The Diffusion of Migration Control Practice. Actors, Processes and Effects.

DoMiCoP develops new understandings and perspectives to study migration control in practice in the European Union by asking one main question: how and why do communities of practice develop and diffuse the knowledge required to put migration control into action?

Unlike the nexus between expert knowledge, epistemic communities and policy formulation, the nexus between everyday knowledge, communities of practice and policy implementation has not yet received systematic scholarly attention.

My project bridges that gap by focusing on intermediate arenas in which communities of practice take shape most notably the meetings and trainings that gather state and non-state actors involved in putting asylum, detention and removal into practice.

By building on field-based methodologies (interviews and participant observations), DoMiCoP sheds ethnographic light on the role that ‘learning from abroad’ plays in the implementation of migration control in the EU.

My project’s aim is threefold: 1) Identifying arenas at intermediate levels in which communities of practice take shape; 2) Analysing the communities of practice by focusing on the configurations of actors and organizations involved, the motivations underlying their involvement, the process of knowledge development in interaction, the conflicts and negotiations; 3) Revealing the role of non-state organizations (private for profit and not-for-profit).

From a theoretical point of view, this project goes beyond the classical view of the implementation as a test to assess the effectiveness of policy transfers towards an analysis of policy transfer at that level of policy-making.

From an empirical point of view, the project expands knowledge about less-studied venues of policy-making and provides original thick descriptions.

From a methodological point of view, the project engages with qualitative methods for the study of policy diffusion and aims at responding to their main challenges through participant observation.