Migration governance through trade agreements – a two-level analysis

Author(s) : Paula Hoffmeyer-Zlotnik, Sandra Lavenex, Philipp Lutz

Source : https://www.austriaca.at/0xc1aa5572_0x003fc5c0#page=170

Abstract:

Deepening trade relations and increasing human mobility are two of the most visible consequences of heightened globalization. The international mobility of persons is both a consequence of and a prerequisite for the global trade of goods and services (Poot/Strutt 2010), but migration policies – broadly understood as policies that regulate the mobility and stay of non-nationals – continue to be seen as a bastion of national sovereignty (Dauvergne 2014, 92). Although the two UN compacts concluded in 2018 on migration and refugees emphasize the need for closer international cooperation, states have opposed the adoption of international commitments when it comes to admitting labor migrants in particular. The only exception are free movement regimes adopted at the regional level and a limited set of commitments building on the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) from 1995 that facilitates the mobility of “natural persons” moving for commercial purposes (Dawson 2013; Mattoo/Carzaniga 2003; Trachtman 2009). This chapter asks: how do such commitments facilitate the crossing of borders, and how do they (re)draw boundaries between different types of migrants?