Business-led governance of migration and development: a challenge for civil society

The chapter addresses the making of transnational migration governance as part and parcel of an enduring hegemonic pursuit of neoliberal globalization, involving global governance making, asymmetric development governance and the shift from multilateral to multistakeholder global governance. It argues that the inclusion of migration into Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the endorsement of the Global Compact for Safe and Orderly Migration (GCM), which emphasize a solidarity-based, ‘whole-of-society’ approach to migration, development, migrants’ and human rights, have been hijacked by the corporate-driven ‘multistakeholder’ approach, propelled by the World Economic Forum (WEF). This new development approach, also embraced by the global development agencies, projects multi-stakeholder governance, a voluntary global cooperation of selected state and non-state actors and Global Risk Management (GRM) framework to control the implementation of sustainable development. The main question is if and how CSOs promote a comprehensive, solidarity-based approach to migration and development against the challenges of business actors as main development agents and their managerial plan. To answer the questions, the chapter critically reviews various initiatives and processes leading to global migration governance, focusing on corporate stakeholders’ impact on emerging business-friendly governance of migration and development, including institutional, organizational, and discursive framing of emerging multistakeholder migration governance. The concluding section discusses possibilities to restrict TNC-driven multistakeholder governance of globalization and establish an equitable governance framework that promotes migrants’ rights and international solidarity.