European Union Border Research Articles

Immigration Policy Preferences in Six EU Countries: The Shadow of Intergovernmental Conflicts in Public Opinion

AbstractMigration politics in the European Union (EU) is highly conflictual. The Dublin framework produces, consolidates and constantly re‐enforces divides amongst the governments of EU member states. A prime example is the country‐of‐first‐entry principle, which sets countries at the external EU border against non‐border countries. We investigate whether evidence of these conflicts amongst governments also translate into cross‐national divides in public opinion. To this end, we separate EU countries along two lines, border versus non‐border and host versus non‐host countries, and derive policy positions for six member states with respect to four immigration policies. The analysis of original survey data shows that public opinion follows, as expected, the patterns of intergovernmental conflicts. That the public is, like the governments, divided along national lines highlights the dominance of intergovernmental conflict in EU migration politics. As long as this logic prevails, the potential for collective action in EU migration policy‐making remains narrow.

The Influence of the Brussels Effect on the Interpretation of Data Protection Laws in the Gulf

Abstract This article examines the diffusion effect of the General Data Protection Regulation (gdpr) beyond the European Union borders, particularly in the Gulf Cooperation Council (gcc) countries. The article explores how the Brussels Effect (as a concept and observation) can explain non-EU jurisdictions’ voluntary adoption of gdpr standards. This article seeks to develop a corpus of reasoning that could be used to determine when and to what extent the provisions in local data protection statutes need to be interpreted and applied in conformity with gdpr-related legal sources.

Revolving Doors: How Externalization Policies Block Refugees and Deflect Other Migrants across Migration Routes

AbstractMigrant destination states of the Global North generally seek to stem irregular migration while remaining committed to refugee rights. To do so, these states have increasingly sought to externalize migration control, implicating migrant origin and transit states in managing the movement of persons across borders. But do externalization policies actually have an impact on unauthorized migration flows? If yes, do those impacts vary across different migrant categories given that both asylum seekers and other migrants can cross borders without prior authorization? We argue that these policies do have an impact on unauthorized migration flows and that those impacts are distinct for refugees and other migrants. Using data on “irregular/illegal border crossings” collected by Frontex, the Border and Coast Guard Agency of the European Union (EU), we first find that the geographical trajectories of refugees and other migrants who cross EU borders without authorization are distinct. Using a novel method to estimate whether individuals are likely to obtain asylum in 31 European destination states, we find that “likely refugees” tend to be concentrated on a single, primary migratory route while “likely irregular migrants” may be dispersed across multiple routes. Through an event study analysis of the impact of the 2016 EU–Turkey Statement, a paradigmatic example of externalization, we show that the policy primarily blocked likely refugees while deflecting likely irregular migrants to alternative routes. Our findings ultimately highlight how externalization policies may fail to prevent unauthorized entries of irregular migrants while endangering refugee protection.

Framing the Polish-Belarusian Border in 2021. The Case of Public Service Television (TVP)

ABSTRACT The 2021 events at the Belarus–European Union border have had considerable political, economic, and humanitarian consequences. Combining insights from the Discourse-Historical Approach and Corpus-Assisted Discourse Analysis with securitization theory, the paper investigates the dominant frames identified in the coverage of the border events by the largest Polish television network (TVP). The findings suggest that TVP portrayed immigrants and refugees mostly as dangerous, relying on the stereotypical image of the Muslim Other. Utilizing quantitative methods to analyze large data samples, the study illustrates how corpus linguistics tools provide valuable insights for social science research.

The Role of European Union in Refugee Crisis on Belarusian Border – European Union in 2021 - 2022

This article aims to analyze the role of the European Union in handling the refugee crisis at the Belarusian-European Union border in 2021-2022. The refugee crisis at the Belarusian-European Union border poses significant challenges for the European Union in various aspects, such as politics, security, and humanity. This research uses a qualitative approach and is then analyzed to explain the evaluation of the European Union's policies, responses, and strategies in responding to this crisis. Through an in-depth study of the policies and actions taken by the European Union, this article outlines the European Union's response to the refugee crisis on the Belarus – European Union border. This includes diplomatic efforts, humanitarian assistance, and security strategies implemented by the European Union to address problems arising from the crisis. In addition, this article also analyzes the challenges faced by the European Union in dealing with this refugee crisis, including coordination between member countries and internal political consequences. This research found that the role of the European Union in the refugee crisis on the Belarus-European Union border is in the form of providing financial assistance to refugees trapped in the border area. The European Union has also facilitated the Schengen forum, which will be held in 2022. The European Union has also closed its border areas due to the interests of national member countries with direct borders, such as Poland, Latvia, and Lithuania. The European Union also imposed sanctions on Belarus because it was deemed responsible for the crisis that occurred.

