RESPOND

With the goal of enhancing the governance capacity and policy coherence of the EU, its member states and neighbours, RESPOND is a comprehensive study of migration governance in the wake of the 2015 Refugee Crisis.  Bringing together 14 partners from 7 disciplines, the project probes policy-making processes and policy (in)coherence through comparative research in source, transit and destination countries.

RESPOND analyzes migration governance across macro (transnational, national) meso (sub-national/local) and micro-levels (refugees/migrants) by applying an an innovative research methodology utilizing legal and policy analysis, comparative historical analysis, political claims analysis, socio-economic and cultural analysis, longitudinal survey analysis, interview based analysis, and photovoice techniques.  It focuses in-depth on:  (1) Border management and security, (2) International refugee protection, (3) Reception policies, (4) Integration policies, and (5) Conflicting Europeanization and externalization.  We use these themes to examine multi-level governance while tackling the troubling question of the role of forced migration in precipitating increasing disorder in Europe.  In contrast to much research undertaken on governance processes at a single level of analysis, RESPOND’s multilevel, multi-method approach shows the co-constitutive relationship between policy and practice among actors at all three levels:  it highlights the understudied role of meso-level officials;  and it shines a light on the activities of non-governmental actors int eh face of policy vacuums.  Ultimately, RESPOND will show which migration governance policies really work and how migrants and officials are making-do in the too-frequent absences of coherent policies.

Adhering to a refugee-centred approach throughout, RESPOND will bring insights to citizenship, gender and integration studies, ensure direct benefit to refugee communities and provide a basis for more effective policy development.

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