Bastian A. Vollmer

Policy Discourses on Irregular Migration in the EU - ‘Number Games’ and ‘Political Games’

Irregular migration in Europe appeared on policy agendas in the early 1970s and more intensively in the late 1980s and 1990s; since then, it has become a top priority issue in policy discourses. With reference to exemplifying country cases, this article elaborates on two discursive elements that have emerged across discourses in the EU: 1. threat and criminalization, 2. ‘number games’. The discourse of irregular migration has become increasingly coloured by deviousness, a criminalisation took place at discursive and legislative level alike, but at the same time the insecurity about ‘numbers’, i.e. the scope of irregular migrants residing in the EU, geared policy discourses to a particular development. This article argues that an interplay between these two elements amounts to a necessity of ongoing demonstration of efficient governance. This takes the form of ‘political games’ that are run by political actors demonstrating the capacity and efficient governance of controlling irregular migration and its underlying implications.

The Volatility of the Discourse on Refugees in Germany

ABSTRACT The anti-immigration continuum of public attitude-media-politics has undergone changes in the course of the “refugee crisis” in Germany. By examining migrant representations and discursive events taking place in 2015 and early 2016, we will show the volatility of the recent discourse on refugees. A historical/critical discourse analysis will show how new topoi arose and old topoi of the security/power paradigm have lastly reconquered the discourse. Using newspaper coverage, we discuss discursive events in three main sections: borders, arrival, and presence. Discursive shifts have taken place that have had an impact on the configuration of migration categories such as migrants or refugees.

Policy discourses on irregular migration in Germany and the United Kingdom

1. Introduction 2. Policy Discourses, Frames, Methods 3. United Kingdom 4. Germany 5. Comparative Meta-frames 6. Concluding Remarks

Bordering practices in the UK welfare system

This article considers how chauvinistic welfare policies operate as a bordering practice. Taking the UK as an example, it examines a process in which welfare provisions have increasingly been withdrawn from a group of people designated as undeserving. It points out a close link between chauvinism based on ethnicity and that based on class. This relation is explored in detail for the case of social housing culminating in today’s ‘social housing for local people’ approach. A second case, access to social services for unaccompanied minors, is presented to illustrate bordering practices that operate in everyday services despite existing legal entitlements. The cases show that governments and service providers frequently act outside their legal remits to pursue this agenda, despite the UK’s anti-discrimination legislation.

A hermeneutical approach to European bordering

Abstract Post-Westphalia processes such as the increasing mobility of people, the rise of the international human rights framework, globalization, transnationalization and the political integration of Europe have ‘fundamentally changed the meaning of borders’ (Guild 2001, Moving the Borders of Europe. Inaugural Lecture. Nijmegen: University of Nijmegen, 3). Borders have a ‘polysemic nature’ (Balibar 2002, Politics and the Other Scene. London: Verso, 81), they do not have the same meaning for everyone. This article claims, however, there is another, yet new, fundamental shift as regards the meaning of border: a socio-psychological shift. There is a drastic increase in the public profile of borders. This hypothesized shift requires a new approach on borders. In part it confirms Balibar’s (2002) claim but the article considers the implications for research agendas (Politics and the Other Scene. London: Verso). The article posits a research agenda that goes back to basic questions. It suggests a hermeneutical approach to European bordering and border regimes.

New Narratives from the EU External Border – Humane Refoulement?

ABSTRACT This article discusses changes in the discourse and practice of the EU external border. Findings of a small-scale research project looking at UNHCR’S Border Management and Protection of Refugees (BMPR) programme will discuss developments taking place at the EU external border and will show a new kind of narrative. Institutional cooperation, access to territory and compliance with the principle of non-refoulement seem to have improved. A more empathetic narrative of border security has found its way into institutions of enforcement authorities that primarily follow their mandate of protecting the state’s border and territory. This new narrative is, however, highly politicised and institutionally driven. By taking a more critical view, I introduce the concept of humane refoulement towards the end of the article describing the consequences of this new narrative and denoting it as hypocritical in its nature.

