Governing mobility beyond the state: centre, periphery and the EU's external borders

In: Palgrave studies in European political sociology

Abstract

How does the European Union maintain a multi-territorial area of free mobility, despite the fact that only its constituting units possess the necessary means to control mobility? This book explores the structural tensions and conflicts that arise with the abolition of border controls between the EU's member states and examines how these tensions affect and are affected by the institutional shape of the EU's external borders. Andreas Muller explores how the political interests in the institutional shape of the EU's external borders differ between centre and periphery, and how these differences affect both external borders and the structure and stability of the Schengen area as a whole. Muller demonstrates the tensions underlying this multinational area of mobility, and sheds light on the changing nature of the European nation state.