MPI Transatlantic Council on Migration out with new reports on border issues

The fifth plenary meeting of the Migration Policy Institute’s Transatlantic Council on Migration focused on assessing the most effective approaches to bringing greater order and legality to migration, border management, and labor systems. And today, MPI is pleased to release the first paper commissioned as part of the Council’s November 2010 meeting, “Restoring Trust in the Management of Migration and Borders.”

In their report, A New Architecture for Border Management, MPI President Demetrios Papademetriou and European Policy Fellow Elizabeth Collett sketch the emergence of a new border architecture resulting from the explosion in global travel and the dawning of the age of risk. This new border architecture must respond effectively to the seemingly competing demands of facilitating mobility while better managing the risks associated with cross-border travel (e.g. terrorism, the entry of unwanted migrants, and organized crime). The report examines the information-sharing agreements, technology innovations, and multilateral partnerships that have emerged as key components of the new architecture for border management, and discusses challenges and considerations for the future.

Among the other works also informing the Council’s deliberations were a report assessing the transatlantic data-sharing agreements and negotiations that have emerged in the post-9/11 era, and an analysis of US border control programs since the mid-1990s.

In Transatlantic Cooperation on Travelers’ Data Processing: From Sorting Countries to Sorting Individuals, authors Paul De Hert and Rocco Bellanova detail the post-9/11 programs and agreements implemented by US and European governments to identify terrorists and serious transnational criminals through the collection and processing of increasing quantities of traveler data – and discuss the evolution of those iniatives.

And in The Evolution of Border Controls as a Mechanism to Prevent Illegal Immigration, author and MPI Nonresident Fellow Rey Koslowski analyzes how the challenges in achieving effective US border control have increased dramatically in recent decades and particularly since the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The report examines the programmatic and funding responses US policymakers have put in place — including the Secure Border Initiative, the Visa Waiver Program, US-VISIT, and registered-traveler programs — and traces their evolution and effectiveness.

These papers and other MPI transatlantic research can be found at the Council’s website: www.migrationpolicy.org/transatlantic.