Скачать или смотреть Policy elites’ theories of migration: migration frames & understandings of migrants’ decision-making

While migration scholars have produced a vast body of research on the causes and dynamics of migration, we know relatively little about how policy elites—those responsible for designing migration policies—perceive the reasons why people migrate.

This question is not only relevant for academic research but also for policymaking, as elites’ understandings of migration drivers, as well as the influence of policies and other factors on migrant decision-making, are likely to shape migration governance and policy design in practice. To address this gap, Carlota Minnella presents a study examining how European and African policy elites understand individuals’ decisions to migrate from Africa to Europe.

Taking a comparative approach, she theorises that policy elites’ perceptions of migration drivers may be influenced by their ‘situational contexts’—including their geographic location, institutional affiliations, and professional roles. She empirically investigates these questions using data from a novel online survey and conjoint experiment, conducted in collaboration with colleagues since October 2024.

The study surveys policy actors involved in migration governance across selected European countries (Italy, France, Germany, Spain, and Sweden), African countries (Morocco, Kenya, and Nigeria), and regional organisations in both Europe (e.g., the European Union) and Africa (e.g., the African Union). In this seminar, she discusses a paper analysing 254 survey responses, including 76 from African and 170 from European policy elites.

Carlotta Minnella shares preliminary findings from this ongoing project that already provides initial evidence that policy actors’ positionality directly and indirectly influences their understandings of migration drivers, particularly through their cognitive migration frames.