Concluding Remarks: Towards a New Conceptualisation of Similarities and Differences in European Migration Controls

The main objective of this book has been to understand migration controls beyond national models and dichotomies that juxtapose “efficient” versus “inefficient” state policies. Specifically, this volume contributes to dispute some consolidated ideas about using the North-South divide as the main lens to interpret how European countries respond to common imperatives of control on the entry and residence of immigrants. In doing so, we argue that migration control policies and their results can be conceived of as a product of overlapping processes of convergence and divergence, driven by changing external contexts, different geopolitical and economic interests, and varying national constraints, all of which are engaged by a wide range of social actors. In the first part of this chapter, we focus on convergence dynamics by illustrating the increasing similarities between Northern and Southern European countries. Then, we point out some key drivers of this convergence. Drawing on previous chapters, we find this convergence appears mainly related to shifts in external constraints in the form of increasingly similar migration inflows and Europeanisation processes. The second part of the chapter focuses on divergence, addressing the relevance of nation-states’ geopolitical and economic interests in the European migration system and their institutional and structural constraints as crucial determinants of the logics and practices of migration control.