This paper seeks to set a new research agenda for the analysis of international organizations (IOs) as key objects of study in the broader research field of international migration governance. It addresses such key questions as: why, how and with what effects do IOs impact upon and shape international migration governance in the absence of a global migration regime? Such questions shift the focus from international governance as a (changing) structure to ‘international governors’ as sources of agency and, consequently, to the outcomes that flow from interactions between various agents. The paper argues that these activities significantly contribute to global migration governance which denotes a complex structure of power relations between various governors (states, IOs, NGOs, community actors) that try to impact migration policy-making either globally or regionally mostly through influencing the governments of destination and transit countries.
