The EC hotspot approach in Greece: creating liminal EU territory

ABSTRACT

This article makes a theoretical argument stemming from our study of the European Commission’s hotspot approach to the management of migrant populations. It draws on empirical research findings from field research which took place on the island of Lesbos and in the city of Athens over the course of 20 months and links these to emerging critical studies of the new EU border regime. No clear definition exists of what comprises a hotspot: instead, the European Commission describes this as an integrated ‘approach’ for the enhancement of the capacity of member states to deal with crises resulting from pressures at the Union’s external borders. Effective in its ambiguity, the ‘hotspot approach’ therefore constitutes, as we argue, an integral part of the Europeanisation and institutionalisation of border management: a powerfully ambiguous dispositif in the EU’s emerging border regime. The article unpacks the notion of the hotspot from a historical perspective and explores the ways in which the hotspot contributes toward the culmination of European integration, paving the way for the flexible governance of mobility and asylum. We situate the hotspot within the historical shift of migration and mobility control from the border to the territory as a whole and conclude by arguing that the hotspot plays the role of a territorial incubator for the liminal EU territory: a paradigmatic space for a new form of governance that further disentangles territory from rights.     

Overcoming the crisis: the changing profile and trajectories of Latvian migrants

Taking mobility between Latvia and Western Europe as an empirical lens, this analysis explores the complex relationship between spatial disparities in earning potential and migration. The very dramatic shifts in the economic and political context against which migration from Latvia has occurred over the period 2004–2012 make it an especially apposite focus of research investigating the link between mobility and labour market circumstances. As an analytical starting point, conventional economic theory broadly explains the movement of workers from lower to higher wage regions. However, this investigation seeks to contribute to understandings of the economic drivers of migration through consideration of the effects of the Great Recession on not only the volume of flows from Latvia to higher wage economies elsewhere in Europe, but also on the characteristics of the migrants themselves and of the processes that produce their mobility. This is undertaken through analysis of a large-scale online survey of Latvian emigrants in five European countries. The findings point towards the Great Recession creating a distinctive cohort of reluctant ‘crisis migrants’. Analytically, the quantitative and qualitative attributes of this new phase of mobility raise a number of conceptually significant questions about understandings of the economy–migration nexus.     

Queer asylum seekers: translating sexuality in Norway

This paper focuses on the burden of proof that queer asylum seekers encounter in Norway and how they tackle it. It is argued that queer asylum seekers translate their sexuality, sometimes strategically, to become readable in the Norwegian context. The act of translation appears to take the form of a ‘rainbow splash’ over the lives of the informants. The recurrence of similar narratives painted with similar colours contributes to a monolithic portrayal of sexualised and racialised asylum seekers, as they are unable to incorporate their own vocabularies during the act of translation. As a result, queer informants contribute to the (re)production of new norms about what it means to be a genuine queer person in need of protection. Therefore, genuineness remains an unattainable ideal for individuals seeking to negotiate their sexuality before, during and after the asylum seeking process.     

Migrant and asylum-seeker children returned to Kosovo and Albania: predictive factors for social–emotional wellbeing after return

The return of rejected asylum seekers has a high priority on the national agendas of European States. In order to make well-informed asylum decisions involving children, knowledge of how asylum-seeker children fare after their return to their countries of origin is needed. This study aims to gain knowledge about the child-rearing environment and the social–emotional wellbeing of migrant children who have returned to Kosovo and Albania after a stay in a European host country. Based on a sample of 106 returned families, the study investigated the predictive factors for children’s social–emotional wellbeing using regression analyses. The findings show that procedural characteristics and ethnicity predict wellbeing, mediated through the quality of the child-rearing environment. The most vulnerable children did not have a stable resident status in the host country, belonged to a minority ethnic group and were older adolescents. The findings indicate that the wellbeing of returned children is not only dependent on conditions after repatriation, but also on the conditions which the families left in the host country. To enable sustainable return in a child’s best interests, the needs of vulnerable families and children should be thoroughly assessed prior to return, and reintegration support should be tailored to their situation.     

The myth of transit: the making of a life by asylum seekers and refugees in Indonesia

An increasing number of migrants are living in a state of indefinite ‘transit’. In this paper, we report on interviews conducted in 2009 with 59 refugees and asylum seekers in Indonesia and describe how these individuals make a life despite their circumstances. While all participants were deeply affected by their position of uncertainty and insecurity, most sought to transcend these conditions and pursue significant life projects such as getting married, having children, becoming part of the local community, and working towards a better future. The current conceptualisation of transit as life in limbo does not wholly account for such permanent, life-changing experiences. We analyse the reasons why the use of the term ‘transit’ persists in international policy settings despite its incongruities, arguing that its ongoing political valence overrides its conceptual flaws.     

