Ordering Migration

Abstract

This chapter argues that a core objective of international migration narratives (IMN) is to order migration. Faced with what they perceive as a chaotic reality, they aim at disciplining migration and at transforming it into an orderly process. This ordering effort is twofold: on a discursive or cognitive level, IMN provide a comprehensive analysis of migration that supports a global and orderly picture of what migration is all about and of how it should be governed; then, on an operational level, IMN aim at influencing states’ behaviours to translate this ‘paper order’ into reality.