Thickening Borderlands

Abstract

While Chapter 2 mainly refers to the lack of separation between roles and personalities, this chapter draws attention to the fading division between the Dutch police and its organizational environment. It argues that police power is now often divided across a multiplicity of organizations. This expanded notion of the police prompts us to look beyond the police organization, particularly when we want to understand an urgent matter such as police discrimination. The chapter engages with the literature on the ‘policing of migration’, as it is mainly in this field that diffuse, or networked policing has quickly advanced. Second, it provides detailed empirical data on how migrants experience borders within the nation-state due to a thickening of borderlands.