The role of complexity in migration and diversity policy-making and governance: Bringing (back) in quality

Political scientists have spent decades analysing migration policies – for instance, how states control their borders, integrate immigrants into their societies or establish links with their non-resident citizens. Despite extensive research, from in depth case studies to aggregated policy indexes (eg IMPIC, DEMIG, EMIX), our understanding of how policies impact the realities they aim to address remains incomplete. In looking for innovative approaches to study migration policy, scholars are turning to complexity as a key explanatory factor as it challenges conventional modes of governance. Complexity changes policy-making insofar as the policy process needs to be redesigned to boost its rational, democratic, discursive and institutional quality. Although the literature has convincingly discussed how migration stands as a key example (revelatory case) of a ‘wicked’ or ‘complex’ policy issue, there is limited scholarship on how complexity plays out on migration governance and how quality can be brought (back) into the policy-making process. This workshop aims to address this gap in the literature by bringing together normative and empirical papers analysing the role of complexity in migration governance and covering cases from all over the world. In doing so, we aim at developing the foundational tools and a research agenda in political science for the study of complexity and quality in migration policy research.

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1: How can complexity be conceptualized in the context of migration governance?
2: How is complexity generated in the context of migration governance?
3: What are the effects of complexity on migration policy?
4: What are the methodological tools needed to capture and measure the effects of complexity on migration policy?
5: How can we enhance the quality of governance to facilitate more reflexive problem-solving in the face of complexity?

Title	Details
Two sides of the coin: Exclusion and inclusion in Polish migration politics	View Paper Details
To what extent and how do migration-related city networks contribute to policy learning in European cities?	View Paper Details
The multilayered dimensions of migration management in Bosnia and Herzegovina: a critical view of the EU’s integration via securitization	View Paper Details
Beyond Security and Economic Narratives: Acknowledging Complexity in Political and Media Discourse on Migration	View Paper Details
Is immigration policy becoming more complex? An analysis of the German migration policy from 1990 to 2023	View Paper Details
Measuring Responsibility-Sharing: A Dataset of European Migration Governance	View Paper Details
Tombola Italiana: Unraveling the Paradox of Disparities in Asylum Adjudications in Italy	View Paper Details
Complexity in Migration Governance: More Fragmentation, More Irregularity	View Paper Details
How to deal with complexity in migration policymaking: bringing quality into the processs	View Paper Details
¿How To Assess Good Migration Governance? An Indicator-Based Approach From The ADMIGOV Project.	View Paper Details
Bureaucratic Expertise in Policy-Making: Insights from Colombia’s Temporary Statute of Protection for Venezuelan Migrants	View Paper Details
A hierarchy in migrants’ access to basic rights? Insights from the Civic Stratification Index (CSI)	View Paper Details
The comparative analysis of policies in 56 countries: emerging dimensions of and approaches to integration	View Paper Details
Governing complexity: the case of age assessment procedures for unaccompanied migrant children in the UK	View Paper Details
How great expectations in Westminster are dashed in Pollokshields: implementation, practice, and the complexity of UK asylum support policy	View Paper Details
Labour migration dilemmas. Making policies on low-paid labour migration in Italy, Denmark, and Poland	View Paper Details
Understanding the Role of Political Institutions in External Voting: A Large-N Comparison	View Paper Details