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B2 The Production of Mobility Options: Migration and Border Management in the Framework of the Eastern Partnership of the European Union
The project examines the production of mobility options in the course of migration and border management between the European Union (EU) and two Eastern European states (Ukraine and Moldova). It examines negotiation processes within the framework of the Eastern Partnership (EaP) on the establishment and design of regulatory infrastructures. Thereby, migration-related categorizations and attributions are (re-)produced, which translate into entry, return and control practices towards individuals and groups. For this sub-project, regulatory infrastructures are understood to be of four types: (i) legally binding agreements between the EU and the EaP states, (ii) politically binding agreements, (iii) multilateral policy networks and (iv) operational cooperation formats. While (i) and (ii) set the political-legal framework for action, (iii) and (iv) primarily serve to implement it and to build capacity in migration and border management.
Since the beginning of the EaP in 2009, these processes have been taking place in a highly conflictuous environment. The Russian war of aggression from February 2022 must be considered a turning point, which led to changes in attributions, priorities and practices in migration and border management as well as to a change in EU policy with regard to the candidate status for Ukraine and Moldova. This raises the fundamental question of the influence of conflict dynamics on the production of migration.
The overarching question is examined on the basis of three sub-questions, each of which is linked to a theoretical perspective: (1) How and in what form are regulatory infrastructures on migration and border management negotiated, established and operationalized in the context of the EaP? (governance perspective); (2) What role do these infrastructures play in the production of migration-related categorizations and attributions as well as the associated mobility options? (reflexive migration studies); (3) To what extent are these processes shaped by regional conflict dynamics? (conflict studies). In addition to process tracing (question 1), the project uses content-analytical, interpretative and ethnographic methods (especially for questions 2) and 3) to investigate these questions.
