"Profiles" of DeportabilityAnalyzing Spanish Migration Control Policies from a Neocolonial Perspective

Resumen

Over the first decade of the twenty-first century, Spain was a popular destination for international migrations. Successive Spanish governments addressed this phenomenon through a set of sovereign measures, such as selective and racially biased policing, detention in internment centers and deportation. Some key aspects of these migration control policies have gradually changed throughout the last two decades. One of them is what may be called the ‘profile’ of the ‘deportable’ migrant. The analysis of the empirical data on the arrest, detention and deportation of migrants provides demographics of the targeted individuals and sheds light on the rationale underlying the migration control apparatus. Specifically, this paper examines the nationalities of individuals affected by the cycle of deportation to grasp the persistence of neocolonial power relations within current bordered penality.