The EU external edges : borders as walls or ways ?

International audienceThe "Area of Freedom, Security and Justice" (AFSJ), that was established in Eu-rope by the 1997 Treaty of Amsterdam, can be understood as an ambitious at-tempt to complete the freedom of movement of persons, one of the four liberties that were the core components of the 1957 Treaty of Rome, which gave birth to the European Economic Community. Most EU member States participate in the Schengen area and appear eager to abolish the internal borders between them and to define European common external borders. With the successive enlargements of the European Union, these borders have moved eastward and southward and have also become more complex. This paper argues that due to the exploitation of the technologies of digitalization, the borders and their control have turned out to be more fluid and mobile, more normative and reticular, toughening the develop-ment of processes of categorization between the desirable migrants and the unde-sirable ones. Thus the borders appear to be pathways (ways) for the former and barriers (walls) for the latter