International migration has become a salient concern in global politics but there is also significant variation in governance responses. By focusing on four key world regions — Europe, North America, South America, and Southeast Asia — this book explores the underlying factors that shape governance responses. Rather than focusing on the more visible outputs or outcomes of governance processes such as laws and policies, this book opens the 'black box' of migration governance to reveal how understandings and representations of the causes and effects of migration held by key governance actors in these four regions have powerful effects, not only on governance outcomes, but more broadly on the prospects for global migration governance. By doing so, the book shows how migration governance systems through their operation and effects can shape migration — in its various forms — and the lived experiences of migrants

Unlike many other trans-boundary policy areas, international migration lacks coherent global governance. There is no UN migration organization and states have signed relatively few multilateral treaties on migration. Instead sovereign states generally decide their own immigration policies. However, given the growing politicisation of migration and the recognition that states cannot always address migration in isolation from one another, a debate has emerged about what type of international institutions and cooperation are required to meet the challenges of international migration. Until now, though, that emerging debate on global migration governance has lacked a clear analytical understanding of what global migration governance actually is, the politics underlying it, and the basis on which we can make claims about what 'better' migration governance might look like. In order to address this gap, the book brings together a group of the world's leading experts on migration to consider the global governance of different aspects of migration. The chapters offer an accessible introduction to the global governance of low-skilled labour migration, high-skilled labour migration, irregular migration, lifestyle migration, international travel, refugees, internally displaced persons, human trafficking and smuggling, diaspora, remittances, and root causes. Each of the chapters explores the three same broad questions: What, institutionally, is the global governance of migration in that area? Why, politically, does that type of governance exist? How, normatively, can we ground claims about the type of global governance that should exist in that area? Collectively, the chapters enhance our understanding of the international politics of migration and set out a vision for international cooperation on migration.

This book analyses the dynamics of regional migration governance and accounts for why, how and with what effects states cooperate with each other in diverse forms of regional grouping on aspects of international migration, displacement and mobility. The book develops a framework for analysis of comparative regional migration governance to support a distinct and truly global approach accounting for developments in Africa, Asia-Pacific, Central Asia, Europe, the Middle East, North America and South America and the many and varying forms that regional arrangements can take in these regions.

This book opens the 'black box' of migration governance, and focuses on the people who make, shape or influence policy.

International treaties, conventions, and organizations to protect refugees were established in the aftermath of World War II to protect people escaping targeted persecution by their own governments. However, the nature of cross-border displacement has transformed dramatically since then. Such threats as environmental change, food insecurity, and generalized violence force massive numbers of people to flee states that are unable or unwilling to ensure their basic rights, as do conditions in failed and fragile states that make possible human rights deprivations. Because these reasons do not meet the legal understanding of persecution, the victims of these circumstances are not usually recognized as "refugees," preventing current institutions from ensuring their protection.In this book, Alexander Betts develops the concept of "survival migration" to highlight the crisis in which these people find themselves. Examining flight from three of the most fragile states in Africa—Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Somalia—Betts explains variation in institutional responses across the neighboring host states. There is massive inconsistency. Some survival migrants are offered asylum as refugees; others are rounded up, detained, and deported, often in brutal conditions. The inadequacies of the current refugee regime are a disaster for human rights and gravely threaten international security. In Survival Migration, Betts outlines these failings, illustrates the enormous human suffering that results, and argues strongly for an expansion of protected categories.

Understanding Global Migration offers scholars a groundbreaking account of emerging migration states around the globe, especially in the Global South. Leading scholars of migration have collaborated to provide a birds-eye view of migration interdependence. Understanding Global Migration proposes a new typology of migration states, identifying multiple ideal types beyond the classical liberal type. Much of the world's migration has been to countries in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and South America. The authors assembled here account for diverse histories of colonialism, development, and identity in shaping migration policy. This book provides a truly global look at the dilemmas of migration governance: Will migration be destabilizing, or will it lead to greater openness and human development? The answer depends on the capacity of states to manage migration, especially their willingness to respect the rights of the ever-growing portion of the world's population that is on the move.

How have immigration and diversity shaped urban life and local governance? The Routledge Handbook to the Governance of Migration and Diversity in Cities focuses on the ways migration and diversity have transformed cities, and how cities have responded to the challenges and opportunities offered. Strengthening the relevance of the city as a crucial category for the study of migration policy and migration flows, the book is divided into five parts: • Migration, history and urban life • Local politics and political participation • Local policies of migration and diversity • Superdiverse cities • Divided cities and border cities. Grounded in the European debate on "the local turn" in the study of migration policy, as contrasted to the more traditional focus on the nation-state, the handbook also brings together contributions from North America, South America, Asia and the Middle East and contributors from a wide range of disciplines. It is a valuable resource for students and scholars working in political science, policy studies, history, sociology, urban studies and geography.