Suchergebnisse

Whilst exit operations are usually used to describe practices like forced returns or even voluntary or assisted ones, this report will explicate how other practices also need to be examined as exit governance. The report traces exit governance from the way in which the political institutions, and with them Frontex, are seeking to transform not just the operational understanding of exit policies, but also the very knowledge environment through which exit is understood by Member States and non-state actors. As such, it understands exit governance widely, as concerning both the seemingly discrete functioning of large-scale information systems and how they process and store data, over the different kinds of Frontex support and organization of return flights, to the highly controversial pushback practices. As the latter term indicates, this practice means that border authorities, or actors contracted by such authorities, seek to force migrants to exit EU territory. As such this connects to the various internal and external investigations which have faced the Frontex Agency since 2020. Part and parcel of this more expansive understanding of exit governance is also that it is connected to various markets for border control technologies and enforcement, as well as to forums where non-profit actors also seek to impact how people are sent out of EU territory. This report details the central and rapidly expanding role of the Frontex Agency in the institutional structure and political dynamics underpinning EU exit policies, and how the Agency interacts with a range of non-state actors, ranging from commercial for-profit companies to International Organizatons (IOs) and civil society organizations, such as NGOs.

This report details how private and commercial actors also yield a crucial influence on the development, adoption and implementation of EU measures related to immigration. It is based on the assumption that in order to provide the general public and policy-makers with tools to pursue a sustainable and forward-looking policy on migration, the supply-chain of border technologies, functions and infrastructures must be acknowledged. The same is the case for the way in which it features in the processes of multileveled EU border governance, and how commercial actors are positioned and positioning themselves on a profitable market for EU border control that is worth billions of euro. This perspective on border control challenges standard assumptions which privilege the territorial unit of the nation-state, or the stated self-image of the EU as a supranational area of freedom, security and justice. In order to fulfill this goal, this deliverable provides, first, a mapping of the political economy of EU entry governance, realized through a database developed for the purpose, and analysis of the data generated by it. This enables to identify and discuss some of the key actors, processes and networks of this political economy at the level of the EU through key illustrations provided by two central policy drives which have evolved in European border control during the last decades, namely: Interoperability and space surveillance for border control purposes. While a focus on these two themes is not exhaustive, it is argued to be able to demonstrate dynamics, silences and criticism, which needs to be addressed in EU entry governance ; This report details how private and commercial actors also yield a crucial influence on the development, adoption and implementation of EU measures related to immigration. It is based on the assumption that in order to provide the general public and policy-makers with tools to pursue a sustainable and forward-looking policy on migration, the supply-chain of border technologies, functions and infrastructures must be acknowledged. The same is the case for the way in which it features in the processes of multileveled EU border governance, and how commercial actors are positioned and positioning themselves on a profitable market for EU border control that is worth billions of euro. This perspective on border control challenges standard assumptions which privilege the territorial unit of the nation-state, or the stated self-image of the EU as a supranational area of freedom, security and justice. In order to fulfill this goal, this deliverable provides, first, a mapping of the political economy of EU entry governance, realized through a database developed for the purpose, and analysis of the data generated by it. This enables to identify and discuss some of the key actors, processes and networks of this political economy at the level of the EU through key illustrations provided by two central policy drives which have evolved in European border control during the last decades, namely: Interoperability and space surveillance for border control purposes. While a focus on these two themes is not exhaustive, it is argued to be able to demonstrate dynamics, silences and criticism, which needs to be addressed in EU entry governance