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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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