Migration, civil society and global governance : an introduction to the global issue

This chapter discusses dilemmas of global civic activism from a neo-Gramscianperspective as both subordinated and a potential challenge to hegemonicneoliberal order. With the investigational focus on the People’s Global Actionon Migration, Development and Human Rights (PGA) event, the space forcivic activism relating to the intergovernmental Global Forum on Migrationand Development (GFMD) and its associated Civil Society Days and CommonSpace is analysed. The article asks how the future of PGA activism may beinfluenced by its formalized representation within the GFMD. It posits thatthe PGA has landed at a crossroad between becoming a global activistcounterhegemonic movement to a dominant neoliberal migration policy andbeing captured in a tokenist subordinated inclusion within a truncated‘invited space’ for interchange. This ambiguous position jeopardizes itsimpact on global migration governance, discussed with reference to theoriesof transversal politics and issues of counterhegemonic alliance-building