Racialised Governance of Migration in Europe

Migration governance in Europe is often presented as a colour-blind system designed to regulate mobility, manage borders and organise labour markets. However, growing evidence shows that migration policies and labour regimes are embedded in — and actively reproduce — racialised social hierarchies that shape how mobility, belonging and labour are valued.

Across Europe, immigration status, nationality and perceived cultural proximity structure access to residence rights, labour markets and social protection. As a result, irregularity cannot be understood simply as a legal condition. Rather, it must be examined as part of a broader system in which migration governance, labour regimes and public narratives interact to produce and sustain racialised inequalities.

This policy brief draws on the report Racial Logics of Irregular Migration in Europe: Policy, Perception and Precarity, produced within the Horizon Europe and UKRI funded I-CLAIM project. The research examines how race, racism and racialisation shape the production, governance and lived experience of migrant irregularity across six European countries: Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and the United Kingdom.

Across Europe, racism rarely appears as explicit exclusion. Instead, it operates through institutional arrangements that differentiate access to residence rights, mobility, employment opportunities and social protections. Legal categories, administrative procedures, labour recruitment practices and public narratives collectively produce what the I-CLAIM report describes as a racialised governance of mobility, in which certain groups are systematically positioned as disposable workers and conditional members of society.

Understanding these dynamics is essential for designing migration and labour policies that address migrant precarity while remaining consistent with the European Union’s commitments under the EU Anti-Racism Action Plan 2020–2025 and EU Anti-Racism Strategy 2026–2030.