Beyond the WDR's state-centrism: Multi-level migration governance and migrant exclusion

Abstract

The 2023 World Development Report, titled Migrants, Refugees, and Societies, analyses the state policies, laws, and labour market forces that determine the ability of migrants to improve their social and economic wellbeing. However, in its analysis the report adopts a state-centric view, focusing predominantly on the state as the primary actor in the management of migration, thereby eliding a thorough analysis of how formal and informal institutions at the supranational and subnational levels impact the lives of migrants beyond citizenship. In this response, we instead argue for multi-scalar analysis and evaluation of the policies that affect migrants. We illustrate how citizenship and access to its associated benefits are mediated at these multiple levels and bring compounding factors such as race, class, gender, religion, skill-level, and rural or urban origin, among others, into view. This allows for a fuller analysis of the processes that shape migrant's experiences and lives.