Protecting Migrants, Curbing Irregular Migration?

Migration-related information and- awareness campaigns are defined as international public information campaigns, implemented in countries of origin with a relatively high number of ‘irregular’ emigrants. These campaigns aim at informing potential migrants on the dangers of the irregular journey, the difficulties of undocumented life in destination countries, or the futility of the journey as they are likely to be sent back to their country of origin. While the popularity of these campaigns has significantly increased among European member states, it is unclear whether they are effective for curbing irregular migration to the European Union (Schans & Optekamp, 2016). This research analyses the evaluation discourses surrounding the Migrants as Messengers campaign and the Preventing Unsafe Migration from Albania Towards European Member State campaign (Fischer, 1999). Migrants as Messengers is focused on irregular migration from West Africa to the European Union and is funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, whereas the Albanian information campaigns are funded by the Dutch Repatriation & Departure Service. The Migrants as Messengers evaluation is far more advanced in measuring the impact of the campaign activities on the risk perception and migration intention of potential migrants. However, the evaluation of the IOM campaign in Albania allows for a more critical perspective on the relevance of information campaigns for irregular migration to the European Union. These diverging policy evaluations can be explained by institutional factors: the involved governance actors adhere to different organisational cultures, form different types of networks with other actors, and pursue different policy interests. Although the evaluations did not prove that the campaigns were effective for the goal of curbing irregular migration, the information campaigns are still deemed successful enough by the involved stakeholders to continue with follow-up campaigns. Campaigns are deemed valuable because they can protect people on the move, because they can inform the public on job opportunities in the country, and because they can facilitate diplomatic relationships between the sending and receiving state. Furthermore, a relatively low number of potential migrants needs to refrain from irregularly migrating to the Netherlands in order to make an information campaign efficient. This research therefore draws attention to the fact that information campaigns should be analysed beyond the goal of changing migrant behaviour, in order to grasp their growing popularity in migration policy