Building Trust and Showcasing Positive Impact: Principles for Effective Migration Partnerships

Migration Partnerships are increasingly popular instruments to support operational cooperation between the EU or individual Member States with partner countries. On 2 May I was invited to present the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) 's lessons learned on how to ensure successful cooperation.

Based upon 30 years of experience, the following five principles have proven to strengthen international cooperation on migration:

1.????????Invest in a comprehensive, tailor-made and long-term approach.

Migration Partnerships demand a commitment to a comprehensive, tailor-made and long-term approach in the engagement with partner countries. This is essential to create a sound basis of trust,?transcending?political or personnel changes.

How can you foster such an approach??Regular long-term engagement at bi-lateral level is obviously??supported by?embassies and migration envoys. EU-led migration partnerships need regular consultations and engagement from?Brussels and from EUDs. And in certain cases, partnership can profit from a specialised secretariat that engages both sides and organises activities bringing different officials together regularly on a multitude of topics.

This is done for example in the?EU-INDIA migration dialogue?via a European Commission funded project implemented by International Labour Organization and ICMPD since over 5 years. The project created the basis for a common understanding and consensus on several issues pertaining to migration and mobility. As a result of this longer term and intense cooperation we could diversify the ways of implementation, the topics and the national stakeholders. This led to concrete actions related to student mobility, labour migration and talent partnerships as well as the joint prevention of irregular migration.?

Another concrete example of longer term cooperation with partner countries is the?Training Institute on Migration Capacity Partnership for the Mediterranean.?The MCP MED TI?was established in 2021 and is funded by Denmark, Austria, Malta and the European Commission. As an EU-licensed educational institution, the Training Institute provides fully EU- accredited qualifications to support the professional development of frontline migration practitioners of partner countries in the MED. This approach places?EU-certified professionalisation at?the heart of cooperation to deliver?long-term operational and mutually beneficial solutions for migration partnerships.?

2.????????Showcase concrete positive impact in partner country and understand the real concerns and objectives

Partnerships are obviously all about mutual benefit. And especially when migration partnerships are of a very public nature – which is not always the case –?the benefits to the politicians and public in a partner country should be clear and easy to understand.?This is especially true when a perceived 'trade-off' linked to return is part of the agreement.?

This requires a?strong understanding of the partners' concerns and objectives. Considering the obvious fact that officials from?diverse cultural and institutional backgrounds?are involved in the discussions, understanding the needs goes beyond requesting or responding to wish lists. It requires an understanding of the?political, cultural and social?environment in which your interlocutors operate, and thus requires consultations with embassies and locally based organisations.

Migration partnerships can become very?comprehensive programmes?and include the expansion of economic cooperation, technology transfer, visa facilitation, diaspora relations, remittances, skills development, exchange programmes and cooperation on return. But - especially on bi-lateral level- they can also be supported by one or two targeted programmes, addressing specific needs of key counterparts.

The European Commission has created a special fund, the Migration Partnership Facility managed by ICMPD, which provides EU Member States with financial support and technical assistance to implement projects with priority partner countries on all topics related to migration, such as border management, integration, asylum, and specifically in the field of skills and labour mobility. The instrument is extremely?flexible, seeking to provide support where EU Member States need?strategic financial and/or practical assistance in their migration partnership work. It is very suited for targeted interventions on all aspect of migration cooperation.?

A?few of the labour migration examples include: The network of EU Labour Mobility Practitioners, which actively networks and shares good practices amongst peers, a tailor-made labour mobility programme for young ICT specialists from Nigeria to work in Lithuania and a circular mobility scheme which offers professional traineeship opportunities to young Moroccans and Tunisians in Northern Italy?

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3.????????A whole-of-policy umbrella?- which starts at home...

As mentioned, successful bilateral migration partnerships rest on?successful foreign policy and long-term commitment?while staying flexible on the issues to address. Obviously, such international relations happen daily and go far beyond migration.

While it is obviously complicated to ensure all EU MS and relevant EU institutions align on the content and objectives of a EU partnership agreement with a partner country, also bi-lateral migration partnerships require proper preparation and a whole-of-government approach. It is often as difficult to find?agreement on objectives and content of migration partnerships?at home?as it is with partner countries. Especially offering legal migration possibilities or linking broader bi-lateral cooperation and/or development objectives with return related objectives, can lead to intense discussions. Priorities between ministries for labour and social affairs, interior and foreign affairs, to name the three most obvious ones, differ. And a lack of clarity and common position hampers the comprehensiveness of the offer which can be on the table.?

