Migration and crime control practices across Europe
Regulating migration has become a key priority for European countries and, according to Prof. Katja Franko, crime control practices and penal cultures have evolved across the continent as a consequence. With ERC support, she has studied these new hybrid and intertwined forms of migration and crime control policies, a phenomenon she calls ‘Crimmigration control’.
The academic fields of migration and criminology were traditionally seen as distinct from each other. Literature in criminology has mainly focused on the impact of migration on crime statistics, sex trafficking, human smuggling and urban marginality. Prof. Franko and her team, based at the University of Oslo, were amongst the first European experts to propose to look beyond the consequences of migration on crime patterns. They have investigated how ‘traditional’ criminal justice institutions and practices - in prisons, courts and police - are being reshaped by immigration and the growing importance of border control.
Prof. Franko’s research shows that mass migration is having a major impact on crime control practices and penal cultures in Europe, as well as on the development of novel forms of punishment and social control. This “crimmigration control” phenomenon reflects the overlap between migration and criminalisation.
“We are witnessing growing similarities between criminal and migration control measures,” she explains, “detention facilities for migrants, for example, often bear resemblance to prisons, and so do the daily routines for their inmates”. While reintegration of offenders into society is the ultimate purpose of ‘traditional’ justice punishment, as foreign citizens make up for a significant share of the prison population in several European countries, the aim has shifted and is gradually being replaced by a focus deportation has become a fundamental tool of penal practices, and that European countries increasingly resort to criminal law for border control purposes. They also found evidence of intensified policing strategies towards non-citizens and criminalization of immigration-related behaviour.
Gathering adequate “crimmigration statistics” was one of the major methodological challenges of the CRIMMIGRATION project, as deportation data are scarce and unreliable in many countries. Prof. Franko and her team have therefore developed a comparative framework of European deportation practices. They also gained invaluable information on the operation of the EU External Border Control Agency, Frontex, and have published and shared their recommendations with relevant national police and EU authorities.
“Migration-related crime is obviously a hot political topic, but the subject is still largely uncharted and overly governed by political priorities. Our research shows that it is necessary to raise awareness of these new punitive aspects of migration control measures, as well as to provide procedural rights and legal aid to the affected individuals,” Prof. Franko says.
Katja Franko is Professor of Criminology at the Department of Criminology and Sociology of Law at the University of Oslo (Norway) since 2009. Born in Slovenia, she graduated at the Faculty of Law of the University of Ljubljana and obtained her PhD from the University of Oslo. Her primary research interests are globalization, migration, international police cooperation, and the use of advanced ICT in contemporary crime control strategies, particularly border control.
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