From humanitarian exceptionalism to contingent care: Care and enforcement at the humanitarian border

Williams, Jill M.

doi:10.1016/j.polgeo.2015.01.001

Cited by 140 publications

(79 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…This resonates with recent critiques of humanitarian discourse, which critical scholars argue does not adequately challenge the relations of power within which measures of border security are grounded (e.g. Pallister-Wilkins, 2014;Williams, 2015). This article argues that the establishment of biophysical violence represents a crisis of modern humanism, which becomes implicated in the toleration of such violence through processes of denial, displacement, rejection and compensation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 80%

Governing migration through death in Europe and the US: Identification, burial and the crisis of modern humanism

Squire

2016

European Journal of International Relations

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Border deaths have become an established feature of contemporary migratory politics in both Europe and the US. This article examines similarities and differences in practices of 'governing migration through death' across the US-Mexico (Sonoran) and in the EU-North African (Mediterranean) contexts. Instead of taking a conventional comparative analysis of two distinct sites, the article draws on critical scholarship in the field of border studies in order to examine biopolitical, thanatopolitical and necropolitical dynamics of bordering that cross contexts. It argues that these operations of power converge in both European and US bordering practices, specifically through a form of biophysical violence that operates directly on the biological functions of migrating bodies. The article suggests that the establishment of this violence represents a crisis of modern humanism, which becomes implicated in the toleration of such violence through processes of denial, displacement, rejection and compensation. By focusing in particular on the ways that the treatment of the dead functions as a means of compensating for (yet not redressing) biophysical violence, the article highlights the deficiencies of contemporary practices of identification and burial, and raises questions about the limitations of contestations that emphasise dignity only to perpetuate a hierarchy of 'worthy' and 'unworthy' lives. In so doing, the article concludes by suggesting that contemporary 'migration crises' are better understood in terms of the crisis of modern humanism, grounded in Greco-Roman and Judaeo-Christian traditions, which can no longer deny its implication in practices of governing migration through death.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 80%

Governing migration through death in Europe and the US: Identification, burial and the crisis of modern humanism

Squire

2016

European Journal of International Relations

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“…a matter of life and death ' (2011: 139). Building on this and focusing on the policing of the US and the EU borders respectively, Williams (2015) and I (2015a) have shown the ways humanitarian logics concerned with those at risk have become intertwined with border policing practices more traditionally focused on migrants as a risk, resulting in complementary practices of care and control that expand possibilities for and types of practices at the border. Others have focused on the presence of humanitarian logics in technocratic migration management efforts (Andrijasevic and Walters, 2010) and countersmuggling campaigns (see Garelli and Tazzioli, 2017;McNevin et al, 2016), while the growth of SAR efforts-in the Mediterranean especially-have led to an increasing focus on the work of both state (see Cuttitta, 2017;Little and Vaughan-Williams, 2016;Tazzioli, 2016) and non-state actors (see Stierl, 2016Stierl, , 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Médecins Avec Frontières and the making of a humanitarian borderscape

Pallister‐Wilkins

2017

Environ Plan D

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This article makes the case for the consideration of a humanitarian borderscape. The article analyses the recent humanitarian responses to irregular migration in the Mediterranean, Aegean and Greece and argues that processes of im/mobility produce specific times, spaces and types of care. The argument transcends recent discussions on the shrinking and/or expanding of humanitarian spaces, suggesting instead that a focus on the specific setting of the border and the dynamics of mobility are more useful to understanding humanitarian responses to mobility and immobility. In addition, the article contributes to the emerging literature on borderscapes by offering an interpretive analysis of the creation of a particular humanitarian borderscape made up of specific features and activities, which are undertaken by a multiplicity of actors in multiple places. Building on a consideration of this multiplicity, the article focuses specifically on the work of Médecins Sans Frontières.

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“…This means, that for the vast majority of migrants who come into contact with Border Patrol agents, their health is evaluated and determinations made by individuals with very little medical training. Without medical expertise, whether or not an individual is deemed in need of medical care hinges upon how one's body and bodily context is interpreted when first encountered (Williams, submitted). While more research is needed in order to assess the degree to which the gender and age of unauthorised migrants shapes the way in which they are categorised and processed, research in other contexts suggests that women and children are systematically privileged within the context of humanitarian intervention (see, for example, Carpenter ; Phillips ).…”

Section: The Safety/security Nexus and The Humanitarianisation Of Bormentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Additionally, No More Death's desert aid camp has been surveilled and raided by the Border Patrol, resulting in migrants receiving medical care being removed from the camp and detained pending formal removal. Therefore, the discursive framing of the Border Patrol as a humanitarian agency has gone hand‐in‐hand with on‐the‐ground processes of criminalisation that shrink the spaces of non‐governmental forms of humanitarian assistance (Williams, submitted). The ‘happiness’ migrants show when encountering Border Patrol agents is conditioned by an increasingly militarised border environment where migrants are pushed to take greater and greater risks and left with fewer and fewer options for assistance when migration journeys do not go as planned.…”

Section: Border Governance and The Spatial Politics Of Humanitarianismmentioning

confidence: 99%

The safety/security nexus and the humanitarianisation of border enforcement

Williams

2014

Geographical Journal

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This article contributes to the existing literature on the securitisation and militarisation of national borders through an examination of the humanitarianisation of contemporary border enforcement efforts. Drawing on discourse and policy analysis and ethnographic fieldwork at the southern border of the United States, I argue that humanitarian discourse and rationality have been integrated into the way in which border enforcement efforts are both framed and justified. I term the resulting discursive configuration the safety/security nexus to draw attention to the way in which migrant safety and border security are seemingly reconciled in official state discourse and policy. I then employ a feminist geopolitical framework to unpack the political and ideological significance of this process. In doing so, I argue that the humanitarianisation of border enforcement has three primary effects: it works to counter the challenges of transnational human rights organisations and constituencies that argue that border enforcement policies violate transnational human rights; it justifies the continued militarisation and securitisation of national borders; and it upholds the territorialised logic of sovereignty and rights upon which state efforts to secure, fortify, and regulate transnational mobility are founded. In turn, this article illustrates that understanding contemporary regimes of border governance necessitates attending to the entangled relationship between militarisation, securitisation, and humanitarianism.

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From humanitarian exceptionalism to contingent care: Care and enforcement at the humanitarian border

Cited by 140 publications

References 61 publications

Governing migration through death in Europe and the US: Identification, burial and the crisis of modern humanism

Governing migration through death in Europe and the US: Identification, burial and the crisis of modern humanism

Médecins Avec Frontières and the making of a humanitarian borderscape

The safety/security nexus and the humanitarianisation of border enforcement

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