ABSTRACT
This chapter provides brief history of externalization in order to provide context to contemporary migration and enforcement activities concentrated around the EU, Australia, and the United States (US). It describes the global database on migrant boat losses and state operations at sea since 1980. The chapter uses statistical analysis and evidence to support the long-asserted claim by social scientists that greater enforcement at sea intensifies precarity and risk-taking among migrants attempting unauthorized entry. It inconclusively analyzes how variations in enforcement in specific areas relate to future losses in other areas. The chapter speculates that the abundance of literature relates to the robust participation of European scholars in the political science of migration and border enforcement. It employs a mixed methodology designed to locate, record, and analyze migrant boat losses and maritime interdiction operations to fill the gaps identified in the externalization literature.
