The Managerial Turn: The Transformation of Spanish Migration Control Policies since the Onset of the Economic Crisis
| Author | JOSÉ A. BRANDARIZ‐GARCÍA,CRISTINA FERNÁNDEZ‐BESSA |
| Date | 01 June 2017 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/hojo.12201 |
| Published date | 01 June 2017 |
The Howard Journal Vol56 No 2. June 2017 DOI: 10.1111/hojo.12201
ISSN 2059-1098, pp. 198–219
The Managerial Turn:
The Transformation of Spanish
Migration Control Policies since
the Onset of the Economic Crisis
JOS´
E A. BRANDARIZ-GARC´
IA
and CRISTINA FERN´
ANDEZ-BESSA
Jos´
e A. Brandariz-Garc´
ıa is Associate Professor of Criminal Law, University
of A Coruna, Spain; Cristina Fern´
andez-Bessa is Lecturer in Criminology,
University of Barcelona, Spain
Abstract: Over the first decade of this century, Spain was a primary destination of in-
ternational migrants. Successive Spanish governments have addressed this phenomenon
by implementing a number of control measures, largely aimed at securing external and
internal borders. However, the persistence of the economic crisis has led to the readjust-
ment of the whole system of migration control. This article intends to shed light on the
underlying rationales of the current transformation of Spanish policies within this field.
It will scrutinise the implications of the managerial turn in the Spanish apparatus of
deportation and conclude by outlining a range of legal reforms grounded in a human
rights perspective.
Keywords: migration control; managerial penality; deportation; detention
centres for migrants (CIE)
This article aims to analyse the most significant modifications affecting
Spanish migration control policies over the recent period. In order to study
the changing patterns of these control policies, the distinctive contours of
immigration flows to Spain and their consequences on the socio-economic
realm should be taken into consideration. During the first decade of the
21st Century, Spain was a most popular country of destination for interna-
tional migrants (Cornelius 2004; Calavita 2005; Arango 2010). However,
the number of immigrants arriving in Spain has sharply declined since
2010. The acute economic crisis and its effects in terms of unemployment
and impoverishment have put an end to the immigration flows of the
pre-crisis period and boosted the return of a vast number of immigrants
to their countries of origin. As a result, the net migration rate has been
negative since 2010 (Cach´
on Rodr´
ıguez 2012). The quota of foreigners
198
C
2017 The Howard League and John Wiley & Sons Ltd
Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK
The Howard Journal Vol56 No 2. June 2017
ISSN 2059-1098, pp. 198–219
residing in Spain soared from 1.8% of the population in 1999 to 12.2%
in 2010 and 2011, but dropped to 9.5% in 2016 (Fern´
andez Bessa 2016).
As of 2016, the principal nations of origin of the immigrants residing in
Spain are Romania, Morocco, China, and Ecuador (together with the UK
and Italy). Migrants coming to Spain during this decade-long migration
mainly settled in the most economically-developed regions of the country.
Yet, the foreign population is currently widespread, albeit unevenly, all
throughout the Spanish territory.
Spain witnessed a period of notable economic growth from 1994 to
2007 (L´
opez Hern´
andez and Rodr´
ıguez L´
opez 2010). From 2008 on-
wards, though, Spain has been severely affected by the global recession.
The simultaneous decline of economic indicators and migration rates, cou-
pled with the importance of migrants as a labour force for the Spanish
economy (Cornelius 2004; Calavita 2005; Izquierdo Escribano 2008) un-
derscore that the analysis of migration policies should include an eco-
nomic perspective. In fact, the post-Fordist production regime enabled
the massive subordinate inclusion of migrants into the workforce over
the 2000s, generating most concerning levels of exploitation, precari-
ousness and economic vulnerability. The massive influx of a poorly-paid
and highly-exploitable migrant labour force was a pivotal component
of the exceptional Spanish economic growth characterising that period
(Calavita 2005; Romero 2010; Brandariz Garc´
ıa 2011). More precisely,
immigration, regular and irregular alike, has decisively fostered the com-
petitiveness of some economic sectors, such as agriculture, the construc-
tion industry, tourism, and care work, thereby improving the quality of
life for wide swathes of the Spanish population (Carrasco Carpio 2008;
Pajares 2010). Nonetheless, high rates of foreign workers in the eco-
nomic sectors hardest hit by the recession led the migrant population
to endure the consequences of the crisis (for example, unemployment
and housing evictions) more expeditiously and severely than the native
population.
This combination of economic and migration factors has driven a trans-
formation of Spanish migration policies. Therefore, after having briefly
outlined the evolution of migration flows and the transformations of the
socio-economic context, this analysis will focus on the technologies of power
and the migration control policies that have recently been implemented.
More precisely, the article reflects on what may be called the ‘manage-
rial turn’, which has transformed the Spanish apparatus of deportation
since the onset of the economic crisis. In order to comprehend this turn
a wide range of quantitative data provided by Spanish migration con-
trol agencies1have been examined and compared with data on Spanish
forced return policies before the recession hit. This article delves into the
main policy changes that have been recently initiated, namely: the re-
duction of the number of both unenforced and enforced deportations, the
efficiency-driven reorganisation of the selectivity of the deportation system,
the transformations affecting both migration policing, and the utilisation
of detention centres, and some crucial changes in the political field. The
article concludes by briefly exploring the implications of the recent turn
199
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2017 The Howard League and John Wiley & Sons Ltd
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