The Autoimmunity of the EU's Deadly B/ordering Regime; Overcoming its Paradoxical Paper, Iron and Camp Borders

Bibliographic Data

ID3948481
AuthorsH Van Houtum (0000-0003-3719-143X, Nijmegen Centre for Border Research, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands, corresponding author), Rodrigo Bueno Lacy (0000-0002-2401-2001, Nijmegen Centre for Border Research, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands)
Year2020
Volume25
Issue3
Pages706-733
Publication date2020-05-26
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueGeopolitics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1465-0045 • E-ISSN: 1557-3028
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/14650045.2020.1728743
OpenAlexW3012237148
LanguageEN
Citations received36
References cited62

In this article we argue that the EU suffers from autoimmunity: a self-harming protection strategy. Drawing on Derrida’s political understanding of autoimmunity, we contend that the root of this malfunction lies in the EU’s own b/ordering and othering policies, which are intended to immunise the foundational ethos of the EU. For this purpose, we dissect the EU border regime into three linked b/ordering mechanisms: the pre-borders of paper documents that regulate from afar the mobility of the people from visa-obliged countries; the actual land borders often consisting of iron gates and fences regulating mobility on the spot; and the post-border in the form of waiting/detention camps that segregate and enclose the undocumented migrants after entry. We make clear how this discriminatory b/ordering and othering regime has led to a recurrent drawing of ever less porous, inhumane and deadlier borders. Such thanatopolitics finds itself at odds with the humanist values that the EU is supposed to uphold, particularly cross-border solidarity, openness, non-discrimination and human rights. We argue that the EU b/ordering regime has turned fear of the non-EUropean into an increasingly unquestioned – even ‘commonsensical’ – anxiety that has become politically profitable to exploit by extreme nationalistic and EUrosceptic parties. The core of the EU’s autoimmunity that we want to expose lies within this irony: in its attempt to protect what it considers meaningful, the EU has unleashed an autoimmune disorder that has turned the EU into its own most formidable threat

Brexit · Democracy · Economics · Ethos · European union · International trade · Law and economics · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Solidarity · Law · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Political Theology and Sovereignty · Turkey's Politics and Society