Members’ area

Marija Petrovska

GEM-DIAMOND doctoral fellow

ESR 12 – Contesting European border regimes: challenging and remaking EU migration governance

Researching the control and securitization of borders

Host Institutions

Delineating the roles of non-state actors in building legitimacy for and implementing
a transnational border surveillance apparatus in the Balkans

Supervisors

  • Marieke De Goede
  • Julien Jeandesboz

Research abstract

This dissertation examines the evolving role of international organisations in European migration governance, with a particular focus on the Western Balkans. It explores how migration management is shaped through relationships between international organisations, European institutions, national authorities, and a range of public and private actors, paying particular attention to the growing role of technological interventions in border governance.

Drawing on qualitative research conducted across multiple countries, including extensive fieldwork, interviews, participant observation, and document analysis, the dissertation investigates how migration governance is enacted in practice and how expertise, knowledge, and policy circulate across different institutional settings. Rather than treating migration governance as the product of individual organisations or states, the research examines the interactions, collaborations, and forms of coordination that underpin EU migration governance.

Research Question(s)

How do international organisations shape contemporary migration governance in the Western Balkans?
Through what practices, relationships, and forms of expertise is migration governance produced across institutional and national boundaries?
What role do technological interventions play in the governance of migration and borders?

Social Relevance of your Research

Migration governance has become one of the most politically significant and socially contested policy areas in Europe. International organisations play an increasingly prominent role in shaping migration management, border governance, and the implementation of policies both within and beyond the European Union. Yet many of these processes take place through complex transnational arrangements that remain largely invisible to the public and are not always well understood.

By examining how migration governance is organised and implemented in the Western Balkans, this research contributes to greater transparency and understanding of the actors, practices, and forms of cooperation involved in contemporary border governance. The findings are relevant to policymakers, international organisations, civil society organisations, and researchers seeking to better understand the governance of migration, the growing use of border technologies, and the broader implications of transnational cooperation for accountability, policy implementation, and the protection of fundamental rights.
I am a joint PhD candidate in International Relations and European Studies at the University of Amsterdam and Université libre de Bruxelles, under the co-supervision of Luiza Bialasiewicz (UVA) and Julien Jeandesboz (ULB).

Prior to this doctorate, I completed a Master's degree in Journalism at Monash University, in which I received the Faculty of Arts award for the highest academic achievement in the cohort. My MA thesis: ‘Exploring the Evolving Relationship Between Aid Organizations and the Elite Press in the Context of Migration Reporting’, interrogated the central role aid organizations play as news sources and their capacity to define critical issues of mobility and migration.
Publications

Böckmann, L., Petrovska, M, De Lange, S, & Bialasiewicz, L. (2024). The right to (not) appear: A conversation on institutional obligations and ethics of care in researching illiberalism. Journal of Illiberalism Studies, 4(1). https://www.illiberalism.org/the-right-to-not-appear-a-conversation-on-institutional-obligations-and-ethics-of-care-in-researching-illiberalism/

Petrovska, M. Forthcoming. ‘I am deeply sceptical about what democracy, especially
liberal democracy, has turned into’. Interview with Nidžara Ahmetašević in Coman, R. and Ponjaert, F. Dissensus over Liberal Democracy: Key Conversations with Leading Voices. Springer.

Petrovska, M and Pallister-Wilkins, P, Forthcoming. Eurocentrism. In Coman, R., Paternotte, D. and Ponjaert, F. (eds) Impact and Social Sciences: A Conceptual Index.


Teaching
Beyond the Borders of Europe: Diaspora and Migration, European Studies, the University of Amsterdam