Introduction: Understanding Migration Controls in Europe

This chapter challenges the idea of migration controls as the mere outcome of rational planning and state efficacy. Instead, it argues that migration controls respond to an imperative deeply embedded in the dynamic interplay of internal structural constraints, different geopolitics and economic priorities, and ever-changing internal contexts. Therefore, migration control policies should be viewed as a process where nation-states have to deal with different types of public and private interests, established routines and compelling public expectations. This prevents framing migration control policies in Western countries in terms of divergence and ‘‘efficacy gaps’’, as occurs in the case of Southern European countries, which are still considered to be immigration latecomers, less able to deal with the challenge of unwanted migration flows in comparison to Northern and even Eastern European countries. In this regard, the chapter illustrates the persisting opposition between Northern and Southern Europe in the public debate over migration from the 1970s to the most recent developments, and in its last section explains how each book chapter contributes to unravelling the actual functioning of migration controls beyond nationally based state typologies, and to overcoming the idea of a neatly divided and clustered European migration panorama.