Revisiting the Migration–Development Nexus: From Social Networks and Remittances to Markets for Migration Control

Abstract

Abstract In this paper, I explore the nexus between migration, development and security in South–North migration through an analysis of certain discursive constructions in current migration policy debates; in particular, the migration–development nexus that attempts to make migration work for development in the global South, and the migration–security nexus that legitimizes stricter border controls and migration management in the global North. Shifting geopolitical concerns have changed the balance between the two nexuses over time, but by and large policy debates have been driven by the interests of Northern governments, whereby “development” has been reduced to an instrument of migration policy and “security” to an issue of keeping unwanted and potentially dangerous migratory flows out. The security situation of journeying migrants may make it to the policy debating tables of international organizations and forums, but has thus far not radically changed migration policy. I suggest analysing the nexus constructions through an analytical lens capable of encompassingbothmigrants and their border‐spanning social networks, on the one hand, and migration policies and state responses aimed at controlling human mobility, on the other. The starting point for this analytical endeavour is the intersection between the migration industry, understood as the broad array of both legal and clandestine actors linked to the facilitation of international migration, and the growing markets for migration management both at the inter‐state level and in the increased use of private and commercial agents for control purposes.

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