AMIS Seminar: The rise of the migration control industry: political, legal and democratic consequences

Post.doc Martin Lemberg-Pedersen (AMIS, University of Copenhagen) and Senior Researcher Thomas Gammeltoft-Hansen (DIIS) will present their work on migration industries and border enforcement activities.

The talk traces how private actors have managed to enter European border control and facilitate a for-profit market for their control services.
Two cases are used to illustrate how private actors compete for different contracts, namely the border enforcement activities of G4S and the border infrastructure contracts of Finmeccanica. This drive to outsource the control of states' sovereign boundaries creates several legal challenges in terms of accountability and lacking transparency, as is illustrated by the Jimmy Mubenga case.
Finally, the outsourcing-drive has also had the effect of militarizing European border control, as states use EU funds to subsidize their military export markets and subsidize R&D projects for their biggest military industries.

Date, time and place: 6 May 2013, 13.15 – 15.15, Faculty of Humanities, Njalsgade 136, 2300 Copenhagen S, Room 27.0.47.