Biopolitical Borders and the State of Exception in the European Migration ‘Crisis’

Datos Bibliográficos

ID12199666
AutoresDaria Davitti (0000-0002-0474-3798, Lund University, autor de correspondencia)
Año2018
Volumen29
Número4
Páginas1173-1196
Fecha de publicación2018-10-05
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaEuropean Journal of International Law (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0938-5428 • E-ISSN: 1464-3596
EditorialOxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1093/ejil/chy065
OpenAlexW2914408172
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas36
Referencias citadas1

This article examines the current European refugee ‘crisis’ by challenging, from a theoretical perspective, the way in which the European Union (EU) has used the increased number of deaths in the Mediterranean as an opportunity to frame recent migration flows as an emergency that, by definition, can only be addressed through the adoption of exceptional measures. The analysis engages with the work of Giorgio Agamben on biopolitics and state of exception to illustrate, first, the need to rethink the way in which borders are defined and used (for example, externalized) within the context of the European refugee ‘crisis’. Second, Agamben’s work is useful to understand what moves the externalization and privatization of migration, and to ascertain how international law has enabled the emergence of this ‘crisis’ framing, whilst, at the same time, partly losing its ability to challenge EU policies. The article argues that the posture of humanitarianism adopted by the EU masks the fact that the appalling situation in which refugees are abandoned is not accidental but, rather, inherent to the enhanced measures adopted by the EU and its member states as part of the European Agenda on Migration

Biopower · Context (archaeology · Economics · European union · Externalization · Framing (construction · International trade · Member state · Member states · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Refugee · Refugee crisis · Sociology · State (computer science · State of exception · Global Security and Public Health · History · Law · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Political Theology and Sovereignty