Platform to explore solutions to irregular migration

Despite increasingly stringent border security policies employed around the world, irregular migration continues in high numbers. Driven by political, economic, security, social and environmental factors, combined with decreasing visa access for people in the Global South, irregular migration creates challenges for all involved - the migrants embarking on dangerous journeys and living in an irregular situation; receiving, transit and origin countries; and humanitarian actors.

While current policy approaches to address irregular migration are each important for migration management, they are limited in their ability to curb irregular migration in the long term.

To support governments as they grapple with irregular migration, and to foster innovation in policies and practices aimed at sustainable, long-term solutions to address it, PoliSync has launched a multi-stakeholder platform for governments, city actors, international organisations, humanitarian and advocacy NGOs, researchers and other relevant actors.

The utility & limits of current policies to address irregular migration

Irregular migration poses significant challenges for all involved: migrants facing death and human rights violations during perilous journeys; migrants living in an irregular situation, often denied basic rights; countries investing enormous resources to receive, host and process undocumented migrants; humanitarian and human rights actors investing resources to support undocumented migrants in distress; and origin countries and returned migrants, both grappling with the economic/social reintegration of returned migrants.

An initial review of the literature and actors working to address irregular migration shows five non-mutually exclusive policy approaches intended to address it: border security, including border controls, anti-smuggling/trafficking, detention/deportation; regularisation and voluntary returns; humanitarian aid and human rights advocacy; sustainable development & conflict resolution in countries of origin; and creating more regular, safe pathways for migration through bi-lateral skills agreements. Each is important for migration management but the rising irregular migration shows they are limited in their ability to curb irregular migration in the long term.

For a detailed analysis of the challenges and policy limits, see our Background Brief “Exploring solutions to irregular migration.”

Our solution: Platform to explore solutions to irregular migration

To support governments as they grapple with irregular migration, and to foster innovation in policies and practices aimed at sustainable, long-term solutions to address it, PoliSync has launched a multi-stakeholder platform for governments, city actors, international organisations, humanitarian and advocacy NGOs, researchers and other relevant actors.

The platform will focus on five initial activities intended to drive innovation, pool knowledge, foster trust, build capacity, share practices and create opportunities for collaboration across sectors:

1) Take stock of the academic and grey literature examining policy approaches to address irregular migration;
2) Map and categorise key actors working on different aspects of irregular migration, and their activities;
3) Build a multi-stakeholder platform and network for collaborative policy innovation efforts;
4) Launch a policy dialogue series examining different policy approaches to address irregular migration; and
5) Foster the sharing of best practices, resources through policy communications and community engagement.

Who is this platform for?

  • Governments, including from city to international levels

  • Migration-related international organisations

  • Non-governmental organisations, including humanitarian actors and advocacy organisations

  • Civil society actors and networks, including migrant groups

  • Experts

Interested in getting involved? Get in touch through the contact us form and we’ll get back to you.

Platform objectives:

1. Empower stakeholder and community engagement on innovative solutions to address irregular migration

2. Improve awareness, knowledge exchange and collaboration between policy, NGO, humanitarian and civil society actors

3. Foster trust, build capacity and further evidence-based research into driving policy innovations

4. Support diverse and robust policy innovations to address irregular migration

Meet the Team

  • Dr. Cecilia Cannon

    PLATFORM DIRECTOR

  • Jamilah Bahay

    STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT STRATEGIST

  • Naledi Hollbruegge

    DATA VIZ STRATEGIST