The adaptive coordination and administrative resilience: lessons from European Union (EU) migration governance

Abstract

Purpose This article examines how repeated coordination practices contribute to administrative resilience in multilevel systems undergoing formal institutional change. Focusing on European Union (EU) migration governance, it asks how coordinated action continues when responsibility remains divided and crisis pressure recurs. Design/methodology/approach The study uses a qualitative, longitudinal single-case design covering 2015-2024. Ten Commission, agency, audit, and legislative documents are analysed chronologically by actors, timing, task allocation, and procedural formalisation. The design traces operational change rather than measuring policy performance or testing causal effects. Findings Formal reforms expanded mandates, resources, and coordination structures but did not determine daily cooperation. The analysis identifies four overlapping stages: disruption, improvisation, stabilisation, and preparedness. Disruption exposed registration gaps and unclear roles. Improvisation made the centrally designed hotspot framework workable through practical clarification of responsibilities and procedures. Stabilisation followed as agencies organised support, deployment planning, and information exchange through recurring plans and structures. Preparedness emerged as monitoring, early warning, and advance planning began before full crisis activation. Resilience therefore rested on interaction between institutional capacity and repeated operational cooperation, not on either formal redesign or informal practice alone. The evidence indicates an emerging but uneven capacity for earlier coordination, rather than a completed or uniformly effective system. Originality/value The article develops an adaptive coordination cycle centred on implementation rather than policy design. It distinguishes operational resilience from policy success and explains how repeated interaction can make coordination more predictable before it is fully formalised. The framework applies conditionally to multilevel systems with shared competence and limited hierarchical control.