Book

Europe's border crisis : biopolitical security and beyond

Vaughan-Williams, Nick

Overview

The European Union (EU) Commission champions a 'migrant-centred' approach to border security and 'irregular' migration management: it claims not only to observe human rights, but also to use surveillance to enhance the humanitarian protection of 'endangered' lives on land and at sea. Yet research presented by Non-Governmental Organizations and 'irregular' migrants' own testimonies reveal systemic border violence, dehumanization in spaces of detention, and exposure to death via abandonment in hostile environments. This book turns to conceptual resources found in biopolitical theory in order to move diagnoses of Europe's border crisis beyond that of a 'gap' between the policy 'rhetoric' of humanitarianism and the 'reality' of 'irregular' migrants' embodied experiences. It argues that both 'positive' and 'negative' dimensions of EU border security are symptomatic of tensions within biopolitical techniques of government and what Roberto Esposito refers to as the paradigm of immunization. While bordering practices are designed to play a defensive role they contain the potential for excessive and often lethal security mechanisms that end up threatening the very values and lives they purport to protect. Each chapter draws on a different biopolitical key to identify and interrogate diverse technologies of power at a range of border sites. Must border security always result in dehumanization and death? Are humanitarian discourses sufficient for critiquing contemporary forms of border violence? Is a more affirmative approach to border politics possible? 'Europe's border crisis' addresses these pressing questions and advances new research agendas for critical border and migration studies beyond existing debates about 'control' versus 'escape'.

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Subject: Border security European Union countries. / Boundaries Political aspects European Union countries. / Biopolitics European Union countries. / Sécurité des frontières Pays de l'Union européenne. / Frontières Aspect politique Pays de l'Union européenne. / Biopolitique Pays de l'Union européenne. / European Union countries Emigration and immigration Government policy. / Pays de l'Union européenne Émigration et immigration.
• ISBN: 9780198747024, 0198747020

Item info:

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Holdings :

Call Number	Copies	Material	Location
JV7590.V38 2015	1	BOOK	AUTOSTORE