The Invisibility Bargain: Governance Networks and Migrant Human Security

Migrants fleeing economic hardship or violence are entitled to a range of protections and rights under domestic and international law, yet they are often denied such protections in practice. In an era of mass migration and restrictive responses, migrant acceptance is often contingent on the expectation that they contribute economically to the host country while remaining politically and socially invisible. These unwritten expectations, which Jeffrey D. Pugh calls the "invisibility bargain", produce a precarious status in which migrants' visible differences or overt political demands on the state may be met with hostile backlash from the host society. In this context, governance networks of state and non-state actors form an institutional web that can provide indirect access to rights, resources, and protection, but simultaneously help migrants avoid negative backlash against visible political activism. The Invisibility Bargain seeks to understand how migrants negotiate their place in receiving societies and adapt innovative strategies to integrate, participate, and access protection. Specifically, the book examines Ecuador, the largest recipient of refugees in Latin America, and assesses how it achieved migrant human security gains despite weak state presence in peripheral areas. Pugh deploys evidence from 15 months of fieldwork spanning ten years in Ecuador, including 170 interviews, an original survey of Colombian migrants in six provinces, network analysis, and discourse analysis of hundreds of presidential speeches and news media articles. He argues that localities with more dense networks composed of more diverse actors tend to produce greater human security for migrants and their neighbors. The book challenges the conventional understanding of migration and security, providing a new approach to the negotiation of authority between state and society. By examining the informal pathways to human security, Pugh dismantles the false dichotomy between international and national politics, and exposes the micro politics of institutional innovation.

Table of Contents:
List of Acronyms Used Timeline of Key Events List of Figures Acknowledgments Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: The Invisibility Bargain Chapter 3: Adaptive Institutions and Networked Governance Chapter 4: Comparing Governance Networks and Human Security Outcomes in 6 Ecuadorian Provinces Chapter 5: Evolution of the Central Actors in the Governance Network--the State, the UN, and the Church Chapter 6: Valued Contribution and Social Invisibility in Ecuador Chapter 7: Political Invisibility and Migrants' Networked Governance Strategies in Ecuador Chapter 8: Conclusion Appendix A: Translated Migration Networks Survey Instrument Notes Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Jeffrey D. Pugh is Assistant Professor in the McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston, and the founding executive director of the Center for Mediation, Peace, and Resolution of Conflict (CEMPROC) in Quito, Ecuador. Pugh's research focuses on peacebuilding and non-state actors in the Global South, and he is a past president of the Middle Atlantic Council on Latin American Studies (MACLAS).

Review :
"Understanding what factors ensure that immigrant-receiving nations will be havens for people who flee their homelands is the question for 21st century migration researchers. Jeffrey Pugh's exhaustively researched study of Colombian immigrants living in Ecuador gives us fresh answers. The Invisibility Bargain shatters important assumptions about how countries can offer peace and security to their foreign-born populations and offers rich evidence for the pivotal role played by perceptions of immigrants as bringing value and non-state actor allies who convey and advocate for the interests of those immigrants. Pugh's book is absolutely critical research for anyone working in contemporary migration studies." -- Elizabeth F. Cohen, Professor of Political Science, Syracuse University "This book offers the most comprehensive analysis of Colombian forced migration in Ecuador to date, showing how particular assemblages of non-state actors, migrant organizations, and local state actors may be the most appropriate response to human security and peace building. In doing so, it offers important clues to understand how forced migrants negotiate their access to rights and protection in states with strong gaps between formal and effective rights." -- Gioconda Herrera, FLACSO Ecuador "In rescaling the politics of reception, Pugh incorporates actors and processes into the making of politics that others all too often overlook. By providing the framework and theoretical orientation needed to foster global and comparative work, he reinserts questions of migration, conflict, and human security into the centre of contemporary scholarly debate. While his analysis and findings are from Latin America, scholars from elsewhere in the world will find deep resonance with their own work. Indeed, this text is destined to become a reference for discussions of governance and mobility for years to come." -- Loren Landau, Professor of Migration and Development, Universities of Oxford and the Witwatersrand "Jeffrey Pugh's compact, seminal work is the product of 8 years of fieldwork in the area and living with the people. It shows how numbers of illegal migrants made their way above, below, and around the state through an invisibility bargain, but also alternative strategies or negotiation with civil society on the other side. A thorough, detailed, insightful study of a subject that has so far fallen between the cracks of comparative politics and interstate relations and faces the challenges of researching and analyzing human security with enormous implications for understanding the growing topic of immigration." -- I. William Zartman, Jacob Blaustein Distinguished Professor Emeritus of International Organization and Conflict Resolution, SAIS-Johns Hopkins University