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AbstractThe article develops the concept of "fortress capitalism." The concept has two dimensions. First, it describes those elements within today's migration and border regimes that aim to control the mobility of the global working class in repressive ways. Second, it designates a dystopian future scenario, in which these repressive elements have massively expanded. Such a formation might develop as part of a twenty‐first‐century fascism. Based on historical materialism and critical theory, the article makes four points. First, it asserts that migration regimes are being transformed toward a new level of restrictiveness. Second, it argues that fortress capitalism complements theoretical motives that emphasize the uncontrollability of migration. Third, it contends that migration and border regimes in their emergence, dynamics, forms, and effects are closely linked to the intersectional dynamics of global capitalism as a whole. Fourth, it points out that global capitalism fundamentally depends on border regimes to regulate its contradictions.

Today, the analysis of migration and migration policy from a perspective of critical political economy is necessary, because of the dramatic conflicts surrounding the so-called "refugee crisis" of 2015/2016, but also because explicitly materialist analyses of these issues have been marginalized for years, with problematic effects. Thus, the article sketches a theoretical and methodological outline of a materialist border regime analysis. It first criticizes problematic aspects of the influential "ethnographic border regime analysis" approach and then, by relying on regulation theory, develops a materialist understanding of migration and border regimes. Starting from a discussion of the social and political conflicts around German migration policy in 2015/2016, the article then goes on to identify three migration-related structural contradictions that are regulated within migration and border regimes: accumulation by dispossession and the autonomy of migration;labour conflicts; and the structural chauvinism of national welfare states.

"Today, the analysis of migration and migration policy from a perspective of critical political economy is necessary, because of the dramatic conflicts surrounding the so-called 'refugee crisis' of 2015/2016, but also because explicitly materialist analyses of these issues have been marginalized for years, with problematic effects. Thus, the article sketches a theoretical and methodological outline of a materialist border regime analysis. It first criticizes problematic aspects of the influential "ethnographic border regime analysis" approach and then, by relying on regulation theory, develops a materialist understanding of migration and border regimes. Starting from a discussion of the social and political conflicts around German migration policy in 2015/2016, the article then goes on to identify three migration-related structural contradictions that are regulated within migration and border regimes: accumulation by dispossession and the autonomy of migration/labour conflicts; and the structural chauvinism of national welfare states." (author's abstract)

In den vergangenen zehn Jahren hat sich in der internationalen Migrationspolitik ein neues Konzept etabliert: 'Migrationsmanagement'. 'Migration muss gemanagt werden, um die Vorteile der Migration maximieren und ihre negativen Folgen minimieren' zu können, so lautet die utilitaristische Kernbotschaft. Ausgangspunkt dieses politischen Projekts war der ökonomische Globalisierungsschub nach der Weltwirtschaftskrise 1973. In seiner Folge verstärkte sich die internationale Mobilität von Menschen: Migration wurde zu einer offensiven und aus staatlicher Sicht potenziell unkontrollierbaren Strategie vieler Menschen, mit der sie auf die Folgen neoliberaler Reformen reagierten. Unter dem Etikett Migrationsmanagement propagierten Expert_innen aus dem Umfeld u. a. der International Organization for Migration (IOM) und des International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) eine Gegenstrategie: Die staatlichen Fähigkeiten zur Begrenzung unerwünschter Migration sollen gesteigert werden, um eine ,regulierte Offenheit' gegenüber 'nützlicher' Zuwanderung beherrschbar zu machen. Politisch lässt sich das Projekt der liberalen Strömung in den internationalen Beziehungen zuordnen. Migration wird als positiv betrachtet, weil und insofern sie ökonomisch nützlich ist. So wird deutlich, dass das Projekt den Interessen wirtschaftlich und politischer dominierender Kräfte im Weltsystem eher nutzt, als der großen Mehrheit der Weltbevölkerung.

In den letzten 20 Jahren hat sich europäische Migrationspolitik tiefgreifend verändert. Neues Leitbild ist das umfassende, effiziente und flexible "Management" von Migrationsprozessen. Das International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD), eine zwischenstaatliche Organisation mit Sitz in Wien, hat seit seiner Gründung 1993 eine wichtige Rolle für Weiterentwicklung und Ausbau des europäischen Migrationsregimes gespielt. Wie lassen sich Entwicklung, Programmatik und Praxis des ICMPD charakterisieren? Welche politische Rationalität liegt dem Projekt eines europäischen Migrationsmanagements zugrunde? Der Autor Fabian Georgi legt die erste wissenschaftliche Studie zum ICMPD vor. Exemplarisch für das europäische Migrationsregime werden Entwicklung, Programmatik und Praxisformen der Organisation detailliert analysiert. Darauf aufbauend entwickelt der Autor Elemente einer kritischen Theorie des Migrationsmanagements und macht dabei Demokratietheorie, Nationalismusforschung und Weltsystemtheorie ebenso fruchtbar, wie das Konzept der Autonomie der Migration. Die Studie richtet sich sowohl an interessierte SozialwissenschaftlerInnen verschiedener Disziplinen als auch an eine kritische Öffentlichkeit.

John Kannankulam and Fabian Georgi show, that the dominant authoritarian neoliberal fraction of the german Federal Government made a change of course in summer 2012. It quits with some ordoliberal principles and stops resistance against the mutualization of debt and expansive monetary policy. The alliance of a national-conservative and an ordoliberal fraction broke up. The contradiction within the (neo-)liberals and conservatives result in a foundation of a new right-wing party, the AfD, Alternative für Deutschland (Alternative for Germany). Anyway new conflicts arise and the Great Coalition of Merkel's CDU and the Social Democrats hold on its hard-line (against greece): austerity. John Kannankulam and Fabian Georgi reconstruct the dynamics on the basis of four phases in which the authoritarian-neoliberal fraction prevail.

"John Kannankulam and Fabian Georgi show, that the dominant authoritarian neoliberal fraction of the German Federal Government made a change of course in summer 2012. It quits with some ordoliberal principles and stops resistance against the mutualization of debt and expansive monetary policy. The alliance of a national-conservative and an ordoliberal fraction broke up. The contradiction within the (neo-)liberals and conservatives result in a foundation of a new right-wing party, the AfD, Alternative für Deutschland (Alternative for Germany). Anyway new conflicts arise and the Great Coalition of Merkel's CDU and the Social Democrats hold on its hard-line (against Greece): austerity. John Kannankulam and Fabian Georgi reconstruct the dynamics on the basis of four phases in which the authoritarian-neoliberal fraction prevail." (author's abstract)

Our article focuses on a question that is at the core of comparative capitalisms (CC) scholarship and historical materialist state theory: What is an appropriate theory of institutions in capitalism? How can we conceptualise institutions in relation to the fundamental contradictions and power relations of capitalism? Starting from the social foundations of institutions, the aim of this article is to show how institutional complementarity and institutional change can be explained through analysing shifting relationships of social forces. With our newly developed method of a 'historical materialist policy analysis', in which we have integrated insights of CC approaches, we seek to show how an empirical investigation of relationships of forces can be operationalised. This is briefly illustrated in an analysis of the constellation of forces in the current Euro crisis.