Neo-Liberal Regionalism and the Management of People’s Mobility

Abstract

The control of migration flows is generally interpreted either as a function of labour market needs, whereby states respond to pressures from particular economic sectors (e.g., Burawoy, 1976), or as part of a statist logic of defending sovereignty (e.g., Collinson, 1993). The present chapter will differ from these interpretations. It will be suggested that migration controls constitute a series of mechanisms through which particular state forms and processes of economic restructuring are imposed on countries that originate migrants. Important changes contribute to this reflection on migration controls. As such they are integral components of neo-liberal regional integration projects.

This chapter is based on some of our earlier work: see Overbeek (1998, 1999) and Pellerin (1999).