De-centring migration governance: the role of narratives

This special issue focuses on a critical analysis of migration narratives. Deconstructing narratives offers a way to uncover power relations and to show how migration governance is an inherently political process. Narratives of migration have been dominated by those of Western destination countries. There has been much less attention to the emigration, immigration or transit migrant narratives of other countries and world regions. This Special Issue contributes towards a critical de-centring of the narrative of international migration governance with a view of not only including those of origin and transit countries, but also those of a variety of stakeholders, and of different spatial contexts, both rural and urban. This paper presents the analytical framework that informs this special issue, discusses the related concepts of narrative, discourse and frame, the role of actors and the ways in which they interact in a public domain that is increasingly shaped by not only media but also social media discourses. The paper concludes with an outline of the contents of this issue.