What Is Resilience in Migration Governance? a Concept across Sectors and Jurisdictions

Resilience is a new buzzword in the European Union’s external governance approach and is currently being probed for migration governance, too. The EU global strategy mainly borrows from the resilience concept which emerged in the context of food crises (Montpellier Panel 2012). Whilst migration features both as a potential strategy for individuals to act resiliently in stressed environments and as a potential source of stress for host regions, researchers are yet to assess systematically the extent to and methods by which resilience assessments from the agricultural development sector can be used to govern migration and the effects of migratory movements. How (well) do resilience concepts transfer into the migration domain conceptually and methodologically? So far, studies discuss migratory resilience with regard to climate change (Geddes 2015), but the complex interaction of e.g. labor markets, economies, social protection systems, public health, crime and security or populist dynamics both in sending and hosting regions are not yet addressed in one umbrella resilience assessment.

This paper specifies the conceptual groundwork required as first step towards developing critical awareness for the advantages, modification prerequisites, but also the potential pitfalls of adopting resilience concepts from other sectors or places in the EU’s migration governance. We examine the cross-sectoral transfer history of the resilience paradigm within the EU, and investigate the cross-jurisdictional applications of resilience paradigms in migration governance as potential blue prints for carving out further the EU’s approach.