Understanding migration power in international studies

Where and how does power operate in the governance of international migration? Migrants and refugees are increasingly used for strategic purposes in international politics, but scholarship on this matter has yet to engage thoroughly with the central international relations concept of power. This article draws on Barnett and Duvall’s thinking to propose a well-rounded picture of the multiple forms of power in, through, or against migration that are mobilized by states and other international actors. We thus conceptualize “migration power” across two relational dimensions: the nature of the social relations between the actors involved (interactive or constitutive), and the specificity of such relations (direct or diffuse). This leads to distinguishing between four complementary types—compulsory, institutional, structural, and productive migration power—and to identifying the main causal mechanisms through which they operate. We argue that power in international migration governance is diffuse, wielded by a wide range of actors, unevenly spread across its different dimensions, and yet, deeply asymmetrical in its distribution—along Global North vs. South as well as state vs. non-state lines. Beyond academia, the recognition of this complexity can encourage more reflexivity in policymaking and more sensitivity among practitioners