Immigration enforcement as a police matter. Notes on “crimmigration” from a Nordic perspective

• In Event: Penality in the south(-s) (3): Southern (border) criminology (2)

Abstract

Theoretical frameworks drawn from research in the United States and the United Kingdom may have limited analytical usefulness in understanding European immigration enforcement systems due to different legal and institutional arrangements as well as significantly different penal policies. In this presentation, I discuss wider implications for theoretical debates on crimmigration from a Nordic perspective based on a historically informed analysis of immigration enforcement policies in Finland. Despite the relatively low number of migrants, immigration has been historically regarded as a police matter in the framework of public order and security in Finland. The criminal justice system has been largely irrelevant to the development of the immigration enforcement system as immigration law has provided flexible administrative instruments to control and deport foreign nationals. Moreover, coercive measures based on immigration law demonstrate a preventive rationale aimed at the protection of public order and security irrespective of individual responsibility. I argue for the need to pay attention to the long history of administrative coercive measures and significant police powers beyond “penal state”, “punishment”, and “criminal justice”, in order to better understand immigration enforcement practices.

Author

• Jukka Könönen, Institute of Criminology and Legal Policy, University of Helsinki