Migration Governance 2.0 Changing governance players and status quo perspectives

This paper explores the constitution of migration governance networks in the European Union. Migration governance today involves an increasing number of actors within governments, and at different levels, from the local to the global and the public to the private sphere. This pattern, the literature emphasizes, is particularly evident in Europe, where migration, since the 1990s, is partly under the competences of the European Union. Notwithstanding this diversification of actors from different backgrounds and perspectives, migration policy approaches and underlying understandings of international migration have remained relatively constant. How can we understand this puzzling development? Driven by the assumption that relations among governance actors can contribute to the understanding of this puzzle, in this paper we aim to explore the composition of migration governance actors more in depth, and explore the dominant players, and their interactions. By applying Social Network Analysis, we systematically map migration governance networks in the EU, identifying relationships between actors and their relative position within governance networks and representing constellations of power, authority and influence. Our findings emphasize that, despite changing patterns of governance, interior ministries are still key players in the field and rely only to a limited extent on perspectives of different players and organizations to nourish their understanding about international migration and events related to it, beyond their own institutional environment. The paper concludes that this limitation is crucial in understanding why despite a changing composition of migration governance migration policy approaches have remained relatively stable over time.