The Politics of Border Control in Europe

This chapter examines the growing politicization of border control policy in Europe. It first examines why the border has become important at all at a time when some have argued that borders are increasingly less relevant. The relatively easy movement of migrants into Europe until the 1970s was matched by the easy movement across the soft northern and southern borders of the United States at the same time. How, then, did the issue of the border become increasingly salient? This chapter argues that the developing political salience of the border has been the principle result, first of the reframing of the question of immigration by political party leaders as a failure by the state to control the challenge to identity. Party leaders and electoral competition have then mobilized public opinion around issues of border control as a political priority. This has taken place in the context of cross-border population movements within Europe, and by increased numbers of asylum seekers seeking entry into Europe.

The Shaping of Policy

This chapter explores patterns of policy enforcement of the variable border: where it is enforced and with what effectiveness. Policies reflect intentions to control migration patterns across the variable border, and to shape and constrain how the border actually functions. The chapter examines how the implementation of border controls reshapes policy on the ground. Control appears to be effective on both sides of the Atlantic. At the same time, a large number of migrants have gained access for long-term residence. Effective controls have shaped migration, but have also permitted large numbers of immigrants to enter from year to year. Most decision-making on entry has been externalized to countries of origin, where most people desiring to enter are granted visas. Most rejections are at land and sea ports, in part because these applications for admission are made for asylum, which is governed by more demanding rules and a different process.

Conclusion

This concluding chapter focuses on both what is meant by the idea that the border is back, and how this has come about. The new focus on the border has evolved in a context of important, and seemingly successful, efforts of international cooperation toward the removal of barriers to trade and the movement of people on both sides of the Atlantic. The shift toward harder controls at the border has been driven by the emergence of new radical right movements and political parties on both sides of the Atlantic. Borders are closing not because of economic protectionism, but as a result of conflicting commitments of liberal democracies: rights and treaty-based immigration is running up against growing support for a reinforcement of national identity and border control. Although there has consistently been significant opposition to immigration in the West, the increase in rights-based immigration on the borders of Europe and on the southern border of the United States has given this opposition political traction. In the context of electoral politics, political parties have driven border issues as political priorities. Identity has trumped trade as a priority issue.

Border Policies

This chapter examines how border policies have evolved in Europe and the United States. It goes beyond law and deals more broadly with what has been termed “policy output. ” The chapter considers how policies have varied over time and space, and the author argues that in both Europe and the United States immigration policy has increasingly become focused on the border, the reinforcement of border controls, and the link between other aspects of immigration to these controls. The framing of the political problem of immigration—as one of legal entry in the United States, and integration in Europe—has been connected to questions of border control and enforcement. Even as levels of immigration have been stable, or even in decline, policy on the border has become more important. The chapter concludes by dealing with outcomes, which help us to understand the relevance of policy objectives.

The Problem of the Border

This introductory chapter examines questions that have been raised about the evolving importance of the border, from whether global trade has made borders less relevant, to whether states still possess the capability (or the will) to control borders. A great deal has been written about border policies in Europe and the United States, but very little about how and why policies change, both over time and across space. In the United States, even during the most severe period of immigration restriction, borders were a minor focus of attention, and the northern and southern borders remained relatively open and only lightly patrolled. In Europe, even after the dismantling of the internal borders when the Schengen Agreement was implemented after 1995, the external borders still remained the responsibility of the member states, with relatively little coordination at the EU level. Therefore, why have borders become an important focus of politics?

The Politics of Border Control in the United States

This chapter analyzes the shift in border policy in the United States. The shift evolved with what was framed as the surge of undocumented immigration after 1980, and the securitization of what had been a circulation of workers from Mexico to and from the United States. The perception of failure of immigration policy emerged not from a widespread reaction to a sense of failed integration, as in Europe, but to the increased political focus on the growth of the population of undocumented immigrants. The progressive reinforcement of the border, particularly after 1992, had the perverse effect of providing an incentive for migrants to remain on the US side in larger numbers than ever before. The growth of the undocumented population weighed on the political process in three ways. First, it fed a growing perception of failure of the adequacy of southern border controls. Second, as the issue of the border became politicized, it began to undermine stable understandings of policy within the policy network on immigration. Third, the border became a growing focus for intra- and interpolitical party conflict, and was accelerated by federal dynamics.

The Hard Arm of the State

In contrast to the orderly control of entry that follows policies and rules, the state must also deal with the breakdown of policy, and the failure to maintain its priorities. This chapter explores the hard arm of border control, and the instruments that have been used to deal with the enforcement and breakdown of policy. It begins by examining how the border is policed, and how policing deals with undocumented entry. It then looks at attempts to enhance the policing of the border with passenger name records and entry/exit systems. The chapter finally examines the increasingly widespread pattern of construction of fences and walls on both sides of the Atlantic, and explores detention and expulsion.

Where Are the Gates?

This chapter explores the question of where the border has been controlled in Europe and the United States. The border is not a uniform area of control, but an area that is controlled at different points in different ways. Some points of control may indeed be somewhere on the lines of the map, while others may be deep within the territory of the state. Others, moreover, are far from the state itself, in the territory of other states. Border control varies and defines different aspects of the frontier. This chapter also explores variations in the regulation of people and trade. How is it possible to regulate movement of people across the border, in the face of economic forces that push for greater openness, while security concerns and powerful political forces push toward greater closure? The chapter examines whether the hardening of border control for people necessarily obstructs the growth of free trade.