Migration Diplomacy in International Politics

Governments are using visas, labour agreements, and refugee policies as tools of negotiation and coercion, not just humanitarian gestures. The MIGDIPLO project investigates how states weaponise or reward cross-border mobility to advance their foreign policy goals. This matters because the conventional view treats migration as a domestic issue or a humanitarian crisis, overlooking how governments strategically link human movement to diplomatic leverage. Through fieldwork and comparative case studies across Asia and the Middle East, the research maps how states cooperate or exert pressure using migration-related tools—from restricting labour access to hosting refugees as bargaining chips. If successful, the project will reveal the hidden power asymmetries in international migration governance, showing how weaker states may be forced into concessions or how stronger states use mobility as a form of statecraft. This is fundamental social science: it does not promise immediate policy fixes, but it fills a gap in understanding how human mobility functions as a dimension of international relations. Deeper knowledge of these dynamics could eventually reshape how diplomats, international organisations, and civil society approach migration negotiations.