Migrations and international borders: notes about the evolution of europe´s model of external borders

• Author: Alejandro Del Valle Gálvez
• Profession: Full Professor (Catedrático) of International Law, Holder of the Jean Monnet Chair on Immigration and Borders, EU Law, University of Cadiz
• Pages: 47-57

III.

MIGRATIONS AND INTERNATIONAL BORDERS:

NOTES ABOUT THE EVOLUTION OF EUROPE´S

MODEL OF EXTERNAL BORDERS

MIGRATIONS AND INTERNATIONAL BORDERS: NOTES ABOUT THE EVOLUTION...

A DEL VALLE GÁLVEZ1

I. MIGRATIONS, REFUGEE CRISIS, NEW PACT ON MIGRATION AND ASYLUM

– II. SCHENGEN SYSTEM, EXTERNAL BORDERS AND LIMES MEDITERRANEUS

– III. EVOLUTION OF INTERNATIONAL BORDERS AND THE NEW MODEL

OF EUROPEAN EXTERNAL BORDERS – IV. NEW EVOLVED MODEL OF

EUROPEAN EXTERNAL BORDERS

ABSTRACT: The refugee crisis seems to have had a decisive effect on the conception

of the European external borders. Everything seems to indicate that we may be facing

an evolution of the functional model of control of access to the Union territory. This

European model of external borders is part of a general trend in the international society

of globalisation, which affirms borders while altering their conception, functions

and territorially based components. We are facing a change in the very conception

of the border in this post-globalization era, where certain functions are relocated and

systematically located outside the territory and border posts of the States. In the European

case, this new model would entail a disaggregation of certain border functions, such as

access control or the management of migratory flows, in a vast land or maritime border

area. The EU seems to design a new policy to manage and control of its external borders

towards the Mediterranean and Africa. In fact, the EU is in search of a new ‘model’ of

External Border that provides other parameters of action and management of migratory

flows and external controls. This new policy or new modality of external borders implies

reconfiguring, extending and projecting border control in territories and spaces beyond

the border lines, in the maritime spaces beyond the territorial sea, and in territories under

the jurisdiction and sovereignty of other states. This approach entails fresh relations for

1 Full Professor (Catedrático) of International Law, Holder of the Jean Monnet Chair on Immigra-

tion and Borders, EU Law, University of Cadiz. Director, Centre of Excellence “ Migration and Human

Rights in Europe’s External Borders” (2017-2021), with the support of the Erasmus+ Programme of the

European Union (587177-EPP-1-2017-1-ES-EPPJMO-CoE). Article carried out in the framework of

the “Centro de Estudios Internacionales y Europeos del Área del Estrecho”, Research Group SEJ - 572,

of which he is responsible as PI.