Actions and absence of reflexivity

In December 2018, at the time of our last observation, during the annual Partnership conference in Brussels, the Board presented the initial findings of a report based on an online survey (for the final report, see EMAB 2019). During the conference, the Board and its work were mentioned several times by the EU commissioner and other authorities. This produced immediate reactions on Twitter and other social media channels. Following the morning presentations from members of the Partnership, the Board presented its work in one of the many afternoon workshops. Civil society organizations and junior members of the Partnership were the main attendees. No commissioners or recognizable decision makers attended the workshop.

While the effect of the Board’s report within EU institutions is outside the timeframe of this article, its introduction section shows that after half a year of EMAB's work, emphasis on representation (as being a sample of) is still present.

Since its establishment in March 2018, the EMAB has sought to represent and defend the interests of migrants and refugees in Europe.

(EMAB 2019: 3)

The consultation demonstrates that a vast reservoir of expertise exists among migrant and refugee representatives. Currently, experts with migrant and minority backgrounds are severely underrepresented in EU institutions and decision-making.

(EMAB 2019: 8)

The report does not mention concerns about tokenism and the need to be taken seriously nor does it indicate training or strategies to deal with these issues. The introduction elaborates on the Board’s strengths, yet it fails to go beyond topics already widely discussed at research and policy levels.

The Board aims to amplify the perspectives of refugees and migrants in policy debate and contributes to improving integration policy by providing recommendations from local and grassroots organizations to policymakers on all relevant levels. [...] The consultation focused on eight areas: integration, access to the labor market, housing, higher education, participation, the situation of unaccompanied minors, microcredit, and the EU Action Plan on Return. Board members chose these topics as key issues based on the members’ first-hand experience.

(EMAB 2019: 3)

This statement explains that the topics in the report were chosen based on the direct experiences of the Board members. However, it does not mention the danger of having a mere symbolic presence of migrant organizations at local and EU levels. While there is an appeal for ‘structured participation’ (p. 8), the report’s conclusions do not add anything new to this matter.

From the EMAB's experience, governments and organizations need to regard participation as a right rather than a gift. To be meaningful, these efforts must include resources for participation, including for self-led refugee and migrant groups, so that newcomers can contribute to effective and sustainable policymaking.

(EMAB 2019: 8)

This report is important because it is the first of its kind at the European Commission level. However, it risks making the Board visible yet unable to trigger mechanisms that unsettle normalizing practices. The production of this document therefore presents a paradox: it delivers something that could potentially be meaningful for the group the EMAB advocates for, but at the same time, it gives a relatively limited amount of time to achieving one of its objectives (and mandate from the Partnership). Although strategies to bring about changes in the prevailing negative discourse on migration and refugees were present in all of our data, they are not present in the report. The mere production and promotion of this document does not mean that the Board will be able to make meaningful contributions to the policy issues the report addresses, since they face many other challenges.