By Costica Dumbrava

The European Union (EU) has developed a complex architecture of information systems to support its policies on external borders, migration management and internal security. In response to recent migration and security challenges, the EU has sought to expand and upgrade its existing information systems on borders and security, and establish new systems and ensure their interconnection (interoperability). The underlying policy goal has been to 'close information gaps' on third-country nationals arriving or staying in the EU, to combat irregular migration and counter security threats more effectively. While the legislative work of updating and expanding EU-wide information systems for borders and security has been swift, the implementation of changes has been more challenging. Following the launch of the revised Schengen information system in March 2023, the new entry/exit system started operations on 12 October 2025. The European travel information and authorisation system (ETIAS) will follow at the end of 2026. This briefing provides an overview of EU-wide information systems for border management and security. It discusses recent developments and presents, where available, key figures on the operation of these systems.

Brussels: EPRS | European Parliamentary Research Service, 2025.. 12p.

By Kelly Bescherer, Stephan Scheel

The capacity to establish migrants' legal identities is key to states' attempts to control access to their territories. This paper introduces the concept of regimes of proof to shed light on this often-neglected aspect of border and migration control and related migrant struggles. Negotiations around legal identities play a central role in deportation, but also in migrants' access to rights and government services. At the current conjuncture, this tension has become particularly relevant: new digital means of identification such as biometric residency cards or the analysis of mobile phone data are rapidly being introduced across the globe to establish and fix migrants' identities and to determine their country of origin. Drawing on ethnographic research in West Africa and Germany, we consider the implications of shifting regimes of proof in the context of asylum, deportation and regularisation procedures to highlight the centrality of identification to all aspects of migration management.

International MigrationVolume 63, Issue 6 Nov 2025