Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration for Whom? A Struggle over Discourses and Interests in the Global Compact for Migration

Although non-binding, the newly adopted Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM), fills a void in global governance. Previously, migration has lacked global institutional norms and efforts to create such norms have been opposed by western states. Yet, the GCM is adopted at a time when nationalism is potent. This thesis offers a Critical Discourse Analysis of statements conveyed by states and institutions involved in the GCM. By outlining dominant discourses and interests, it seeks to understand and re-politicize the Migration Compact. A combined theoretical framework based on institutional theory and productive power allows for analysing ways in which discourse influence political issue-linkages and relations of power. The thesis finds that the conflicts associated with international migration remain, but that actors have adopted a depoliticising ‘management’ discourse which facilitates cooperation. However, interests align over international cooperation through discursively linking development to decreased irregular migration. Thus, states in the ‘south’ are able to request development cooperation in exchange for controlling migration for states in the ‘north’, who fear the political dilemma caused by unwanted arrivals. In addition, the findings suggest that power is produced for the International Organization for Migration, which is now the main institution in the UN that ‘manages’ non-refugee migration