Synergy or disparity? Czech experts' insights on migration and development policies

Abstract

This article discusses the promotion of policy coherence of migration and development policies that have figured high on the agenda of international organizations and the European Union but have been hardly explored in the context of Central and Eastern Europe. Based on in‐depth interviews with 40 Czech experts on migration and development, we identified three key contradictions: (i) The increasing prominence of a security perspective on both migration and development policies and the lack of coherence between these policies in practice; (ii) The tension between the national and transnational perspectives guiding migration policymaking and development policies; and (iii) The lack of reflection on crucial issues, such as remittances and brain drain, in the dominant paradigm of labour migration. We argue that the findings on (in)coherence between Czech migration and development policies help us understand policy responses of Central and Eastern European governments since the 2015 ‘migration crisis’.