Instituto Jurídico - FDUC

Nominated for the Stein Rokkan Prize 2013 for Comparative Social Science Research Crimmigration consists of the letter and practice of laws and policies at the intersection of criminal law and immigration law. Crimmigration scholars study the creation of crimmigration laws and policies, their enforcement, and the institutional dynamics that create crimmigration law and are created by it. Many have written about the use of crimmigration law to exert social control over groups marginalised by ethnic bias, class, or citizenship status. Crimmigration law gained footholds in Canada and Europe. It manifests itself differently outside the United States because of differences in each area’s approach to migration and criminal control. Nevertheless, it remains a recognisable trend with consistent parallels to US crimmigration law. Social Control and Justice: Crimmigration in an Age of Fear offers a fresh,multi-disciplinary and international examination of a phenomenon that has altered the lan...

ABSTRACT Nominated for the Stein Rokkan Prize 2013 for Comparative Social Science Research Crimmigration consists of the letter and practice of laws and policies at the intersection of criminal law and immigration law. Crimmigration scholars study the creation of crimmigration laws and policies, their enforcement, and the institutional dynamics that create crimmigration law and are created by it. Many have written about the use of crimmigration law to exert social control over groups marginalised by ethnic bias, class, or citizenship status. Crimmigration law gained footholds in Canada and Europe. It manifests itself differently outside the United States because of differences in each area’s approach to migration and criminal control. Nevertheless, it remains a recognisable trend with consistent parallels to US crimmigration law. Social Control and Justice: Crimmigration in an Age of Fear offers a fresh,multi-disciplinary and international examination of a phenomenon that has altered the landscape of migration in the United States and is now taking root in Canada and throughout Europe. In placing crimmigration in the ‘Age of Fear,’ the book challenges us to consider the many facets of fear that interrelate with crimmigration. Fear has the power to produce and shape the contours of crimmigration law and the structures and products of the institutions that seek to control it. This book describes some of the major developments stemming from the rise of crimmigration across continents and borders, and traces their implications. This book is the first of a planned series of volumes mapping the geography of crimmigration from a global perspective. The work of the international scholars in this book explores the origins and effects of crimmigration. It uncovers its new manifestations in previously uncharted territory. Target group Criminologists and lawyers who are specialized with themes such as immigration and illegality.

Criminologists are used to the topics they study being high on political agendas. They know that such issues can rise to exceptional heights in response to particular events, as well as how these are presented in traditional and new media. This article looks into how fears over and responses to migration to Europe express themselves in (at least) seven distinct ways that criminologists should be paying attention to; (1) the relationship between decisions to migrate and migration policies, (2) how media accounts for and civil society impact on policy development, (3) the role of migration brokers, agencies and human smugglers in the migration process, (4) the link between increase and diversification of migration, smuggling of immigrants and human trafficking, (5) how fears and debates over migration links to crimes committed by or against immigrants, (6) the relationship between immigration to a country and the levels and forms of crimes they experience, and (7) the perceptions of societies towards newly-arrived foreigners (immigrants or asylum seekers). It is important to first approach definitional issues. People arriving in Europe are often referred to as migrants or refugees. The difference between these two designations is important in both practical and symbolic terms, but while in transit and upon arrival, people who are leaving their home countries because of lack of freedom and poverty are indistinguishable from people who are fleeing a form and level of persecution which makes them eligible for asylum. The end result of an asylum procedure (or an international protection requirement) does also not rule out that rejected asylum seekers submitted a just claim for protection. We thus warn not to pit one category against another, posing one as deserving and the other non-deserving. The right to apply for asylum and have one's need for protection evaluated is individual, and thus we cannot determine whether someone is a 'mere' economic migrant or a refugee deserving asylum simply from their country of origin (Carling 2015). Bearing this complexity in mind, it is still important to stress that divisions between economic immigrants, refugees/international protection seekers, or trafficked persons (to name a few categories) matters and must retain its relevance to criminologists, as each of these concepts points to different legislation and sets of rights and obligations. Being or being treated as an economic migrant to Europe is a harsh predicament for third country nationals. While there have been several attempts to award residency also to migrants who are not eligible for asylum through processes of mass regularisation over the last 50 years 1 (Kraler, 2009), in the last few years the European Union has taken steps to narrow the possibility to stay for migrants who are not experts and are not deemed in need of protection parallel to a strengthening a policy of return and deportations with Directive 2008/115/UE 2. This Directive states the aim of returning migrants that for different reasons do not have the right to stayin Europe, being obliged to go back to their home countries or the last country they resided in before arriving in Europe at the same time as it establishes the possibility of detaining immigrants awaiting removal from the European Union Member States. The maximum recommended time limit of 6 months 3 , with a possible extension up to 18 months in exceptional conditions 4. Over this same period, the USA has also moved from an expansion of the rights of migrants in the 1980s to the representation of immigrants as a threat. Stumpf (2006: 382) has linked this to the high number of arrival of asylum seekers from SouthEast Asia to the USA (Stumpf, 2006: 382), something which was understood as economic migration and an attempt to exploit the US's social security system. Immigrants/non-nationals were accused of contributing to the rise in crime, and immigration policies came to be seen as a tool to control this, a part of the process we often refer to as 'crimmigration' (Stumpf 2006). The coming together of criminal and migration law and the emergence of the image of the criminal stranger, took part in limiting rights and protections offered to migrants and opened up space for repressive measures, such as prolonged detention for new migration-related crimes (Stumpf, 2006: 381-384). While recent developments in terms of high numbers of arrivals and rapidly changing migration policies in various European countries are attracting much attention, managing migration as a

30.146 vítimas assinaladas nos Estados-membros da União Europeia
(Eurostat – Trafficking in Human Beings, 2015) 
A 18 de Outubro assinala-se o Dia Europeu contra o Tráfico de Pessoas instituído, em 2007, pela Comissão Europeia. Com esta iniciativa pretende-se dar visibilidade às acções que têm vindo a ser desenvolvidas no sentido de aprofundar conhecimentos e sensibilizar os profissionais e o público em geral quanto à prevenção, combate e repressão deste tipo de criminalidade altamente organizada na Europa.  O Grupo de Investigação Europeísmo, Atlanticidade e Mundialização do CEIS20-UC e o Instituto Jurídico uniram esforços no sentido de organizar uma reunião científica sobre esta temática, procurando abordá-la de forma interdisciplinar. É também objectivo deste encontro analisar os diversos aspectos de que se reveste este crime, a partir de uma perspectiva europeia, contribuindo, deste modo, para um espaço de reflexão sobre um tema tão relevante e de incontornável oportunidade. As conclusões do encontro serão publicadas no n.º 17 da Revista Debater a Europa, que se encontra indexada na ERIH PLUS e no Impactum UC.