Datafication of the hotspots in the blind spot of supervisory authorities

AbstractThe hotspot approach used to contain asylum seekers at the borders of Europe has been heavily criticized for deplorable conditions and multiple fundamental rights violations. This article dives into an underexplored issue in the hotspots, namely its datafication. It explores the question of the protection of personal data, and analyses whether the supervisory arrangements in place are sufficient to ensure the protection of personal data of individuals at the borders, or whether, as the current European Data Protection Supervisor states it, data protection is too often suspended at European Union borders. While supervision is in place to monitor the hotspots, this contribution shows that it remains limited and that many blind spots exist that fully escape any supervision. These emerge, for example by reasons of the complex legal framework of the hotspots, or of the informal nature of the exchanges of data.

Assembling Containment at European Union Borders: Between Inclusion and Exclusion

The European Union migration governance is characterised by non-linearity and complexity. Such governance represents the competition of a multitude of actors that compete for power and visibility. The policies designed by its member states - based on the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights - oscillate between an inclusive and an exclusive migration governance approach. A concept that can offer a comprehensive understanding of the social and normative dynamics that transformed the Mediterranean Sea as a space of inclusion and exclusion is assemblage. The article suggests that the EU and its member states design migration governance policies on an instrumental assemblage of borders, territory and human rights. From the discussion of these assemblages, it emerges how the compromise developed by the European Court of Human Rights contributed to further exclusion and human rights violations in the Mediterranean Sea. Thus, assemblage offers a critical perspective on the normative limits of the migration management policies unfolding at EU borders.

At the EU Borders – Between the Use of Information Systems in Migration Procedures and Refusal of Entry into The Country

The reason for writing this article is the fact that the migration crisis that has been ongoing in Europe since 2015 is one of the greatest challenges that the European Union (EU) has faced since its establishment. It requires Member States to fulfill their obligation to ensure the security of the EU’s external and internal borders, while respecting common values, which include solidarity and human rights. The aim of the article is to analyze and evaluate the currently functioning migration policy, especially in the context of the use of EU IT systems in the face of the phenomenon of refusal of entry into the territory of the receiving country. This combination of two research areas fills a certain gap in the current literature on the subject. De lege lata comments and de lege ferenda demands will be presented, focusing primarily on criticism of the current system. The research used two research methods typical of legal sciences: the formal-dogmatic method and the comparative method. As a summary of the findings, it can be noted that investments are actually being made in new IT systems, the potential of which is still unused, and on the other hand, it is clear that basic human rights are not fully respected in the form of allowing applications for international protection. There is a need to reform migration management at the national level of Member States to be as consistent as possible with EU law and, in particular, its fundamental values.

Bringing geography back in: Borderlands and public support for the European Union

AbstractWhat explains the variation in public support for European integration? While the existing literature has predominantly focused on economic, cultural and political factors, the influence of geography has been largely overlooked. In this paper, we aim to fill this gap by examining the impact of residing in the European Union (EU) border regions on voters' perceptions and attitudes towards the EU. Contrary to previous research, our study reveals a remarkable pattern, indicating that individuals living in border regions exhibit a higher propensity to vote for Eurosceptic parties and hold negative views on the EU. Through the utilization of both behavioural and attitudinal indicators in years ranging between 1999 and 2021 and employing statistical matching, our analysis robustly supports this finding. Moreover, we delve into the underlying mechanisms driving these negative attitudes in border regions, highlighting the significance of institutional factors. A mediation analysis reveals an interesting and previously unexplored theoretical twist: We find that residing in a border region is associated with lower trust in national political institutions, which translates into distrust in the EU. These findings suggest that it might be policymakers residing in the capital of the country rather than people on the other side of the border that make borderland inhabitants' attitudes distinctly negative.

