Chronology and Conceptualization of ‘Integrated Border Management’: The ‘Embodied Border’ Paradigm

Since the communautarisation of the Schengen acquis, the EU is meant to build a system of ‘integrated border management’ (IBM) to help ensuring the administration of migratory flows ‘at all their stages’. The idea is that effective entry control cannot be based solely on checks at the external borders of the Member States but ‘must cover every step taken by a third country national from the time he begins his journey to the time he reaches his destination’. EU entry/pre-entry controls thus comprise a series of extraterritorial measures carried out abroad. This chapter describes this evolution in detail. It traces the origins and development of IBM, covering institutional, constitutional, as well as legal and political changes to the present day. The recognition that the ‘strengthening of European border controls should not prevent access to protection systems by those people entitled to benefit under them’ is introduced also at this stage, providing the starting point to the entire research.