Forms and Features of the Post-Enlargement Migration Space

This paper is a preliminary attempt at investigating the link between the post EU enlargement migration space and the ongoing process of the forming of a common EU immigration policy, now in its second phase, the ‘Hague Programme’ having been agreed upon in November 2004. The main subject I mean to discuss centres around a series of juxtapositions which are the result of an interrelation between the national and supranational levels of EU policymaking: ‘enlargement( s) and restrictions’, ‘visible and invisible borders’, ‘pendulum and pillar’ defining the area of Justice, Freedom and Security, implemented since the meeting of the European Council in Tampere in October 1999. The theoretical framework in this paper relies upon the ‘pendulum model’ developed by Helen Wallace and includes a close study of the EU policymaking process. The model shows how this process results in an uninterrupted oscillation between two dimensions of governance – national and supranational – particularly in the field of immigration where prerogatives of national sovereignty often tend to prevail. The conclusive argument advances the idea that the EU should involve all the qualified actors either from old or new member states or neighbouring countries in an effective ‘open method of coordination’, aimed at harmonizing immigration and asylum policy.