German Institute for Global and Area Studies | Leibniz-Institut für Globale und Regionale Studien

Migration Governance and Asylum Crises, Work Package "Comparing Crises" (MAGYC)

This project explores how European migration policies are influenced by political crises triggered by (forced) migration. At a time when such policies are heavily contested across European member-states, and when asylum seems more threatened than ever, this project is critically important to improve our understanding of how migration policies are formulated and shaped by a context of crisis. The project gathers 13 partners from diverse European countries, as well as from Lebanon and Turkey, and GIGA leads the Work Package “Comparing Crises”.
EC, Horizon 2020, 2018-2023

Team

Dr. André Bank

Senior Research Fellow

Dr. Nicole Hirt

Associate

Dr. Lea Müller-Funk

Associate

Cooperation Partners

The Hugo Observatory, University of Liège German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA)Sciences Po - Paris Institute of Political Studies University of Economics in Bratislava University of Milan Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London Lund University University of Macedonia Sabancı University Lebanese American University Institut Français du Proche Orient

Head

Dr. Christiane Fröhlich

Senior Research Fellow / Research Team Spokesperson

Research Questions

Within the Work Package "Comparing Crises", we want to understand two things:
1) What is a "migration crisis" in our research regions?, and
2) How do efforts to control and regulate movement figure in negotiations between state and non-state actors?
We argue that forced migration governance functions as a regime strategy of states at different levels of political stability with institutional and bureaucratic specificities limiting a state’s scope to act; is negotiated around humanitarian principles in which international actors and civil society play a crucial role; is driven by the size and perceived proximity of forced migrant groups in terms of race, gender, ethnicity, class, and religious belonging; and is characterised by strong path-dependency.

Contribution to International Research

"Comparing Crises" aims to look into processes in the Middle East, North Africa and the Horn of Africa and the position of forced migration governance within their polities and politics, thus adding a less Eurocentric perspective to international research. Its overall objective is to provide a cross-regional, potentially global framework which enables a comparative assessment and explains variation in forced migration governance across regions, space, and time.

Research Design and Methods

Our work follows a process-oriented approach which focuses on different scales (local, national, inter-/transnational) and which takes forced migrants’ perspectives as a starting point. We build our empirical base by conducting field work in Lebanon, Jordan, Tunisia, Morocco, Niger and Ethiopia/the Ethiopian diaspora, where we conduct interviews both with refugees and migrants as well as with political decision-makers and civil society actors. This is complemented by archival research and the study of secondary literature. The fieldwork has been completely reconfigured due to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.

Preliminary Findings

In an enquiry into what a "migration crisis" is in states where most of the movement is happening, the project has analysed national media discourses in two key EU partners, Tunisia and Turkey. The results are threefold: First, domestic Tunisian or Turkish political crises, such as inter-party conflicts and unemployment, tend to overshadow the migration issue. Second, while both countries host large numbers of refugees from their respective neighbouring countries, Libya and Syria, media narratives focus on the – diplomatic or strategic – role of their country in the ongoing conflicts in their neighbourhoods, rather than on refugees. Third, media actors in both countries make a strong case for the “migration crisis” being located in Europe and underline that refugees are being instrumentalised by European populist and right-wing actors for their specific political gain.

The project team has also developed an analytical framework to better understand forced migration governance across space and time from a more global, pluralist perspective in a logic of iterative theory-building. The framework develops six drivers of forced migration governance which can serve as a framework of analysis for concrete cases, such as Turkish governance of Syrian forced migration, or the governance of Venezuelan forced migration in different neighbouring states. Different methodologies can be applied to test our hypotheses, and applying a historical lens to cases will enrich the analysis. The project will apply the framework to six different papers, including one on how war states govern their own displaced populations.

GIGA Focus Middle East | 1/2022

Doom and Gloom: Leaving Erdoğan’s Turkey

Although known as a host and transit country, Turkey today is in the midst of its fifth wave of emigration as a result of the country’s authoritarian and economic challenges. From asylum seekers to wealthy businesspeople, many seek to leave Erdoğan’s Turkey to make a fresh start elsewhere.

Dr. A. Erdi Öztürk

Former Associate

Dr. Hakkı Taş

Research Fellow

Working Paper | 2022

MAGYC Working Paper: Mobility Control as State-Making in Civil War

Dr. Christiane Fröhlich

Senior Research Fellow / Research Team Spokesperson

Dr. Lea Müller-Funk

Associate

Digest of Middle East Studies | 09/2021

The Governance of Syrian Refugees in the Middle East: Lessons from the Jordan and Lebanon Compacts

Dr. André Bank

Senior Research Fellow

Dr. Christiane Fröhlich

Senior Research Fellow / Research Team Spokesperson

MAGYC Policy Brief | 04/2021

Forced Migration Governance in Jordan and Lebanon: Lessons from two EU Compacts

This policy brief evaluates both compacts five years after their signing and outlines a more reflective potential EU policy approach.

Dr. Christiane Fröhlich

Senior Research Fellow / Research Team Spokesperson

Dr. André Bank

Senior Research Fellow

Policy Paper | 03/2021

Forced Migration from Eritrea and Regime Stabilization

Dr. Nicole Hirt

Associate

Cooperation Event | 30/06/2020

Mobility Justice in Times of Crisis

Webinar Series "Zooming in on Migration and Asylum", Online event Organisers: Advancing Alternative Migration Governance, Transnational Figurations of Displacement, Aligning Migration Management and the Migration–Development Nexus, Migration Governance and Asylum Crises Dr. Christiane Fröhlich (Speaker)

Talk at Session #2: How the Pandemic Changed Migration Governance as We Knew It

Dr. Christiane Fröhlich

Senior Research Fellow / Research Team Spokesperson

Conference | 07/07/2021 - 09/07/2021

18th IMISCOE Annual Conference

18th IMISCOE Annual Conference, Online Event Organisers: International Migration, Integration and Social Cohesion, Erasmus University Rotterdam Dr. Lea Müller-Funk (Organiser), Ass. Prof. Dr. Aysen Üstübici (Organiser), Dr. Milena Belloni (Organiser)

Co-organiser of panel Changing Aspirations in Contexts of Forced Migration
Session #125 workshop | SC Reflexive Migration Studies

Dr. Lea Müller-Funk

Ass. Prof. Dr. Aysen Üstübici

Dr. Milena Belloni

Open Democracy | Article | 08/07/2020

‘You feel like in prison here’: imagining a future in Lebanon through Syrian eyes

Dr. Lea Müller-Funk

Associate

WDR - 0630 - der News Podcast | Interview | 08/11/2022

Deutsche Influencer in Syrien

Mit einer Einschätzung von Dr. André Bank: Wie deutsche Influencer in das Bürgerkriegsland Syrien gereist sind und warum sie damit indirekt das syrische Regime unterstützt haben (Minute 13:27).