@phdthesis{01HM6KT3WB1C67VM4F3B15YS1V,
  abstract     = {{This doctoral thesis investigates the interlinkages between development and migration in the European Union’s public policy, or what is commonly called the migration-development nexus. The EU migration-development nexus is puzzling from various perspectives: First, it is riddled with inconsistencies and incoherencies, as it fuses two opposing policy objectives and logics into one policy framework. Second, the research and evidence on the migration-development nexus do not suggest one unequivocal public policy approach because the empirical evidence on the causal relations between development and migration points in very different directions. In this context, others have argued that the EU migration-development nexus rests on inaccurate causal assumptions. This leads to questions regarding the nexus’ connection to research and evidence. Third, the EU migration-development nexus amalgamates EU migration policy and EU development cooperation into one framework, which are, however, two very different policy fields inhabited by two very different kinds of policy actors. Against this backdrop, this dissertation argues that the EU migration-development nexus is the outcome of the competition and coordination between two traditionally separate coalitions of policy actors: the EU development policy community and the EU migration policy community. The thesis thus investigates the EU migration-development nexus through an actor-centred perspective. 

To make sense of this empirical puzzle and to operationalise the actor-centred lens, the dissertation employs the theoretical perspective of the advocacy coalition framework. The advocacy coalition framework (ACF) is a public policy theory originally developed in the context of US natural resources policy and has also been applied to European contexts. However, it still represents a novel perspective to study policy-making at the level of the EU. From the viewpoint of the ACF, the EU migration-development nexus is the outcome of two competing advocacy coalitions, groups of policy actors holding similar policy positions (conceptualised as beliefs) and regularly interacting in pursuit of common policy goals. The policy goals that coalitions pursue are their beliefs. In the ACF, beliefs refer to both actors’ policy positions as well as public policies themselves. The EU migration-development nexus is thus the result of the amalgamation of two very different and traditionally separate EU policy fields, EU development policy and EU migration policy, and their respective advocacy coalitions, the development cooperation advocacy coalition and the migration governance advocacy coalition. Both coalitions hold very different beliefs on migration and development. Due to its control over the legislative as well as executive formal legal authority, the migration governance coalition is stronger than the development cooperation coalition. Hence, in the EU migration-development nexus, the migration governance coalition is the majority coalition, and the development cooperation coalition is the minority coalition. The latter, however, controls most funding instruments that finance the EU migration-development nexus. Moreover, because the EU political system is generally consensus-oriented, the majority coalition’s influence is mitigated and the minority coalition’s influence is strengthened. Hence, both coalitions are able to translate some or all of their beliefs into the migration-development nexus. This results in a nexus amalgamating highly different beliefs, leading to the abovementioned inconsistencies and the inconclusive and elusive connection between the nexus and scholarly research.}},
  author       = {{Berger, Alexandra Birgit}},
  keywords     = {{European Union,Migration-development nexus,EU development policy,EU migration policy,Advocacy Coalition Framework}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{VII, 313}},
  publisher    = {{Europa-Universität Flensburg ; Ghent University. Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences}},
  school       = {{Ghent University}},
  title        = {{The migration-development nexus as an EU public policy framework : an advocacy coalition framework perspective}},
  year         = {{2024}},
}