This paper aims to understand how media outlets, political actors and activist groups have come to interpret the dead of the Lampedusa shipwreck on the 3rd of October in 2013. Moreover, it defends the hypothesis that these mediations work around and play with the invisibility/visibility of the dead. Through a genealogy of the various interpretations that were made, this paper shows how the dead were first represented as bodies, to be treated materially and symbolically; secondly, as public policy issues, caught up in political controversies; and finally, as people with fundamental rights, to be respected and remembered.
Topic:
Migration, Refugees, Immigrants, and Humanitarian Crisis
Paradoxe : dans notre univers de mobilité généralisée, l'érection de murs de séparation est devenue une pratique fréquent, visant à empêcher la circulation des personnes. La multiplication de ces murs de séparation ne peut que laisser perplexe dans un monde défini comme un espace de flux et de risques globaux ; dans un monde qui est aussi une société de contrôle, dominée par la logique des nouvelles technologies d'information, où « ce qui compte n'est pas la barrière, mais l'ordinateur qui repère la position de chacun, licite ou illicite, et opère une modulation universelle ».
The political determination of the Mediterranean border of the European Union seen from the perspective of the Southern European countries (Spain, Italy, Greece, Malta) illustrates the symbolic and political importance for these nations of maintaining control of the border. It has a significant impact on the types of controls that are enacted and the interplay between national and European decisions. Placing this question on the agenda brings to light a Mediterranean perspective regarding the exterior borders of the European Union that is largely determined by the conditions of integration of the different countries into the Schengen area. This new border regime is the result of complex political games and is seen as a security issue. The actual set of controls seems to be less planned and legal-rational than simply erratic and the result of tensions between internal tactics, nation state strategies and attempts at bringing within the ring of EU.
Topic:
Security, Migration, European Union, Regulation, Borders, and State
Political Geography:
Greece, Balkans, Spain, North Africa, Italy, Western Europe, Mediterranean, European Union, and Malta