The EU’s external migration policy and its diplomatic implications. On the emerging role of ‘transit states’ in migration diplomacy

The EU’s external migration policy has created a well-established form of migration control beyond EUropean borders over the last decades. However, the short but impressive failing of this strategy during the 2015/16 migration governance crisis has raised awareness that it heavily relies on the erratic cooperativeness of countries of origin and transit. The paper seeks to demonstrate that the externalization or delegation of migration control is challenged by a new type of responses by countries in the EUropean neighborhood. By analysing international cooperation on migration control between destination countries and countries of transit and origin, the paper contributes to a growing body of scholarship on ‘border and migration diplomacy' (İçduygu and Üstübici 2014). It combines insights from international relations and EU studies, as well as the political sociology of borders and diplomacy in order to understand the strategic actions of all countries involved as well as the relative instability of external migration control. In the logic of externalization, certain countries categorized as ‘transit states’ are expected to function as ‘gatekeepers’. This role has strengthened their position to engage in migration diplomacy vis-á-vis the EU and results in a new phase of ‘contested externalization’ (Faist 2019).