Understanding Migration Power in International Studies

• In Event: Colonialism, Neocolonialism, Borders, and Migration

Abstract

Labour and forced migration is increasingly used for strategic purposes in international relations, but the relevant literature has yet to produce a usable framework of how migration may be used in power relations. Drawing on Barnett and Duvall (2005), this paper conceptualises “migration power” across two analytical dimensions: the nature of the social relations underpinning power, which may be interactive or constitutive, and the specificity of such social relations, which may range from direct to more diffuse. We produce a framework of four types of migration power – compulsory, institutional, structural, and productive. We argue that such a framework enables a nuanced understanding of how migration operates in power struggles across states, thereby infusing the burgeoning literature on migration diplomacy with the capacity to produce mid-level theorisation. We continue to put the theory to test in the cases of Turkey-Greece and Morocco-Spain. Ultimately, we demonstrate how the concept of “migration power” links migration to long-standing debates in international relations and illustrates the underlying dynamics across current, and historical, attempts at the instrumentalisation of labour and forced migration.

Author

• Gerasimos Tsourapas, University of Glasgow