*Originally published in 2023 and preserved as part of our archive project. E-International Relations is free to read. We rely on reader support to make this possible.

Daniel Naujoks is the director of the International Organization & UN Studies Specialization at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. He is the author of Migration, Citizenship, and Development (2013, Oxford University Press) and his research focuses on global governance, migration, refugees, citizenship, multilateralism, and sustainable development. Dr. Naujoks regularly advises governments and international organizations on issues of migration, diaspora engagement, human rights, displacement, and development. He edits the blog Multilateralism in Action and tweets at @danaujoks.

Where do you see the most exciting research/debates happening in your field?

When it comes to the study of International Organizations (IOs) and the United Nations (UN), I see interesting new debates emerging on the role of IOs at the country level. Until now, scholars have focused predominately on the global level and how states act within IOs or how international bureaucracies shape global discussions and outcomes. A promising trend in IO studies now emphasizes the role IOs play at the country level, where they advocate, advise, and support governments and work directly with stakeholders. The dynamics of IOs at the country level differ significantly from processes at the global level, including when it comes to interagency cooperation, collaborations with civil society, and political influence from donors. For example, since 1997, almost 500 UN Development Assistance Frameworks and Cooperation Frameworks have been adopted by UN country teams. But we’re only slowly starting to research what they are, how they are formulated, and what impacts they have. In fact, one of my major research projects looks into how migration and displacement have been incorporated in all existing UN cooperation frameworks and what are key determinants of such incorporation. This ‘local turn’ of IO and UN studies offers many fascinating new avenues for research and I’m sure we will see a lot more work in this area.

In the area of migration and international relations, we see a significant and much-needed increase in scholarly interest in the Global South. This includes how governments use migrant and refugee flows to bargain with countries in the Global North for more development assistance. Or how countries in the Global North try to externalize their borders through international cooperation with key transit countries, often in ways that are problematic from a human rights perspective. Human mobility scholarship also focuses increasingly on understanding displacement and migration policy in developing countries––that host a large share of the world’s migrants and refugees.

Lastly, in 2018, the global community adopted two non-binding Global Compacts, namely the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (GCM) and the Global Compact on Refugees (GCR). Beyond the narrow confines of public international law, scholars are looking into various ways in which certain norm-entrepreneurs, including IOs and civil society, as well as processes and platforms, such as national voluntary reviews ahead of the International Migration Review Forum, the GCM review platform, or specific pledges ahead of the corresponding process of the GCR, the Global Refugee Forum, create and diffuse norms around migration and refugee policy.

How has the way you understand the world changed over time, and what (or who) prompted the most significant shifts in your thinking?

My general belief in the workings of the world has been relatively constant. I’m a constructivist and I believe in the power of social norms in the international arena. And I’m an optimist. I’ve always been a bit impatient with the speed of change but having witnessed the direction of change over time I know that some adjustments in deeply held norms about who we are as ‘nations’ take time to take root. I was recently asked to write about how I predict migration governance in 75 years. Of course, any prediction about the distant future is riddled with uncertainty. But looking back at achievements in global governance, migration policy, and human rights norms over the past 75 years and looking at broader, long-term trends, I feel optimistic that we will be moving in the right direction. For this reason, it’s important that we work to create better multilateral processes at the global and regional levels with meaningful incentive structures and accountability mechanisms.

How have migration policies and movement in the Global South been impacted by the influence of former colonial powers? How might countries impacted by colonial pasts counter this and shift to more progressive policies?

Immigration and emigration movements and policies in the Global South are heavily influenced by the actions of colonial powers before decolonization, as well as by continuing activities by, and social networks in, former colonial powers. In some countries, such as in India, today’s immigration........

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