Global Compact for Migration Research Agenda
As a continuation and extension of his Global Mobility Regimes project, Koslowski plans to analyze the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration and its implications for world politics, consider the Compact’s potential consequences for policymaking, explore how the Compact is viewed in various regions of the world, examine global and regional frameworks for implementation as well as begin to assess UN member state efforts to implement commitments in the Compact.
Koslowski’s perspective on the Global Compact for Migration has been initially developed in a paper presented at the September 2019 American Political Science Association Meeting and is forthcoming in International Migration entitled “International Travel Security and the Global Compacts on Refugees and Migration.” In this paper, Koslowski maintains that the Global Compact for Migration is a synthetic document that pulls together commitments that are similar to provisions in international conventions, UN Security Council resolutions, technical standards, regional accords and other international agreements adopted by various subsets of UN member states (e.g., the European Union and participants in regional consultative processes, such as the Colombo Process) and had been extensively discussed by UN member states during a decade’s worth of meetings on international cooperation at the global level, including High-Level Dialogues of the UN General Assembly, the Global Forum on Migration and Development and meetings sponsored by the International Organization for Migration. The Global Compact for Migration links cooperation to secure international travel to cooperation on labor migration by virtue of an overwhelming majority of the world’s states signing onto an agreement with commitments to both issue areas. For the first time, commitments by states to improve travel document security, collect and share traveler data and cooperate on border enforcement are in the same international instrument as commitments to labor mobility, ethical recruitment of migrant workers, recognition of their skills and cheaper transfer of remittances. The Global Compact’s abundance of commitments to increase cooperation on border control and securing international travel rendered a document that migration destination states were much more likely to adopt, especially since many of the commitments were similar to provisions in existing international instruments they had already agreed to. At the same time, a fair share of migration origin states would be more receptive a package laden with border security provisions if that meant improving the conditions of their nationals working abroad through migration destination states’ agreement to the Global Compact. In effect, migrant origin states have won commitments from migrant destination states for improving conditions of guestworkers by agreeing to increase cooperation on international travel security aimed at reducing irregular migration. The actual impact of the Global Compactfor Migration on border and travel security, refugee protection and labor migration will depend greatly on whether and how states implement the Compact, given that the Global Compact is non-binding and that states may take actions to realize some of the Compact's commitments, but not others, and that they may select from among a range of actions to realize those commitments that they do choose to implement. This paper lays the foundation for analysis of Global Compact for Migration implementation and highlights its significance.
Koslowski took the initiative to form the Academic Council on the Global Compact for Migration with a handful of fellow migration scholars at the American Political Science Association annual meeting and he serves as the Council's coordinator. Koslowski hopes to network with other academics, IGOs and NGOs through the Council in order to further basic research and policy analysis related to the Global Compact for Migration. He is especailly interested in supporting the collection of relevant data, as articulated in objective 1 of the Compact. Koslowski is particularly interested in the collection and publication of UN member state administrative data. In accord with the Global Mobility Regimes framework, he has long sought the annual number of legal entries (for any length of time or purpose) into every UN member state - the measure of total global mobility (as opposed to international migration as defined by the UN). Koslowski wishes to collaborate with UN agencies, member states and other academics to help produce this statistic for total global mobility.
Koslowski has begun to consider implications of the Global Compact for regions with a working paper that examines the relationship between cooperation within the European Union on migration with the development of cooperation on migration at the global level and was presented at Europe’s Role in Global Migration Governance, University of Mainz, July 4-5, 2019.
Koslowski hopes to conduct expert interviews with scholars, policy analysts and relevant government officials in order to gain a broader perspective on the Global Compact and its implementation and do so while a short-term visiting scholar at migration studies centers in various regions of the world.
Publications:
2019
Rey Koslowski, “International Travel Security and the Global Compacts on Refugees and Migration,” International Migration, first published online September 12, 2019 https://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12639
Working Papers:
Rey Koslowski, “European Migration Management, the UN Global Compact for Migration and the Globalization of Border Controls” (tentative title).
Presentations and participation in meetings:
2019
Rey Koslowski, “International Travel Security and the Global Compacts on Migration and Refugees,” The American Political Science Association Meeting (APSA), Washington, DC, Aug. 29-Sept. 1, 2019.
Rey Koslowski, “Implications of the UN Global Compact for Migration for European Border Control and Migration Management,” Europe’s Role in Global Migration Governance, University of Mainz, July 4-5, 2019.
Participated in “Second informal dialogue with civil society and other non-governmental stakeholders to determine the precise modalities and organizational aspects of the International Migration Review Forum (IMRF), UN Headquarters, 17 April 2019.
2018
Participated in “Informal interactive multi-stakeholder hearing on the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration,” UN Headquarters, 21 May 2018.
Rey Koslowski, “Think Global Mobility Instead of International Migration,” 2018 Global Shifts Colloquium: Prospects for Institutional and Policy Reform on International Migration and Refugees, Perry World House, University of Pennsylvania, April 9-10, 2018.
2017
Participated in “Informal interactive multi-stakeholder hearing on the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration,” UN Headquarters, New York, 18 December 2017.
Participated in “Contributions of migrants and diasporas to all dimensions of sustainable development, including remittances and portability of earned benefits,” UN Headquarters, New York, 24-25 July 2017
Participated in “15th annual coordination meeting on international migration” UN Headquarters, New York 16 -17 February 2017
2016
Participated in “Informal interactive multi-stakeholder hearing,” UN Headquarters, New York, 18 July 2016.
Participated in “14th annual coordination meeting on international migration” UN Headquarters, New York, 25-26 February 2016.