Re-Framing Mobility and Identity Controls: The Next Generation of the EU Migration Management Toolkit

Abstract

During the last 20 years, “Schengen Europe” has equipped itself with a matrix of migration control tools comprising a set of exclusionary discourses, laws, institutions, technologies and practices. The European Commission has recently proposed a legislative package on “EU Smart Borders” composed of an Entry-Exit System (EES) and the Registered Travellers Programme (RTP). This article examines the ways in which the EU Smart Borders reframe the traditional understandings and configurations of the EU border control system and its migration management toolkit of technologies. It is argued that smart borders take us a step further in the re-framing of mobility and identity controls in the EU Schengen apparatus. EU discourses backing up these measures have not been so much centered on the insecuritization of irregular immigration. They have instead questioned the effectiveness of the existing EU border regime, and used a “de-securitization” and facilitation of the mobility discourse hiding “discrimination by default.” Smart borders aim at identifying the future potential “irregular overstayer” and generalizing the management of mobility and identity of all non-EU travelers by implementing a person-driven approach. This approach transforms the essence of border controls in Europe and reframes the EU travel documents policy by moving away from a nationality-based approach of border controls towards another based on risk and profiling.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to express their gratitude to the organizers and the participants of these events for their comments to earlier versions of this article.

Funding

This article falls within the framework of the SAPIENT project (Supporting fundamentAl rights, PrIvacy and Ethics in surveillaNce Technologies) funded by the European Commission, DG Enterprise under the 7th Framework Programme (FP7) [grant agreement number 261698].

Notes

1 This article was presented at the 2013 International Studies Association (ISA) Annual Convention in San Francisco, 3–6 April, in the Session “Tools of Migration Management: Innovation, Diffusion, Consequences’, and the Research Workshop on Migration and Security organized by the Center for International Human Rights at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York, 26–27 April 2013.

2 Agreement between the governments of the states of the Benelux Economic Union, the Federal Republic of Germany and the French Republic on the gradual abolition of checks at their common borders, signed at Schengen, 14 June 1985.

3 The Schengen Information System is laid down in Articles 92 to 101 of CISA.

4 This article does not cover an examination of the EU Border Surveillance System (EUROSUR) which envisages the use of a set of surveillance tools in order to seek improving the situational awareness and reaction capability of Frontex and member states authorities in the prevention of irregular migration and cross-border crime at the EU's common external borders. For a critical analysis see Guild and Carrera (2013).

5 Regulation establishing a Community Code on the rules governing the movement of persons across borders (Schengen Borders Code), EC/562/2006, 15 March 2006, OJ L 105/1, 13.4.2006.

6 Articles 7 to 11 of the Schengen Borders Code.

7 Refer to paragraphs 55 and 59 of the judgment.

8 At present, there are only 22 EU member states which are part of the Schengen Area and four non-EU member states (Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein). Ireland and the UK negotiated Protocols which have permitted them to remain outside EU rules on borders. Bulgaria, Cyprus and Romania only partially apply the Schengen acquis at the moment, and checks are still carried out at the borders with these three member states. Denmark is in the Schengen area but, for certain provisions, it can choose whether to implement new decisions or participate in initiatives.

9 Recital 12 of the SBC Preamble.

10 Refer to Annex 1 (List of national services in charge of external border controls in the scope of the Schengen Borders Code).

11 Handbook, 14.

12 Article 13.2 of the Schengen Borders Code.

13 Council of the EU. 2006. Schengen Handbook, 14.

14 Article 13.3 of the Schengen Borders Code.

15 See Polish Presidency of the European Union (2011): Smart borders in the Schengen space. See also European Data Protection Supervisor (2008).

16 Pages 5 and 11 of COM(2013).

17 Recital 11 of the EES Proposal, COM(2013) 95 final.

18 European Commission (2013a).

19 Article 12, COM(2013) 97 final.

20 Ibid.

21 European Commission (2008).

22 European Commission (2008).

23 European Commission (2013b).

24 Council of the EU (2006).

25 COM(2008) 69 final, 6.