Managing the COVID-19 crisis and the politics of migration policy in Estonia

Migration is one of the politically highly sensitive policy fields. This makes it interesting to study in terms of COVID-19 policy response. The chapter focuses on the political context of the COVID-19 related migration policies and measures of the two national governments in Estonia: the conservative leaning cabinet of Jüri Ratas 2019-21 and the liberal leaning cabinet of Kaja Kallas since January 2021. Crises can function as catalysts for policy change, but whether change occurs depends on multiple factors such as the actual content of the event, the agenda-setting power of the advocates of change, their abilities to foster advocacy coalitions and break up policy monopolies. I study the COVID-19 policies of the cabinets and the political context. I focus on the possibilities of this crisis to induce permanent migration policy changes and relate it to the difficulties of the European Union and member states’ model of technocratic policy making and governance in the recent decades, amplified by the financial crisis, migration crisis and COVID-crisis, but also the the disaffection of a wide range of citizens and the rise of various populist forces influencing also mainstream politics. The paper starts with the theoretical discussion where the concept of politics of migration policy will be elaborated and operationalized for this study. Then the empirical approach will be developed and the Estonian case contextualized and studied, developing the basis for the subsequent discussion and conclusions. I will also discuss the practical opportunities for developing a more supportive political context for migration policies while also observing the opportunities to develop these to better fit to their contexts