How Unpopular Policies are Made: Policy Making for Migrant Women in South Africa, Bangladesh and Singapore

In this paper we address the question: how and why does policy get made in post-colonial In this paper we address the question: how and why does policy get made in post-colonial contexts? Based on three case studies of policy change; from Bangladesh, South Africa, and Singapore, we trace the drivers of policy change in these contexts. Much research has been done on policy making in Europe and North America, which has led to the development of theories and frameworks which theorise how and why specific policies are made. Examples of these include Sabatier's Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) (2014) and more recent work on global norms and how these effect national policy making (Betts & Orchard, 2014; Risse, Ropp, & Sikkink, 1999). Whilst the later have certainly made more of an effort to include examples from contexts other than Europe and North America, there remains a lack of information on how policy is actually made and implemented in these contexts. The three case studies, on which this report are based, were conducted by the Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU) at the University of Dhaka in Bangladesh, the Asia Research Institute (ARI) at the National University of Singapore, and the African for Migration & Society (ACMS), at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa. All the case studies made use of qualitative methods to map out the various roles played by key actors and organizations in influencing the policy under investigation. All three projects are studies on policy process and engage in process tracing methods. Through a thorough analysis of all three studies, we conclude that there are six factors that shaped the policy making process in the three countries. These are components of policy change that were common across the country case studies even if their impact and nature varied. We propose that by paying attention to these aspects of policy making, we will be able to better understand, influence, and predict policy making in contexts outside of Europe and North America.