Border regimes and the sociology of policing

Abstract

Throughout the world, resources are being shifted towards border enforcement. Along with the concerted political and financial investment afforded by states into defending territories, the apparatus of border policing comprises of numerous state agencies and an ever-expanding range of private actors and commercial bodies. Yet an examination of the culture and practices of those responsible for the routine preservation of border priorities has garnered surprisingly little attention within the sociology of policing. In this research note, I foreground an agenda intended to extend current research and reflection on the everyday policing and surveillance of borders. My starting point is that the policing of borders is undergoing significant changes but without the accompanying scrutiny by policing scholars. Drawing on examples from the USA and Europe, my overarching claim is that as policing and security governance on the border becomes more innovative and pluralistic, policing scholars need to engage in sustained ethnographic fieldwork to track how security frameworks are realised at the local level and acted out against national environments. In so doing, policing scholarship can lead the way in developing a more holistic understanding of border practices with a view to redressing the social injustice experienced by those at the receiving end of contemporary border regimes.

Policing the internal Schengen borders – managing the double bind between free movement and migration control

“…Scholars have argued in recent years (Loftus 2013;Côté-Boucher et al 2014) for a "practice turn" in border studies, "that emphasizes how actors act and how they give meaning to their actions" (Côté-Boucher et al 2014, p.197). Besides, in the study of administrative actors there is a long-standing tradition of giving particular attention to 6 street-level civil servant practices and representations, in order to comprehend the discretion these actors enjoy (Lipsky 2010) when implementing public policies.…”

“…A PAF officer at the Nice train station stated: "We are sorting the persons we check according to the criteria defined by the procedure 14 towards the detention centre: we are filtering the persons carrying their identity documents, the ones carrying forged documents, the adults carrying train tickets". 22 If they find Italian train tickets on a person, they can deport him/her to Italy via the readmission 23 procedure. If the PAF can prove the individual is carrying a forged document, a criminal investigation is opened, but they must determine his/her nationality.…”

“…The rules constraining border police officers' decisions when they wish to deport an individual lead them to maximise the efficiency of checks and arrests. They define criteria to make sure that they 22 PAF officer at the Nice train station, November 2008 23 The "readmission" procedure, in this case, is a deportation procedure between two member states of the Schengen Area. 24 I overheard a very friendly telephone conversation between the head of the PAF and the Moroccan consulate in Nice.…”

Op de grens van het vreemdelingentoezicht: discretionaire beslissingen binnen het Mobiel Toezicht Veiligheid

“…Verschillende auteurs zien vooral de beslissingen van street level officers (Lipsky, 1980) -en in het bijzonder de mogelijkheid om mensen te stoppen voor een controle -als de belangrijkste factor in het crimmigratieproces (Motomura, 2011;Pratt, 2010;Stumpf, 2006). Er is recentelijk dan ook meermaals benadrukt dat er een sterke behoefte is aan empirisch onderzoek naar de dagelijkse praktijk van agenten die opereren als grens-of vreemdelingenpolitie (Cote-Boucher, Infantino & Salter, 2014;Loftus, 2015) Loftus (2015) raadt daarbij aan om te putten uit de rijke literatuur op het gebied van reguliere politieambtenaren en na te gaan in hoeverre de centrale bevindingen daarvan ook van toepassing zijn op grenspolitieagenten.…”

Enlisting the Public in the Policing of Immigration

“…While public involvement in policing is by no means new (Shapland and Vagg, 1988, Grabosky, 1992, Zedner, 2006, Mazerolle and Ransley, 2005, Ayling et al, 2009, this story reveals interesting features of the contemporary law enforcement landscape, of which immigration enforcement is becoming a key part (Weber, 2011, Loftus, 2013, Mutsaers, 2014, Bowling and Sheptycki, 2014. In Britain, as a consequence of changes on migration patterns and the policies that followed to address those changes since the early 2000s inland immigration enforcement has gained prominence for successive governments, a marked shift from the traditional focus on external controls.…”