Official standards and local knowledge in asylum procedures: decision-making in Germany’s asylum system

ABSTRACT

The role of public officials in asylum procedures is generally a critical concern in scholarly and political debates. Focusing on the asylum system in Germany, this paper seeks to understand asylum procedures with regard to officially claimed standards and the still varying practices of decision-making. It draws on the findings of a qualitative study based on a multi-method design and carried out in the asylum administration. Based on a sociology of knowledge approach, the paper shows that administrative practices are largely a matter of how decision-makers on the ground interpret legal and political regulations. We demonstrate that decision-makers utilise shifting strategies to handle official claims and cope with local settings in their daily work, from defining the applicant to reaching decisions about asylum requests. The administration of asylum applications is discussed as a field that uses and (re-)produces both authorised and informal knowledge. Caseworkers develop a pragmatic knowledge of how to deal with the discrepancies between official standards and local working conditions. However, it is the asylum institution that provides the context in which they navigate the pitfalls and challenges of the asylum procedure.     

Between citizen and bogus asylum seeker: management of migration in the EU through the technology of morality

The article examines the rationality behind the simultaneous enhancement and restriction of mobility of various categories of migrants in the European Union. Through Foucauldian understanding of economic man as a dominant subjectivity in neoliberal risk society, the article shows how the European migration law produces two types of economic men: EU citizens and bogus asylum seekers. Whereas migration of EU citizens is considered not only rational but also moral behaviour, migration of those perceived as bogus asylum seekers is condemned as immoral and irrational. This differing approach towards EU citizens on the one hand, and asylum seekers on the other, constitutes a mode of governing migration in the EU referred in this article as technology of morality.     

Language roulette – the effect of random placement on refugees’ labour market integration

Placement of refugees and subsequent labour market integration within a host country represents a key challenge for policymakers and has emerged as one of the most divisive topics in the public debate. Immigration policy in Switzerland adopts random placement of asylum seekers across its different language regions. Hence, this policy allows to estimate the causal effect of language skills on employment chances, as refugees are exogenously placed across regions where the spoken language could either match or deviate from individual language skills. The results of this ‘natural experiment’ indicate substantially higher probabilities of finding employment when asylum seekers are placed in regions with a lingua franca that matches their individual language skills. Additionally, the findings suggest that language course participation can offset the reduced likelihood of employment in cases of a language mismatch. While random placement of refugees may be desirable for political reasons, it is detrimental to the economic integration process. Thereby, the study draws relevant conclusions for a larger European immigration policy.     

Trading numbers vs. rights? Accounting for liberal and restrictive dynamics in the evolution of asylum and refugee policies

ABSTRACT

The recent evolution of asylum and refugee policies in developed countries has been characterised by two apparently contradictory dynamics. Efforts to limit the number of asylum applicants have coincided with the strengthening of rights for asylum seekers and refugees inside existing protection systems. The ‘numbers vs. rights’ model seeks to explain such counter-veiling trends as a trade-off, as the result of attempts to manage costs within given budget constraints. The model suggests that high numbers of migrants will tend to go hand in hand with attempts to restrict their rights, while low numbers will typically be associated with more rights. This paper provides a critical analysis of the model when applied to asylum and refugee policies and examines its explanatory purchase through the analysis of longitudinal data on visa and asylum statistics. We argue that while the model provides an interesting framework through which to analyse executive decisions in this field, it underestimates the opportunities and constraints provided by the institutional context in which policy choices are made. We argue that ‘over-time’ variation in the influence of non-majoritarian institutions (in Europe, increasingly those operating at the EU level) provide a more compelling account of the dynamics of asylum and refugee policies over time than the political economy predictions of a ‘number vs. rights’ trade-off.     

Italy: the ‘illegality factory’? Theory and practice of refugees’ reception in Sicily

ABSTRACT

The recent surge of migrants crossing the Mediterranean in search of protection has presented a major challenge for the whole European Union. What has been labelled as a ‘refugee crisis’ is first and foremost a crisis of international politics and the result of inadequate response mechanisms at local level. This paper focuses on the case of Sicily, the second main area of arrival, after Greece, when migration to the Mediterranean reached its peak. With a long history of immigration, since 2015 the Italian island has seen the implementation of a new approach based on ‘hotspots’: designated areas for the separation of those deemed as economic migrants from ‘genuine asylum seekers’. In the view of some, this has made Italy into a model of migration management, as opposed to the chaotic situation of the Greek islands. The hotspot approach, however, has been also criticised for being engrained on practices that many deem unlawful, actively producing discrimination and condemning many migrants to an illegal status on the Italian soil. Informed by findings from an international research project (EVI-MED), this paper examines this complex scenario, exploring the social, legal and human implications of the refugees’ reception system in Italy.     

