Henk van Houtum

is Assistant Professor in Human Geography, Director of the Nijmegen Centre for Border Research, Radboud University Nijmegen. Recent publications include: H. van Houtum, O. Kramsch, W. Zierhofer, B/ordering Space, Aldershot 2004; M. van der Velde and H. van Houtum, “The Threshold of Indifference”, in: Kramsch O. and B. Hooper, Cross-border governance in the EU, London 2004.

Articles

Fear of (mass) migration has been and still is an important aspect of ongoing processes of socio-spatial bordering of immigrants within the European Union. The recent EU-enlargement involving several post-Soviet nations has only but intensified these sentiments. Offering an alternative to the well-known, yet flawed Fortress Europe metaphor, Henk van Houtum and Roos Pijpers argue that that the moral panic on immigration and consequent migration policy in various member states of the European Union follows a geo-strategic logic which much more than a Fortress resembles the management of a Gated Community.