Navigating the Central Mediterranean in a Time of ‘Crisis’: Disentangling Migration Governance and Migrant Journeys

Abstract

From 2014 to the end of 2016, over 450,000 people crossed from North Africa towards Italy via the Central Mediterranean route. The number of people recorded as dead or missing in the same stretch of water steadily increased too. Crisis-talk in the region led to renewed efforts by the European Union and its Member States to govern and control migration to and across the Central Mediterranean. Against this backdrop, this article draws upon over 200 interviews with newly arrived boat migrants and 55 stakeholders in Italy to reveal a fundamental disjuncture between the drivers and dynamics of migration and the assumptions underpinning policy development, the saliency of which becomes apparent at three crucial junctions: along migration land routes; at sea; and upon arrival in Europe. In doing so, the article questions current ways of understanding journeys in research and policy, and highlights their consequences for the governance of migration.

Keywords

borders Europe governance Mediterranean migration refugee crisis

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Allen

Blinder

(2013) Migration in the news: Portrayals of immigrants, migrants, asylum seekers and refugees in national British newspapers, 2010 to 2012. Oxford: Migration Observatory.

Altai Consulting (2015) Migration trends across the Mediterranean: Connecting the dots. Cairo: IOM MENA Regional Office.

Ansa (2015) One million poised to leave from Libya, 6 March. Available at: http://www.ansa.it/english/news/politics/2015/03/06/one-million-poised-to-leave-from-libya_042f7c0d-1d08-4aa9-b310-6c19bf690034.html (accessed 1 June 2017).

BenEzer

Zetter

(2015) Searching for directions: Conceptual and methodological challenges in researching refugee journeys. Journal of Refugee Studies 28(3): 297–318.

Braudel

(1949) La Méditerranée et le monde méditerranéen à l’époque de Philippe II. Paris: Armand Colin.

Bredeloup

(2012) Sahara transit: Times, spaces, people. Population, Space and Place 18: 457–467.

Carling

(2017) Refugees are also migrants: All migrants matter. Blogpost. Oxford: Border Criminologies. Available at: https://jorgencarling.org/2015/09/03/refugees-are-also-migrants-and-all-migrants-matter/ (accessed 1 June 2017).

Castles

(2004) Why migration policies fail. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 27(2): 205–227.

Collier

(2014) Illegal migration to Europe: What should be done? Social Europe. Available at: https://www.socialeurope.eu/2014/09/illegal-migration/ (accessed 19 April 2017).

10.

Collyer

De Haas

(2012) Developing dynamic categorisations of transit migration. Population, Space and Place 18: 468–481.

11.

Crawley

Duvell

Jones

et al . (2017) Unravelling Europe’s Migration ‘Crisis’: Journeys over Land and Sea. Bristol: Policy Press.

12.

De Haas

(2006) Trans-Saharan migration to North Africa and the EU: Historical roots and current trends. Migration Policy Institute. Available at: http://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/trans-saharan-migration-north-africa-and-eu-historical-roots-and-current-trends (accessed 19 April 2017).

13.

De Haas

Sigona

(2012) Migration and revolution. Forced Migration Review 39: 4–5.

14.

Del Biaggio

(2015) Du fantasme du million de personnes prêtes à s’embarquer pour l’Europe. Asile.ch. Available at: https://asile.ch/2015/06/21/decryptage-du-fantasme-du-million-de-personnes-pretes-a-sembarquer-pour-leurope/.

15.

European Commission (2011) COM(2011) 743 final: The global approach to migration and mobility. Brussels: European Commission.

16.

European Commission (2012) Responding to the Arab Spring and rising populism: The challenges of building a European migration and asylum policy. Brussels: European Commission. Available at: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_SPEECH-12-312_en.htm?locale=en (accessed 1 June 2017).

17.

European Commission (2016) Speaking points of President Juncker – press conference on Western Balkans route leaders’ meeting. Brussels: European Commission. Available at: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_SPEECH-15-5905_en.htm (accessed 1 June 2017).

18.

European Council (2015) Special meeting of the European Council, 23 April 2015 – statement. Brussels: European Council. Available at: http://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2015/04/23-special-euco-statement/ (accessed 1 June 2017).

19.

Fargues

Bonfanti

(2014) When the best option is a leaky boat: Why migrants risk their lives crossing the Mediterranean and what Europe is doing about it. Florence: Migration Policy Centre.

20.

Fassman

Sievers

(2014) Introduction. In: Bommes

Fassman

Sievers

(eds) Migration from the Middle East and North Africa to Europe. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press.

21.

Flahaux

M-L

De Haas

(2015) African migration: Exploring the role of development and states. Oxford: IMI Working Paper Series, 105.

