(Im-)Mobility Partnerships: Limits to EU Democracy Promotion through Mobility in the Mediterranean

At critical junctures, the European integration process has often found a new élan to invest in renovated cooperation frameworks of either domestic or international kind. The Arab Uprisings of 2011 were initially regarded as such a critical juncture for both domestic regime change and Euro-Mediterranean relations. The European Union (EU) has struggled to link its external migration governance with policies aimed at democratic governance promotion, assuming the mobility-democracy nexus as a crucial dimension of its relations with the Southern neighbour countries (SNCs). Yet, 10 years later, what prevails in the Southern neighbourhood is author-itarian resilience rather than political change or democratic transition. This chapter explores the links between EU efforts to support democracy in the Southern neighbourhood and EU external migration policy, focusing on mobility partnerships (MPs). MPs belong to what the EU has conceived as a ‘new’ democracy promotion approach epitomised in its Communication on a partnership for democracy and shared prosperity in the Southern Mediterranean (European Commission, 2011a). The underlying logic of this approach is to leverage the building and consolidation of democracy and rule of law through the EU’s conditional support for Mediterranean partners in terms of ‘markets, money and mobility.’