State-bound Visa Policies and Europeanized Practices. Comparing EU Visa Policy Implementation in Morocco

This contribution focuses on the European border viewed from its margins: from the perspective of the western Mediterranean, specifically Morocco, the furthest western country of the area whose name, al-Maghrib, actually means “the west” in Arabic. It does so by tackling the bureaucratic enactment of the European border that is achieved by implementing EU visa policy. By delivering Schengen visa, bordering already occurs at consular windows in countries of departure. Hence I conceptualize visa policy as bordering policy and visa policy implementation as bordering practice. This article sheds ethnographic light on the making of EU visa policy on the ground by comparing the consulates of Belgium, France, and Italy in Casablanca. It argues that EU visa policy on the ground is state-bound. The analysis highlights visa policy as context-oriented: the means of implementing control must be tailored to its specific context. It shows the historical roots of the bi-lateral relations as factors differentiating this context. The article shows that Moroccan applicants learn cross-national differences and cope with shifting visa policies on the ground. Fieldwork exposes the strategic choices of consulates as an elite practice as well, and cross-national differences that encourage such practices. This empirically sound analysis criticizes the notion that Europeanization of visa policy implies diminishing cross-national differences in the day-to-day implementation and reveals instead Europeanized practices like those of coping with Schengen’s Europe.