The small refugee boat and the European Border Surveillance System, Eurosur, are not only opponents in the cat and mouse game along the EU border. They are also mediators to its very existence.
The external border of the EU remains under permanent construction. Sabrina Ellebrecht engages with two of its primary building sites – the European Border Surveillance System (Eurosur) and the Refugee Boat. She analyzes how the function and quality of the EU's current political border is crafted, shaped, produced and eventually stabilized through these two mediators. Eurosur and the Refugee Boat mediate a level of Europeanization which has hitherto – and would otherwise have – been impossible. While Eurosur mobilizes the limits of border policing in various ways, the Refugee Boat functions as the vacillating European Other to legitimize both control and humanitarian interventions. The study shows the specific, if not constitutive, ambivalences of EU border policies, and explores the emergence of viapolitics.
Sabrina Ellebrecht
Sabrina Ellebrecht (Dr. phil.), geb. 1980, ist Soziologin und Senior Researcher am Max-Planck-Institut zur Erforschung von Kriminalität, Sicherheit und Recht. Sie ist auch Gastwissenschaftlerin am Centre for Security and Society der Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, wo sie von 2019 bis 2024 für das Projekt »ZuRecht« verantwortlich war. Ihre Forschungsinteressen liegen in der politischen Soziologie, der Sicherheits-, Polizei- und Diskriminierungsforschung.
Border Studies Border Studies EU Border and Immigration Policies EU Border and Immigration Policies Border Surveillance and Control Border Surveillance and Control Schengen Process Schengen Process Mediterranean Sea Mediterranean Sea Sailing Tall Ship Sailing Tall Ship Refugees Refugees Refugee Boat
Besprochen in:InfoDienst Migration, 3 (2020)
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