Author: Johan Ekstedt (Université libre de Bruxelles)

Abstract: This paper examines the role of the European Union and European actors in global migration governance within a highly fragmented, informal, and contested institutional landscape. Drawing on the search cost framework, the analysis assesses key global and regional migration governance institutions along three dimensions—formality, openness, and normativity—to map how authority, coordination, and influence are exercised in the absence of binding multilateral regulation. The findings demonstrate that the EU neither simply adapts to this fragmented environment nor unilaterally shapes it. Instead, it co-produces an evolving governance architecture through differentiated, case-specific engagement strategies that leverage funding, set agendas, build coalitions, and involve participation in semi-formal and informal forums. Regional processes such as the Rabat and Khartoum Processes emerge as particularly important vehicles for EU external influence and norm diffusion, highlighting the regionalisation of global migration governance. While these modes of engagement enhance flexibility and strategic reach, they also shift influence toward arenas with limited democratic accountability. The paper concludes that informality and regionalisation are not constraints on EU action but core mechanisms through which global migration governance is negotiated, raising persistent tensions between effectiveness, legitimacy, and accountability.

Keywords: Global migration governance, European Union, informality, regionalisation, search costs

Citation Recommendation: Ekstedt, Johan. (2026). “Governing Migration Without a Regime: The EU and the Co-Production of Global Migration Governance”, NAVIGATOR working paper, WP. 7, D.2 (February), pp. 1-27. https://eunav.eu/