Highlight 20/2023 – Multi-level governance to improve migration management – Case Study with Mexico
Maxine Moreau, 3 July 2023
International meetings, such as the Global Forum on Migration and Development meeting, emphasize on the importance of sharing practices that governments have done in terms of migration management which has led me to question; What best practices does Mexico have in migration management and what more can be done and also looking at it from a multi-level governance perspective?
If one looks into migration management on a global level, the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly, and Regular Migration and its 21 objectives set an example and pathway to migration management practices on an international, regional, and national level. There are several best practices of migration management on a global level like MIDAS for example, which is a Migration Information and Data Analysis System developed by the IOM and is being used in several countries today effectively and is the most cost-effective way for migration management helping states to anticipate their migration management policies.
If we move into a regional level of migration management, the Americas for example, MIRPS is a perfect example of a best practice of migration management on a regional level by taking a whole-of-society approach including regional networks and organizations complimenting the national action plans to establish regional responsibility.
Looking into best practices of migration management on a national level, using Mexico as the case study, Beta Groups is a great example. The Beta Groups were implemented by a sector of the Mexican Government and provide humanitarian assistance, first aid, migrant assistance, and legal advice and have been proven to be effective. Once all these practices were analyzed, recommendations were suggested to make them better or how to expand them in the international realm such as an international mechanism of accountability.
Having considered the “mother document” setting the foundation for how to perform practices around migration management, which is the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, one can see that it is not a treaty. Hence, it is not binding and therefore, even if states sign this compact, they do not necessarily follow the suggestions that are given. The point of this example is it shows that in the realm of migration, there are no binding documents and all of it is really soft law, and I recommend that now that we passed the threshold of having enough documents on migration management but in soft law so the international scene can now strive for more hard law documents or binding documents on migrational governance.
I recommend there be an international mechanism of accountability that can be done by sovereign international organizations and institutions such as the IOM or the UNHCR where experts can go to the state and study their migration policies and practices and do an exhaustive revision and then make a report on what specifically can be done better in the practices and these same organizations can help monitor the progress and implement the recommendations stated.
Maxine Moreau, Highlight 20/2023 – Multi-level governance to improve migration management – Case Study with Mexico, 3 July 2023, available at www.meig.ch
The views expressed in the MEIG Highlights are personal to the authors and neither reflect the positions of the MEIG Programme nor those of the University of Geneva.