Crimmigration between Human Rights and Surveillance
Borders are subject to progressive securitization, surveillance and militarization. EU migration policies are increasingly based more on exclusion and denial of rights and less on equality as a basic legal and ethical principle. With the purpose of control over migrants, migration law is taking over elements of criminal law (the concept is called the criminalization of migration or “crimmigration”), which has threatening consequences for migrants’ fundamental rights. This triggers aspirations for different, inclusive EU migration policies that would aim at respect for human dignity and fundamental rights of all migrants.
The project addresses the problem of the criminalization of migration which is visible in the strengthening of border control institutions (border police and Frontex with large IT surveillance systems), militarization and externalization of border control, confinement of irregular migrants in detention centres, lack of alternatives to detention, antiterrorist laws, penalization of irregular border crossing and disproportionate representation of migrants in prisons. A particular problem is that while migration law is increasingly taking over penalizing elements of criminal law, it is not taking over the criminal law’s procedural guarantees. Migrants are thus as Agamben’s homines sacri, people without Arendt’s “right to have rights.” The problem of crimmigration and creation of “disposable people” highlights that the law is used against its basic purpose, which leads to denial of law (justice/rights) or even to the inversion of law, an element pertaining to setting up of totalitarian regimes. What are the consequences of these processes on equality and rights, the principles and practices of human relations and on the nature of political systems in the EU?
Project leader: Neža Kogovšek Šalamon
Project coworkers: Aleš Završnik, Mojca M. Plesničar, Vasja Badalič, Mojca Frelih, Vlasta Jalušič, Mojca Pajnik and Veronika Bajt
With the purpose of examining the problem from various aspects, the project is structured into six thematic work packages (WPs). The first two WPs are focused on theoretical conceptualization of crimmigration through analysis of their impact on the principle of equality (WP1) and analysis of the impact of large IT surveillance systems and their penal effects on fundamental rights of migrants (WP2). Along with the described framing of the issue we will conduct analysis of three geographical areas (WP3 Western Balkans, WP4 Middle East, WP5 Slovenia) and one specific sub-issue of migrants within the criminal justice systems (WP6). In addition, the WP0 on project coordination and WP7 on dissemination are added to thematic WPs. The methodology of the project will be based on an intersectional approach to the law by including philosophical, political science and sociological concepts, while it will also include intertwining the research results from different WPs for the purpose of comprehensive articulation and understanding of the issue.
Research goals: The overall research goal is to generate new knowledge and find new solutions, based on science.
Specific goals of the project are:
- To deepen the understanding of criminalization processes in extension of the penalizing state before the entry of migrants into the EU, at the entry and after the entry;
- To improve the understanding of border management, its externalization and the role of Frontex;
- To study crimmigration from the perspective of theories of racism and equality;
- To strengthen the insight into the background of migration policies and criminalization by way of advancing the thought of G. W. F. Hegel, Hannah Arendt and Giorgio Agamben (the “right to have rights” doctrine);
- To articulate advantages, shortcomings and challenges for EU regulations balancing fundamental rights and the need for surveillance;
- To frame new theoretical concepts in the field of crimmigration;
- To raise awareness of Slovenian legal scholars on the issue of relationship between surveillance and fundamental rights; and
- To contribute to scholarly debate on the EU and international level and thereby promote Slovenian research achievements internationally.
A new thematic issue of Two Homelands Journal was released discussing criminalization of migration, with scientific paper written by all nine members of the research team of the project “Crimmigration between Human Rights and Surveillance” (Slovenian Research Agency, 2016-2018).