IMISCOE broeders Because borders alone cannot stop irregular migration, the European Union is DISSERTATIONS turning more and more to internal control measures. Through surveillance, member states aim to exclude irregular migrants from societal institutions, thereby discouraging their stay or deporting those who are apprehended. And yet, states cannot expel immigrants who remain anonymous. Identification has thus become key. Breaking Breaking Down Anonymity Down Anonymity shows how digital surveillance is becoming a prime instrument of Breaking Down Anonymity identification and exclusion policies towards irregular migrants. To support this claim, the study charts policy developments in Germany and the Netherlands. It analyses both countries’ labour market controls as well as their detention and expulsion practices. Also examined is the development of several new EU migration Digital Surveillance of Irregular databases. Spanning the Continent, these information systems create a new European Union frontier – one that is digital, biometric and ever-strengthening. Migrants in Germany and Dennis Broeders is a researcher in the Department of Sociology at Erasmus University the Netherlands Rotterdam and a senior research fellow at the Dutch Scientific Council for Government Policy in The Hague. DENNIS BROEDERS “Using the tools developed in the burgeoning field of migration surveillance, this book insightfully explores the problem of the ‘internal’ control of irregular migration in Europe. A strong contribution to the discussions in this area.” John Torpey, The Graduate Center, The City University of New York “This provoking and well-researched study of migration controls through digital surveillance documents the irrationality and helplessness of organising exclusion mechanisms in Fortress Europe. An uneasy must-read for all immigration and control authorities.” Frank Bovenkerk, Institute for Migration and Ethnic Studies, University of Amsterdam “This book opens a fresh and theory-oriented perspective on the study of irregular migration. It will certainly have some impact on future research in this field.” Michael Bommes, Institute for Migration Research and Intercultural Studies, University of Osnabrück sb 978 90 8964 159 5 serd ers ress · .. Amsterdam University Press Breaking Down Anonymity IMISCOE International Migration, Integration and Social Cohesion in Europe The IMISCOE Network of Excellence unites over 500 researchers from European institutes specialising in studies of international migration, integration and social cohesion. The Network is funded by the Sixth Framework Programme of the European Commission on Research, Citizens and Governance in a Knowledge-Based Society. Since its foundation in 2004, IMISCOE has developed an integrated, multidisciplinary and globally comparative research project led by scholars from all branches of the economic and social sciences, the humanities and law. The Network both furthers existing studies and pioneers new research in migration as a discipline. Priority is also given to promoting innovative lines of inquiry key to European policymaking and governance. The IMISCOE-Amsterdam University Press Series was created to make the Network’s findings and results available to researchers, policymakers and practitioners, the media and other interested stakeholders. High-quality manuscripts authored by IMISCOE members and cooperating partners are published in one of four distinct series. IMISCOE RESEARCH advances sound empirical and theoretical scholarship addressing themes within IMISCOE’s mandated fields of study. IMISCOE REPORTS disseminates Network papers and presentations of a time-sensitive nature in book form. IMISCOE DISSERTATIONS presents select PhD monographs written by IMISCOE doctoral candidates. IMISCOE TEXTBOOKS produces manuals, handbooks and other didactic tools for instructors and students of migration studies. IMISCOE Policy Briefs and more information on the Network can be found at www.imiscoe.org. Breaking Down Anonymity Digital Surveillance of Irregular Migrants in Germany and the Netherlands Dennis Broeders IMISCOE Dissertations Cover design: Studio Jan de Boer, Amsterdam Layout: The DocWorkers, Almere ISBN 978 90 8964 159 5 e-ISBN 978 90 4851 103 7 NUR 741 / 763 © Dennis Broeders / Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam 2009 All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright re- served above, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or in- troduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of the book. Who are you? Who, who, who, who? The Who, 1978 CONTENTS Acknowledgements 9 List of abbreviations 11 1 Introduction and research questions 13 1.1 The irregular migrant as a policy problem 13 1.2 Turning inwards: internal migration control 14 1.3 Research questions: internal migration control at crossroads? 