Two Routes, Two Approaches? Italian and Spanish Migration Governance in the Central Mediterranean and the Atlantic Seas

In recent years, the Central Mediterranean Route (CMR) has been the most transited irregular migratory route to Europe, with Italy as the main destination. Italy has increasingly externalised its border enforcement, establishing agreements with transit countries to stop irregular departures and recently establishing two detention centres. While Italy’s approach has been extensively investigated, Spain’s maritime migration governance remains under-explored. This gap is especially glaring given the growing importance of irregular migration across the Atlantic Route (AR), which connects West African countries to the Canary Islands. Despite being less transited historically, the AR has become the deadliest in 2024. As two culturally and socially similar EU countries facing similar mixed migratory flows, Italy and Spain are ideal cases to identify and explain differences and similarities in maritime migration governance. To this end, we employ descriptive statistics, content analysis of policy documents, and interviews with personnel from the Italian Coast Guard (Guardia Costiera) and the Spanish Civil Guard (Guardia Civil).