Paper short abstract:

Drawing on interviews conducted in Dakar and Niamey, this paper analyses the discourses of intermediaries involved in the dissemination of EU migration information campaigns in West Africa. It uncovers the conflicting rationalities mobilized by these actors to give meaning to their action.

Paper long abstract:

The European Union (EU) and its Member States have been funding « migration information campaigns (MICs) » to deter irregular immigration since the 1990s. These campaigns contribute to spread a sedentarist discourse towards third-country citizens labelled as « potential migrants » by trying to convince them to either stay and succeed « at home », or to return « voluntarily » to their country of origin. Drawing on qualitative interviews conducted in Dakar and Niamey between 2017 and 2021, this paper analyses the discourses of local and international intermediaries involved in the dissemination of MICs in West Africa. Doing so, it aims to uncover the conflicting rationalities mobilized by these actors to give meaning to their action, build coalitions and legitimize their role in a context of increased competition for the resources associated with the « migration industry » (Hernandes-Leon, 2013). Based on the theory of public policy instrumentation (Lascoumes & Le Gales, 2007), the paper shows that the three-step chain of delegation that characterizes the implementation of EU-funded MICs in West Africa offers successive levels of translation of their meanings and goals, thus providing the opportunity for many actors with divergent, or even conflicting, agendas to appropriate this instrument and exploit it « from below ». Ultimately, MICs represent a tool of « remote border control » (Zolberg, 1997) so ambiguous in its policy objective that it invites us to go beyond the question of (non) resistances (Hirschman, 1970; Scott, 1990) to the externalization of EU migration policy.