In the last decades, the European Union and its member states have sought to control and reduce migration into the Schengen area through agreements on migration control with countries outside the EU, especially aimed at enforcing border controls and readmission. In this process, linkages to other issue areas have been created, namely cooperation on development cooperation, security, visa agreements as well as mobility for employment, education, and business. At the same time, little is known about so-called “third countries” governments’ rationale for engaging in these types of cooperation with Europe and societies’ influence on their governments’ foreign policy interests in the area of migration.

Hence, my PhD project aims to shed light on the African government’s interests in “migration diplomacy”, defined as diplomacy conducted concerning questions of migration policy, with European governments. Applying a liberal theoretical framework, governments’ preferences are understood as arising from the preferences of societal groups and domestic institutions regulating groups’ influences on the state’s government.

Applying a mixed-methods approach, a database of agreements on migration, readmission and border controls of member countries of the Rabat and Khartoum processes complemented with indicators for the saliency of migration in domestic politics has been created and analysed. Building on this, The Gambia has been chosen as a case study due to its transition back to democracy and the subsequent changes in its migration policies and diplomacy with Europe coupled with the relative importance of migration in national politics.