In person icon Maritime Irregular Migration Governance: Trends and Challenges in Europe and Beyond

Abstract

Maritime irregular migration is a significant challenge in most receiving regions. Even though the majority of irregular migrants are visa overstayers, maritime irregular migration has captured the attention of media and political debates in recent years, torn between security and humanitarian concerns. On the one hand, EU member states are increasingly focusing on the externalisation of borders, as the United States and Australia have been doing for many years. Bilateral agreements, conditionality clauses, new reception and offshore processing centres in third countries, and a militarisation of the maritime domain comprise the latest externalisation strategies of both EU member states and the European Union. On the other hand, some fear that security imperatives (and measures) may eventually undermine the universal principle of refugee protection and, potentially, increase the number of irregular migrants in many destination countries. How do receiving states address the dichotomy between security and humanitarian imperatives? What are the key measures adopted by European and non-European destination countries? What are their consequences? This panel gathers papers dealing with irregular migration governance, broadly understood. Consequently, it offers timely and innovative insights centred on, among other elements, the foreign and security policies on irregular migration, externalisation measures, migration diplomacy, refugee protection, and related policies, including regularisations. While this panel’s papers all engage with these key themes, they approach this sensitive issue from a variety of analytical, theoretical, and methodological standpoints, with the goal of providing novel and multidisciplinary insights into one of the most momentous phenomena of the twenty-first century.

Title	Details
Security Over Humanitarianism? The Bipartisan Australian Foreign Policy on Irregular Migration	View Paper Details
The Externalisation Gamble: Italy and Spain at the Forefront of Maritime Irregular Migration Governance	View Paper Details
The Use of PSMCs in the Management of Migrant Centres: Abuses and Policy concerns	View Paper Details
The Legislative Contrast to Humanitarian Assistance in Italy: The Criminalisation of Migration Penal Populism and the Rule of Law	View Paper Details