EU Migration Management and the Social Purpose of European Integration

This book provides a critical analysis of irregular migration to Europe from a neo-Gramscian perspective. It demonstrates how the contemporary EU migration management regime came about within the context of a neoliberal hegemonic project, which in turn was advanced using neofunctionalist methods of integration. Relying on field research that was carried out in Bulgaria, Italy, Germany and Greece, the book also describes how European migration management is experienced by irregular migrants themselves. It suggests that the social purpose of migration management cannot be understood without assessing the experiences of the objects of migration regimes. The 2015 migration crisis revealed that large-scale migration has the potential to undermine some of the greatest achievements of the European integration project such as the Schengen system and open internal borders. This book shows that this fragility is the result of inherent contradictions within the neoliberal hegemonic project for the European Union.  As such this book is an interesting read for academics, students, policy makers and all those working in international migration and European integration.

Harald Köpping Athanasopoulos completed his PhD at the University of Liverpool Management School after having graduated as an MA in European Studies from Maastricht University and as a BA of International Relations from Swansea University. His research interests include European migration policy, neo-Gramscian theory, international political economy and European space policy. While he is active in academia as an associate professor at ESSCA School of Management Angers, he is also the head of the migration/integration department at Arbeit und Leben Sachsen in Leipzig.