Externalization of migration policy: Effects of EU and U.S. policy on Turkey and Mexico

With rising border externalization, third countries are increasingly taking on the burden of border control and migration management. Yet these states are not mere objects of border externalization policy, but implementers in their own right. This thesis investigates how two ‘transit states’—Turkey and Mexico—respond to EU and U.S. imposition of border externalization. It asks whether the policy priorities that Turkey and Mexico set and the selection of cooperative or coercive bargaining strategies differ according to the state with whom they are negotiating. Using a most different systems design, it hypothesizes that the identity of the border externalizer determines prioritization and strategy selection. Drawing on previous research about European external governance and the agency of states as participants in the border regime, this study adds to the literature by comparing Turkish and Mexican responses to border externalization to each other and identifying shared priorities and negotiation strategies. It finds that the preferences, priorities, and viewpoints of Mexican and Turkish leadership, not the identity of the externalizing state, are the primary determinants of priority-setting and strategy selection. Both states focused on securing aid and funding and improved treatment for their citizens. Turkey also prioritized the silencing of EU criticism on democratic backsliding, a domestic political priority. Turkey adopted a coercive bargaining strategy, while Mexico’s strategy shifted from cooperative to coercive over time