Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Making of the Schengen Regime: Visa Filtering at the Italian Consulate in Senegal

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
EurAfrican Borders and Migration Management

Part of the book series: Palgrave Series in African Borderlands Studies ((PSABS))

Abstract

The article focuses on European Consulates as key institutions in the filtering of prospective travelers to the Schengen area. Through qualitative research at the Italian Embassy and Consulate in Dakar, the article examines the administrative practices surrounding Schengen visas. The article retraces the path travelers have to face to travel with proper documents toward the Schengen area, seeking to understand how Schengen states and their consulates as ‘dis-located borders’ exercise control over the transnational flows of people on the basis of an alleged ‘migratory risk’. Through the case of an emblematic hotspot of the EurAfrican frontier, it will be attempt to make ‘visible’ bordering practices that are usually hidden behind walls of bureaucracy.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 149.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 199.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 199.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    European Council and Parliament Regulation 810/2009/EC.

  2. 2.

    Always underestimated by official statistics that do not take into account undocumented migrants, the Senegalese presence has a regular and, a not small, irregular component (Lencioni 2008).

  3. 3.

    More recently, in 2015, it has taken up to three weeks to be able to get an answer from the call center, since the line is always busy.

  4. 4.

    The marabout is a Muslim religious teacher and leader.

  5. 5.

    European Council and Parliament Regulation 562/2006/EC.

References

  • Agence de Presse Sénegalaise (APS). 2009. Sénégal: Les demandeurs de visas veulent davantage d’interlocuteurs. APS [online]. 12 October. Available at: http://www.aps.sn/articles.php?id_article=60689. Accessed 17 Feb 2014.

  • Andreas, P., and T. Synder (eds.). 2000. The wall around the West: State borders and immigration controls in North America and Europe. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bigo, D. 2002. Security and immigration: Toward a critique of the governmentality of unease. Alternatives 27: 63–92.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brown, W. 2010. Walled states, waning sovereignty. New York: Zone Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gammeltoft-Hansen, T. 2006. Filtering out the risky migrant: Migration control, risk theory and the EU. AMID Working Papers Series, 52. Aalborg: Academy for Migration Studies.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guild, E. 2001. Moving the borders of Europe [online]. Nijmegen: Inaugural lecture, University of Nijmegen, 30 May. Available at: http://cmr.jur.ru.nl/cmr/docs/oratie.eg.pdf. Accessed 24 Nov 2015.

  • Infantino, F. 2010. La frontière au guichet. Politiques et pratiques des visas Schengen à l’Ambassade et au Consulat d’Italie au Maroc. Champ pénal/Penal field nouvelle revue international de criminologie, 7. [online article] URL : http://champpenal.revues.org/7864.

  • Infantino, F., and A. Rea. 2012. La mobilisation d’un savoir pratique local: attribution des visas Schengen au Consulat général de Belgique à Casablanca. Sociologies Pratiques 24: 67–78.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lencioni, S. 2008. L’immigrazione irregolare senegalese in Italia. [online] Returnet. Available at: http://www.returnet.eu/wpcontent/uploads/2009/06/imm_irr_senegal_italia2.pdf. Accessed 16 Feb 2011.

  • Moreno-Lax, V. 2008. Must EU borders have doors for refugees? On the compatibility of Schengen Visas and Carriers’ Sanctions with EU Member States’ obligations to provide international protection to refugees. European Journal of Migration and Law 10: 315–364.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • National Institute of Statistics (Istat). 2010. Indicatori demografici Anno 2009 [Press release]. 18 February 2010. Available at: http://www.istat.it/salastampa/comunicati/in_calendario/inddemo/20100218_00/testointegrale20100218.pdf. Accessed 26 Nov 2015.

  • Neumayer, P. 2006. Unequal access to foreign spaces: How states use visa restrictions to regulate mobility in a globalized world. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 31(1): 72–84.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Riccio, B., and C. Brambilla. 2010. Transanational migration, cosmopolitanism and dis-located borders. Quaderni del CE.R.CO, 7. Rimini: Guaraldi.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rigo, E. 2005. Implications of EU enlargement for border management and citizenship in Europe. RSCAS EUI Working Paper, 21.

    Google Scholar 

  • Salter, M. 2003. Rights of passage: The passport in international relations. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner.

    Google Scholar 

  • Torpey, J. 1998. The invention of the passport. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Triandafyllidou, A. 2003. Immigration policy implementation in Italy: Organisational culture, identity processes and labour market control. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 29(2): 257–297.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van Houtum, H. 2010. Human blacklisting: The global apartheid of the EU’s external border regime. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 28: 957–976.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van Houtum, H., and T. van Naerssen. 2002. Bordering, ordering and othering. Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie 93: 25–36.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wang, H.-L. 2004. Regulating transnational flows of people: An institutional analysis of passports and visas as a regime of mobility. Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power 11(3): 351–376.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weber, L., and B. Bowling. 2008. Valiant beggars and global vagabonds: Select, eject, immobilize. Theoretical Criminology 12(3): 355–375.

    Article  Google Scholar 

European Union Official Documents

  • Council and Parliament Regulation 562/2006/EC of 15 March 2006 establishing a Community Code on the rules governing the movement of persons across borders (Schengen Borders Code).

    Google Scholar 

  • Council and Parliament Regulation 810/2009/EC of 13 July 2009 establishing a Community Code on Visas (Visa Code).

    Google Scholar 

  • Council Communication COM/2008/69 of 13 February 2008. Preparing the next steps in border management in the European Union.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 15B, Via Quarantola, 56121, Pisa, Italy

    Francesca Zampagni

Authors
  1. Francesca Zampagni
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin, Germany

    Paolo Gaibazzi

  2. Bayerischer Flüchtlingsrat, München, Germany

    Stephan Dünnwald

  3. University of Milan-Bicocca, Milan, Italy

    Alice Bellagamba

Copyright information

© 2017 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Zampagni, F. (2017). The Making of the Schengen Regime: Visa Filtering at the Italian Consulate in Senegal. In: Gaibazzi, P., Dünnwald, S., Bellagamba, A. (eds) EurAfrican Borders and Migration Management. Palgrave Series in African Borderlands Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-94972-4_7

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation