Policing Migration: Described and Observed Cooperation Experiences of Police and Border Guards in the Baltic Sea Area
2017 (English)In: Journal of Applied Security Research, ISSN 1936-1610, Vol. 12, no 1, p. 117-140Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
“Collaboration” is generally portrayed as being beneficial to intelligence and operational police work, even if previous collaborative research shows that conflicts are common between authorities who are supposed to cooperate. The present study focuses on how officers collaborate in their day-to-day management of borderguarding, taking into consideration the different social and cultural backgrounds of the project participants. To these ends, this qualitative, ethnographically study is based on empirical material gathered from interviews, field observation sessions with officers working at the Baltic Sea border agencies and documents. The findings suggest that, although collaboration is burdened with bureaucratic difficulties, there is a common understanding of purpose among the project participants. These border officers’ common declared their objective is to fight criminality and createa safer Europe. However, the participants possessing different organizational and cultural backgrounds have to adapt to adopta common language (in officers’ terms EU-English), common schemes of categorizing (inside-outside distinctions), and develop a sense of trust and identity. Collaboration is claimed by the informants, and is best achieved through getting involved ineveryday practices. They worked side by side, and spent free time together rather than following bureaucratic rules and regulations.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Routledge, 2017. Vol. 12, no 1, p. 117-140
Keywords [en]
border guards, policing borders, Baltic Sea area, policing migration, cooperation, European border politics, intelligence and operational police work, surveillance, collaboration, qualitative interviews, field work, field notes, collaboration identity
National Category
Sociology
Research subject
Police Science, Criminology; Social Sciences, Police Science; Social Sciences, Studies of Professions; Social Work, Social Psychology; Social Sciences, Sociology
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-59879DOI: 10.1080/19361610.2017.1228422ISI: 000396694900007Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85010042081OAI: oai:DiVA.org:lnu-59879DiVA, id: diva2:1065897
Conference
Differences, Inequalities and Sociological Imagination, the 12th European Sociological Association Conference, Institute of Sociology, Prague, Czech Republic, August 25-28, 2015
Projects
Definitions of successful intelligence and operational police work2017-01-172017-01-172022-01-11Bibliographically approved