This book provides a critical analysis of irregular migration to Europe from a neo-Gramscian perspective. It demonstrates how the contemporary EU migration management regime came about within the context of a neoliberal hegemonic project, which in turn was advanced using neofunctionalist methods of integration. Relying on field research that was carried out in Bulgaria, Italy, Germany and Greece, the book also describes how European migration management is experienced by irregular migrants themselves. It suggests that the social purpose of migration management cannot be understood without assessing the experiences of the objects of migration regimes. The 2015 migration crisis revealed that large-scale migration has the potential to undermine some of the greatest achievements of the European integration project such as the Schengen system and open internal borders. This book shows that this fragility is the result of inherent contradictions within the neoliberal hegemonic project for the European Union. As such this book is an interesting read for academics, students, policy makers and all those working in international migration and European integration.

Delegating Responsibility explores the politics of migration in the European Union and explains how the EU responded to the 2015–17 refugee crisis. Based on 86 interviews and fieldwork in Greece and Italy, Nicholas R. Micinski proposes a new theory of international cooperation on international migration. States approach migration policies in many ways—such as coordination, collaboration, subcontracting, and unilateralism—but which policy they choose is based on capacity and on credible partners on the ground. Micinski traces the fifty-year evolution of EU migration management, like border security and asylum policies, and shows how EU officials used “crises” as political leverage to further Europeanize migration governance. In two in-depth case studies, he explains how Italy and Greece responded to the most recent refugee crisis. He concludes with a discussion of policy recommendations regarding contemporary as well as long-term aspirations for migration management in the EU.

In this open access book, experts on integration processes, integration policies, transnationalism, and the migration and development framework provide an academic assessment of the 2011 European Agenda for the Integration of Third-Country Nationals, which calls for integration policies in the EU to involve not only immigrants and their society of settlement, but also actors in their country of origin. Moreover, a heuristic model is developed for the non-normative, analytical study of integration processes and policies based on conceptual, demographic, and historical accounts. The volume addresses three interconnected issues: What does research have to say on (the study of) integration processes in general and on the relevance of actors in origin countries in particular? What is the state of the art of the study of integration policies in Europe and the use of the concept of integration in policy formulation and practice? Does the proposal to include actors in origin countries as important players in integration policies find legitimation in empirical research? A few general conclusions are drawn. First, integration policies have developed at many levels of government: nationally, locally, regionally, and at the supra-national level of the EU. Second, a multitude of stakeholders has become involved in integration as policy designers and implementers. Finally, a logic of policymaking—and not an evidence-based scientific argument—can be said to underlie the European Commission’s redefinition of integration as a three-way process. This book will appeal to academics and policymakers at international, European, national, regional, and local levels. It will also be of interest to graduate and master-level students of political science, sociology, social anthropology, international relations, criminology, geography, and history.

This book is a reflection of the social reality of mass migration in the EU from a legal perspective. It consists of a collection of essays reflecting on important current issues including the scope of the powers allocated to the EU, the cooperation of the EU with third countries and the emergence of international migration legal norms.

This book explores the norms, practices, and main actors in the EU Migration System of Governance (EUMSG). Bringing a fresh perspective to the analysis of asylum and migration in Europe, the volume unpacks the European Union’s approach to migration and points to the principles and actions of EU member states. Moreover, it explores the EUMSG’s performance through the lenses of three alternative yet coexistent understandings of justice (non-domination, impartiality, and mutual recognition), thereby overcoming a unilateral ethical viewpoint and moving away from the ‘open-closed borders’ debate.

This volume brings together an interdisciplinary group of scholars around an important question: how has migration changed in Europe as the European Union has enlarged, and what are the consequences for countries (and for migrants themselves) inside and outside of these redrawn jurisdictional and territorial borders? By addressing this question the book contributes to three current debates with respect to EU migration management: 1) that recent developments in EU migration management represent a profound spatial and organizational reconfiguration of the regional governance of migration, 2) the trend towards the externalization or subcontracting of migration control and, 3) how the implications of Europe’s changing immigration policy are increasingly felt across the European neighborhood and beyond. Based on new empirical research, the authors in this collection explore these three processes and their consequences for both member and non-member EU states, for migrants themselves, and for migration systems in the region. The collection indicates that despite the rhetoric of social and spatial integration across the EU region, as one wall has come down, new walls have gone up as novel migration and security policy frameworks have been erected – making European immigration more complex, and potentially more influential beyond the EU zone, than ever.