Towards a Common EU Immigration Policy: a Securitization Too Far(in Special Issue: The Future of European Foreign Policy)

Abstract: This article examines the EU's immigration policy as it has developed towards Sub-Saharan Africa. It argues that the securitization of this policy is counterproductive in two important ways. First, the erection of further barriers to economic migration from the south and the extra-territorialization of this problem merely increase the transaction costs and physical dangers faced by an important source of cheap labour. Secondly, in seeking to keep African migrants out of the EU, the Union is locking economic and social insecurity into its territorial area. Furthermore, this article argues that the connection of migration policy to the 'global war on terror' fundamentally mis-specifies the threat of terrorism from African sources. Aid conditionality, and the policies that follow on from it, merely serve to radicalize African populations — thus creating the threat that is feared by European policy makers.