Bordering ‘fake’ Marriages? The Everyday Practices of Control at the Consulates of Belgium, France, and Italy in Casablanca

Based on in-depth fieldwork research, this contribution focuses on the bureaucratic practices of controlling marriages which involve the emigration of a spouse. It is concerned with the ways in which the bordering practices of the citizen and visa information offices of the Belgian, French and Italian consulates in Casablanca are enacted daily. Drawing on public policy implementation and migration control literature, this analysis concentrates on the bureaucratic practices enforcing the right to marry and the right to family life. It argues that migration control bureaucratic practices at displaced borders - the consulates - are not just aimed at filtering out irregular, but also regular, migration. For the cases of Belgium and France, bureaucratic practices producing and bordering "fake" marriages are stemming unwanted migration from Morocco. In Italy, bureaucratic practices aimed at bordering marriages are not at work. The comparative and inductive research methodology used here shows that "remote control" is not a strategy adopted by all these countries