Risk governance approach to migration: a viable alternative to precautionary management

Migration can offer both significant benefits and costs. This article reviews and synthesises approaches and related critiques on managing migration. Precautionary approaches to migration are guided by securitisation and governmentality paradigms that imply a potential impediment, whereby models are informed by security- and threat-nexus (cost), making the paradigm one-dimensional. The need for a holistic model for consistent migration management is frequently expressed in migration literature. Here, inclusive risk governance is proposed as a viable alternative model that can produce better policy outcomes by fulfilling four conditions: (a) enhancing inclusion and participation; (b) appraising costs and benefits; (c) considering the impact on all affected stakeholders; and (d) facilitating constructive deliberation. Incorporating these elements to support coherent goals makes the model a valid enabler, corresponding better to the diversity of the migration policy context. This model is demonstrated through a critical reading of the literature that has suggested that migration is managed through securitisation, governmentality, and risk.