The Mobility Control Apparatus: Getting to the Core of Crimmigration in the Schengen Area

by Maartje van der Woude

Overview

This book critically explores the complexities of intra-Schengen border control and migration dynamics within Europe. It provides a comprehensive analysis of how various actors, including border officials and state apparatuses, interact in managing mobility and enforcing controls. The theoretical foundation draws on Foucault’s concept of the dispositif, examining how borders are enforced through a combination of legal frameworks, discourses, and on-the-ground practices.

The book emphasises the importance of discretion in border control, arguing that it plays a pivotal role in shaping decisions at both the organisational and street levels. It delves into the experiences of Dutch border control officers and the wider European context, offering a comparative analysis of Europe’s intra-Schengen borderlands. By drawing on real-world case studies, it showcases the tensions between security and mobility and how migration is managed through both visible and covert policing practices. The work is grounded in rich qualitative data, collected over years of fieldwork, and addresses key debates in migration and criminology studies, particularly the evolving concept of ‘crimmigration’ and its implications for human rights and security policies.

This book will be of interest to criminologists, sociologists, legal scholars, and political scientists alike, as well as all those engaged in studies on migration, mobility, and the European Union.

The Open Access version of this book, available at http://www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons [Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND)] 4.0 license.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781032117829
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	03/28/2025
Series:	Routledge Studies in Criminal Justice, Borders and Citizenship
Pages:	212
Product dimensions:	5.44(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Maartje van der Woude is a Professor of Law & Society at Leiden University. Her research focuses on crimmigration, securitisation, (counter) terrorism and border control, with previous publications addressing issues like European border security and the politics of fear in immigration enforcement.

Table of Contents

1. The Beginning of a Borderland Adventure, 2. Discretion as the Ghost in the Apparatus, 3. Shaping Schengen, Shaping the Apparatus, 4. Top-Down Discretion and Intra-Schengen Mobility Control, 5. In-between Discretion and Intra-Schengen Migration Control, 6. Discretion and the Intra-Schengen Mobility Control Apparatus from Below, 7. Deus Ex Machina?

Editorial Reviews

Embark on an engaging borderland adventure with brilliant socio-legal scholar Maartje van de Woude and discover how the power of discretion dynamically shapes political and policy choices inside the mobility control apparatus - producing crimmigration. Featuring rich qualitative fieldwork, nuanced multiscalar analysis, and well-crafted prose, this is a must read!

Nancy A. Wonders, Professor Emeritus of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Northern Arizona University

This excellent book by Maartje van der Woude gives a new, important contribution to the growing field of “Crimmigration”, about the not always benign interaction of immigration and criminal law. Starting from her ground-breaking research with Royal Netherlands Marechaussee, which is responsible for policing the internal borders, van der Woude explores the intricacies of European regulations of immigration matters within the so-called “Schengen area”, shedding light on crucial issues of human rights and discrimination. A must read for all students and scholars of this new emerging field.

Dario Melossi, Professor of Criminology, School of Law, University of Bologna

How and why do EU member states police, regulate, control, and discipline migrants across the internal borderlands of the European Union, a zone of free movement? This is the sociolegal puzzle Maartje van der Woude answers with exact detail and sharp insights in her new book The Mobility Control Apparatus, which draws upon her decades long research, expertise and engagement with border criminology. Van der Woude explains how the daily practices, complex legal frameworks, and racialised border politics have created a near totalising machine of control and exclusion. Yet by tracking the internal dynamics and discretion of border agents as they operate this machine, van der Woude finds spaces of resistance, decency, and the possibility of breaking this machine and its associated repression. A must-read book for academics, students and policy makers interested understanding the complexity of border control and how it might be undone.

Vanessa Barker, Professor of Sociology, Stockholm University

This is a topical and original contribution examining Schengen internal border controls from a socio-legal perspective and linking the debate on the transformation of Schengen with the debate on crimmigration. The book is essential reading for academics and practitioners interested in European border control and internal security.

Valsamis Mitsilegas, Professor of European and Global Law and Dean, School of Law and Social Justice, University of Liverpool.

The Mobility Control Apparatus is a critical read for all scholars and students of crimmigration and mobility. The book navigates the complexities of politics, bureaucracy, law, and discretion to craft a clear picture of the mobility control regime of the Schengen borderlands. Deftly tying together pathbreaking field research on Dutch crimmigration practices with insights from the literature on multi-level governance and legal pluralism, the book provides a new window into the multiscalar nature of mobility control and crimmigration, uncovering its consequences for racialisation and the flow of power. Finally, it points persuasively towards unexpected sources of change and resistance.

Juliet Stumpf, Edmund O. Belsheim Professor of Law, Lewis & Clark Law School

From the Publisher