‘Refugees welcome?’ The interplay between perceived threats and general concerns on the acceptance of refugees – a factorial survey approach in Germany

The on-going migration of refugees to Europe has fuelled debates about the indigence of refugees and the perceived legitimacy of individual claims for asylum in different receptive countries. With a substantial body of research that has investigated the antecedents of attitudes towards immigrants, evidence on whether those underlying assumptions hold true for refugees as well remains scarce. The paper applies the framework of Intergroup Threat Theory to arrive at competing hypotheses with regard to the acceptance levels of refugees. We use pooled data from two probabilistic samples drawn in the German city of Dresden and apply a confounded factorial survey design to extend previous research on attitudes towards refugees. We find that natives perceive political persecution and war as justified reasons for seeking asylum in Germany, while socio-demographic characteristics of respondents and refugees are of minor importance. Foremost, the individual level of respondent’s fear of crime represents a crucial moderator of the perception of refugees as threatening.     

Uncertain lives: migration,the border and neoliberalism in Australia

Over the last twenty years or so there has been a greatly increased anxiety in Australia over those people now often identified as asylum seekers. In this article I argue that this change of attitude is connected with the ongoing reconstruction of Australia as a neoliberal state. I link the importance of the border of the nation-state with the development of capitalism and go on to argue that there is a direct relation between the assumptions of neoliberalism and Giorgio Agamben's theorization of the state of exception. With this argument I suggest that the state of exception is fundamentally raced. I discuss the Australian relationship between migrants, race and capitalism, which historically worked in terms of the White Australia policy, and think about how asylum seekers are understood to threaten the racialized, neoliberal order of Australian capitalism.     

Different narratives,one area without internal frontiers: why EU institutions cannot agree on the refugee crisis

ABSTRACT

This article contextualizes contemporary institutional responses of the European Union (EU) to the refugee crisis within the historical setting in which EU migration and asylum policies emerged – namely during the implementation of the border-free Schengen Area (1984–1995). Using the analytical framework of ‘policy narratives’, it argues that EU institutions have used the creation of the ‘area without internal frontiers’ to build coherent narratives about the nature and scope of EU action and of their own role in it. Such narratives became locked into the institutional discourse and influenced the subsequent evolution of EU politics on the topic.     

Informal practices and the street-level construction of migrant deportability: Chechen refugees and local authorities in Polish accommodation centres for asylum seekers

In a world of unprecedented mobility, an increasing number of migrants are confronted with policies that challenge their belonging and produce subordinate migrant inclusion. This article explores how the deportation regime saturated daily life in accommodation centres for asylum seekers in Eastern Poland, which acted as spaces of deportability that facilitated the deterritorialisation of European political space. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork among Chechen refugees and local authorities, I argue that the street-level construction of deportability depends on an exchange between formal and informal practices and policies. Ethnographic data indicate that in the Polish centres, the deportation regime took both bureaucratic and non-bureaucratic forms. As street-level bureaucrats carried out their work duties in a way that reduced the scope of their power, the deportation regime relied on refugees to reproduce its disciplinary aspect.     

‘Surrounded with so much uncertainty’: asylum seekers and manufactured precarity in Australia

In Australia, nearly 30,000 asylum seekers have the legal right to work, but their temporary and conditional migration status exposes them to work-related precarity. This article draws on a small qualitative study that examined asylum seekers’ experiences of seeking work and achieving economic security. Over an 18-month period, 29 semi-structured interviews with asylum seekers who had work rights in Australia were conducted. It provides insights into how restrictive immigration policies manufacture precarity through short-term, conditional visas, resulting in employer risk aversion, segmentation into insecure work, and in-work instability and mistreatment. Asylum seekers manage their experiences and feelings of pervasive insecurity through individual coping and survival strategies.     

Un/Free mobility: Roma migrants in the European Union

ABSTRACT

This special issue showcases work that theorises and critiques the political, economic, legal, and socio-historical (‘ethnic’ or ‘cultural’) subordination of the European Roma (so-called ‘Gypsies’), from the specific critical vantage point of Roma migrants living and working within and across the space of the European Union (EU). Enabled primarily through ethnographic research with diverse Roma communities across the heterogeneous geography of ‘Europe’, the contributions to this collection are likewise concerned with the larger politics of mobility as a constitutive feature of the sociopolitical formation of the EU. Foregrounding the experiences and perspectives of Roma living and working outside of their nation-states of ‘origin’ or ostensible citizenship, we seek to elucidate wider inequalities and hierarchies at stake in the ongoing (re-)racialisation of Roma migrants, in particular, and imposed upon migrants, generally. Thus, this special issue situates Roma mobility as a critical vantage point for migration studies in Europe. Furthermore, this volume shifts the focus conventionally directed at the academic objectification of ‘the Roma’ as such, and instead seeks to foreground and underscore questions about ‘Europe’, ‘European’-ness, and EU-ropean citizenship that come into sharper focus through the critical lens of Roma racialisation, marginalisation, securitisation, and criminalisation, and the dynamics of Roma mobility within and across the space of ‘Europe’. In this way, this collection contributes new research and expands critical interdisciplinary dialogue at the intersections of Romani studies, ethnic and racial studies, migration studies, political and urban geography, social anthropology, development studies, postcolonial studies, and European studies.     

