Thread by @MauriceStierl

A little 🧵. There are approaches in Migration Studies that (still) believe governments can turn migration on and off like a tap. That they can simply ‘manage’ and neatly regulate migration through policy tools, usually depending on supposed market needs. 1/11

Then there’s the Autonomy of Migration approach that focuses on migrant resistances & subjectivities ‘on the move’. Without downplaying the violence of borders and migration policy, it points us to the material struggles of migration and contestations over human mobility. 2/11

Why is this important? Just look at the case of Italy at the moment. The new government has continued the anti-migration agenda of previous governments but adds more overt racism and ‘border spectacle’ to it, harassing civil rescuers and the like. That’s bad enough. 3/11

The border spectacles of the Meloni government (and other EU governments, also in the UK) are horrible and violent, sure. They are dehumanising, they poison society, generate hate and division. They will also lead to more deaths at sea, no doubt about that. But… 4/11

…these spectacles are also expressions of desperation on the side of the powerful. They see that no matter what they try, ‘unruly’ migration continues, people arrive. For years now, Italy, other EU member states, and the EU as such have invested in the Mediterranean border. 5/11

They have withdrawn EU rescue capacities, harassed civil rescuers, criminalised people on the move. They have built up interception capacities in Libya, collaborated with militias, increased aerial surveillance. They have pushed-back, non-assisted, let drown. 6/11

Still, all of this has failed to achieve what it was meant to. Arrival numbers are higher this year than in the last four, maybe even five. Over 92.000 people arrived to Italy, only a fraction rescued by NGOs. The majority landed autonomously or were rescued close to shore. 7/11

That’s EU migration policy failure in plain sight. That’s trying to turn the ‘migration tap’ off (of course, only for certain migrations!) but not knowing where the tap even is or which way to turn it when found. Utter helplessness. 8/11

This inability to ‘manage’ unauthorised migrations leads to desperation and this breeds even more violent border measures. That’s why solidarity with those on the move is needed, and this is why we need to do what we can to monitor the EU’s (externalised) border practices. 9/11

But in times when the issue of migration becomes so horribly abused in political projects and agendas, it’s important to remember this inability of policy and the material fact of migration: about 2.5 million people reached the EU via the sea over the last ten years. 10/11

They crossed the Mediterranean and made Europe home, despite its borders, despite its hostile environments. It is this material fact of migration that gives me hope in pretty dark times. 11/11