3071-The political economy of new slavery

Jeroen Doomernik 41
one member state). In addition, Europe’s external borders were given
more attention.
Because the crossing of borders by uninvited migrants had been conceptualized
as a security issue, in some states voices could be heard
suggesting that the armed forces should be involved. At the start of the
new millennium, it has become clear that both efforts to secure borders
and to tighten eligibility within the processing of claims have had
no long-lasting effect on numbers of unsolicited migrants. Immigration
in the countries of the European Union is still considerable. In the
northern countries requests for asylum remain high, in the South –
where asylum systems are only now gradually being put in place –
immigrants remain predominantly undocumented. The United States,
too, has a large number of undocumented immigrants, mainly from
Central America but increasingly also from China. And this in spite
of a Mexican–US border turned into something akin to the Berlin Wall.
In short: immigration and migrants appear to have become part of the
daily experience of all developed nations. Why is this?
National versus global interests
An important reason for continuing immigration is to be found within
liberal democratic states themselves. In order for states and governments
to be seen as legitimate, a difficult balancing act between a number of
interests is required. Economic interests, for instance, may seem to
make it necessary in times of high domestic unemployment to control
immigration (be it in volume or nature) whereas at the same time
governments need to adhere to basic human rights. This first of all
means the protection of their own citizens but it also implicitly asks for
the protection of human rights in general, as specified, for instance, in
an international instrument like the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights or the Charter of the United Nations, even if those are not
binding. For practical or political reasons the government of country A
cannot always protect the fundamental rights of citizens of country B.
This, however, is different when the citizen of country B is present
within the borders of country A. Governments, therefore, try to prevent
unsolicited immigrants from entering their jurisdiction in the first
place, for once they are present, only instruments within the juridical
domain remain. As we saw, these are basically definitions of entitlement.
At the same time, the forces of globalization – the fruits of which
are picked not least by the industrialized nations – make increasing
numbers of people worldwide mobile.