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15 Current Issues Crim. Just. 114 (2003-2004)
Irregular Migration, Identity and the State - The Challenge for Criminology

handle is hein.journals/cicj15 and id is 118 raw text is: Irregular Migration, Identity and the State - the Challenge for Criminology Mike Grewcock* Introduction This article makes the case for a new, critical discourse on the phenomenon of human smuggling/trafficking. It develops some of the themes of an earlier article (Green & Grewcock 2002) and, while concentrating on the experience of the European Union, addresses issues of immediate relevance in Australia. Challenging the official smuggling/trafficking discourse, with its focus on law enforcement as the core element of border protection, is a difficult task. There is a paucity of critical analysis or alternative material; and limited interest shown by criminologists. This is especially so in relation to the linked processes of criminalisation and identity formation, in which state and European institutions play a crucial role. Human smuggling/trafficking2 constitutes a significant component of the official discourse on irregular migration. Within this discourse, smuggling/trafficking is constructed as a menacing facet of transnational organised crime, threatening to undermine European security and identity. The discourse reflects the development of a European Security Zone in which the issues of national security and immigration policy are fused. The development of this zone increasingly dominates the European project, with a focus on border enforcement a unifying point of agreement between member states. A range of institutions and multilateral agreements between member states are driven by this security agenda in which those acting as agents in smuggling/trafficking enterprises are labelled as criminal and/or deviant, deserving of punishments reserved for the most serious categories of violent crime3. * Mike Grewcock (<mjgrew@aapt.net.au>) worked in London as a solicitor and researcher for 13 years and is about to commence a PhD at the University of New Wales on the criminalisation of unauthorised migrants. The author would like to thank Phil Marfleet of the University of East London and Penny Green of the University of Westminster for their assistance with the research upon which this article is based. 1 An indication that this might be changing can be found in Volume 14 No 1 of this journal (July 2002), a special issue on refugee issues and criminology. 2 The term 'human smuggling/trafficking' is used throughout this article to describe the general process of facilitating irregular migration. 3 For example, the Nationality, Immigration andAsylum Bill 2001, introduced two new offences of facilitating illegal entry into the UK. Each carries a maximum sentence of 14 years imprisonment, compared with a maximum sentence of 6 months for the former offence of harbouring abolished by the Bill.

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