Co-development as a long-term strategy to reduce pressure for emigration: a comparative study of migration policies in NAFTA and the EU towards sending countries

The topic for this thesis is the package of policies referred to as “Co-development”. Co-development or Cooperation for Development comprises the actions of formal institutions at the national and regional levels as well as those of non-governmental organisations which are designed to stem immigration by fostering development in the source-country. The thesis examines co-development by comparing the migratory regimes in the European-Mediterranean Partnership and the North American Free Trade Agreement areas, focusing on Spain and the United States as host countries, Mexico, and Morocco as primarily sending - but increasingly transit and host - countries. The starting point for the thesis are the two trade oriented development programmes under way in each region - the MEDA Programme in Morocco and the Plan Puebla Panamá in Mexico-Central America. The thesis critically examines the “development-migration” nexus, particularly conventional ways of analysing the relationship between migration and development, and the way in which these models inform official policies for trade and development. The comparison draws upon a Multi-level Governance analytical framework which examines the interaction of state and non-state actors at the three main levels (Macro, Meso, and Micro) where Co-development takes places. The analysis of the multi-level interaction allows understanding the vertical or horisontal interrelation among actors in the process of co-development. Moreover, it allows a fuller understanding of the contribution of “bottom up” as much as “top down” co-development. Within this framework, the migrant emerges as a central actor - a transnational agent who is able to foster co-development by comparison with many national and international programmes