The Current Scheme to Manage Migration between Europe and Cape Verde: Promoter of Development or Tool for Border Closure?

This paper analyses cooperation between Europe and Cape Verde in the field of migration policy. Such cooperation fits into a broader trend that sees migrant‐receiving countries engage in agreements with sending states, in a way that is expected to bring together Western states' concerns with the control of migration and less‐developed countries' needs in terms of development aid and access to regular migration opportunities. The Republic of Cape Verde has signed and is negotiating several treaties and arrangements, especially with the European Union and its member states. A key factor here is Cape Verde's long‐standing reliance on emigration and the consequently problematic reduction of emigration opportunities in a world that is closing its borders to foreign (regular) workforce. A closer look at the cooperation dynamics between sending and receiving countries reveals, however, that management schemes are potentially biased in favour of developed countries, which would then use them to secure the cooperation of sending and/or transit countries to their own political objectives. The purpose of this paper is therefore to assess whether traditional emigration countries such as Cape Verde can reasonably expect such bilateral regimes of migration management to fit their interests or if this kind of cooperation will merely establish a basis for supporting European Union‐driven political agenda. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.