Labor migrants as political leverage: migration interdependence and coercion in the Mediterranean

Tsourapas, G. (2018) Labor migrants as political leverage: migration interdependence and coercion in the Mediterranean. International Studies Quarterly, 62(2), pp. 383-395. (doi: 10.1093/isq/sqx088)

Abstract

How do states attempt to use their position as destinations for labor migration to influence sending states, and under what conditions do they succeed? I argue that economically driven cross-border mobility generates reciprocal political economy effects on sending and host states. That is, it produces migration interdependence. Host states may leverage their position against a sending state by either deploying strategies of restriction—curbing remittances, strengthening immigration controls, or both—or displacement—forcefully expelling citizens of the sending state. These strategies’ success depends on whether the sending state is vulnerable to the political economy costs incurred by host states’ strategy, namely if it is unable to absorb them domestically and cannot procure the support of alternative host states. I also contend that displacement strategies involve higher costs than restriction efforts and are therefore more likely to succeed. I demonstrate my claims through a least-likely, two-case study design of Libyan and Jordanian coercive migration diplomacy against Egypt in the aftermath of the Arab Spring. I examine how two weaker Arab states leveraged their position against Egypt, a stronger state but one vulnerable to migration interdependence, through the restriction and displacement of Egyptian migrants.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: This work was supported by the Council for British Research in the Levant [2017/18 Pilot Study Award] and by a BA/Leverhulme Small Research Grant [grant number SG163246].
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Tsourapas, Professor Gerasimos
• Authors: Tsourapas, G.
• Subjects: J Political Science > JV Colonies and colonization. Emigration and immigration. International migration; J Political Science > JZ International relations
• College/School: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Politics
• Journal Name: International Studies Quarterly
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• ISSN: 0020-8833
• ISSN (Online): 1468-2478
• Published Online: 26 April 2018
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2018 The Author
• First Published: First published in International Studies Quarterly 62(2): 383-395
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License