European Union Migration Strategy towards West Africa: the Origin and Outlook of ‘Mobility Partnerships’ with Cape Verde and Senegal

West African countries have recently emerged as key players in the formation of a common European Union migration policy. As important source and transit countries for some of the current migratory flows into Western Europe, the EU and its member states have engaged their assistance, or are in the process of initiating the cooperation, in returning unauthorised migrants to their countries or regions of origin. This paper examines these developments within the framework of „mobility partnerships‟ between the Union and two West African countries: Cape Verde and Senegal. The aim of these „mobility partnerships‟ is to facilitate circular migration whereby nationals of the signatory states are encouraged to use authorised routes as entry for studying, professional or technical training and employment. I will show that the decision by the member states to enter into these „mobility partnerships‟ was driven by the convergence of two interlinking concerns: EU‟s internal security and stability in West Africa; these concerns were then channelled into the broadly-defined task of „migration management‟. The paper illustrates that, however, the convergence in goals did not result in the adoption of a single approach for addressing these concerns. Rather, it will be shown that European migration strategy towards Cape Verde and Senegal is defined by two competing components – „repressive‟ and „progressive‟ – that instrumentalise very different policy tools (i.e. security and development). Whilst currently the repressive instruments are utilised, I will argue that the „mobility partnerships‟ possess the potential to increase the leverage EU could exercise vis-à-vis third countries and, thus, adds value to its existing foreign policy toolbox