The externalizing of the eu “migration management matrix” to Latin America and the Caribbean

Abstract

In the 1990s, the eu adopted the political idea of migration management to deal with migrations from third countries. This cleared the way for an externalization of the communitarian migration control to other regions. In this regard, there are studies on the effects of this process on African, East European, and Asian countries. In contrast, the literature has neglected the Latin American and Caribbean zone. The aim of this article is to analyze the process of externalization to Latin America and the Caribbean, through the eu budget lines for migration management between 2001 and 2020. Based on the examination of a corpus of official documents, the work shows that the eu has a matrix for migration management, defined by three axes: external borders, fight against “illegal” immigration, and development. The projects developed in Latin America and the Caribbean have reproduced this matrix, working as tools of the communitarian migration control.