Bordering and Irregular Migration in Europe

Border Studies emphasizes that bordering takes place not only at the physical frontiers of nation-states but beyond as well as within those frontiers. Moreover, while bordering measures officially combat irregular migration, they unofficially facilitate it (Balibar 1998; De Genova 2005, Vaughan-Williams 2008). Indeed, irregular migration should be understood not as an aberration, an occasional breakdown in a systematic regime of border control. Rather, irregular migration should be analyzed as a normal and integral (albeit unofficial) element of a broader migration regime governing both the documented and the undocumented (Jansen, Celitakes and Bloois 2015; Sassen 2014; Karakayali 2008; Walters 2004). The paper employs the concept of “inclusive exclusion” (Agamben 1998: 7) to analyze the pervasive presence of irregular migrants in the EU and MS (Italy, Spain, UK, Germany, France, and the Netherlands). The theory of inclusive exclusion hypothesizes the widespread toleration and even facilitation of the entry and residence of undocumented migrants (inclusion) simultaneously combined with their marginalization and exploitation (also Balibar 2007; Sassen 2006; De Genova 2005). Using the concept of “assemblage” (Foucault 2007: 311), that is, a heterogeneous, loosely connected network of people, institutions, discourses, and products, the paper goes on to analyze who (politicians, security agents and agencies, corporations, NGOs) benefits from the emphasis on bordering at, beyond and within Europe’s boundaries.