The Italian Cooperation with Albania on Migration: Between Externalization and Internalization of Borders

Tied by a shared colonial legacy, significant past immigration, and strong social and economic relations, Italy and Albania, through the protocol they established at the end of 2023, present a compelling example of a new logic and dynamic of migration externalization. Long considered taboo, the transfer of (some) rescued migrants to a non-EU state and, at least initially, the externalization of the assessment of their asylum claims, contribute to the image of the border between Albania and Italy as a fluid, intangible, and unreachable entity. Praised by many EU Member States, this new model exists within an opaque political and legal space that challenges traditional concepts of jurisdiction, territoriality, and the boundaries of human rights. The political and legal implications of these extended – yet artificial – borders, as well as the remapping of migration and asylum policies, are explored in this article, with an eye toward their potential impact on both migrants and the European Union as a whole.