This chapter addresses the illegalization of people’s movement in terms that are different than those of mainstream sociological and migration theory by describing the increasing “externalization” of mechanisms of migration control in Europe and exploring the way in which policies against clandestine migration are discursively justified. Current scholarly and political debates about migration tend to be framed by functionalist misconceptions of clandestinity. In contrast, we call into question the very possibility of identifying any objective category of analysis such as “illegal migration” by shedding light on the continuity between the externalization of border control regimes and the internal migration policies...