28 Nov 2024. ‘Ordering the chaos’: Global consultancy firms and the politics of EU migration control. Eleni Karageorgiou
28 November 2024
2 - 3 pm
In person
‘Ordering the chaos’: Global consultancy firms and the politics of EU migration control
Increased refugee arrivals to Europe in 2015, mainly from Syria, and the failure of the EU and its Member States to respond in a coherent and humane manner have exposed the European asylum system’s inherent limitations leading to what has been termed as ‘the European refugee crisis’. Measures such as the EU-Turkey deal became the flagship of the Union’s response, leading to humanitarian challenges including the dire reception conditions for asylum-seekers and refugees contained on the Greek islands. EU institutions turned to the US-based McKinsey & Company consultancy to advise on ways that would ‘optimize’ the operationalisation of the deal, and to, essentially, provide ‘order’ to the ‘chaos’ at its external borders. The paper examines the role of McKinsey in shaping the EU’s response to refugee movements and the broader implications for refugee protection and for the production of knowledge in the field. In doing so, it zooms into McKinsey’s involvement in the operation of hotspots and draws parallels with central Europe’s post-war camps and the everyday ordering practices imposed on their populations. The paper concludes that the firm’s role goes beyond a mere advisory intervention in view of a crisis situation; it extends to legitimising and normalising a set of managerial, emergency-driven law and policy measures that objectify refugees and depoliticize the process.