Most international migration theory has focused on the economic and social impulses that drive migration while paying little attention to the effect of state policies. Recently, scholars have suggested that migration policy has an important effect on migration outcomes. Given that policy has real effects on observed migration, closer attention must be paid to the formation of this policy. The European Union, with its emerging supranational migration framework, provides a timely case to consider the migration policy formation process. Particularly noteworthy when considering the process of policy formation within the EU is how scale and various political, economic, and social ideas are employed in political discourse. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the way these factors were employed in shaping the European Unions migration policy before the creation of the Amsterdam Treaty in 1997.
