Europeanization through the Grapevine: Communication Gaps and the Role of International Organizations in Implementation Networks of EU External Migration Policy

Communication links are a key dimension for implementation of European Union (EU) policies in non-member states because EU influence abroad is otherwise severely hindered. Exploring project implementation of external migration policy in Morocco and Ukraine highlights the role of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees and particularly the International Organization for Migration for bridging and exploiting communication gaps between administrations in Brussels and ‘the field’.

Linking the Europeanization literature with insights on implementation, organizational sociology and social networks raises attention to the ‘grapevine’ of interorganizational communication structures that mediates EU influence and reveals manifold actor influence in Europeanization processes and on policy output beyond EU control.