The Migration-Development Nexus in the European Union

This book researches the migration-development nexus in the foreign policies of the European Union. The author conceptualizes the nexus as a public policy framework situated at the intersection of home affairs and foreign affairs and studies it from the perspective of the advocacy coalition framework. Amalgamating two diverse traditional EU policy fields, the nexus brings together two very different kinds of policy actors: Development policy actors and migration policy actors. These actors have different interests and goals and represent fundamentally different policy logics, therefore forming different policy communities. The amalgamation of these two policy logics in the migration-development nexus ultimately explains the inherent inconsistencies, but also the success of the nexus as an EU public policy.

Alexandra Berger researches the EU’s foreign policy, development cooperation, and migration policy and received her doctorate from the European University of Flensburg, Germany, and the University of Ghent in Belgium in 2024. She is currently working in domestic development policy.