Tuesday, June 25, 2013
5.59 (PC Hoofthuis)
Since the beginning of 2000-s the EU has been involved in migration governance in Central Asia. A number of projects have been set up in order to deal with irregular migration, human and drug trafficking and to promote orderly human mobility. Some initiatives follow a narrow capacity-building approach, while others have a clear policy-transfer focus implying the existence of learning potential on the part of Central Asian migration and border services that would result in policy changes on national and regional level. However, quantity does not necessarily contribute to quality, and the efficiency of these programmes has been questioned. Among the reasons usually given to account for EU external governance failures in the region figure poor EU local expertise, “awkwardness” of states in the region, low level of regional cooperation and high conflict potential among Central Asian states. However, one more important factor is clearly overlooked by scholars. The EU’s migration governance efforts in this region have contributed to a growing number of international organisations (IOs) being directly involved in the field, while other important international donors have also started paying more attention to migration-related issues in the region. Looking at the EU’s migration governance initiatives in Central Asia this paper suggests that patterns of interaction developed among international actors in the region have a rather destructive impact on the EU’s declared policy transfer efforts and, more generally, on regional migration management.
