Challenges of migration for foreign policy and its instrumentalization

I.P. Tsapenko

doi:10.17976/jpps/2025.01.10

Challenges of migration for foreign policy and its instrumentalization

Tsapenko I.P.,

Doctor of Economics, Primakov National Research Institute of World Economy and International Relations, Moscow, Russia, tsapenko@imemo.ru

elibrary_id: 72045 | ORCID: 0000-0001-6065-790X | RESEARCHER_ID: B-1993-2017

Article received: 2024.04.20 16:42. Accepted: 2024.08.13 16:42

DOI: 10.17976/jpps/2025.01.10
EDN: FRXCDO

Rubric: Orbis terrarum

For citation:

Tsapenko I.P. Challenges of migration for foreign policy and its instrumentalization. – Polis. Political Studies. 2025. No. 1. https://doi.org/10.17976/jpps/2025.01.10. EDN: FRXCDO (In Russ.)

Abstract

Modern migration processes generate serious challenges for international relations, becoming at the same time a significant object and instrument of interaction between states. The multiplication of international migrants, growth of diasporas, increase in the cross-border mobility potential of the population, intensification of spontaneous movements, spread of migration crises, etc., occurring in the context of deepening the migration interdependence of states, affect both the amplified exposure and vulnerability of states to the effects of migration, and the expansion of opportunities to use the latter as a means of achieving political and other goals. As a result, the links between population movements and international relations are being strengthened, and migration policy is being integrated with foreign policy. In the turbulent conditions of the transformation of the world order, international tension and hybrid wars, the arsenal of which is expanding due to the weaponization of non-military means of geopolitical struggle, including migration means, the use of migration as a tool of coercion is expanding. In modern foreign literature, a narrow, essentially one-sided definition of migration instrumentalization has been established, used to characterize cases when a political actor intentionally and artificially provokes the emergence of large migration flows and, manipulating them, tries to exert pressure on the target state to achieve foreign policy goals. In a broad sense of the word, the foreign policy instrumentalization of migration processes, combining the use of various, both cooperative and coercive, including unconventional means, can be understood as a set of measures to influence migration processes motivated by foreign policy interests and pursuing foreign policy goals. In the modern practice of coercive instrumentalization of migration, along with the manipulation of massive spontaneous flows, carried out mainly by the states of the global South, migration sanctions are increasingly being applied in the North against countries that do not obey the rules of the outgoing world order. The destabilizing potential and effectiveness of such measures in terms of achieving the set goals varies greatly depending on their type and specific context.

Keywords

cross-border migration of the population, migration diplomacy, instrumentalization, weaponization, securitization of migration, migration policy, foreign policy, international relations, hybrid wars.

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