Micro-Management of Irregular Migration Internal Borders and Public Services in London and Barcelona

This open access book provides an analysis of the functioning, consequences and inherent limitations of internalised immigration control. By adopting the perspective of irregular residents as well as local service providers, the book sheds new light on the intricate mechanisms that either help or hinder the diffusion of immigration control into concrete institutional settings, like schools or hospitals. A simple and innovative analytical framework enables the systematic comparison of three different spheres of service provision across two distinct local as well as also national contexts. This is necessary to understand the complex interplay between formal law and policy, the intrinsic rules and logics operating within institutions, and the ethical or practical obligations and constraints attached to particular roles and professions. Based on empirical findings and rigorous analysis, the book argues that internalised control is part of the problem that irregular migration poses for society, rather than constituting a potential solution to it.

Chapter 1. Introduction.- Chapter 2. The ‘Management’ of Migration – And of the Resulting Irregularities.- Chapter 3. Research Design, Cases and Methodology.- Chapter 4. Migrant Irregularity in Britain and Spain, London and Barcelona.- Chapter 5. Managing Irregularity Through the Provision of Public Healthcare.- Chapter 6. Managing Irregularity Through the Provision of Public Education.- Chapter 7. Managing Irregularity Through the Provision of Social Assistance.- Chapter 8. Conclusion.

Reinhard Schweitzer is a Research Fellow in the area of Migration at CIDOB, the Barcelona Centre for International Affairs. He is also a Research Associate at the Sussex Centre for Migration Research (SCMR) in Brighton, UK, and Associate Editor of the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. He holds a PhD in Migration Studies from the University of Sussex, as well as degrees in Political Science and Sociology from the University of Innsbruck. From 2018 to 2020 he was a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual Research Fellow at the Department of Political Science of the University of Vienna, where he led the project REvolTURN - Managing migrant return through ‘voluntariness’. His research focusses on the politics, practices, and challenges of governing international migration across different political and administrative levels, geographical contexts, and institutional settings. From an interdisciplinary and comparative perspective, he studies legal frameworks, everyday practices of policy implementation, and ways in which migrants themselves perceive, use, bend or resist the rules and restrictions imposed on their mobility and “integration”. He recently co-edited the open access book Politics of (Dis)Integration (IMISCOE Research Series, 2020) and has published in the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Politics and the Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies.