If you happen to be in Warsaw on 2–3 March 2026, I encourage you to register for the conference Polish Migration Law in Times of Change – Law as an Instrument of Protection, Control and Sanction, organised by the Institute of Law Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences.

On 3 March, I will present a paper titled: Externalisation or Internalisation? Migration Control and Legal Responsibility at the EU’s Eastern Border.

Externalisation — beyond the territory?

In EU migration governance, externalisation is typically understood as the projection of migration control beyond the territory of the European Union.

It includes:

  • cooperation with third countries,
  • visa policy and carrier sanctions,
  • readmission agreements,
  • and the operational activities of EU agencies.

In critical scholarship, externalisation is also described as a strategy of responsibility-shifting — distancing Member States from legal obligations towards refugees and migrants by moving control “elsewhere”.

The underlying assumption is territorial: control happens outside; responsibility is diluted with distance. But the situation at the EU’s Eastern border — particularly in Poland — complicates this picture.

Internalisation — control brought home

What we observe is not simply the export of migration control, but something more structurally transformative: an internalisation of control.

Domestic law has been reshaped to enable measures typically associated with extraterritorial governance — yet implemented within the state’s own territory. This has included:

  • restricted-access border zones,
  • extraordinary or emergency-based legal regimes,
  • procedural limitations affecting access to international protection.

Rather than moving responsibility outward, the legal order itself is reorganised inwardly.

A structural transformation of law

This development is not merely about border management techniques. It concerns a deeper reconfiguration of constitutional law, administrative law, and asylum law. The implications are significant for core legal guarantees, including:

  • the principle of non-refoulement,
  • the right to asylum,
  • and the right to an effective remedy.

Externalisation, in this sense, should not be understood only as a geographical strategy. It is also a constitutional transformation within Member States’ legal systems.

The result may be the emergence of areas of reduced legal accountability within the EU legal order itself — spaces formally inside the Union, yet functionally distanced from ordinary guarantees of protection and review.

Why this discussion matters now

Debates on migration governance often focus on cooperation with third states or EU-level reforms. Yet some of the most consequential developments occur within domestic legal systems — through statutory amendments, emergency measures, and administrative practice. If externalisation is becoming internalised, then responsibility is not disappearing. Rather, it is being reconfigured.

Image credit: cmsny.org

The conference is organised by the Institute of Law Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences, part of the Polish Academy of Sciences. The Scientific Committee includes Monika Szulecka, Witold Klaus, Izabela Florczak, Maja Lysienia, Joanna Markiewicz-Stanny, Magdalena Perkowska, and Katarzyna Strąk. The project is financed by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education under the “Science Vectors” Programme.

My sincere thanks to the organisers for creating space for what promises to be a timely and necessary discussion.