The Economic Value of Mobility: Migration Control and New Dependencies

• Examines how the management of human movement has become a valuable economic asset in modern state relations.
• Distinguishes between the chattel slavery of the past and modern migration control while identifying commonalities in how the regulation of human mobility generates external value.

The Economics of Border Control

• The European Union’s financial support for migration programs in countries like Morocco demonstrates that border management capacity is now a central diplomatic and economic asset.
• Geography and the ability to regulate, house, or prevent movement grant states significant leverage and rent-seeking opportunities within international systems.
• Modern states do not need to commodify the individual; they can generate value simply by managing the flow of people and the cooperation surrounding those routes.

Case Study: Morocco

• While Morocco maintains a diverse, productive economy—notably in automotive manufacturing—the state still benefits from mobility in multiple forms: remittances from citizens abroad and financial agreements for border security with the EU.
• This creates a structural dependency where countries of transit or origin receive funding based on their role in preventing or facilitating migration, making the management of the problem more profitable than its resolution.

Implications for Policy

• Europe’s reliance on externalizing border control creates a bargaining imbalance; when European states promise voters that migration will be stopped before it reaches their territory, they increase the value of, and their dependence on, their partners' enforcement capacity.
• A more sustainable approach requires Europe to manage its own borders lawfully and efficiently while avoiding policies that treat partner countries as indispensable blackmailers.
• For transit and origin countries, the challenge is ensuring that migration-related revenue, such as remittances and security aid, supports productive economic development rather than becoming a permanent, hollow substitute for it.