Following AENEAS' route: unpacking two decades of migration-related measures in EU development funds

In contrast to somehow stalemated policy processes realm of migration, EU financial responses to recurrent crisis have been remarkable. Besides the budgetary increase, the EU created new instruments such as the EU Trust Fund for Africa, but also mainstreamed migration in other non-migration related programmes or differentiated delivery mechanism, moving towards a combination between grants and innovative financial instruments. According to a flourishing EU scholarship, this dynamism seems to be particularly relevant in the so-called external dimension of the EU funding landscape. Less is known, however, about the magnitude and direction of this phenomenon over time. How did EU funding programmes change in the last 20 years? This paper complements and advances this line of research by systematically analysing change (or persistence) in the design of the EU funds for (external) migration management since the early 2000. It assesses the extent (magnitude) and the direction of change of EU funding tools from 2000 onwards within and across financial frameworks measuring the extent to which the instruments scope and intervention priorities have become more focused on curbing irregular migration or giving migrants and refugees more protection or rights.