Migratory pressures on the EU’s external borders and policy implications. Developments from the South of Italy

Abstract

The migratory pressure at the EU’s external borders is a major challenge for the policy makers’ community. As further evidence, the EU Action on Migratory Pressures approved by the European Council in 2012 identified in the “Enhancement of border management at the external borders,” a strategic priority for the next five years. Moving from the analysis of the political, institutional and geopolitical factors that have led the EU to design its migration policy in function of a vision marked by securitisation, this study examines the European strategy on migration and asylum by analysing criticalities and prospects that have emerged in the last decade of the integrated border management of the Italian southern external borders.