Depoliticising Migration ― Global Governance and International Migration Narratives

Migration has become, since the nineties, the subject of growing international discussion and cooperation. International organisations and the international community have taken a number of initiatives to better 'manage' migration and make it the object of 'global governance' mechanisms. This implies a specific intellectual and political construction of migration as a genuinely global issue that deserves international attention. By critically analyzing the reports produced by international organisations on migration, this book sheds light on the way these actors frame migration and develop their recommendations on how it should be governed. In contrast to the dominant representations in many receiving countries, international migration narratives develop a positive appreciation of migration, viewed as a normal feature of a globalizing world and as a central element in development strategies. But this optimism comes along a depolitization of migration that obscures the contribution of international actors to contemporary political debates.

Antoine Pecoud is Professor of Sociology at the University of Paris 13, France. He holds a PhD in social anthropology from the University of Oxford. Between 2003 and 2012, he worked as a migration specialist for UNESCO. His research addresses the global politics of migration. He has co-edited several books, including Migration Without Borders (with P. de Guchteneire, 2007), The Politics of International Migration Management (with M. Geiger, 2010), and Disciplining the Transnational Mobility of People (with M. Geiger, 2013).