Following the so-called ‘refugee crisis’ in 2015-16, a growing number of studies has investigated public preferences for migration and asylum policies in Europe and other high-income countries (e.g. Jeannet et al., 2021; Alrababa’h et al., 2021; Bansak et al., 2016) including attitudes to cross-country cooperation on migration and refugee protection (see, for example, Vranceanu et al. 2023 on public support for EU-Turkey cooperation on migration; and Bansak et al., 2020, Heizmann & Ziller, 2020, and Van Hooteghem et al., 2020 on public support for cooperation on refugee protection between European countries). Focusing on what types of policies would find the most support among voters, and what drives voters’ preferences vis-à-vis policies for regulating migration and refugee protection, these existing studies suggest that voters’ preferences in this policy area are driven by a mix of socio-tropic ‘national interest’ considerations and moral norms relating to refugee protection (Jeannet et al., 2023; Vrânceanu et al., 2023).
We add to this literature by focusing on public preferences for migration cooperation between European and African countries. Conducting surveys and conjoint experiments in four African countries (Senegal, Nigeria, Morocco, Tunisia) and six European countries (France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Sweden, Czech Republic) allows us to investigate public policy preferences on “both sides” of a potential agreement and also potential cross-countries differences within Europe and Africa. We focus on one potentially important aspect of migration policy preferences that has received relatively little attention, namely, the role of policy conditionalities in shaping public support for international cooperation on migration. Policy conditionalities refer to specific interactions between different measures within the multi-dimensional policy framework of migration and refugee policy cooperation agreements. These agreements involve regulating aspects of migrant admission and rights, alongside broader non-migration measures such as financial aid from destination countries to influence migration flows.
Migration policy cooperation between European and African countries has a longstanding history, intensifying since the early 2000s (Maru and Ruhs, 2022). Despite varying emphasis on core objectives, the fundamental aims and policy dimensions have remained consistent over the past two decades. Our analysis centers on five core dimensions: financial assistance, enhanced border controls, legal pathways, return and readmission of irregular migrants, and migrant rights protection.
Our study analyzes (1) what policy dimensions shape public support for migration cooperation and (2) whether these policy dimensions differ between countries and sides of the cooperation agreement, in our case African and European countries. We also plan to investigate (3) whether policy conditionalities shape voters’ preferences and (4) to what extent policy conditionalities (such as reciprocity) can help create a more ‘common ground’ in policy preferences across migrant destination and origin/transit countries. In particular, we are interested in exploring whether strengthening protections of migrant rights can encourage greater acceptance of more restrictive policy features of the cooperation including those that are, on their own, perceived to go against perceived national interests.
Co-authors: Lena Detlefsen (Kiel Institute for the World Economy) and Martin Ruhs (EUI)
