Abstract
Europe rushes to externalize its migration management. To ease the migratory pressure on European borders, the European Union and its single members seek to integrate countries of origin and transit into an extended concept of border and migration control. However, the diplomatic negotiations and the efforts to establish migration control in Africa confront Europeans not only with diverging geostrategic interests, but also with colonial legacies, strong cultures of migration and everyday strategies to undermine foreign domination. On different levels, these forces mold the places where Europe bundles its efforts to establish new rules of migration. The Malian Capital Bamako is an example how, despite all imbalances of power, African societies deal with the renewed European interest in confining their freedom of movement. The chapter explores how France, the former colonial power, but also Spain and the European Commission promote a number of activities in Bamako, and how with each single step they have to deal with the particularities of the place and the political cultures that mold it.
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Notes
- 1.
This contribution is based on repeated ethnographic fieldwork in Bamako and Mali during the years 2006–2011.
- 2.
- 3.
See Bensâad (2008) and Dembele (2010).
- 4.
I am aware that I am simplifying the situation, blurring cultural, social and linguistic differences. Nonetheless, it seems to be within the framework of Mali being a multi-ethnic state and Bamako being an urban space that differences are played down. Among the many strangers at Bamako the distinction between West Africans, linked more closely through joking relationships and a (partly) shared religion, and Central Africans can be relevant in some circumstances, as it is giving access to different social networks and forums.
- 5.
Personal communication Mahamadou Keita, AME 11.10.2011.
- 6.
RAVEC (Recensement Administratif à Vocation d’État Civil) means the attempt to cover the whole Malian population, migrants included, with biometrical screening. The ambitious measure targets some weak points in civil administration, among them the easy access to Malian passports for non-Malian Africans. Most Malians were in favor of the program, as it was seen as a big step toward a more modern Mali, though Linares (2009, p. 35) was told that some family heads hid their young boys in order not to hamper future migration plans.
- 7.
The GAM had been reconfirmed and extended to the Global Approach to Migration and Mobility in 2011, see European Commission (2011).
- 8.
Calebasse here means scull, or head, and Bambara designates not the lingua franca of Mali, but rather the specific culture.
- 9.
Aminata Traoré for instance stated, when asked why Mali agreed to the CIGEM, that ‘unfortunately, for the Malian government “a bad project is more valuable than no project at all”’ (‘pour l’Etat malien malheureusement “un mauvais projet vaut mieux que pas de projet du tout”’) (cited in Herrou 2008).
- 10.
Readmission, that is, the readmission of own nationals and third country nationals, is one of the central features of migration management, as it is precondition for the effective removal of unwanted immigrants.
- 11.
- 12.
Interview with Alexander Kapirovsky, Bamako, 18 November 2010.
- 13.
Information provided by Ousmane Diarra, AME, Bamako, November 2010.
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Dünnwald, S. (2017). Bamako, Outpost of the European Border Regime?. 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_4
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