Who Rules over Migrants? Autocratic Tools in Migration Policies

Abstract Across the world, political leaders – both democratic and autocratic –, are becoming more creative in mobilizing policy tools that circumvent judicial review or parliamentary oversight to enact migration policies in line with their economic, geopolitical or ideological goals. Such autocratic policy tools , as we call them, concentrate the power to make laws and rules in one hand, the hand that also executes the law. This is exemplified by straightforward ‘rule by decree’ situations, but also by the use of emergency powers or by the enactment of de facto policies that entirely lack a legal basis. The ten articles in this Special Issue bridge insights from Law and Political Science to examine such autocratic policy tools in migration policy across the globe. In this introduction, we (1) conceptualize the notion of autocratic policy tools and discuss implications for debates on autocratization and rule of law decline, (2) map the variety of such tools to showcase that they are mobilized by both democratic and autocratic regimes as well as for both restrictive and permissive goals, and (3) explore why autocratic policy tools are problematic by nature, irrespective of the content of the policy. Hereby, this Special Issue provides valuable insights for scholars to recognize those practices in other policy areas and to advance insights into autocratization and rule of law decay more broadly.