Europe's failed ‘fight’ against irregular migration: ethnographic notes on a counterproductive industry

Despite Europe's mass investments in advanced border controls, people keep arriving along the continent's shores under desperate circumstances. European attempts to ‘secure’ or ‘protect’ the borders have quite clearly failed, as politicians themselves increasingly recognise – yet more of the same response is again rolled out in response to the escalating ‘refugee crisis’. Amid the deadlock, this article argues that we need to grasp the mechanics and logics of the European ‘border security model’ in order to open up for a change of course. Through ethnographic examples from the Spanish-African borders, the article shows how the striving for border security under a prevailing emergency frame has generated absurd incentives, negative path dependencies and devastating consequences. At Europe's frontiers, an industry of border controls has emerged, involving European defence contractors, member state security forces and their African counterparts, as well as a range of non-security actors. Whenever another ‘border crisis’ occurs, this industry grows again, feeding on its own apparent ‘failures’. This vicious cycle may be broken, the article concludes, once policy-makers start curtailing the economies of border security underpinning it – yet the challenges are formidable as the industry retrenches along with the political response to the drama it has itself produced.     

The politics of evidence-based policy in Europe’s ‘migration crisis’

ABSTRACT

Increased migration across the Mediterranean to Europe during 2015 was associated with growing interest in generating new research evidence to assist policymakers in understanding the complexities of migration and improve policy responses. In the UK, this was reflected in funding by the Economic and Social Research Council for a Mediterranean Migration Research Programme. Drawing on evidence from the programme, this volume explores the nature of Europe’s ‘migration crisis’ and the extent to which the development of new migration management policies was grounded in evidence about the causes, drivers and consequences of migration to Europe. The authors conclude that there is a substantial ‘gap’ between the now significant body of evidence examining migration processes and European Union policy responses. This gap is attributed to three main factors: the long-standing ‘paradigm war’ in social research between positivist, interpretivist and critical approaches which means that what counts as ‘evidence’ is contested; competing knowledge claims associated with research and other forms of evidence used to construct and/or support policy narratives; and, perhaps most importantly, the politics of policymaking, which has resulted in policies based on underlying assumptions and vested interests rather than research evidence, even where this evidence is funded directly by European governments.     

New neighbours in a time of change: local pragmatics and the perception of asylum centres in rural Denmark

Asylum centres in rural areas are an increasingly common mode of managing asylum seekers in Denmark. These centres’ arrival occurs in a context of protracted rural crisis, as demographic and economic changes reshape local communities. Yet research on these processes remains scarce, issues concerning asylum and the rural being seldom conceived together. At the same time, majority population attitudes towards refugees are often depicted through the opposed poles of xenophobia and humanitarianism. Based on ethnographic research, this article examines the meanings and consequences of asylum centres for rural Danish communities. Drawing on anthropological theory on the mutuality of social life we argue that asylum centres become embedded in pre-existing relations within local communities and between them and the centralising Danish welfare state. Local communities sometimes were initially sceptical about asylum centres, but they generally developed a collective, pragmatic approach towards them in contrast to the divided, ideological cast of national debates on asylum. By shifting focus from the national to the local, from the urban to the rural, and from the migrants to the neighbouring communities, a less polarising and more everyday mode of relating to the arrival of asylum seekers becomes visible.     

The anti-policy of European anti-smuggling as a site of contestation in the Mediterranean migration ‘crisis’

ABSTRACT

This article analyses the European anti-smuggling agenda as an anti-policy that derives legitimacy from fighting ‘bad things’, in terms that mask political disagreement. By juxtaposing the agenda to the experiences and understandings of those whom such measures affect most directly – people migrating without authorisation to the EU – it uncovers the productivity of anti-smuggling and the political contestations surrounding it. Based on a qualitative analysis of 257 interviews carried out with 271 people who travelled – or sought to travel – across the Mediterranean Sea by boat using smuggling networks, the article highlights the complicity of governing authorities and officials with smuggling networks and practices, as well as the diversity and ambivalences of relationships between smugglers and the smuggled. Going further, the article points to the specific ways in which anti-smuggling is contested by those on the move, which expose a central political disagreement over the legitimacy of mobility across borders.