Migration Governance

The specific focus of the paper is on migration governance, which became a priority for the Afghan government after displacement drastically increased in both scope and complexity from 2015 onwards. With the influx of hundreds of thousands of returnees from Pakistan as well as internal displacement of more than one million Afghans threatening to overwhelm the country’s management capacity and service delivery systems, a comprehensive response to migration crisis is urgently needed to mitigate its effects during a volatile phase of state-building in Afghanistan. To what degree the current policy and institutional framework in place for migration governance can deliver this, and which gaps persist, is the research question guiding the study. In working with displacement on a subject that stretches across policy fields and public service sectors, the study however also reflects on the general governance dynamics that shape the formation of the state in Afghanistan.