Controlling irregular immigration at the European Union’s southern maritime border. An emerging system driven by “migration emergencies"

  • Ana Lopez-Sala Spanish Council for Scientific Research (CSIC), Spain.
  • Dirk Godenau Universidad de La Laguna

Abstract

Over the last 25 years the southern maritime border of the European Union witnessed the interaction of considerable and increasingly complex irregular migration flows in the Mediterranean with the progressive construction and implementation of restrictive migration control policies by the European Union and its member states at their external borders. The article describes the evolving migration patterns and changes in migration routes both as a stimulus and a consequence of locally stepping up migration control at the emerging hotspots at different parts of the border, creating deviation effects in migration routes with alternative points of entry and higher costs and risks for migrants. Special attention is given to the impact of the 2015 refugee crisis on border management and the new challenges it poses to the asylum system and the protection of fundamental rights.

Biografia autore

Dirk Godenau, Universidad de La Laguna
Department of Applied Economics and Quantitative Methods Faculty of Economics

Riferimenti bibliografici

Albahari, M. (2006). Death and the Modern State: making borders and sovereignty at the Southern edges of Europe. San Diego:Center for Comparative Immigration Studies.

Andreas, P. (2001).Border games. Policing the U.S.-Mexico Divide. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

APDHA (Asociación Pro Derechos Humanos de Andalucía) (2015).Derechos Humanos en la Frontera Sur. Sevilla.

Arteaga, F. and González, C (2015).La respuesta militar a la crisis migratoria del Mediterráneo. ARI 40.Real Instituto Elcano. Madrid.

Baird, T (2016): Surveillance Design Communities in Europe: A Network Analysis.Surveillance and Society, 14 (1), 34-58.

Brambilla, C. (2015): Exploring the Critical Potential of the Borderscapes Concept.Geopolitics, 20 (1), 14-34.

Brian, T. and Laczko, F. (2014) (eds.). Fatal Journeys. Tracking Lives Lost during Migration. Geneva: International Organization for Migration.

Brian, T. and Laczko, F. (2016) (eds.). Fatal Journeys Volume 2. Identification and Tracing of Dead and Missing Migrants. Geneva: International Organization for Migration.

CEAR (Comisión Española de Ayuda al Refugiado) (2016).Informe 2016. Las personas refugiadas en España y Europa. Madrid.

Crawley, H., Duvell, F., Sigona, N., McMahon, S. and Jones, K. (2016).Unpacking a rapidly changing scenario: migration flows, routes and trajectories across the Mediterranean. MEDMIG. Research Brief No.1.

Cusumano, E. (2017): Emptying the sea with a spoon? Non-governmental providers of migrants search and rescue in the Mediterranean. Marine Policy, 75, 91-98.

Cuttita, P. (2008): The Case of the Italian Southern Sea Borders: ¿Cooperation across the Mediterranean?. In P. Cuttita, D. Godenau, T. Maroukis, G. Pinyol, A. Triandafyllidou, and V.Zapata. Immigration flows and the management of the EU's southern maritime borders (pp. 45-61). Barcelona:Documentos CIDOB.

European Commission (2017):Report from the Commission to the European Parliament, The European Council and The Council. Tenth report on relocation and resettlement. Brussels, 2.3.2017 COM(2017) 202 final.

Fargues, P.and Bonfati, S. (2014).When the best option is a leaky boat: why migrants risk their lives crossing the Mediterranean and what Europe is doing about it. Florence: Migration Policy Centre, European University Institute.

Fargues, P. and Di Bartolomeo, A. (2015).Drowned Europe. Florence: Migration Policy Centre, European University Institute.

Fernández-Kelly, P. y Massey, D (2007): Borders for Whom. The role of NAFTA in Mexico-U.S Migrationâ€. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 610, 98-118.

FRONTEX (2017): FRAN Quarterly. Quarter 3. July–September 2016. Warsaw.

Garcés-Mascarenas, B. (2015).Por qué Dublín no funciona. Barcelona: Fundación CIDOB.

