The Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration: Global Public Policy Opportunity Window

Decades after the declaration of the International Human Rights Law, the Global Compact on Migration was recently established as a response to the repercussions of the ferocious civil war in Syria, radicalism, political fragility in the Middle East, and continuous exodus of immigrants and refugees from developing countries to developed countries. Poor economic status, political and social insecurity have caused a massive incursion of refugees and immigrants into neighboring states, European countries and the U.S. The number of refugees and immigrants that entered Europe during the Immigrant Crisis of 2015 was more than 117,540. The complexity of this immigration and refugee crisis demonstrated a need to establish a large-scale systematic arrangement with a broad consensus as a response to immigrants’ problems in both sending and receiving states. They challenge is to ensure better conditions for people who are experiencing political, social, economic, racial, and gender threats. Hence, the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) was formulated based on the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants to address immigrants’ needs and receiving states’ responsibilities. This study aims to describe how the GCM was formulated; it also reviews role of the participants in the preparation of the compact and their influence in the policy process. This study reflects upon the knowledge of policy process in the formation of this compact as a global public policy by applying the multiple streams theory (MST) as a heuristic approach and modifying it to reconcile the differences between national and global public policy. We begin with a review of the MST and the context of global public policy; this review allows us to contextualize the MST in a way that is global public policy-oriented. Which is key for analysis and policy formulation. The theoretical synthesis indicated that the formation of the GCM was a result of the confluence of three major streams: the problem stream, regime stream, and policy stream. Moreover, the policy window of the GCM was based on global partnerships and community. The synthetic review identified 15 actors who participated in creating the GCM and their influence in the process and on the outcome. The review demonstrates the four phases of developing the compact: consultation, stocktaking, intergovernmental negotiation, and endorsement. The use of a more relevant theory of the MST captures the main actors of the GCM, the global agora of formation, and key influencers to tackle this global issue. This study provides a structural explanation of the composition of the GCM and illustrates that “focusing events” in a state require cooperation at the global level to mitigate the turmoil and the potential spillover effect of the crisis.