The main challenge is that in those countries where?labour migration is needed there might be a risk that labour laws and agreements?don’t take migration objectives?on board. Labour markets need big numbers, and labour ministries and/or private sector might not be interested in making international recruitment dependent upon functioning readmission agreements for instance.

And then there is of course the regular mismatch between countries of origin of irregular migrants and preferred labour migration countries of origins.

Negotiators need to present an aligned position in order to avoid contradictory international cooperation. Obviously, there is no necessary contradiction between well-functioning migration, and economic and development cooperation between partners, but this can only be reached via?national dialogue.

4.????????Embrace and build upon the patchwork

Both the multilateral EU and the bi-lateral migration partnerships have added value. EU frameworks for cooperation on migration, whether on return and readmission, via Team Europe Initiatives and/or talent partnerships, are powerful partnerships and can deliver wide-ranging benefits for both the EU and the partner countries. One major challenge is the?complexity of aligning EU interests?and assuring ownership and commitment from the partners. The bilateral way is sometimes faster, more flexible, adaptable and able to offer concrete pathways. And in some cases, partner countries might prefer only bi-lateral agreements with individual MS.

The sometimes more flexible nature of funding from Member States also allows for quick pooling of resources. Austria, Denmark and Germany for example joined forces to fund the construction of two training centres for the Tunisian border guards whereas a combination of funding from Denmark, The Netherlands and Norway supports Türkiye in the establishment and implementation of a National Assisted Voluntary Return System.

Bi-lateral partnerships should preferably contribute in a positive way to possible negotiations taking place on EU level. Thus, the objectives of bilateral actions and agreements need to be aligned with the EU level. EMWP, MOCADEM as well as EUD-led coordination in partner countries should be used to keep each other informed and share lessons learned. And indeed, successful operational relationships build up at bi-lateral level can also be scaled up at EU level.?

5.????????Whole of route approaches are also valid for migration partnerships

While everyone talks about the whole-of-route approaches in migration cooperation, this often tends to be neglected when discussing migration partnerships. In order to efficiently embed and respond to partners' interests, it is important to support initiatives that also keep a focus on the impact of these partnerships on various migration routes. Indeed, sometimes migration partnerships can have a negative effect on neighbouring partners.

Therefore, programmes should preferably also keep an eye on facilitating possible cooperation between the partner country and its neighbours.?This can include furthering cooperation with the?neighbours of the partner, support for sub-regional initiatives, or facilitating cooperation between the partner country and countries of origin important for that partner. This supports both?alternative legal pathways?as well as?cooperation on preventing irregular movements and return from possible transit countries.?

An example can be drawn by the cooperation between Türkiye and Pakistan, supported by a combination of bi-lateral EU MS funds and the Budapest Process, as well as the?Dutch funded Niger-Nigeria?cooperation on the fight against trafficking in persons.

The convening power of the?regional migration dialogues, such as the Budapest Process, Prague Process , Khartoum Process and Rabat Process is another important instrument to foster partnerships. By connecting countries along the migration routes, they create networks and enable discussions from the?expert to ministerial levels.?Clear needs are voiced during dialogue events, where partners meet on?equal footing in an informal setting. These platforms can be used to share positive examples of the migration partnerships, shape a multi-lateral migration agenda and inform bilateral and EU-level discussions. The findings and conclusions reached within these dialogues can actively inform bilateral and EU-level partnership discussions.

One further element need to be considered. We need to always keep an eye on?why we talk about migration partnerships.?They are a tool for all partners involved to reach?sometimes very diverse migration objectives. This can be a combination of cooperation on return, halting irregular migration, diaspora cooperation, promoting mobility and visa facilitation etc. The partnerships themselves are not the objective. This sounds obvious, but has important consequences as it affects the nature of the 'partnership'. Sometimes, partnerships take the form of an elaborate set of documents, standard operating procedures, long term strategies etc. Or it can be a joint press statement supported by a rather generic MoU and/or a number of concrete projects.?The main issue is that the parties trust each other and have found a way to cooperate concretely and constructively.