Garcés-Mascarenas, B. (2016).¿Hacia una verdadera política común de asilo?Barcelona: Fundación CIDOB.

Godenau, D. (2012). An Institutional Approach to Bordering in Islands: The Canary Islands on the African European Migration Routes. Island Studies Journal, 7 (1), 3-18.

Godenau, D. (2014).Irregular Maritime Immigration in the Canary Islands: Externalization and Communautarisation in the Social Construction of Borders, Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies, 12 (2), 123-142.

Godenau, D. and López-Sala, A. (2016a). Multi-layered migration deterrence and technology in Spanish maritime border management. Journal of Borderland Studies, 31 (2), 151-169.

Godenau, D. and López-Sala, A. (2016b):Migration and Borders: Empirical Patterns and Theoretical Implications in the Case of Spain. In J. Domínguez Mújica (ed).Global Change and Human Mobility (pp. 37-52). London:Springer.

Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) (2014).Vidas en la frontera Sur. Madrid.

Jaskoski, M; Sotomayor, A. and Trinkunas, H. (2015) (eds.): American Crossings. Border Politics in the Western Hemisphere. Washington: John Hopkins University.

Koslowski, R. (2011). The Evolution of Border Controls as a Mechanism to Prevent Illegal Immigration. Washington.Migration Policy Institute.

Lemberg-Pedersen, M. (2013).Private security companies and the European borderscapes. In Thomas Gammeltoft-Hansen and Nyna Nyberg-Sorensen (eds).The Migration Industry and the Commercialization of International Migration (pp. 152-171). New York: Routledge.

López-Sala, A. and Esteban, V. (2010).La nueva arquitectura política del control migratorio en la frontera marítima del suroeste de Europa: los casos de España y Malta. In M. Anguianoand A. López-Sala (eds).Migraciones y Fronteras. Nuevos contornos para la movilidad internacional (pp. 75-102). Barcelona: Icaria.

López-Sala, A. (2015). Exploring Dissuasion as a (Geo)Political Instrument in Irregular Migration Control at the Southern Spanish Maritime Border. Geopolitics, 20 (3), 513-534.

Lutterbeck, D. (2009). Small Frontier Island: Malta and the challenge of Irregular Migration. Mediterranean Politics, 20 (1).

Lutterbeck, D and Mainwaring, C (2015): The EU’s ‘Soft Underbelly’? Malta and Irregular Immigration. In S. Massey and Coluccello (eds.), Eurafrican Migration: Legal, Economic and Social Responses to Irregular Migration. London. Palgrave Macmillan.

Morillas, P., Sánchez-Montijano, E. and Soler, E. (2015).Europa ante la crisis de los refugiados. 10 efectos colaterales. Barcelona: Fundación CIDOB.

Mainwaring, C. (2014). Trying to Transit: The Changing Nature of Migration in Malta. In F. Duvell, I. Molodikova, & M. Collyer (eds). Transit Migration in Europe, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.

Newland, K., Collet, E; Hooper, K and Flamm, S. (2016): All at Sea. The Policy Challenges of Rescue, Interception, and long-term response to Maritime Migration. Washington: Migration Policy Institute.

Pastore, F. Monzini, P. and Sciortino, G. (2006). Schengen’s soft underbelly? Irregular migration and human smuggling across land and sea borders to Italy, International Migration, 44 (4).

Prieto, B. (2016): Los hotspots, un eslabón débil en la gestión de la crisis de los refugiados" ARI 25. Real Instituto Elcano. Madrid.

Rajaram, P. and Grundy-Warr, C. (2007)(eds). Borderscapes. Hidden Geographies and Politics at Territory´s Edge. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

UNHCR (2015). The sea route to Europe: The Mediterranean passage in the age of refugees.

Walters, W. (2011).Foucault and Frontiers: Notes on the birth of the Humanitarian Border. In U. Bröckling, S. Krasmann and T. Lemke (eds).Governmentality. Current Issues and Future Challenges (pp. 138-164). New York, Routledge.

Pubblicato
2017-06-26