Introduction

Starting from the tension between the promise of watertight border controls, which drives processes of biometric rebordering, and migrants’ determinacy to move to Europe, I introduce the book’s central research question: how do migrants appropriate mobility within biometric border regimes? After explaining why the biometrified Schengen visa regime offers a perfect case to study this, I introduce the autonomy of migration approach (AoM). The latter provides a distinct analytical framework that investigates border regimes from the perspective of mobility. Finally, I outline why and how I want to address the two central criticisms that have been raised against the AoM.