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61. Recurring Border Crises: Permanent Exception in Spain | Récurrence de la crise frontalière : l’exception permanente en Espagne

Author:
Lorenzo Gabrielli
Publication Date:
09-2015
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Cultures & Conflits
Institution:
Cultures & Conflits
Abstract:
This article analyses the “bordering” process in Spain, notably with regard to its relation to ever-reoccurring “migration crises” at certain areas of the border. More specifically, it addresses the ways in which a structural phenomenon such as illegal immigration is politicized and managed as “exceptional” at the Spanish border. To better understand this dynamic, it analyses, on the one hand, the case of Ceuta and Melilla as pivotal sites of the execution of emergency, and, on the other hand, the Canary Islands as a temporary hotspot. Then, it decodes the elements hidden by the Spanish “bordering by crises” approach and its consequences. In particular, it exposes the way in which emergency management produces a de facto state of exception and excess at segments of the border carrying particular symbolic significance. Finally, it addresses the reasons behind this constant emergency management, namely asking whether emergency management provides an escape from the constraints imposed by fundamental and basic rights.
Topic:
Migration, Governance, Border Control, and Borders
Political Geography:
Europe, Spain, and Canary Islands

62. La fabrique politique d’une frontière européenne en Méditerranée. Le « jeu du mistigri » entre les Etats et l’Union (The political fabric of a European frontier in the Mediterranean: The “jeu du mistigri” between the States and the European Union )

Author:
Evelyne Ritaine
Publication Date:
07-2012
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Internationales
Abstract:
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

63. The Reform of Israeli Checkpoints: Outsourcing, Commodification, and Redeployment of the State (La réforme des checkpoints israéliens : externalisation, marchandisation et redéploiement de l'Etat)

Author:
Shira Havkin
Publication Date:
05-2011
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Internationales
Abstract:
Since 2006 the checkpoints along the borders of the West Bank and the Gaza strip have been reorganized and equipped with a new technological platform. They are now managed by private security firms. The instigators of these reforms speak of the "civilianization" of the checkpoints and justify their program on economic, organizational and humanitarian grounds. This detailed study of the concrete means by which the management of the Israeli checkpoints has been outsourced and commodified enables one to establish links between the evolution of Israeli society in terms of the relationship between the State, the market and society and the actual changes in the operation of the occupation. It would appear that this is not a case of the State receding in the face of market forces in a zero sum game. Rather it is the redeployment in a neoliberal context of the State in which it has adopted the uniquely Israeli layering of the public and the private, the national and the international, the State and civil society.
Topic:
Security, Economics, Human Rights, Science and Technology, Occupation, Neoliberalism, and Borders
Political Geography:
Middle East, Israel, Palestine, Gaza, and West Bank