This volume traces the African ramifications of Europe’s southern border. While the Mediterranean Sea has become the main stage for the current play and tragedy between European borders and African migrants, Europe’s southern border has also been “offshored” to Africa, mainly through cooperation agreements with countries of transit and origin. By bringing into conversation case studies from different countries and disciplines, this volume seeks to open a window on the backstage of this externalization of borders. It casts light on the sites – from consulates to open seas and deserts – in which Europe’s southern border is made and unmade as an African reality, yielding what the editors call "EurAfrican borders." It further describes the multiple actors – state agents, migrants, smugglers, activists, etc. – that variously imagine, construct, cross or contest these borders, and situates their encounters within the history of uneven exchanges between Africa and Europe.
This volume traces the African ramifications of Europe’s southern border. While the Mediterranean Sea has become the main stage for the current play and tragedy between European borders and African migrants, Europe’s southern border has also been “offshored” to Africa, mainly through cooperation agreements with countries of transit and origin. By bringing into conversation case studies from different countries and disciplines, this volume seeks to open a window on the backstage of this externalization of borders. It casts light on the sites – from consulates to open seas and deserts – in which Europe’s southern border is made and unmade as an African reality, yielding what the editors call "EurAfrican borders." It further describes the multiple actors – state agents, migrants, smugglers, activists, etc. – that variously imagine, construct, cross or contest these borders, and situates their encounters within the history of uneven exchanges between Africa and Europe.
Bridges the gap between African and European borderlands research through an interdisciplinary examination of the border dynamics between these continents Considers the spatial dimensions of the African and European border, the actors that create the borders, and the social and existential implications of these borders on the lives of Africans Presents in-depth ethnographic research as well as extensive theoretical engagement from leading borderlands scholars
Paolo Gaibazzi
migration borders geography borderlands migrants
“The book is very helpful in setting out the major issues of the externalization of the European border management system in Africa. … EurAfrican Borders and Migration Management is a non-technical read that would appeal to both experts in migration and borderlands studies and the general reader interested in understanding the dynamics of migration from sub-Saharan Africa to Europe and Europe’s attempts in managing it.” (Allwell O. Akhigbe, H-Net Reviews Humanities and Social Sciences, January, 2020)