Due to new dynamics underpinning international migration, an area once considered of second or tertiary importance to states and other actors now plays center-stage on the international political agenda. As a result, states and the international comunity have begun to seek out a framework in which to address migration as a comprehensive issue encompassing voluntary and involuntary movements, based on the notion that states and other actors share common ground on many migration interest and concerns, and focusing on strenghtened cooperation and coordination. Recent political state-centered initiatives have emerged to develop strategies for such an approach. The role of civil society, specifically of international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) monitoring such developments and performing advocacy work on migration policy development has been fairly limited thus far. Most INGOs working on advocacy in this field work on one aspect of human mobility such as trafficking in human beings or migrants´ human rights. Advocacy rarely encompassed the whole migration policy field. The following discussion first attempts to explain why there has been limited exchange between states, international organization and INGOs on international migration policy. It highlights two broad sets of reasons: those tied to the nature of migration, and those relating to factors affecting policy networks in this field. It then looks at how this situation is envolving, as civil society's voice rises in this policy making arena. And, it concludes by offering some suggestions as to how civil society could have a critical impact on migration policy development in the future.