International Organisations Are People, Too: IOM’s Role as Coordinator of the UN Migration Network and the Socialisation of International Organisations

In International Relations (IR) research on socialisation, International Organisations (IOs) have so far primarily been conceptualised as fora in which member states might be socialised. This paper argues that the process of socialisation can also take place at the systemic level of global migration and refugee governance. It takes as its case study the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), which for a long time has operated outside the United Nations (UN) system but in 2016 became a ‘related agency’ and was selected as the coordinator and secretariat of the new UN Network on Migration.<br><br>It is argued that IOs such as IOM can be socialised themselves through interaction with other IOs and stakeholders such as civil society as well as through the structure of the international system in which they operate and the role they play herein. This will be analysed in three temporal stages – pre-socialisation, the process of setting up the Network and the Network today. The analysis will include the relations to other stakeholders such as UNHCR and migrant civil society organisations as well as the self-perceptions of actors in the Network responsible for these relations. The analysis of the evolving role identities, norms and cultures of IOM in relation to the UN Network is based on extensive participant observation in online and in-person spaces, expert interviews, document and social media analysis.