Everyday efforts of the International Organization for Migration to (re)create migration management in and through the Bali Process:an institutional work lens

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is a controversial actor in the field of migration – now a UN related agency of major size, yet sometimes criticised for serving a mobility control agenda, and its diffuse means of advancing migration management recognised as difficult to detect. Regional Consultative Processes are keenly championed by the IOM and constitute an increasingly popular avenue to progress migration policy dialogue, although how they work, how well, and for whom, is poorly understood. In this study, I use an institutional work lens to critically conceptualise the IOM’s activities in the Bali Process – the major RCP of the increasingly mobile Asia-Pacific – and to understand its effectiveness. Based on interviews with 22 informants and analysis of 136 archival documents, I argue that the IOM pursues political, technical, and cultural work to (re)create key aspects of the institution of migration management in and through the Bali Process. My institutional work lens also allows me to recognise structural constraints on the IOM’s efficacy, which I suggest frustrate its mobility promotion and migrant protection agendas in favour of control.