X-Ray of a Crisis: Caravanas Del Norte of 2018 and Migration “Crisis” Of 2015. Is Border Externalization the Solution? Case Study: EU-Turkey and US-Mexico

Proceedings of The 5th International Academic Conference on Research in Social Sciences

Year: 2022

DOI:

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X-Ray of a Crisis: Caravanas Del Norte of 2018 and Migration “Crisis” Of 2015. Is Border Externalization the Solution? Case Study: EU-Turkey and US-Mexico

Swami Carolina Antolinez Vasquez

ABSTRACT: 

In 2015, the European Union (EU) experienced a migration flow not seen since World War II (Wihtol de Wenden, 2016, p. 48). Over one million people attempted to reach Europe through various irregular migration routes to seek asylum (FRONTEX, 2016). In late 2018, on the other side of the Atlantic, a similar phenomenon occurred. For the first time in history, thousands of people arrived as a group at the U.S.-Mexico border (U.S. Customs and Border Protection, 2019b). Why are these two phenomena interesting?  In both events, the EU and U.S. took action to stem the flow of migrants, in collaboration with their border neighbors, Mexico and Turkey. In both cases, the refusal to allow the entry of people seeking refuge, better opportunities or a new life was evident. Moreover, the characterization of these two phenomena as a “crisis” allowed the two giants, the EU, and the United States, to begin taking security decisions. The objective of this research is to provide an x-ray of the externalization of border management during the two “crises”. For this reason, the main question of this research that we will attempt to answer is: How do the EU and the United States use the model of border management externalization to deal with migration crises? Does this model work? What would be its consequences?

keywords: externalization of border management, Migration flows, National/community security, Transit country, Securitization of migration.