Concept in the European Union: B/Orders, Legal Spaces, and Asylum in the Shadow of Externalization	View Paper Details