Europe's failed ‘fight’ against irregular migration: ethnographic notes on a counterproductive industry

Andersson, Ruben

doi:10.1080/1369183x.2016.1139446

Cited by 190 publications

(125 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…If there is a strong convergence between the discourse of governments, private firms, and EU agencies, convergent discourses limit the possibilities for speaking about alternative topics, leading to particular discursive "lock-in" effects whereby the discursive framing of an issue is limited, closing off important avenues for political action. Furthermore, the lack of civil society organisations in the network, in the form of non-governmental organisations concerned with fundamental rights, may exacerbate current tendencies of the "illegality industry" to have harmful effects (Andersson 2016a). Businesses have obligations to respect human rights, and the security industry is not an exception to this norm.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In parallel, Lemberg-Pedersen (2013) demonstrates how private security companies have introduced securitised logics into EU decision-making by framing migration as in need of technological solutions, supplying border security technologies which generate their own demand through logics of risk management and promotion of technologies as a "fix". As extension, Andersson (2016aAndersson ( , 2016b has produced in-depth insight into the "illegality industry" surrounding migration and how actors profit from undocumented migration, critically probing the harmful effects of the industry. Second, practice approaches scrutinise the diverse everyday tasks, roles, routines, interactions, discourses, and rationalities of border security professionals, including private actors (Cote-Boucher et al 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Who speaks for the European border security industry? A network analysis

Baird¹

2016

European Security

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This article contributes to the literature on the European border security industry with a network analysis of a new bipartite data set. The network is composed of speakers and their speech topics at a European border security conference taking place from 2008 to 2015. Speakers are linked to conferences by year of attendance and to speech topics to identify key actors and discourses using measures of centrality. A multiple regression quadratic assignment procedure (MR-QAP) is used to explain the continuity of conference speech topics. The centrality analysis reveals a number of "hubs" and the discourse analysis reveals a consistent focus on social control and surveillance over human rights. The MR-QAP regression suggests that shared discourses are driven by organisations which act as key speakers at many events, and whose discourses are prioritised over those of other actors. The article concludes with notes on the critical implications of the findings. ARTICLE HISTORY

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Who speaks for the European border security industry? A network analysis

Baird¹

2016

European Security

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“…As first noted by a UK House of Lords report (2016) and later demonstrated by scholars, the destruction of boats carried out by operation Sophia contributed to smugglers' use of increasingly unseaworthy and overloaded dinghies (Andersson, 2016;Cusumano, 2017c;Heller and Pezzani, 2017). The abovementioned confidential report also stressed that the mission forced smugglers to adopt a new modus operandi that 'entails a skiff towing a rubber boat without an engine, which is then left adrift' (EEAS, 2016b: 7).…”

Section: Eunavfor Operational Conductmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Existing scholarship forcefully criticized these missions as attempts to curb irregular entries and reinforce control over EU maritime borders, thinly veiled by a humanitarian fig leaf (Andersson, 2016;Pallister-Wilkins, 2017;Tazzioli, 2016). Neither the public communication strategies nor the operational conduct of Triton and EUNAVFOR, however, have been examined, compared and explained systematically.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Migrant rescue as organized hypocrisy: EU maritime missions offshore Libya between humanitarianism and border control

Cusumano¹

2018

Cooperation and Conflict

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In November 2014, Frontex started its Southern Mediterranean border monitoring operation Triton, followed in June 2015 by the Common Security and Defence Policy anti-smuggling mission EU Naval Force Mediterranean (EUNAVFOR Med) 'Sophia'. Both operations' outward communication has placed considerable emphasis on the conduct of maritime search and rescue. Still, this commitment was not matched by consistent action. Triton and EUNAVFOR Med have conducted a relatively limited number of search and rescue operations, prioritizing border control and anti-smuggling tasks. This article explains the gap between the European Union missions' humanitarian rhetoric and an operational conduct primarily focusing on curbing irregular migration as a form of organized hypocrisy. Decoupling talk and action allowed Triton and EUNAVFOR Med to reconcile the conflicting expectations arising from European governments' willingness to reduce migrant arrivals and the normative imperative to act against the loss of life at sea. However, the European Union missions' organized hypocrisy had several negative externalities, hindering effective management of the humanitarian crisis offshore Libya.

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“…Andersson (2014Andersson ( , 2016 reminds us that the EU's 'fight against irregular migration' began with the introduction of the Schengen agreement on free movement in the EU in the mid-1990s which led to a massive economic investment in the EU's external borders. As part of its enforcement activities the EU initiated a succession of policy initiatives -the European Neighbourhood Policy with African states, Operation Hera in West Africa, Operation Sophia in the central Mediterranean and the EU 'Hotspot policy' in the Eastern Mediterraneanwhich were rolled out to deal with successive migration 'crises'.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%