MAGYC (Migration Governance and asYlum Crises)
Funded by the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 Programme, the MAGYC project (2018-2022) seeks to assess how migration governance has been influenced by the recent ‘refugee crises’ and how crises at large shape policy responses on migration.
Since the beginning of the ‘refugee crisis’ in 2014, most policy responses put in place by governments and international organisations tended to depict the migration situation as ‘unsustainable’ and to promote a more efficient control and surveillance of the borders. Building on this observation, the MAGYC project developed with the aim to appraise policy responses in light of the ‘crisis’, and to assess their efficiency for the long-term governance of migration. In order to do so, the project – coordinated by the Hugo Observatory (University of Liège) – brings together a consortium of 12 international partners, assembling experts from different fields and employing a mixed-methods approach.
MAGYC proposes a reflection on policy gaps in migration governance, and an analysis of regulatory instruments of migration on different levels, from bottom-up local initiatives, to national policies, to regional and international frameworks. In so doing, it aims to assess the effectiveness of policy instruments developed as response to migration ‘crises’, and to shed light on the articulation between migration dynamics and policy responses.
The project’s work plan analyses migration governance over two key dimensions of migration crises, that are looked at as both an acceleration of migration over time, and of its concentration over space. In the conceptual dimension of time, the project reflects and defines the structural determinants of migration ‘crises’ (WP1), outlining the evolution of migration and asylum governance in a phase that is defined by a rhetoric of crisis (WP2). It develops on the dynamics, actors, and narratives entailed in the construction of such rhetoric (WP3) and compares them with analyses of regional case studies and migration flows (WP4). In the conceptual dimension of space, MAGYC analyses the effects of asylum seekers’ concentration at different levels across Europe (WP5) and provides a mapping of multi-scalar responses (WP6). It includes a reflection on internal displacement, and sheds light on mobility within and across borders with a reflection on the voluntary to forced migration continuum (WP7). Finally, it looks at the external dimensions of the crisis, with a focus on EU externalisation policies and regional dynamics in Africa and the Middle East (WP8). The analysis of migration governance proposed by the MAGYC project further broadens our understanding of migration crises by including extra-European viewpoints on the impact, implication and perspectives of migration governance.
The MAGYC team has published a wide range of research outputs of case studies within and outside of the EU, as well as framework papers on migration governance and ‘crises’. Project outputs also include reports, such as the IDMC Global Report on Internal Displacement 2020, and a Maps of Asylum seekers’ sites. The most recent publications include an analysis of Turkish perceptions of the EU migration deal based on Turkish Parliamentary Debates (Samet Apaydin and Meltem Müftüler-Baç, Sabanci University), an analysis of the EU-Lebanon Compact ( Tamirace Fakhoury, LAU), and a Research paper on the influence of long-term socio-economic trends on migration dynamics (Başak Yavçan, ULiège). Among the latest peer reviewed articles from MAGYC researchers, are “The battleground of asylum and immigration policies: a conceptual inquiry” from Maurizio Ambrosini (Università degli Studi di Milano), and “La politique migratoire au prisme des récompenses symboliques. Le cas des bordercrats turcs” from Shoshana Fine (ESPOL). An overview of all MAGYC publications is available here.
Find more information about MAGYC here.
By Lucia Ragazzi, contact: lucia.ragazzi@uliege.be
The views and opinions expressed in this blog do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the TRAFIG Consortium or the European Commission (EC). TRAFIG is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.