A problem that is often raised in research is that information campaigns aimed at discouraging irregular migration lose their effectiveness when legal routes are absent or difficult to access in practice. One of the main challenges in today's regulatory framework is that legal migration routes to the EU are often characterized by administrative complexity, uneven access and difficult-to-navigate regulations. This leads to irregular migration with extensive humanitarian, economic and political consequences. The use of irregular migration routes particularly affects already vulnerable groups. Research shows, for example, that women and children are at increased risk of exploitation, human trafficking and sexual violence during irregular migration.
The EU Pact on Migration and Asylum emphasizes the importance of legal migration pathways through cooperation with third countries, talent partnerships and resettlement programmes. Part of this is the establishment of several organizations in third countries with a mandate to provide information, advice and guidance on legal migration opportunities. Despite their potential, however, these operations face several challenges. A large number of legal migration pathways to the EU, unclear regulatory frameworks and complex application processes make it difficult to navigate the systems.
Delmi's project "Promoting Legal Migration to the EU: An analysis of Migrant Resource Centers and implications for Sweden" will contribute with new empirical knowledge about legal migration and information campaigns by focusing on locally implemented provision of information in countries that are particularly relevant to Swedish migration policy. It analyzes how the EU's overall ambitions are translated into specific national and local contexts, while identifying patterns and differences between countries that can provide guidance for future collaboration models in other third countries.
The project is funded by the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF), an initiative supporting EU member states in their work of implementing common asylum and migration policies.
