INVOLVEMENT OF NGO-s IN THE ASYLUM POLICY-MAKING PROCESS: THE CASE OF ESTONIA DURING THE 2015 EUROPEAN MIGRATION CRISIS

During the past two decades, the role of civil society and NGOs in policy-making and implementation has eminently increased. With the shift from government to governance and the growing importance of openness and... [ view full abstract ]

During the past two decades, the role of civil society and NGOs in policy-making and implementation has eminently increased. With the shift from government to governance and the growing importance of openness and evidence-based decision-making, governments have made efforts to improve the collaboration between the many actors of the governance network, including the third sector (Pollitt&Bouckaert 2011). The increasing role of NGOs can also be seen in asylum policy (Lester 2005). Although citizen participation in policy-making has been widely studied in public administration, there is not much research about the specifics of participation of NGOs in a sensitive policy field like asylum policy-making. Therefore, the aim of the paper is to analyze the potential role that NGOs can play in asylum policy making and the factors that shape their involvement. The paper will look into the case of amending the Act on Granting International Protection to Aliens (AGIPA) that took place during the 2015 European migration crisis in Estonia. The amendment of AGIPA is an interesting case, because asylum policy represents a relatively novel policy area in Estonia. Before the 2015 migration crisis, asylum policy related matters were not a priority for the government and asylum policy-making was rather ad hoc in Estonia (National Audit Office 2016) as it was not among the preferred destinations of asylum seekers. Therefore, it is interesting to analyze how the increased salience of the issue and shift in context influenced the proceeding of AGIPA and the role of NGOs in policy-making. The paper aims to answer the following research questions – what was the role of NGOs in drafting and proceeding the AGIPA amendment bill, how was it reflected in the Estonian asylum policy process and what factors influenced the engagement of NGOs?

To answer the research questions, a qualitative case study was conducted. The theoretical discussions on public participation and asylum-policy-making were combined into a theoretical framework to help evaluate the collaboration between the government and the NGOs specifically in the context of asylum policy-making. Data for the empirical analysis was collected through document analysis and interviews with NGO representatives and policy-makers. To evaluate the policy formulation process, the development and proceedings phases of AGIPA were looked at separately, to identify differences of participation practices in policy formulation on the ministerial and parliamentary levels. The empirical findings show that although the European migration crisis increased the participation of the NGOs in the policy-making process and improved their collaboration with the government, the involvement of the NGOs in actual rule-making remained formal. The reason for that can be explained by the novelty and high salience of the issue in Estonia as well as the sensitive political nature of the refugee question. The findings indicate that the sudden shift in context and the external and internal pressures (e.g. EU decisions and increased media attention) can change participation practices and affect the role of third sector organizations in the policy-making process.