Irregular Migration: Factors and Policies That Influence Irregular Migration from Sub-Saharan Africa to the EU

Over the past decades, there has been an increase in the number of African asylum seekers applying for international protection in the European Union (EU). In 2015, more than one million people crossed the Mediterranean Sea, risking their lives to reach European soil. African asylum seekers and other irregular migrants now find themselves at the centre of the political debate on immigration in Europe. Although human migration is not a new development in our world today, how people migrate, where people migrate to, the routes people migrate by, and the consequences of their migration have generated different perspectives on migration, especially irregular migration. This article aims to explore the causes and motivations of African asylum-seekers who enter Europe to seek international protection. The study will then robustly examine the EU policies that seek to reduce the number of African asylum seekers who arrive in the EU, focusing on the EU Border Management Agency (FRONTEX) and the European Union Emergency Trust Fund for Africa (EUTF). It proceeds to consider these policies in light of the experiences of asylum seekers who have encountered them firsthand. The study will conclude by dismissing financial aid as a means of reducing the number of African asylum seekers arriving in the EU and will make a recommendation as to how the EU might address this issue.

Externalising migration control in Niger: the humanitarian–security nexus and the International Organization for Migration (IOM)

AbstractThe article investigates the role of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in the global migration regime against the backdrop of the European Union (EU) border externalisation process in Niger. Over the last few years, UN agencies have been considered an essential component of the EU strategy to prevent irregular migrants from reaching Europe. Drawing on qualitative research and ethnographic fieldwork, combining empirical observation with critical analysis, we explore the ‘humanitarian–security nexus’ by focusing on the IOM's ‘humanitarian borderwork’ under the financial umbrella of the Emergency Trust Fund for Africa (ETFA). While the results of purely securitarian measures in Niger may have been ‘disappointing’, the outsourcing of migration management through IOM balances the interests of the Nigerien government and the EU. By focusing on IOM humanitarian operations and assisted voluntary returns and reintegration (AVRR) programmes, the article shows the further expansion of European humanitarian borders into the heart of the Sahel, highlighting new interdiction practices, hidden forms of deportation, side effects and contestation from below.

‘Europe of the Regions’: From Slogan to Effects on European Union Borders and Regions

This article shows that the integrationist trend of ‘a Europe of the regions’ shapes the way the different scales of territories in the European Union are considered. Due to this trend, European institutions evolved their processes of legislation within the EU. Institutions are now able to promote cohesion between all scales of territory composing the European continent, including cross-border territories. Thus, this trend participates in the promotion of European integration by erasing or blurring the state borders that exist between these territories. However, a Europe of the regions is not the ultimate goal of the European Union, and the results of this trend can be mitigated. This article’s analysis is mainly structured around European law, including both primary and secondary law but also case law of the European Union Court of Justice. In order to strengthen its approach, the article also draws from other disciplines such as history and political science.

Security knowledges: circulation, control, and responsible research and innovation in EU border management

ABSTRACT The knowledge emerging from research funded by the European Union (EU) through its Framework Programmes for Research and Innovation and other funding streams is significantly shaped by different forms of epistemic control exerted by the EU itself. Through the promotion of industry-research-policy cooperation in EU-funded research, and in light of the growing importance attached to ‘impact,’ this knowledge will often contribute to bureaucratic decisions taken by the European Commission, Frontex, the EU Agency for the Operational Management of Large-Scale IT Systems (eu-LISA), and other agencies tasked with border security and control. The circular dynamics surrounding knowledge production, from the calls for proposals to the results of the research, are intrinsically political and contribute to exposing the limits of the EU-promoted principle of Responsible Research and Innovation. Additionally, and due to the centrality of EU funding in the research outlook in contemporary Europe, these processes raise wider questions about the sociology of the academic fields that this article relates to: critical border studies, critical security studies, and science and technology studies. How can we interpret the interplays between the EU’s policies fostering development and integration of border security technologies, on the one hand, and the Union’s broader principles for free and open research and innovation? Through the use of autoethnographic vignettes, and mediated by an expanded Foucauldian understanding of circulation as a technology of control with performative effects, the article sheds light on the dynamics surrounding knowledge production in the field of border technologies in an EU context.

