This chapter is concerned with the ‘meticulous, and patiently documentary’ (Foucault, 1977: 139) element of genealogy, giving an overview and detailed analysis of the central episodes of policy making on migration and climate change between 2010 and 2015. The term ‘episode’ is drawn here from the lexicon associated with the genealogical approach to discourse analysis and can be seen as synonymous with ‘historical series, epochs, events or moments’ and ‘are meant to perioditise the history of an object under study’ (Vucetic, 2011: 1301). The term ‘episodes’ is also selected here, rather than any of the synonyms listed in the previous chapter, to emphasise the intertwining nature of the episodes; like episodes of a television programme, they build on each other and cross-references can be established between them, without the episodes necessarily being situated on a linear trajectory or culminating with a grand finale.

Unusually for a genealogy, episodes are arranged here chronologically; this is to enable the chapter to also be easily used as a reference tool and set different policy-making processes in their temporal context. Especially with long negotiation processes, this is not always clear. The hope is that despite being arranged in this way, the links between different episodes, the interconnections, and the influences they have had on later policy making will become apparent.

The selection of episodes in this chapter deserves to be subjected to a critical glance in its own right, for these key episodes closely mirror the mainstream development of the field. It could indeed legitimately be argued that by looking away from these events and shining a light on other less mainstream developments, a different analysis may have been possible. The episodes analysed in this chapter have nevertheless been selected for two interrelated reasons. First, these episodes were gathered during the research process itself; they were referenced in documents, reported in newspaper articles and discussed by interview partners, and were at times even part of my own personal journey of working in this research area. Second, this book interrogates the status quo, the research and policy establishment on migration and climate change with the very direct intention of disturbing it, and the approach that has been selected to do so is the deconstruction of many of its component parts.