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

Abstract

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.

Border Deaths

“…As have argued, the paucity of proper documentation of deaths during migration has led to a lack of accountability on behalf of politicians. The more than 30,000 fatalities documented by the International Organization for Migration (IOM 2018) in the last five years -likely a gross undercount of the true number -testify to the failure of border management regimes worldwide, a 'governing of migration through death' (Squire 2017).…”

Toward Fortress Capitalism: The Restrictive Transformation of Migration and Border Regimes as a Reaction to the Capitalist Multicrisis

“…Since the year 1996 at least 75,000 people have died (Migrationdataportal.org ). Crucially, these numbers “represent only a minimum estimate because the majority of migrant deaths around the world go unrecorded.” (Migrationdataportal.org ,b) Some scholars describe this acceptance of death as an instance of what Michel Foucault has called “necropolitics”: “the biopolitics of migrant control has given way to necropolitical brutality” (Davies, Isakjee, and Dhesi :1264; see Squire ).…”

Commemorating the deadly other side of externalized borders through “migrant-martyrs”, sacrifices and politizations of (irregular) migration on the international migrants' day in Mali

“…The article is set within the debate on the politization of the "backstage" of externalization reflecting "the current play and tragedy between borders and migrants" in the Mediterranean from "behind the scenes" (Gaibazzi, Bellagamba, & Dünnwald, 2017, p. 4) by highlighting the actors, their discourses and actions from there. Focusing on the 'deadly other side' of externalized borders it is thus set within a debate on the practices of "governing migration through death" (Squire, 2016; see Albahari, 2015) which builds on Foucault's work on "biopolitics", what Mbembe calls "necropolitics" (Mbembe & Meintjes, 2003) and Agamben's concept of "bare life" (Agamben, 1998). Such is encountered, as the article shows, by mobilization of the different actors, not least through a "politics of mourning" (Alonso & Nienass, 2016;Rygiel, 2016;von Bieberstein & Evren, 2016).…”