Crisis of Schengen? The effect of two ‘migrant crises’ (2011 and 2015) on the free movement of people at an internal Schengen border

ABSTRACT

The reintroduction of border checks as a chain of reactions during the 2015 ‘migrant crisis’ was interpreted as the dislocation of the Schengen area, and as a ‘Schengen crisis’. Free movement, understood as a complete removal of border checks at internal borders of the Schengen area, would be at risk. However, very few studies have examined the implementation of free movement, and consequently no work has been done on the consequences of such crises on the activities of street-level border guards. This article investigates the activities of the French border police at the France-Italy border in an open border setting in 2008 and 2009, and at two moments of crisis and border closing in 2011 and 2015–2016. By adopting a bottom-up approach toward EU policy implementation, this article shows that regardless of government’s attempt at spectacularising checks at the internal border, the extent to which the border is either ‘closed’ or ‘open’ relies on the member states’ administrations. At the bottom of the chain of command, street-level bureaucrats are tasked with managing the inherent ambiguities of free movement as defined in the Schengen convention, concentrating the checks on third-country nationals and leaving the vast majorities of border crossings unaffected.

KEYWORDS:

• Schengen area
• internal border control
• irregular immigration
• implementation
• bottom-up europeanisation
• targeted checks

Ackowledgements

I would like to thank the reviewers for their very insightful comments. Many thanks to Mike Slaven for his valuable help and to Lydie Cabane and Olivier Borraz for their useful comments and suggestions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

ORCID

Sara Casella Colombeau http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6244-8746

Notes

1 Council Document 13171/15 – the reintroduction of border control was planned for the period from 13 November to 13 December.

2 The official reintroduction of border checks was notified on the basis of Article 23 of the Schengen Borders Code.

3 Riot police department, the Compagnie Républicaines de Sécurité (CRS), and the Gendarmerie, a military police force in charge of policing rural areas.

4 See (Hess and Kasparek 2017) on the effects of the 2011 ‘Arab spring’ on the 2015 ‘summer of migration’.

5 Schengen Acquis - Convention Implementing the Schengen Agreement of 14 June 1985 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 border, Official Journal No. L 239 of 22/09/2000 p. 0019–0062. It corresponds to Article 20 of the Schengen Borders Code.

6 PAF officer from the Police and Customs Cooperation Centre, March 2009.

7 C-188/10 and C-189/10, Aziz Melkiand Sélim Abdeli, judgment of 22 June 2010.

8 Loi n° 93–992 du 10 août 1993 relative aux contrôles et vérifications d'identité, JORF n°184 du 11 août 1993 page 11303.

9 During the investigation in 2008 and 2009, the conflicts affecting Iraq and instability in Afghanistan rendered deportation to these countries impossible. The Afghan question was mentioned by several interviewees, who deplored the lack of sufficient internal political structure even for providing interlocutors capable of recognising their co-nationals in order to obtain a laissez-passer for their deportations. In 2015, there were still nationals from Afghanistan, but also many people from Sudan and Eritrea.

10 The recent media attention to it should not efface the long history of the French-British border’s influence on the region.

11 PAF officer in Nice, October 2008.

12 During my investigation in 2008-2009, police officers I interviewed spoke rather freely about these practices, boasting about their professional skills that allowed them to spot the undocumented migrants on the train, while under pressure from the train company to not delay the traffic.

13 The préfectures are the authorities representing the central authorities at the local level in France.

14 PAF officer from Menton, November 2008.

15 PAF officer in Nice, October 2008.

16 PAF officer at the Nice train station, November 2008.

17 PAF officer in Nice, October 2008.

18 Article 23 of the Schengen Borders Code.

19 Misure umanitarie di protezione temporanea per le rilevanti esigenze connesse all’eccezionale afflusso di cittadini appartenenti ai paesi del Nord Africani, DCPM del 5 Aprile 2011, Ministero dell’ Interno, http://www.meltingpot.org/IMG/pdf/circ-interno-8-4-2011.pdf, cited in L’Europe vacille sous le fantasme de l’invasion tunisienne. Vers une remise en cause du principe de libre circulation dans l’espace ‘Schengen’?”, Anafé, Gisti, 20 June 2011, p. 2.

20 Circulaire n° IOCK1100748C sur les autorisations de séjour délivrées à des ressortissants de pays tiers par les Etats membres de Schengen, 6 avril 2011.

21 ‘L’Europe vacille sous le fantasme de l’invasion tunisienne. Vers une remise en cause du principe de libre circulation dans l’espace “Schengen”?’, Anafé, Gisti, 20 June 2011, p. 26.

22 Regulation (EU) No 1051/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 October 2013 amending Regulation (EC) No 562/2006 in order to provide for common rules on the temporary reintroduction of border control at internal borders in exceptional circumstances.

23 « Internal border controls in the Schengen area: is Schengen crisis-proof? », Study for the LIBE committee, 2016, p. 27.

24 The ‘Jules Ferry’ centre opened in January 2015. It provided the migrants with ‘basic needs’: showers, access to health care, legal advice and meals.

25 The police headquarters.

26 The increase in arrivals was significant. According to the trade union police officer, around 27,000 checks were registered by the police in 2015, while in 2013 there were only 4500.

27 Interview with an Amnesty International volunteer, July 2016.

28 Report from local NGO volunteers, sent to a mailing list specialising in help for migrants in Nice, 22 and 23 June 2016.

29 Interview with N., a member of an NGO in Nice working with irregular migrants, July 2016.

30 Interview with N., a member of an NGO in Nice working with irregular migrants, July 2016.

31 Interview with M., local NGO volunteer in Nice, July 2016.

32 Interview with NGO staff member Ventimiglia, June 2016.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the LabexMed under a postdoctoral grant; Agence Nationale de la Recherche under the BABELS program; and Economic and Social Research Council, project reference ES/N011171/1; French Collaborative Institute on Migration, coordinated by the CNRS under the reference ANR-17-CONV-0001.