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Introduction: An Afro-Europeanist Perspective on EurAfrican Borders

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EurAfrican Borders and Migration Management

Part of the book series: Palgrave Series in African Borderlands Studies ((PSABS))

Abstract

The volume analyzes the formation of the Europe’s externalized border management of African migrations, as well as its socio-cultural, political, economic and existential underpinnings and implications. The introduction lays the analytical foundations of this collective endeavor. As it is a process emanating from Europe, scholars have primarily studied the externalization of Europe’s borders from ‘inside out’, that is, as seen in the migrant-receiving context and the external dimensions of the Union’s policy. By contrast, the introduction makes a case for studying the African ramifications of Europe’s southern border, arguing that Europe’s external borders have also become African borders. It uses the term ‘EurAfrican’ to tease out the relational nature of border-making, and the legacy of asymmetric exchanges, encounters and (imperial) imaginations informing in complex ways the current border and migration management strategies in the Euro-African space. In order to analyze EurAfrican borders and migration management, the introduction further argues, an Afro-Europeanist perspective is needed that destabilizes centric epistemologies and strives to reinforce the dialogue between Africanist and Europeanist scholarships on borders.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    No attempt is made here to detail all the steps in the formation of the EU and its external border and immigration policy, a topic discussed by a vast amount of scholarly work (see among others: Bigo and Guild 2005; van Munster 2009; Boswell and Geddes 2011; Feldman 2011).

  2. 2.

    Definition adapted from the Frontex website (http://frontex.europa.eu; accessed 5 October 2015).

  3. 3.

    The most important and widely discussed project in this direction is EUROSUR, whose main infrastructure is based on a network of national coordination centers (NCCs) sharing intelligence to improve ‘situational awareness’ and ‘reaction capability’ at borders (Rijpma and Vermeulen 2015).

  4. 4.

    As some observers have commented, the Agenda is a continuation of the same approach and fails to recognize some of the structural problems in the EU management of migration, such as the link between irregular crossings and the restrictions on legal channels of immigration and asylum in countries of origin and transit (Dimitriadi 2015; Guild et al. 2015).

  5. 5.

    Prof. Flavio Vassallo Paleologo’s blog ‘Diritti e Frontiere’ offers a detailed chronicle of these events (http://dirittiefrontiere.blogspot.de; last accessed 12 November 2015).

  6. 6.

    The summit also aimed to revamp the Khartoum Process, amidst critiques that European support will be channelled to oppressive regimes, such as that of Eritrea, a prominent refugee-producing country. Other contested measures include the hosting of African police officers in its migrant centers in order to facilitate identification and repatriation of fellow nationals.

  7. 7.

    A number of monographs and collective publications discuss EU initiatives in the Mediterranean, some of which place borders and migration management in a wider regional and historical perspective (e.g. Fabre and Cassia 2007; Bechev and Nicolaidis 2009; Walton-Roberts and Hennebry 2013; Rinelli 2015). Scholarship on Saharan and sub-Saharan areas is less comprehensive but nevertheless features a number of significant case studies (e.g. Choplin 2010; Cross 2013; Kabbanji 2013; Pina‐Delgado 2013; Andersson 2014; Ciabarri 2014).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Zentrum Moderner Orient, 33, Kirchweg, 14129, Berlin, Germany

    Paolo Gaibazzi

  2. Dipartimento di Scienze Umane per la Formazione “Riccardo Massa”, Universita’ di Milano-Bicocca, 1, Piazza dell’, 20126, Milan, Italy

    Alice Bellagamba

  3. 59, Baaderstr., 80469, München, Germany

    Stephan Dünnwald

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  1. Paolo Gaibazzi
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  2. Alice Bellagamba
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  3. Stephan Dünnwald
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  1. Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin, Germany

    Paolo Gaibazzi

  2. Bayerischer Flüchtlingsrat, München, Germany

    Stephan Dünnwald

  3. University of Milan-Bicocca, Milan, Italy

    Alice Bellagamba

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Gaibazzi, P., Bellagamba, A., Dünnwald, S. (2017). Introduction: An Afro-Europeanist Perspective on EurAfrican Borders. In: Gaibazzi, P., Dünnwald, S., Bellagamba, A. (eds) EurAfrican Borders and Migration Management. Palgrave Series in African Borderlands Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-94972-4_1

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