Politicisation and Depoliticisation of Migration: Discourses and Practices of the International Organisation for Migration

Abstract

The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) is a sparsely studied organisation, whose mandate includes, however, one of the most politicised issues currently present in Western countries.  This article outlines the history, doctrine and practices of the IOM.  We will show that although it has been a weak organisation for a long time, in a context where migratory policies don’t respond to a robust international regime, the IOM has been able to impose itself -from the 1990s- as an essential actor in globalization and the externalization of such policies.  The strategy of the IOM consists of depoliticising the challenges of the migratory phenomena, and of promoting the technical management of migrations, centering on the economic utility that these would represent for all parts (countries of origin, destination countries, and the migrants).  Such a strategy allows it to seem like a neutral intermediary, accepted as much by states, civil society and the private sector.  However, this depoliticisation finds itself accompanied by an alignment of the IOM with the immigration interests of Western countries, which makes highly political interventions possible, especially in the migrants’ countries of origin.