De mondiale mobiliteitsinfrastructuur: de dubbele bodem van de neoliberale legaliteit

While European politicians and policy makers have attempted to limit migration in the first two decades of the twenty-first century, international air traffic on European airports has almost doubled between 2002 and 2017. This contribution argues that, despite this significant increase of international mobility, clear borders separate the mobile from the immobile. Among the most significant instruments to limit access to the international air traffic market is the pre-boarding check, executed by (private) airline companies, which have effectively become an extension of state sovereignty. Moreover, visa criteria play a vital role in providing access to international air traffic. In practice, the ‘liberalization’ of air traffic tends to separate the mobile from the immobile on wealth-based and racial criteria, defended in reference to a theoretically
free (but in practice strongly regulated) market.