Making migration and migration policy decisions amidst societal transformations (PACES)

• How do changes in society, individual life experiences and migration policy shape decisions to stay or to migrate over time and across countries?

• How can this knowledge inform future migration policies and governance?

In the last few decades migration has been framed as a challenge for the European Union (EU) and its Member States. Furthermore, EU and national migration policymakers have become preoccupied with predicting and controlling migration to Europe. This has led to an increase of financial instruments, strategies and initiatives to ‘mitigate’ migration. However, these policy interventions are not based on scientific evidence about the drivers of migration decisions.

Instead, migration policies are underpinned by assumptions that migration is essentially driven by poverty and inequality and that migrants, particularly from African countries, want to migrate and settle in Europe in large numbers. In fact, even when migrants flee violence and conflict their motives are questioned because asylum seekers also seek improvements in their socioeconomic status.

Project aims

PACES aims to encourage migration policymakers to adopt migration science as the basis for migration policymaking. To achieve this goal, PACES sets four objectives:

1. Identify the strengths and limitations of current migration policies and governance by analysing the theories of change underpinning European migration policies;
2. Examine the interaction between societal changes, individual life course factors and (migration) policies in shaping decisions to stay or migrate and the decision-making processes along the migration trajectory;
3. Identify how migration, and non-migration policies more broadly, can either facilitate migration or enable sustainable and desirable ‘staying’;
4. Develop ideas for possible alternative migration initiatives that account for complex processes of migration decision-making, while considering constraints in migration policymaking. Co-participatory approaches will enable the incorporation of the diverse needs of migrants and involve the perspectives of stakeholders, including employer organizations, unions and populations at origin and destination.

Why is this project relevant?

The PACES project responds to the need for more effective migration policies that are forward-looking.

Furthermore, PACES has the potential to reduce some of the unexpected and counterproductive consequences of current migration policies, such as irregular migration and the marginalization of migrant populations. The project will do so by generating new evidence on migration decision-making and engaging with policymakers in frequent working sessions.

The objective of those working sessions is to discuss tangible alternative policy initiatives, their consequences and their viability (for instance based on public support).

Timeline

PACES is a 40-month project. It will run from 1 March 2023 to 1 July 2026.