Becoming Border. Dynamics and Effects of the Building of the European External Border in a Recently Accessed EU Member State: the Malta Case Study.
Giacomo Orsini, University of Essex
(Joint paper with Silvia Schiavon)
At the very core of the development and harmonization of EU migration and asylum policies resides the construction of the Schengen space of free movement of people. To the dismantling of EU internal borders corresponds the construction of a European external boundary progressively broadening with the enlarging of the EU. In this frame Malta, as a recently accessed EU member state, turned out to be part of this widening European external boundary. As one of the most visible and locally sensitive consequences, since 2004 the island-state became the destiny of thousands of boat-migrants coming from the coasts of north-Africa. Following EU directives and policies the national response to such unexpected phenomena has been articulated mainly through the opening of numerous detention centres and the creation of diverse legal statuses for migrants. As a direct effect of such implementation and interpretation of EU migration and asylum policies quot; in particular the Dublin Regulation - a quickly growing population of migrants and refugees get stuck in the small island for years facing very difficult life conditions, generating tensions with the local population and becoming the main locally debated political issue. Thus, as a result of a three months field study carried out in Malta in 2009, this article describes how EU migration and asylum policy have been locally implemented since the 2004 European accession of the country, underlining some of main related dynamics and impacts characterising the newly established European external border.