Article: Reconciling the tensions of the European deportation regime: how the law shapes compulsory mobility across borders Journal: International Journal of Migration and Border Studies (IJMBS) 2026 Vol.9 No.6 pp.57 - 75 Abstract: This contribution explores the role played by European, human rights, and national law in contemporary deportation practices. Different forms of deportation, such as returns, Dublin transfers, and expulsions, are built upon a broad set of rules and practices. Taken together, these rules enable states to lawfully and compulsorily displace hundreds of thousands of individuals across European borders every year. Drawing on insights from different legal frameworks of deportation and on a large-scale dataset of deportation judgments in French lower courts, this article shows that deportation is regulated in the European Union by an overarching and complex European deportation regime. The nature of deportation, as a form of compulsory mobility enforced through individual orders that can be challenged in courts, positions national judges as key actors in this regime. This article contributes to existing scholarship on law and human mobility by documenting how law and judicial practices shape compulsory mobility. Inderscience Publishers - linking academia, business and industry through research

Title: Reconciling the tensions of the European deportation regime: how the law shapes compulsory mobility across borders

Authors: Anouk Lamé

Addresses: MOBILE Center of Excellence for Global Mobility Law, University of Copenhagen, Karen Blixen Plads 16, 2300 , Copenhagen S, Denmark

Abstract: This contribution explores the role played by European, human rights, and national law in contemporary deportation practices. Different forms of deportation, such as returns, Dublin transfers, and expulsions, are built upon a broad set of rules and practices. Taken together, these rules enable states to lawfully and compulsorily displace hundreds of thousands of individuals across European borders every year. Drawing on insights from different legal frameworks of deportation and on a large-scale dataset of deportation judgments in French lower courts, this article shows that deportation is regulated in the European Union by an overarching and complex European deportation regime. The nature of deportation, as a form of compulsory mobility enforced through individual orders that can be challenged in courts, positions national judges as key actors in this regime. This article contributes to existing scholarship on law and human mobility by documenting how law and judicial practices shape compulsory mobility.

Keywords: deportation; deportability; compulsory mobility; European migration law; French administrative law; border control; expulsion; Dublin transfer; refusal of entry; empirical legal studies; France.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMBS.2026.156396

International Journal of Migration and Border Studies, 2026 Vol.9 No.6, pp.57 - 75

Received: 26 May 2025
Accepted: 27 May 2026
Published online: 16 Sep 2026 *

Title: Reconciling the tensions of the European deportation regime: how the law shapes compulsory mobility across borders

Keep up-to-date