Uncovering Decision-Making in Border Areas – A Case Study of the Netherlands

• In Event: Police, Borders, and Immigrants

Abstract

Decisions in complex and controversial policy areas are often left to civil servants. As a result civil servants use their discretionary power to make decisions that will likely have important consequences for society. This is also the case with (internal) border control. Based on over 700 hours of observational ride-alongs with the Dutch Border police, formal and informal interviews as well as 4 focus groups with border patrol officials from various ranks, this research aims to provide to more in-depth insight into the selection processes carried out in the context of so called Mobile Surveillance Operations. The MSO are carried out in order to combat illegal immigration as well as certain forms of trans-border crime. By revealing the complexity of discretionary decision-making in the light of ad hoc instrumentalism and crimmigration, the case study of the Netherlands enables a better understanding of both the use of judgment in the decision-making process in MSO and the role of street-level bureaucrats in the policy implementation process.

Author

• Maartje A. H. Van der Woude, Leiden Law School