HOW DOES CONTEMPORARY EU MIGRATION GOVERNANCE PRODUCE AND SUSTAIN UNEQUAL ACCESS TO MOBILITY?
Author
Boateng, Richmond
Term
4. semester
Education
Publication year
2026
Submitted on
2026-05-29
Abstract
This thesis investigates how contemporary EU migration governance produces and sustains unequal access to mobility by asking: who gets to move in Europe, and why? The analysis operates across three interconnected levels: a structural level, using Bauman’s tourist/vagabond lens to show how global inequality translates into differentiated mobility; an institutional level, drawing on Goldberg’s racial state to explain how ostensibly neutral legal mechanisms yield racialized outcomes; and a governmental level, applying Foucault’s concept of governmentality to examine how movement is managed through knowledge production, classification, risk, and surveillance. Methodologically, the study is qualitative and document-based, examining five core EU instruments—the 2020 Pact on Migration and Asylum, the Visa Code, the Dublin III Regulation, the Eurodac Regulation, and the Frontex Annual Risk Analysis 2021—with a critical discourse analysis of the Frontex report’s language of risk. Findings indicate that the Visa Code and the 2020 Pact institutionalize a hierarchy of mobility aligned with global distributions of wealth and power; that Dublin III and Eurodac reproduce racialized effects through neutral categories; and that Frontex frames migration as a permanent security problem requiring ongoing management. Taken together, these dynamics form a governance system that advantages some populations while disadvantaging others—powerful, pervasive, and often invisible to those who benefit.
Specialet undersøger, hvordan EU’s nutidige migrationsstyring producerer og opretholder ulige adgang til mobilitet ved at stille spørgsmålet: Hvem får lov at bevæge sig i Europa – og hvorfor? Analysen arbejder på tre sammenvævede niveauer: et strukturelt niveau, hvor Bauman’s turist/vagabond-begreb viser, hvordan global ulighed oversættes til forskellige mobilitetsbetingelser; et institutionelt niveau, hvor Goldbergs teori om den raciale stat forklarer, hvordan tilsyneladende neutrale regler kan skabe racialiserede udfald; og et regeringsrationalitetsniveau, hvor Foucaults governmentality belyser, hvordan befolkningers bevægelser styres gennem viden, klassifikation, risiko og overvågning. Metodisk er studiet kvalitativt og dokumentbaseret og analyserer fem centrale EU-instrumenter: Pagten om Migration og Asyl (2020), Visakodeksen, Dublin III-forordningen, Eurodac-forordningen og Frontex Annual Risk Analysis 2021, herunder en kritisk diskursanalyse af Frontex-rapportens risikosprog. Fundene viser, at Visakodeksen og 2020-pagten instituerer en hierarki af mobilitet, der afspejler globale uligheder i rigdom og magt; at Dublin III og Eurodac reproducerer racialiserede konsekvenser gennem formelt neutrale kategorier; og at Frontex rammesætter migration som en permanent sikkerhedsudfordring, der kræver vedvarende forvaltning. Samlet fremstår et styringssystem, der systematisk begunstiger nogle befolkningsgrupper og stiller andre ringere – ofte på måder, der er vidtgående, gennemgribende og usynlige for dem, der drager fordel af det.
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