16 1.4 Case selection: Germany and the Netherlands as ‘most likely’ cases 17 1.5 Outline of the study 22 2 The state, surveillance and irregular migrants: theoretical perspectives 27 2.1 Introduction 27 2.2 The changing nature of European borders: a story in metaphors 28 2.3 The surveillance state and internal migration control 38 2.4 The limits of state surveillance 49 2.5 A new regime of internal migration control? 57 3 Guarding the access to the labour market 61 3.1 Setting the scene: political mindsets and policy frameworks 61 3.2 Political economies of irregular migrant workers 66 3.3 Labour market surveillance in Germany and the Netherlands: a typology 74 3.4 Exclusion from documentation 78 3.5 Exclusion through documentation 97 3.6 Conclusions 105 CONTENTS 7 4 Police surveillance, detention and expulsion 111 4.1 Introduction 111 4.2 Internal surveillance: the state in control and/or the penal state in action? 113 4.3 Police surveillance 124 4.4 Detention as an instrument of migration control 130 4.5 Expulsion 137 4.6 Conclusion: factories of identification? 149 5 European tools for domestic problems 153 5.1 Introduction 153 5.2 EU policymaking: transfer of competence or a European tool shed? 154 5.3 Schengen, Amsterdam and Prüm: a bird’s-eye view of European cooperation in Justice and Home Affairs 159 5.4 Matters of scale and weight: EU return and readmission policies 164 5.5 Creating digital borders: a network of EU migration databases 167 5.6 Conclusions 180 6 Conclusion: breaking down anonymity 185 6.1 A new regime of internal migration control 187 6.2 Policy gaps: ‘white spots’ and ‘black holes’ 193 6.3 Follow the leader? 197 6.4 Breaking down anonymity, marginalising citizenship? 197 Dutch summary/Nederlandse samenvatting 201 Bibliography 209 Discography 224 Notes 225 Acknowledgements This book is, among other things, a tale of three cities. Its foundation was laid in The Hague, my beautiful hometown. It was in the offices of the Scientific Council for Government Policy (WRR) that the Coun- cil’s deputy director of the time, Anton Hemerijck, and I first spoke about my writing a PhD thesis. Godfried Engbersen, who enthusiasti- cally agreed to be my supervisor, landed my project in the city of Rot- terdam, where he took me up in the Department of Sociology at Eras- mus University Rotterdam. The first full draft of this book was written in Berlin, where I enjoyed a stay at the Social Science Research Centre Berlin (WZB) as a visiting research fellow during the summer of 2008. The WRR has been my professional and intellectual home base for ten years now. It is a stimulating environment where new ways are al- ways found to make personal and professional development possible. I thank all my colleagues – past and present – at the council for continu- ally reinventing the spirit of the WRR. More specifically, I thank Anton Hemerijck, Rob Mulder and Wim van de Donk for showing the perso- nal and institutional flexibility that cleared the path for this dissertation. Erasmus University Rotterdam became my second home over the last years. Godfried Engbersen provided enthusiasm, intellectual chal- lenge, academic and organisational savvy, friendship and a great confi- dence in my abilities as a researcher. What more can any researcher ask for? In addition to that, he grounded both me and my research in the Department of Sociology, a place where research is considered hard work and great fun at the same time. I am very glad to be able to con- tinue my research in Rotterdam in the coming years. Thomas Spijkerboer of the Free University of Amsterdam, my other supervisor, doesn’t fit in the tale of three cities. I always like people who do not neatly fit into categories. I thank him very much for his support and keen eye for spotting rights and wrongs in the central line of my argument. In Berlin I spent a few wonderful and productive months at Ruud Koopmans’ blossoming WZB research department, Migration, Integra- tion and Transnationalization. I am very grateful for the warm 10 BREAKING DOWN ANONYMITY welcome, hospitality and the interaction – both scientifically and so- cially – with a great group of researchers in sunny Berlin. The thought of sifting through my colleagues and friends in order to determine who ‘qualifies’ for special mention in the acknowledgements was both unappealing and, I hope, unnecessary: they should know who they are. Many people have been an inspiration, a pleasure and a comfort in my life and, in some, all these qualities overlap. I consider myself to be a rich