Migration control and regulation

As migration has become a core feature of the world we inhabit, questions as to how migration flows are regulated or controlled appear prominently on the agenda. On the one hand, fears over uncontrolled immigration have prompted many states to enact new and advanced systems of border control. On the other hand, Western societies are intimately dependent on the free and easy movement of tourists, business people and labour migrants across their borders.

The attempt to reconcile this dilemma has meant that border control is increasingly substituted for the broader notion of migration management. Initiatives to control or regulate migration are almost always wrought with policy dilemmas and concerns from related issues: Will enacting more control create trade impediments? Will the migration pressures move elsewhere? Does the introduction of green cards entail a risk of 'brain drain'? Are remittances ensuring development in countries of origin?

Secondly, the move to migration management means that migration has emerged as an increasingly important foreign policy issue. The EU states have been keen to ensure the cooperation of transit and origin countries to stem the flow of irregular migrants towards Europe. But beyond the narrow control perspective, policy makers are also starting to ask questions on how trade policies may be used to facilitate labour migration to Western societies, or how migration policies could aid in ensuring development in the countries of emigration.

The DIIS research in this area focuses on three levels of migration management: Regimes, operations and networks.

Regimes

At the systemic level, migration is managed through a complex patchwork of interlocking legal and political regimes. Different labels, such as 'refugee', 'labour migrant', 'trafficked' or 'tourist', all entail radically different treatments and rights for those designated. Yet, the categorizations are seldom that easy to separate. Thus, attempts to control the flows of 'irregular migration' may not sit easily with human rights obligations to protect asylum seekers or facilitate easy access for business people using the same routes.

Operations

The picture of 'Fortress Europe' has been pervasive in the media. Yet, while spending on migration control has never been higher, it is equally clear that the notion of a fortress is ultimately a metaphor; an actual closure of the external borders is not only impossible, but also highly undesirable.
The move from border control to migration management has entailed a new logic, in which migrants are constantly filtered into different categories, ideally allowing the tourist easy passage, but ensuring that the undocumented migrant or suspected terrorist is identified and rejected.
DIIS analyses how such migration management is carried out, its operational logic and the policy issues surrounding it.

Networks

Lastly, it is important to appreciate that migration management is not just a question of legal instruments, government policies or border guards. An under-investigated dimension is the extent to which the migrants themselves play an active role in organising and governing migration flows. Diaspora networks may not only play a crucial role in facilitating movement, they are also linked to issues of integration in the immigrant countries, and remittances and development in the countries of origin.

Researchers working on these themes include: Thomas Gammeltoft-Hansen, Sine Plambech, Ninna Nyberg Sørensen and Katrine Borg Albertsen

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