EU Borders, Migration and Mobility

"The study of EU migration and mobility policies and politics continues to stand at the heart of research agenda on the EU. Deadlocks, shifting compromises, reform attempts, and recurrent crises remain defining features of EU migration governance. Yet the international environment in which the EU shapes its migration policies has itself undergone profound change. Armed conflicts in Europe’s neighbourhood, the return of unilateralism in U.S. foreign policy, and drastic funding cuts to international organisations such as UNHCR, IOM, and the wider UN system mean that migration politics intersect with and depend upon broader policy arenas in unprecedented ways. The EU’s migration and border governance are increasingly entangled with cross-sectoral challenges: from security and defence to climate change, labour shortages, technological innovation, and development cooperation. Interdependence is not only material but also institutional and financial, as instruments, funding streams, and arenas of negotiation overlap and collide. The growing emphasis on return has emerged as a centripetal force, narrowing the scope of policymaking and reinforcing a transactional approach in EU relations with transit and origin countries, an approach that many of those countries now mirror back. Simultaneously, the politics of labour migration remain paradoxical: despite overwhelming demographic evidence and sectoral demand, legal pathways for labour mobility remain underdeveloped and politically fragile. The increasing complexity also raises fundamental questions about evidence and expertise in policymaking. What role does research, data, and evaluation play in shaping EU and Member State decisions? To what extent is “evidence” mobilised strategically, selectively, or even contested in a context of politicisation and institutional fragmentation? These dynamics deepen the insecurities around the EU’s ability to sustain its governance model, uphold rights and international obligations, and act as a global player. This section welcomes panels that empirically, theoretically, and methodologically engage with the cross-sectoral interdependence of EU migration and mobility governance, its links to different funding, institutions, policy arenas, and international politics—while interrogating how crises, geopolitical change, and competing policy priorities reconfigure the EU’s approach to borders, migration, and mobility over time. Potential panels could include: • Old and new theoretical approaches to EU migration and mobility policymaking. • Methodological innovations in studying cross-sectoral dynamics of EU migration governance (linkages with security, labour, climate, digitalisation, and development). • The politics of return. • Transactionalism in EU relations with transit and origin countries: externalisation, bargaining, and reciprocity. • Labour migration and demographic change. • Ethical dilemmas in EU migration and border governance: human rights, solidarity, and responsibility. • Evidence, expertise, and knowledge in EU migration policy: strategic use, contestation, cognitive biases and the role of research. • Reforms, institutional blockages, and legal innovation in EU migration and asylum frameworks. • The international dimension of migration governance: the impact of the new US administration, weakened multilateralism, and cuts to international organisations (IOM, UNHCR, UN system). • Practices and discourses of bordering, (in)security, and (im)mobility across Europe and its neighbourhood. • The interaction between policy instruments in addressing migration and mobility (e.g. direct or indirect, funding, diplomatic agreements). • Voluntary (im)mobility within Europe and towards Europe: • Artificial Intelligence, digitalisation, and new technologies in border and migration management. • Migration scenarios and forecasting methods. We welcome proposals from political science, history, law, sociology, geography, and related disciplines, and strongly encourage interdisciplinary contributions."