The representation of migrant and refugee interests by European umbrella organisations: evidence of strain?

Abstract
This paper assesses how well supranational umbrella organisations represent the interests of their constituencies in European Union (EU) policy-making. I examine two prominent European umbrella organisations – The European Council on Refugees and Exiles and The European Network Against Racism – and their national member organisations. I hypothesise that, due to the notoriously diverse set of actors and issue priorities that comprise migrant inclusion, not all interests are represented equally well at the supranational level, leading to some degree of ‘representational strain’.

I first analyse the dimensions on which issue priorities are structured at both the umbrella and constituency levels, and secondly, the degree of congruence between the interests of national members and European umbrella organisations. Using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, the results show that these EU umbrella organisations do well overall, but experience some difficulty representing the full range of issues prioritised by their diverse membership.