Bottom-up relational dynamics in European deportation norms: the relationship between forced return monitors and deportation escort officers

This paper focuses on norm formation within Europe around the implementation of deportations. It examines the relatively recent introduction of forced return monitors and their role in shaping understandings of ‘appropriateness’ and ‘best practices’ by the institutions and actors responsible for carrying out deportations, including the EU agency Frontex. While significant attention has been paid to the common rules and standards on returns established at the European level, little analysis has considered how understandings and change occur (if at all) on-the-ground, and whether forced return monitors influence this. Drawing on semi-structure interviews with national and Frontex officials and others, freedom of information requests and documentary analysis, I find instances of both resistance to change and, more surprisingly, considerable receptiveness and willingness to engage with monitors’ recommendations by the enforcing institution. Notably, this receptiveness appears to increase overtime due, in part, to repeat interactions and familiarity between monitors and the escort officers involved in carrying out deportations. These interactions, in many cases, lead to better relations and altered views of each other’s roles, fostering greater cooperation. Still, regardless of the ‘friendliness’ (or lack) between monitors and escorts, escort officers react to and anticipate monitors presence and actions, leading to changes in their practices. In this way, the behaviour of, and interactions between, these actors influence implementation decisions. They (re)constitute how deportation is governed and implemented in Europe on-the-ground. This shows bottom-up relational dynamics, in addition to top-down European standards, are significant for spurring changes in practice and shaping understandings of ‘appropriate’ behaviour by the actors responsible for implementation. These relational dynamics, I argue, are thus important for understanding deportation norms in practice