The Political Economy of Entry Governance: ADMIGOV Deliverable 1.3

This report details how private and commercial actors also yield a crucial influence on the development, adoption and implementation of EU measures related to immigration. It is based on the assumption that in order to provide the general public and policy-makers with tools to pursue a sustainable and forward-looking policy on migration, the supply-chain of border technologies, functions and infrastructures must be acknowledged. The same is the case for the way in which it features in the processes of multileveled EU border governance, and how commercial actors are positioned and positioning themselves on a profitable market for EU border control that is worth billions of euro. This perspective on border control challenges standard assumptions which privilege the territorial unit of the nation-state, or the stated self-image of the EU as a supranational area of freedom, security and justice. In order to fulfill this goal, this deliverable provides, first, a mapping of the political economy of EU entry governance, realized through a database developed for the purpose, and analysis of the data generated by it. This enables to identify and discuss some of the key actors, processes and networks of this political economy at the level of the EU through key illustrations provided by two central policy drives which have evolved in European border control during the last decades, namely: Interoperability and space surveillance for border control purposes. While a focus on these two themes is not exhaustive, it is argued to be able to demonstrate dynamics, silences and criticism, which needs to be addressed in EU entry governance