The EU Migration Regime and West African Clandestine Migrants

Abstract

This article examines the relationship between the EU migration regime and clandestine migration from West Africa to Europe. A review of the development of EU border and immigration policy reveals significant and sustained moves towards securitisation of migrants and the externalisation of border controls to countries of origin and transit. This emphasis on repression limits the scope of cooperation with ‘third countries’ (those outside Europe) in co-development, labour mobility, sea patrols and repatriation, which are examined separately as deterrents to uncontrolled emigration. This paper then analyses the motivations and intentions of Senegalese youth around the Cap Vert peninsula. This analysis includes the role of emigration in development and more recently, the impact of human losses and repatriations resulting from the clandestine journey by pirogue (open fishing boat) to the Canary Islands. This article argues that in this case, youth are excluded both from labour and asylum policies and instead are managed as a security threat, contradicting the factors driving this journey.