Schengen Visa Implementation and Transnational Policymaking: Bordering Europe

Description

This book examines the timely topic of controlling the borders of the European Schengen Area. It considers the state perspective on border regulation, subjecting day-to-day practices of EU visa policy implementation to close analytical scrutiny. The objects of the analysis are three European Member States—France, Belgium, and Italy—that implement EU visa policy in Morocco, a country whose nationals are considered to be a migratory ‘risk’ for the EU. The book focuses on the implementation of EU visa policy in the consulates of Belgium, France and Italy in Casablanca. The empirical research and the comparative perspective make this book distinct. The book uses a ‘comprehensive implementation approach’ by taking account of the local, national and supranational locations of policy-making. It builds on in-depth pioneering fieldwork and a comparative research design that includes those three locations. The research design has determined the evolving of the puzzle and the realizing of the unanticipated: cross-national differences diminish when policy is put into practice. Extensive research into the visa sections of those EU Member States provides highly original material that sheds light on the obscure black box of EU visa policy implementation, therefore contributing to policy studies, migration studies, and studies on the European Union. Front Matter ....Pages i-xvii Introduction (Federica Infantino)....Pages 1-31 Front Matter ....Pages 33-33 Schengen Visa Policy-Making: Shifting Competence While Authorizing Discretion (Federica Infantino)....Pages 35-65 Morocco: One ‘Third Country’ but Three National Contexts (Federica Infantino)....Pages 67-101 The National Sense Making of EU Visa Policy (Federica Infantino)....Pages 103-121 Front Matter ....Pages 123-123 The Politics of Management (Federica Infantino)....Pages 125-154 Policy Work in Visa Sections (Federica Infantino)....Pages 155-176 The Making of Decisions (Federica Infantino)....Pages 177-215 Transnational Policy-Making from Below (Federica Infantino)....Pages 217-236 Conclusions (Federica Infantino)....Pages 237-245 Back Matter ....Pages 247-267