Skills Mobility Partnerships: Investigating Experimentalist Governance Features in Cross-Border Labour Markets

Labour migration across borders is considered a substantial global phenomenon, with many countries facing labour shortages in specific sectors while others have high unemployment rates. Skills Mobility Partnerships (SMPs) have emerged as a proposed approach for facilitating cross-border labour markets between countries of origin and destination through pilot labour migration programs. The SMPs are promoted by different international organisations (IOM, ILO, OECD) as a 'triple win' solution benefiting countries of origin, destination, and migrants. However, in academic literature, SMPs are tackled from a border externalisation perspective to control irregular migration. The EU, in particular, faces challenges with irregular migration and labour shortages, while the neighbouring Global South countries seek regular migration channels. This paper aims to investigate the different conceptual approaches of SMPs and how they are implemented in practice and examine whether there is evidence for experimentalist governance features. Following Sabel and Zeitlin (2012), experimentalist governance involves multi-level architecture and is understood as continuous goal-setting and revision based on learning from implementing various approaches. The methodological approach relies on a multiple case study design targeting 16 identified mobility partnerships between EU member states and non-EU countries. The paper aims to review existing literature on the different SMPs’ conceptual approaches and the 16 implemented SMPs combined with utilising primary sources including policy documents and expert interviews in light of the experimentalist governance conceptual framework. The data analysis approach will follow a hybrid qualitative framework and thematic analysis method. Finally, this paper aims to contribute to the literature on labour migration governance by understanding how SMPs could contribute to establishing infrastructure for cross-border labour markets through an experimentalist governance approach.