Moral, Ethical, and Realist Dilemmas of Transnational Governance of Migration

A core feature of the emerging international governance of migration is the reliance on knowledge and science in elaborating policies. Yet how scientists and researchers can productively contribute to policy making is unclear. This is the result of knowledge uncertainty, the complexity of migration dynamics, and the unintended and counterproductive consequences policies. If research cannot say what “should be done, ” it may tell policy makers what they definitively should not do. This article outlines some fundamental ethical norms that could serve this end, while warning that migration policies, like other policies, are often unable to live up even to the most minimal moral requirements. Keywords ethics, governance, migration Recent international and NGO documents are full of praise of the increasingly popular notion of international migration management (IMM). IMM, however, shows not only significant advantages, such as “going beyond the strictly national level, ” being “partly grounded in ethics ” and focusing on the “relationships between states”—but also sig-nificant disadvantages and limitations, particularly in the following three regards:1 (a) As all concepts of management, it is still an exclusively top down perspective. As such it does not in itself “assume going beyond states ” interests to take into account the interest of all—including sending states and migrants themselves, nor is it fit or favorable for doing so. Indeed, “notions such as management often imply a techno-cratic and depoliticized approach to decision making processes, thus raising the issue of liberal and democratic foundations of migration policies. ” In my view, the newl