Wartime EU: consequences of the Russia – Ukraine war on the enlargement process

ABSTRACT The European Union (EU) revived the enlargement process in response to the Russia-Ukraine war. That reaction compares to how the EU utilized this process following the wars in the Balkans in the 1990s. In this paper, we argue that on neither occasion was the inclusion of more states within EU borders a preferred EU working agenda. Instead, the EU used enlargement as a stabilization and security-building mechanism without guaranteeing membership as the end state. This observation has implications for the future of the enlargement process. We argue that the outcome of the previous rounds of enlargement was reactive and context-driven. Absent those same contextual factors, and although the EU reacts to the Russia-Ukraine war in a familiar sequence of incomplete decision-making, the outcome of this wartime enlargement negotiation process points in a different direction.

Facilitation Techniques in Teaching ESP Online: Postpandemic Solutions for Law-Enforcement Officers Training

The article considers the effectiveness of teaching English for Specific Purposes online to future border guard officers during their study at the Border Guard Academy. The article considers ways to enhance the border guards’ foreign language training, which is partly conducted online due to the quarantine restrictions and ongoing war initiated by russia. The study covered the experience of organization of facilitation skills development for the teachers and trainers in European Union border guard educational institutions. The authors consider facilitative methods and tools as effective means for teaching future border guards English language online. The facilitative skills acquired by border guard teachers and trainers were tested during ESP Course for border guards at the Ukrainian Border Guard Academy. Analysis of the results of employing facilitation methods and techniques during “Intensive Online English Language Course for Border Guards” proved effectiveness of the conducted online training course and indicates the feasibility of using facilitative methods and techniques within the online training courses for the personnel of the law-enforcement agencies. Comparison of the obtained results (the placement and final assessment) proves the effectiveness of foreign language communicative skills development of the course participants. Therefore, the obtained results testify to the efficiency of utilizing the facilitation techniques by the teachers and trainers of the border guard academy.

Belarus’ Violation of International Obligations in Connection with Artificial Migration Pressure on the Belarus–European Union Border

Abstract This paper attempts to assess events related to the huge scale of the influx of migrants in the summer of 2021 at the Belarusian borders with Lithuania, Poland and Latvia. The involvement of the Belarusian government had a key impact on the nature of the events and led to Belarus’ violation of its international obligations. In particular, Belarus has violated the Geneva Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (1951), the 1967 additional Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, the 1966 UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime of 2000 and the Protocols Thereto (Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children and Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air). The illegal actions taken by Belarus were described as a hybrid attack aimed at destabilizing Europe. Minsk’s creation of an engineered migration pressure on the border with the EU can be considered part of a hybrid strategy – one of the dominant methods in geopolitical confrontation and the struggle for influence in international relations. The present paper verifies the research hypothesis that Belarus has deliberately violated international law by inducing engineered migration at the border with the EU in order to paralyse the migration situation in the neighbouring EU Member States. The violation of international law has not resulted in any major international consequences.

The evolution of EUropean border governance through crisis: Frontex and the interplay of protracted and acute crisis narratives

Crisis narratives are widespread in migration and border governance globally, including in EUrope. In response, a body of scholarship that critically scrutinizes crisis narratives and imaginaries has emerged. Building on and further extending this scholarship, this article questions the dichotomy between ‘normality’ and ‘crisis’ in border governance. Focusing on four moments in which crises were declared in relation to migration and EUropean borders and their immediate aftermath, we examine how the European Union border agency Frontex framed these events through an analysis of its press releases, annual reports, and practices. In so doing, we argue that narratives pertaining to border practices beyond moments of ‘crisis’ invoke fears of uncontrolled mass migration of unruly ‘others’ as an ever-present possibility and perpetual threat to EUrope. Within this article, we propose a differentiation between protracted and acute crisis narratives. Focusing on the political work that these two narratives do in relation to EUropean border governance, we demonstrate that the interplay between these crises narratives has contributed to Frontex’s evolution and expansion over the last two decades while further consolidating the externalization and fortification of EUropean borders.

