Inside Out and Outside in: COVID-19 and the reconfiguration of Europe’s external border controls

The extension of border controls beyond Europe's territory to regulate the flows of would-be migrants has been a popular - and highly controversial - policy approach adopted by European governments. The paper examines recent developments characterizing the externalization of border management in Europe, paying particular attention to the changes that have occurred during the COVID-19 global pandemic, a time when in most of Europe (and the rest of the world) mobility has been severely restricted. The purpose is to map the impact of the pandemic on relevant 'externalizing' policy instruments (e.g., visas, extra-territorial patrolling and surveillance, external processing of asylum claims, and offshore detention of migrants) and to assess their future trajectories.