ABSTRACT
Since the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, politicians, intelligence personnel, and police officers have developed internal security strategies with a logic similar to that applied to external security issues. Border management has contradictory features that have made difficult the implementation of a coherent border policy. The larger context of economic deregulation and competition affecting the European Union and candidate states has generated compromised solutions with several shortcomings. Historically, the function of borders has varied in relation to goods, capital, and people. Border controls on goods were more rigid during the mercantilist era, until the end of the 18th century, while border controls on the mobility of people date from the end of the 18th century, for political and social reasons. European migration policies are generally divided into two realms, those related to security concerns and those related to economic concerns, particularly the recruitment of specific categories of migrants.
