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Published in:
Entrapping Asylum Seekers: Introduction Read chapter Read first chapter

2017 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

3. Beyond the Border Spectacle: Migration Across the Mediterranean Sea

Author : Pierluigi Musarò

Published in: Entrapping Asylum Seekers

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan UK

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Abstract

Focusing on the fight against irregular migration and its compassionate spectacularization, this chapter aims to bridge some of the gaps between media and migration research, investigating the crisis narrative depicted by different actors in the context of Mediterranean migrant tragedies. Through a critical analysis of discursive practices enacted by the European border control agency Frontex, the Italian Navy and the Italian Coast Guard, during the military–humanitarian operation Mare Nostrum, the chapter explores the contrasting, yet at times mutually influencing, representations of migrants, within the context of both humanitarian aid and border control. Drawing upon the ‘military–humanitarian border spectacle’ as a dispositif that is physically and symbolically enacted to legitimize the narrative of cosmopolitan solidarity—and to manage the moral panic surrounding migration—light is shed on how it contributes towards creating a ‘moral geography of the world’. The chapter concludes with remarks on how the dynamics between humanitarian protection and border control are central in legitimizing policies that filter human mobility, by categorizing humanitarian subjects as worthy or unworthy, desirable or undesirable, deserving or undeserving.

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previous chapter Unmasking the Cultural Construction of Asylum Screening at the Border
next chapter Seeking Asylum in Neoliberal Cairo: Refugee Protests and the Securitization of Humanitarianism
Footnotes
2
One caveat is in order. I am aware that there is a crucial legal difference between ‘migrant’ and ‘refugee’, and as a consequence throughout the chapter I use both terms. At the same time, it is worth noting that in the media the terms are often used interchangeably, depending on the period and its public sentiment (according to Google Trends data, throughout 2015, searches for ‘refugee’ remained slightly higher than those for ‘migrant’, but searches for ‘refugee’ spiked in early September, around the time that distressing photos of three-year-old Syrian refugee Aylan Kurdi were circulating). Moreover, although the legal and political separation between refugees, asylum seekers and migrants is ever present in the communitarian discourse and agenda-setting, the difference—upon which not everybody agrees, and which has received criticism by the double standard it imposes upon people in need, producing a selective recognition of suffering—is much more blurred in practice. Particularly interesting in this regard is the announcement by Al Jazeera English that it would stop using the term ‘migrant’, as it ‘is no longer fit for purpose when it comes to describing the horror unfolding in the Mediterranean.’ See http://​www.​newsweek.​com/​refugee-vs-migrants-whats-right-term-use-371222, viewed 6 November 2015.
 
3
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon declared to be ‘deeply saddened to hear reports of the loss of lives’ and called on the international community to protect the rights of migrants and take action to prevent such tragic incidents occurring in future. See http://​www.​thenational.​ae/​world/​europe/​eu-leaders-vow-to-end-deaths-of-mediterranean-migrants; http://​www.​un.​org/​apps/​news/​story.​asp?​NewsID=​46255#.​VqTr7lLon5d, viewed 8 February 2015.
 
4
The performance of crisis through spectacular interventions such as Mare Nostrum, Frontex’s Joint Operation Triton and EUNAVFOR/Operation Sophia, or the absence thereof such as in the case of people arriving on the Aegean islands of Greece, is part of the European migration management.
 
5
During this period, two other permanent missions coordinated and financed by Frontex and Italy operated in the Mediterranean: Hermes for border control along the Italian coast, implemented by the Military Navy and Coast Guard, and Aeneas for the control of migrant flows. Mare Nostrum simply represented a strengthening of these operations with a broader and more specific twofold objective: to safeguard life at sea and bring migrant smugglers to justice.
 
6
Today it is virtually impossible to migrate to Europe in a legal and safe way. As the EU Commissioner, Cecilia Malmström, acknowledged: ‘migrants are forced to put their lives in the hands of traffickers and smugglers who are making huge profits by exploiting their misery and despair.’ See http://​ecre.​org/​component/​content/​article/​70-weekly-bulletin-articles/​849-one-year-after-lampedusa-ngos-call-for-eu-action-to-prevent-further-deaths-at-sea.​html, viewed 12 January 2015.
 
7
The Berlusconi government used the ‘state of emergency’ as an ad hoc measure to bypass ordinary political procedures and release public money. During the North Africa Emergency, which delegated extraordinary powers to the Italian Civil Protection (a Department that coordinates the response to natural disasters, catastrophes or other events that should be faced with extraordinary powers and means) to manage the situation, over €1.5 billion was allocated to fund makeshift reception centres and hotel accommodation distributed across Italy for 21,000 asylum seekers. See http://​espresso.​repubblica.​it/​attualita/​cronaca/​2012/​10/​15/​news/​chi-specula-sui-profughi-1.​47304.
 
8
As Amnesty International denounces: ‘The EU’s priorities regarding migration policy have focused on sealing its borders rather than its human rights obligations. This can be clearly seen in expenditure on constructing “Fortress Europe” as compared with the funding given for supporting asylum procedures and the needs of refugees.’ See http://​www.​amnesty.​ch/​de/​themen/​asyl-migration/​europa/​dok/​2015/​Die-Kampagne-SOS-Europa/​bericht-the-human-cost-of-fortress-Europe, p. 9, viewed 7 December 2015.
 
10
As the Deputy Executive Director Gil Arias Fernandez argues: ‘Facilitators lure these desperate people with the promise of an easy crossing and a better life, and charge up to USD 7,500 for a trip from Afghanistan. This is not always the case. Tragically, since the beginning of the year 41 people lost their lives trying to cross the Evros river or the sea in the area of Alexandropouli, many more die as a result of the dangerous forms of transport used by unscrupulous smugglers, others still end up victims of trafficking for the sex trade or in forced labour’ (quoted in Horsti 2012, p. 13).
 
13
Interview with the Italian seaman, Lampedusa, 30 January 2014, quoted in Tazzioli (2015, p. 140).
 
14
Emphasis in original.
 
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Metadata
Title
Beyond the Border Spectacle: Migration Across the Mediterranean Sea
Author
Pierluigi Musarò
Copyright Year
2017
Book
Entrapping Asylum Seekers

Print ISBN: 978-1-137-58738-1

Electronic ISBN: 978-1-137-58739-8

Copyright Year: 2017

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58739-8_3