The Processes of Criminalization of Migrants and the Borders of ‘Fortress Europe’

Abstract

It is well established that migrants are overrepresented in European criminal justice systems. This is quite peculiar to countries of the European Union (EU), some countries in particular. Processes of criminalization seem to be inherently tied to immigration policies that are oriented toward exclusion, and this is especially evident in the strong connection between an individual’s lack of regular legal status and their being subject to such processes. In relation to this, the question of whether Europe is, indeed, a ‘land of immigration’ is paramount. However, one must ask: how can the public debate necessary to make the EU a genuine ‘land of immigration’ take place if there is no common, democratic European ‘public sphere’, and no space for genuine intra-European political debate? The desire for such debate is connected to the need for a common sphere of social and public interaction within the EU, the absence of which is in part attributable to the lack of a common language (a problem which is not solved by the elitism of a small cosmopolitan European leadership). In this regard, paradoxically, immigrants would be the natural candidates to join such a common European public sphere of discussion.