Intertwining Criminal Justice and Immigration Control in the EU: Theoretical, Interdisciplinary, and Practical Perspectives

This introductory chapter sheds light on the evolving criminalisation of migration, or ‘crimmigration’ and its consequences, with a focus on the European Union. Crimmigration broadly encompasses the entire arsenal of coercive measures stemming from the criminal justice system and available for immigration enforcement. The chapter conceptualises the criminalisation of migration with reference to its theoretical underpinnings at the intersection of law, criminology, and philosophy, before critiquing its origin and evolution. It then scrutinises the three facets through which crimmigration manifests: The use of substantive criminal law to regulate the presence of migrants, the banalisation of detention, and the transplantation of surveillance tools to manage migration. This scrutiny highlights key legal challenges crimmigration poses, in terms of legality, fundamental rights, and rule of law adherence. Overall, crimmigration fosters the expansion of state power, without, however, the commensurate transfer of due process protections for individuals from the criminal sphere into the immigration sphere, while human rights protection standards are significantly watered down. The analysis paves the way for the other contributions in the volume, which provide a contemporary understanding of the state of the art of “crimmigration” and ultimately challenge this paradigm of intersecting criminal justice and immigration control.