Federica Zardo

This article introduces the MigFund dataset, a comprehensive resource that traces the European Union’s financial commitments to migration and asylum from 2000 to 2023. Developed in response to long-standing calls to ‘follow the money’ in EU migration governance, the dataset records over 1,700 funding measures across internal and external programmes, disaggregated by sub-policy area, target group, geographic scope, and degree of restrictiveness. Drawing on the literature on policy tools, the article conceptualises EU funding as an expression of institutional preferences, bureaucratic negotiation and strategic framing, shaping and shaped by evolving policy priorities. A key contribution of the dataset is its coding of each measure along a restrictive-to-open continuum, enabling researchers to assess how EU financial tools promote either mobility and protection or containment and control. The article details the dataset’s structure and coding logic and presents key descriptive findings on the evolution of EU funding, showing a steady expansion of resources and increasing complexity in the programming landscape. Through this empirical lens, the article invites a reconsideration of financial instruments as autonomous policy tools, capable of reinforcing, offsetting or reconfiguring broader migration policy logics. MigFund thus provides a basis for macro- and meso-level analyses of funds in EU studies, migration studies and public policy more broadly.

This article examines how the meaning and function of “learning” have evolved over nearly three decades of Euro-Mediterranean cooperation on migration and how this evolution has shaped migration governance in the region. It conceptualises discourse as a technology of learning that performs three interrelated functions: encoding lessons from past experience; shaping learning by framing problems and coordinating expectations and simulating learning through claims of responsiveness and legitimacy. Drawing on more than 300 speeches and strategic policy documents, the article shows that what counts as learning has changed substantially over time. In the mid-1990s, learning was largely exploratory and centred on developing a shared language on migration through dialogue and mutual familiarisation. With the launch of the European Neighbourhood Policy, this open-ended approach was gradually replaced by a more hierarchical understanding of learning, closely tied to monitoring, evaluation and performance assessment. After the Arab uprisings, despite a brief period of reflection, learning shifted further into operational settings. Projects, indicators and audits increasingly came to stand in for learning itself, narrowing its scope and reinforcing existing policy approaches.

This special issue explores migration governance through funding while providing unique empirical insights into its design, rationale, use and implications. We embed the rise of funding as a governance tool within the broader debate on the externalization of migration control and the role of conditionality in inter-state relations. We then inductively identify three distinct types of migration governance through funding: earmarking, conditionality, and the whole of government approach. Finally, we explore the impact of governance through funding on migration governance and on diplomacy more broadly, highlighting three dimensions: accountability, transparency, and effectiveness.

This chapter highlights the role of different sources of uncertainty in migration forecasting and scenario-setting. We identify different dimensions of uncertainty and the limits of our knowledge with respect to migration concepts, definitions, data and measurement, and drivers, and also selected features, including the presence of regular migration patterns across space, time and the life course. We then discuss the knowable and unknowable aspects of migration, with a focus on complex configurations of migration drivers, human agency and policies. Based on our typology of migration uncertainty introduced in Chapter 2, we present practical ways of addressing the related challenges in setting migration scenarios and deriving migration forecasts. We conclude with recommendations for some possible pragmatic, good-enough solutions that can be implemented in practice.

Migration inherently embodies uncertainty and dynamism, eluding precise conceptualization, definition and measurement. Embedded within intricate migration driver environments and shaped by the diverse agency of actors involved—prospective migrants, intermediaries and policymakers—migration defies easy prediction and effective policy response. This inherent complexity within international migration flows poses immediate and long‐term governance challenges. This paper delves into the impact of migration‐related uncertainty on European migration governance. We scrutinize how uncertainty shapes migration policy responses and investigate the roles of key actors in assessing and communicating various facets of migration‐related uncertainty. Employing illustrative cases—the Syrian refugee situation and environmentally induced migration—we uncover how uncertainty influences European migration governance and policymaking. Our study sheds light on the interplay between migration uncertainty and governance processes. The findings emphasize the need for nuanced policy approaches to navigate the complexities inherent in international migration processes.

Coordinative Europeanisation is a powerful frame to explain the rapid response of EU institutions in times of permanent emergency. So far, though, little is known about sub-national actors’ role in this process. Moving away from a state-centric approach, this article investigates the role of sub-national actors through the case study of the digital provision of services to asylum seekers. Given the field’s high salience and state-centric nature, this article elucidates the critical role of European sub-national actors, particularly at the municipality level, to accelerate the digital provision of services to refugees. Comparing 3 European cities (Paris, Palermo and Malaga), we argue that sub-national actors can play a role in coordinative Europeanisation and that 2 main mechanisms may enable it. In the cases observed, discursive coordination around humanitarian duty facilitated the emergence of similar digital solutions across countries. Subsequently, horizontal and vertical networking was used by sub-national actors to legitimise their actions and enhance their anchoring in processes of coordinative Europeanisation.

This article analyses the categorical and spatial linkages within migration policy areas across 31 European countries from 1990 to 2020, examining over 5000 migration policy changes. It reveals distinct patterns of policy diffusion across space and contrasting trends between different migration policy areas. While migrant admission policies have experienced a trend towards liberalisation over the past three decades, border and return policies have become more restrictive. The research identifies spatial policy dependencies primarily in border enforcement, with some presence in admission, integration, and return policies. The findings underscore the structured nature of the European migration policy mix and contribute to a deeper understanding of the complexities and interdependencies within migration governance.