Welcome to a migration seminar titled Shifting Grounds - EU external migration policy and the unraveling of multilateralism in the Sahel.

Speaker

Johan Ekstedt, The Institute for European Studies, Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB).

Abstract

In this seminar, I will present preliminary findings from the NAVIGATOR-project. This four-year research initiative examines how the EU engages with the increasingly complex and contested institutional landscape of global governance. The seminar will focus in particular on the EU’s externalization of migration control in the Sahel—a region that has played a central role in the EU’s external migration agenda for decades. Significant efforts have been made to regulate migration in this region, especially in Niger, a key transit country. These interventions have taken place within a multilateral framework and are closely tied to broader agendas related to security, development aid, and geopolitics.

While the system is officially presented as a rules-based framework designed to enable cooperation and promote respect for human rights, in practice it has often been instrumentalized to serve the EU’s objective of reducing irregular migration. As a result, certain interventions have had negative consequences for individual migrants and have contributed to political instability in countries of origin.

Today, the EU’s influence in the Sahel is rapidly declining, raising a set of pressing challenges for EU institutions and member states. This paper explores how the EU is adapting to this shifting context and considers how its policies in the region may evolve in the near future, particularly with respect to migration control. The analysis is based on interviews with key stakeholders in the region and draws on theoretical perspectives from the broader literature on multilateralism.

Attendance

This is a hybrid seminar, you are welcome to connect via Zoom or join us at MIM seminar room, floor 9, Niagara, Nordenskiöldsgatan 1. To attend on campus, please gather by the reception area at 13.05.
If you have any questions, send an email to mim@mau.se.

Zoom

Link will be available closer to the seminar date.

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