Diplomatic Disparities and Mobility Bias: Structural Inequalities in the Migration‐Development Nexus

Abstract

This paper interrogates the structural inequalities underpinning global mobility by introducing the concept of mobility bias, the systemic privileging of Global North citizens and diplomatic infrastructures in transnational movement. Drawing on Doreen Massey's Power Geometry and informed by the works of Foucault, Mbembe and Cortina, the study positions mobility as a spatially governed hierarchy shaped by geopolitical power, economic status and institutional capacity. While migration studies have largely focused on individual migrant outcomes, this paper shifts attention to diplomatic disparities that reinforce immobility for Global South nations and their citizens. Through comparative desk‐based analysis of passport indices, visa policies, foreign ministry budgets and regional frameworks, the paper examines four intersecting dimensions of inequality: passport stratification, consular burden, resource asymmetry and perception bias. These disparities are not merely bureaucratic but constitute enduring architectures of exclusion within the migration‐development nexus. Findings reveal that Global South missions are structurally constrained, underfunded, reactive and burdened by managing the fallout of restrictive regimes, while Global North missions advance strategic interests through expansive mobility diplomacy. Regional fragmentation and weak multilateral leverage further limit Global South agency in shaping mobility governance. The paper concludes that mobility bias is not a peripheral issue but a reproductive mechanism of global inequality. It calls for a multi‐scalar reform agenda, including visa policy restructuring, diplomatic capacity‐building and regional harmonisation, to advance a more just, inclusive and developmentally transformative mobility regime.