22.

Frontex (2015) Quarterly risk assessment report. Warsaw: Frontex.

23.

Gabrielli

(2016) Multilevel inter-regional governance of mobility between Africa and Europe. Barcelona: UPF Gritim Working Papers.

24.

Hagen-Zanker

Mallett

(2016) Journeys to Europe: The role of policy in migrant decision-making. Insights report. London: ODI.

25.

Inda

(2005) Targeting Immigrants: Government, Technology, and Ethics. London: Wiley Blackwell.

26.

IOM (2011) Glossary on migration. Geneva: IOM.

27.

Long

(2013) When refugees stopped being migrants: Movement, labour and humanitarian protection. Migration Studies 1(1): 4–26.

28.

McMahon

(2012) North African migration and Europe’s contextual Mediterranean border in light of the Lampedusa migrant crisis of 2011. Florence: European University Institute Working Papers.

29.

McMahon

Malcolm

(2015) Humanitarian emergency is being used to justify dangerous measures to stop migration. The Conversation. Available at: https://theconversation.com/humanitarian-emergency-is-being-used-to-justify-dangerous-measures-to-stop-migration-40734 (accessed 20 January 2018).

30.

McMahon

Sigona

(2016) Boat migration across the Central Mediterranean: Drivers, experiences and responses. MEDMIG Research Brief 3. Available at: http://www.medmig.info/research-brief-03-boat-migration-across-the-central-Mediterranean.pdf (accessed 1 September 2017).

31.

Mainwaring

Brigden

(2016) Beyond the border: Clandestine journeys. Geopolitics 21(2): 243–262.

32.

Mallett

Hagen-Zanker

Majidi

et al . (2017) Journeys on hold: How policy influences the migration decisions of Eritreans in Ethiopia. London: ODI.

33.

MHUB (2016) Conditions and risks of mixed migration in North East Africa. North Africa Mixed Migration Task Force. Available at: http://www.mixedmigrationhub.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Conditions-and-Risks-in-Mixed-Migration-in-North-East-Africa.pdf.

34.

Mountz

Hiemstra

(2014) Chaos and crisis: Dissecting the spatiotemporal logics of contemporary migrations and state practices. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 104(2): 382–390.

35.

MPC (2013) MPC-migration profile: Libya. Florence: Migration Policy Centre. Available at: http://www.migrationpolicycentre.eu/docs/migration_profiles/Libya.pdf (accessed 19 April 2017).

36.

OHCHR (no date) Convention relating to the status of refugees. Available at: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/StatusOfRefugees.aspx (accessed 2 June 2017).

37.

Reichel

Morales

(2017) Surveying immigrants without sampling frames – evaluating the success of alternative field methods. Comparative Migration Studies 5: 1.

38.

Reuters (2015) Migranti, Alfano: rimpatriare quelli economici, Ue partecipi economicamente a ‘hotspot’. Reuters Italia. Available at: http://it.reuters.com/article/topNews/idITKBN0OX1NI20150617 (accessed 28 November 2016).

39.

Schapendonk

(2015) What if networks move? Dynamic social networking in the context of African migration to Europe. Population, Space and Place 21: 809–819.

40.

Sigona

(2017a) The contested politics of naming in Europe’s ‘refugee crisis’. Ethnic and Racial Studies 41(3): 456–460.

41.

Sigona

(2017b) The 1 million migrants you haven’t seen. Postcard from. Available at: https://nandosigona.info/2017/04/24/the-1-million-migrants-you-havent-seen/ (accessed 20 January 2018).

42.

Squire

Dimitriadi

Perkowski

et al . (2017) Crossing the Mediterranean Sea by boat: Mapping and documenting migratory journeys and experiences. Final project report. Available at: www.warwick.ac.uk/crossingthemed (accessed 1 August 2017).

43.

Tazzioli

(2016) Border displacements: Challenging the politics of rescue between Mare Nostrum and Triton. Migration Studies 4(1): 1–19.

44.

Toaldo

(2015) Libya’s migrant smuggling highway: Lessons for Europe. London: European Council on Foreign Relations.

45.

UNHCR (2015) The sea route to Europe: The Mediterranean passage in the age of refugees. Geneva: UNHCR.

46.

Van Der Velde

Van Naerssen

(2011) People, borders, trajectories: An approach to cross-border mobility and immobility in and to the European Union. Area 43(2): 218–224.

47.

Zetter

(1991) Labelling refugees: Forming and transforming a bureaucratic identity. Journal of Refugee Studies 4(1): 39–62.

48.

Zetter

(2007) More labels, fewer refugees: Remaking the refugee label in an era of globalisation. Journal of Refugee Studies 20(2): 172–192.