Non-State Actors and Migration Control in Spain. a Migration Industry Perspective.

Until recently research on controlling irregular migration flows has been heavily biased toward what can be defined as an excessive state determinism that obviates the role of non-state institutions and organizations in this sphere of action. Although this state determinism (state-centric approach) has been academically contested by research that has focused on reactive actions and resistance by immigrants to migration control (migrant-centric approach), the state-centric approach has obviated the role that other non-state actors play in the sphere of migration control. The objective of this paper is to analyze and define the ways that have been adopted to control irregular immigration to Spain over the past decade by employing an approach that transcends and complements the state-centric/migrant-centric approaches by incorporating non-state actors to the analysis (a polycentric approach). The analysis of the role of non-state organizations in controlling irregular immigration in Spain will be carried out with a focus on what has come to be refered to as “Migration Industry”, a concept that has gained a great deal of attention in migration studies as an analytical perspective that incorporates intermediate actors. Focusing on the analysis of the Spanish case,  and on the so called "Control Industry and Rescue Industry", the paper will explore the role of private companies, NGO´s and other non-state actors as agents which facilitate and constrain irregular migration flows to Spain and influence the shaping of border and internal control policies and flows.