External Financial Governance: Solidarity and Externalisation of Migration Control through EU Funding

Far from being neutral devices, funds are important non-regulatory policy instruments that can privilege certain actors and interests while excluding others, as well as drive forward a distinctive problem representation. This paper starts from this assumption to frame, theoretically and conceptually, the existing research on steering migration governance through funding. Drawing from interdisciplinary scholarship on law and public policy, we critically analyse the evolution of the EU’s funding landscape in the external dimension of migration, as well as EU funding’s steering and solidarity potential. Moreover, we discuss what the instrumental use of (EU) migration funding reveals about the EU’s approach to migration and asylum, global responsibility sharing, and the changing nature of migration diplomacy.