Third Country PNR Mechanisms After the CJEU’s Schrems II Judgment

The article illustrates how the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU)’s Schrems II judgment solidified the European court’s approach to European Union (EU) data protection and the issues of data collection and transfer outside EU borders. The judgment rebalances how to arrange the issues containing the collection of private information and the risk to the public without surveillance. Thus, invalidating previously used EU-Third Country data sharing frameworks. Included in this are the Passenger Name Records (PNR), which are used in day-to-day mechanisms of the air industry when sharing bulk data sets with other countries to provide crucial information for anti-terrorism with border protection agencies. Not only does it protect national security, but makes flying safer. Though the EU argues it cannot sacrifice the integrity of individual data autonomy. Due to the Schrems II judgment, most other countries will be unable to pass new EU standards, and data transfer has to be judged on a case-by-case basis, which when looking at the international air industry is unfeasible. By exploring the Schrems II judgment, this article will analyze the third-country data transfer mechanisms and the impact the judgment had on third countries. Air law, PNR, CJEU, Schrems II, Privacy Shield, national security, European Data Protection, data transfer mechanisms, GDPR, Standard Contractual Clauses (SCC)

Health Emergency and Asylum Law in the European Union

Abstract The rapid spread of COVID-19 in Europe has led to the further deterioration of the crisis concerning the application of the provisions of European Union (EU) asylum law in most Member States. Accordingly, this article aims to shed light on the impact that the health emergency is having on the Common European Asylum System (CEAS). This requires a twofold legal analysis. First, the article discusses whether health emergencies, like that caused by COVID-19, should affect the scope of States’ obligations stemming from the CEAS, such as the principle of non-refoulement and access to asylum procedures. In this connection, it reviews, in light of international law obligations and the EU border control regime, the policy responses and legislative measures adopted by EU Member States during the first few weeks of the pandemic that resulted in the closure of borders to asylum seekers. Secondly, the article investigates whether the CEAS legal toolbox contains adequate provisions that can be applied in emergency situations. Thus it analyses the impact of the health emergency on reception conditions for asylum seekers. Based on the findings of this twofold analysis, it is concluded that certain rights, such as the right to seek asylum, cannot be suspended – not even during a situation of health emergency – and that it is all the more urgent to redesign a CEAS that takes account of the challenges posed by future situations of health emergency.

Connective infrastructures as transnational articulators Trans-scalar Analysis of three European Union borders

ResumenLa accesibilidad, velocidad y conectividad global han modificado la noción del tiempo y la manera en cómo percibimos el espacio, generando un seísmo en las relaciones internacionales y las políticas entre los Estados, impactando directamente las fronteras internacionales. Este proceso se ha logrado principalmente por la implementación de redes de infraestructura de conectividad, las cuales, por su vocación integradora y administradora del territorio, han logrado vencer límites fronterizos conflictivos que la política ha dibujado en la historia. El impacto de las infraestructuras de conectividad sobre territorios transfronterizos ha sido determinante, pues trascienden desde la escala global hasta la escala urbana. Este artículo valora la capacidad funcional y operativa que poseen las infraestructuras para reconectar sistemas territoriales separados; aplicadas como una herramienta efectiva para impulsar y materializar programas de cooperación transfronteriza, gestando espacios inéditos de encuentro e intercambio económico, sociocultural, político y natural. Se analizan tres casos de infraestructuras que intervienen franjas transfronterizas en la Unión Europea (U.E.), extrayendo sus mecanismos y criterios de gestión tanto físicas -espaciales- como virtuales -regulatorios-. Cada caso representa una escala de impacto territorial distinta, con métodos de gestión integral, mecanismos innovadores de planificación y herramientas regulatorias conjuntas, los cuales son relevantes para reinterpretarlos y contextualizarlos en otros escenarios internacionales de fronteras conflictivas.AbstractAccessibility, speed, and global connectivity have modified the notion of time and the way we perceive space, generating an extreme shift in international relations and policies between States, directly impacting international borders. This process has been achieved mainly through the implementation of connective infrastructure, which has managed to overcome confiictive borders drawn by politics throughout history, due to their integrative and administrative function. The impact of connective infrastructures on cross-border territories has been decisive, ranging from the global to the urban scale. This article evaluates the functional and operational capacity of infrastructures to reconnect separate territorial systems, applied as an effective tool to encourage and materialize transnational cooperative programs, thus creating distinct and unprecedented spaces for economic, sociocultural, and political encounters and exchanges. Three cases of infrastructure that intertwine border strips in the European Union (E.U.) are analyzed, extracting their mechanisms and management criteria, both physical (spatial) and virtual (regulatory). Each case represents a different scale of territorial impact, with integrated management methods, innovative planning mechanisms and joint regulatory tools, which are relevant to reinterpret and contextualize in the context of other international scenarios of confiicting borders