Security or insecurity? Representations of the UK border in public and policy discourses

Abstract This article analyses representations of the UK border (in relation to migration) in UK public and policy discourses. It uses methods from corpus linguistics and critical discourse analysis to compare the two discursive domains. A 26 million-word corpus of policy documentation and British newspaper articles published between 2007 and 2014 is examined using the analysis tool Sketch Engine and applying qualitative concordance analysis. The analysis reveals a key difference between the two domains: while the UK border is represented as a security concept in the policy corpus, the corpus of the public newspaper domain frequently and saliently represents the UK border as a concept dominated by insecurity. The article argues that the discursive label of European Union has played a role in contributing to this difference.

EU migration legacies – perspectives from sending countries

The study of migration has been established as a discipline in its own right, and yet, is arguably still in the process of ‘becoming’ (Garelli & Tazzioli, 2013). In regions where migration became a matter of politics and political management, one can observe a particularly stark development of research agendas. Migration became one of the central challenges of the twenty-first century. For instance, for Europe and the EU, migration has ever more increased in its significance as being one of the major determinants that steer the future and welfare of European populations and societies (e.g. European Commission, 2014). From a European perspective, immigration flows and its implications were meticulously examined and strategies of ‘how to manage this phenomenon’ were developed over the years. Numerous studies contributed to the field of regulating migration and understanding the motives of people leaving their countries of ‘origin’. Castles and Miller’s Age of Migration (1993) is currently published as 5th edition (now with de Haas), one of the seminal contribution, providing a comprehensive overview of international migration history, flows and consequences including future challenges of human migration such as climate change. Cornelius, Martin, and Hollifield (1994) – for instance – addressed migration from a different angle: How the Western world reacts and deals with the phenomenon of migration. This volume has been updated 10 years later in 2004 (now with Tsuda). Authors try to elaborate the implications of migration for industrialized democracies including France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Spain and the United States (for the second edition, Australia, Canada, the Netherlands and South Korea were added). How public policy is challenged and how this new driving factor for democratic elections plays out in these industrialized societies are the central themes of these compendia. Authors discuss selection and controlling measures and how and why they often fail. From other angles – and this could be continued ad infinitum – such as history, Hoerder (2002) provided an in-depth insight into the migratory world, while for example, Bartram (2013) intends to speak to economists and psychologists alike. Nevertheless, taking stock of the research agenda of migration, Eurocentric perspectives dominate the field. Within this context, it is the European understanding of the nation state that becomes the major focus of research, which represents the social, political and economic imagination on the migration phenomenon, especially after the

Police cooperation in internal enforcement of immigration control: learning from international comparison

Purpose – This is a comparison of the role of the police in the enforcement of immigration law in the interiors of three nations: Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Methodology – The study builds upon research the authors have already done as well as desk research on recent developments. It uses three dimensions of the problem to focus the report: the hardware, software, and culture of police involvement in this issue. Findings – In Germany, the local police are responsible for the enforcement of immigration control and have relatively fast and reliable means to identify undocumented immigrants. This is not the case in the United Kingdom and the United States, but there are trends toward more local police involvement, both by institutional cooperation and by the development of better databases and documents for faster identification. These trends are highly controversial in an environment that values community relations and is highly sensitive to racial profiling. However, there are also indications that the differences in typical police work such as traffic controls and crime investigation may not be as pronounced as the differences between the countries would suggest. Research implications – This study highlights the need for ethnographic work with the police and with unauthorized immigrants to empirically describe and assess the role that the police are playing and its impact on police–community relations. Practical implications – The German experience supports the value of a comprehensive information system for rapidly determining the immigration status of suspects, but it may not work as expected in the United States and the United Kingdom, where registration and identification obligations apply to foreign citizens only. With the US and UK experiences, one could predict that discriminating identification practices may become more sensitive issues in a Germany with increasing numbers of immigrated citizens.

Ukrainian Migration Research Before and Since 1991

This chapter provides an overview of research on trends in Ukrainian migration before and since independence in 1991 with the aim of historicizing both the mobility patterns and research agendas of such mobilities. The chapter specifically sets out to analyze continuities and disruptions emerging from two distinct ideologies of Soviet and post-Soviet Ukraine that shaped approaches to researching and documenting migration. In seeking to link these two periods of migration it suggests factors for further research. Previous research agendas have been dominated by studies examining “hard facts” and major migration trends; in-depth studies of macro-level determinants of migration and the micro-level aspirations associated with it remain neglected. Post-independence research treats migration from Ukraine as a new economically driven phenomenon, neglecting the continuities linking it to mobility patterns of Soviet times.