Migration Diplomacy in International Politics

Governments are using visas, labour deals, and refugee policies as bargaining chips to pressure or reward other countries. This project, MIGDIPLO, systematically studies how states weaponise or leverage human mobility as a tool of foreign policy—a practice the researchers call “migration diplomacy.” The problem is that international relations theory largely treats migration as a domestic issue or a humanitarian concern, not as a deliberate instrument of statecraft. By conducting fieldwork and comparative case studies across Asia and the Middle East, the project fills a gap in understanding how governments cooperate or coerce each other through migration-related tools, such as labour agreements, visa regimes, and refugee hosting. If successful, this research could reshape how policymakers and diplomats think about the strategic use of borders. It might lead to more nuanced international governance of human mobility, where countries recognise that a visa policy is not just an administrative procedure but a lever of power. The work is primarily fundamental social science—it maps the global politics of migration diplomacy to reveal power asymmetries and new forms of statecraft, with no immediate practical application. However, deeper understanding of these dynamics could eventually inform more effective and ethical foreign policies.