Experiments in Global Migration Governance – How International Organisations Govern in and through Practice

A multitude of international organisations (IOs) is involved in governing migration. Yet, research on migration IOs is still comparatively scarce. The existing literature on migration IOs often focuses on their official mandates and institutional design and is much concerned with how they have formally developed over time. From the beginnings of the refugee and migration regime to, most recently, the two Compacts for Migrants and Refugees, formal governance arrangements have drawn most of the scholarly attention. While multilateral negotiations and the formal development of migration IOs are certainly interesting to study, this paper argues that their informal governing practices are equally important to investigate to fully capture their influence. Since migration is a highly politicised and contested policy field, formal delegation of authority to IOs is often difficult to achieve and, as a consequence, many IOs rely on informal networks and inter-personal relations to govern. This paper therefore focuses on how migration IOs informally connect and experiment in field operations in order to generate knowledge on migration governance. It argues that migration IOs, given the fragmented governance architecture, limited authorisation and political controversy, have to experiment and produce practical knowledge to retain agency and be able to govern. This paper draws on a case study which focuses on the migration crisis at the European external border in 2015 and 2016 and relies on the sociology of the professions and sociology of knowledge to render the informal development of governing practices through IOs intelligible.