ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on state sovereignty, borders, and the processes of bordering operating as an engine of the nation-state machine. I trace the operation of the contemporary form of the machinic statehood in a globalized world that is based on the multiplication of borders and the processes of bordering, that enable the state to both reproduce and reinvent itself through positing migration at its centre. I discuss the meaning and a function of borders for the nation-states and law. I then focus on the origins and implications of the international legal doctrine of sovereign control of migration arguing that this doctrine does not only enforce the right to control mobility but turns certain mobilities into a violation of law. Further I show how mobility as a violation of law is being maintained in international and national law of the global North through the multifaceted processes of bordering, securitization, or criminalization. Some of these processes can be described as overspill of migration law into other areas of law – into citizenship law and into criminal law – turning these laws into migration control measures.
