Public Goods Theory and Migration Governance

Public goods are goods or services that are available to all members of a collective, regardless of payment, and that are not consumed in their use. International migration governance is often treated as a public good because all nation-states in a migration governance regime benefit when a migration process is addressed, even if they do not contribute to the solution, and the benefits of migration governance are not consumed by the individual state. This chapter explores how public goods theory explains issues in international migration governance. A public goods approach can explain non-compliance with a collective migration governance regime (free-riding). It addresses the problem of equitable burden sharing among providers of migration services. Public goods theory explains the effect of private benefits derived from collective governance of migration. It illustrates the problems of weakest-link participation where the total benefit of collective action is limited by the smallest contribution of the participants and the thresholds of services needed for migration governance to succeed. While collective action problems are often analysed through rational choice theory, it is important to note that the preferences for the outcomes of a migration governance process are socially constructed by state identities and situations. This chapter provides a foundation for using public goods theory to explain international migration governance.