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Revisiting Forgotten Histories: The Overlooked Past of Irregular Migration and the Common Market

Loxa, Alezini LU orcid (2025)
Abstract
The regulation of irregular migration in EU law operates in a web of other instruments which exclude or make it extremely difficult for non-EU migrants to reach EU territory. The relevant legal area is characterised by and criticised for its security-based approach, the dehumanization of migrants and the continuous failure to uphold human rights. These complicated characteristics of EU migration law are usually traced back to its historical development during the 1990s in transnational fora of intergovernmental cooperation where closer police cooperation was negotiated in parallel to migration law harmonization. However, as this chapter will show, there is a longer past of attempts to regulate irregular migration in EU law already in the... (More)
The regulation of irregular migration in EU law operates in a web of other instruments which exclude or make it extremely difficult for non-EU migrants to reach EU territory. The relevant legal area is characterised by and criticised for its security-based approach, the dehumanization of migrants and the continuous failure to uphold human rights. These complicated characteristics of EU migration law are usually traced back to its historical development during the 1990s in transnational fora of intergovernmental cooperation where closer police cooperation was negotiated in parallel to migration law harmonization. However, as this chapter will show, there is a longer past of attempts to regulate irregular migration in EU law already in the 1970s which is rarely discussed in EU law scholarship. And this past matters for both a practical and a methodological reason. First, at a time when EU migration law is developing towards further migrant exclusion and the electoral policies across EU Member States are turning to the right, the chapter suggests a turn to the past as a way of reimagining alternative potentials EU law could offer for undocumented migrants. Second, the chapter makes a methodological contribution in the study of EU migration law through critical legal history by presenting a deviant storyline about the regulation of irregular migration. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
organization
publishing date
type
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
publication status
in press
subject
keywords
Irregular migration, Common market, Legal history, Rättshistoria
host publication
Migraciones en el siglo XXI: políticas, derechos y desafíos globales
editor
Conde Pérez, Elena
publisher
Tirant lo Blanch
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
4e34ce6a-b6ac-4fde-8d4d-7b2846c4933e
date added to LUP
2025-01-13 18:22:57
date last changed
2025-05-12 11:17:04
@inbook{4e34ce6a-b6ac-4fde-8d4d-7b2846c4933e,
  abstract     = {{The regulation of irregular migration in EU law operates in a web of other instruments which exclude or make it extremely difficult for non-EU migrants to reach EU territory. The relevant legal area is characterised by and criticised for its security-based approach, the dehumanization of migrants and the continuous failure to uphold human rights. These complicated characteristics of EU migration law are usually traced back to its historical development during the 1990s in transnational fora of intergovernmental cooperation where closer police cooperation was negotiated in parallel to migration law harmonization. However, as this chapter will show, there is a longer past of attempts to regulate irregular migration in EU law already in the 1970s which is rarely discussed in EU law scholarship. And this past matters for both a practical and a methodological reason. First, at a time when EU migration law is developing towards further migrant exclusion and the electoral policies across EU Member States are turning to the right, the chapter suggests a turn to the past as a way of reimagining alternative potentials EU law could offer for undocumented migrants. Second, the chapter makes a methodological contribution in the study of EU migration law through critical legal history by presenting a deviant storyline about the regulation of irregular migration.}},
  author       = {{Loxa, Alezini}},
  booktitle    = {{Migraciones en el siglo XXI: políticas, derechos y desafíos globales}},
  editor       = {{Conde Pérez, Elena}},
  keywords     = {{Irregular migration; Common market; Legal history; Rättshistoria}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  publisher    = {{Tirant lo Blanch}},
  title        = {{Revisiting Forgotten Histories: The Overlooked Past of Irregular Migration and the Common Market}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/218468903/Book_Chapter_Conde.pdf}},
  year         = {{2025}},
}