Beyond Irregular Migration Governance: Zooming in on Migrants’ Agency

The loss of over a thousand human lives in the effort to cross the Mediterranean has once again drawn media and political attention to the challenges that the EU is facing in its efforts to govern irregular migration and asylum in the region. However, what seems to be still wanting is a clear understanding of what drives people to put their lives at risk in search of a better future. How do they organise their journey and how do they respond to changing policy practices? How much are they in control of their own destinies and how much do they accept contingency and risk?

This study investigates the dynamics of irregular migration and the ways in which different actors and factors affect the nature and direction of the flows within an overall restrictive EU and national migration policy regime.

The approach adopted is anthropocentric: it seeks to cast light on the governance of irregular migration starting not from the policies and the government actors, but rather zooming in on the migrant as the main agent in the migration process. The focus is on how the agency of the migrant plays out under specific structural conditions and through interaction with a number of intermediate factors that shape the migrant’s plans and actions.

Based on 331 interviews conducted during the period 2013-2015, this study explores the case of Greece in relation to the five largest groups of irregular migrants in the country, notably Albanians, Georgians, Ukrainians, Pakistanis and Afghans.