Security And Migrations In The Mediterranean

The post-Cold War period made a new concept of security imperative: it encompasses environmental, social, economical, political and military issues. Migration as a civilizational phenomenon, albeit transitional, goes across this entire spectrum, particularly in a varied historical milieu as the Euro Mediterranean region is. In turn, reforms and changes need to be carried out by South Mediterranean states and societies, in order to eliminate some of the obstacles to modernization, creating conditions for economic development at home with the help of North Mediterranean countries. Another package of reforms in European countries should empower migrants to adopt a more active citizenship and become more integrated in the societies where they choose to live. For Khachani, one of the editors of the book, a demystification of the question of migratory risk is in order to foster an improved dialogue between south Europe countries and North Africa countries. Sending countries are affected by political crises, socio-economic instability, and illegal migration from North Africa; receiving countries practice discrimination in labour market and social space.

This book focuses on the Mediterranean/MENA migration crisis and explores the human security implications for migrants and refugees in this troubled region. Since the Arab uprisings of 2010/2011, the Middle East and North Africa region has experienced major political transformations and called into question the legitimacy of states in the region. Displaced populations continue to suffer due to the major conflicts in Syria, Iraq and elsewhere, causing fragmentation and dis-integration of communities. Contributors to this volume analyze how and why this crisis differs significantly from previous migration/refugee flows in the region, explain the historical and political antecedents of this crisis which have played a part in its shaping, and explore the relationship between human security and the protection of vulnerable individuals and groups.

The Mediterranean refugee crisis presents states across Europe with a common security challenge: how to intervene responsibly in mitigation and support. This book seeks to advance the UN concept of ‘human security’ in showing how a human security approach to the crisis can effectively conceptualize and respond to the intricacies of the challenges faced. It argues for a politics of solidarity in proffering integrated solutions that call out the failure of top-down, statist security measures. Leading international authors from a range of disciplines document key dimensions of the crisis, including: the legal mechanisms enabling or blocking asylum; the biopolitical systems for managing displaced peoples; and the multiple, overlapping historical precedents of today’s challenges.

The Mediterranean Sea is now the deadliest region in the world for migrants. Although the death toll has been rising for many years, the EU response remains fragmented and short sighted. Politicians frame these migration flows as an unprecedented crisis and emphasize migration control at the EU's external boundaries. In this context, At Europe's Edge investigates why the EU prioritizes the fortification of its external borders; why migrants nevertheless continue to cross the Mediterranean and to die at sea; and how EU member states on the southern periphery respond to their new role as migration gatekeepers. The book addresses these questions by examining the relationship between the EU and Malta, a small state with an outsized role in migration politics as EU policies place it at the crosshairs of migration flows and controls. The chapters combine ethnographic methods with macro-level analyses to weave together policymaker, practitioner, and migrant experiences, and demonstrate how the Mediterranean is an important space for the contested construction of 'Europe'. This book provides rich insight into the unexpected level of influence Malta exerts on EU migration governance, as well as the critical role migrants and their clandestine journeys play in animating EU and Maltese migration policies, driving international relations, and producing Malta's political power. By centring on the margins, the book pushes the boundaries of our knowledge of the global politics of migration, asylum, and border security.

This book examines the management of migratory flows in the Mediterranean within an international security perspective. The intense migratory flows registered during the year 2015 and the tragedies in the Mediterranean Sea have tested the mechanisms of the Union’s immigration and asylum policies and its ability to respond to humanitarian crises. Moreover, these flows of varying intensities and geographies represent a threat to the internal security of the EU and its member states. By using Spain and Italy as case studies, the author theorizes that the EU, given its inability to adopt and implement a common policy to effectively manage migratory flows on its Southern border, uses a deterrence strategy based on minimum common denominators.

Critically analyses how institutional actors interact on the international scene in the control and management of migration in the Mediterranean.

The upheavals of the Arab Spring grabbed the world’s immediate attention, and concern quickly grew over their potential aftermath, with the fear that a ‘tidal wave’ of immigrants and refugees would ‘flood’ European territory. The Arab Spring has highlighted the Mediterranean as a migration region, and new research is now required to bring to light too often neglected mobility patterns and border practices that predate and outlast the tumultuous spring of 2011. The edited volume Space, Mobility and Borders in the Western Mediterranean tackles these contemporary issues related to migration in the Mediterranean region. It brings together high-quality, original academic contributions from both empirical and theoretical points of view by scholars from diverse disciplines, who draw upon Anglophone, Francophone, Spanish and Italian research. It reexamines borders in the light of a now full-blown body of literature that seeks to capture the complexity of their contemporary features beyond their most direct visual enactments, in particular the sweeping deployment of policing devices and operations along the North/South fault line. Another distinctive binding thread in this book is that it emphasizes migrants as active subjects interacting with local events, national policies and the bordering process. Offering an examination of the intricate interplay among the events of the Arab Spring, migration’s multiple types and actors, and the evolving relationship between migration control and borders in the region, this book is an essential resource for students and scholars of migration studies, European Union Studies and Mediterranean Studies.

Seminar paper from the year 2015 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Topic: Peace and Conflict Studies, Security, grade: 1,7, Leiden University (Public Administration), language: English, abstract: The idea of an internal-external security nexus is holding greater sway in both politics and academia. The nexus describes the blurring of two formerly distinct security spheres: internal security (domestic affairs), the domain of police and law enforcement; and external security (foreign affairs), traditionally the domain of diplomats and the military. The internal-external security nexus is widely acknowledged in contemporary European Union (EU) documents, also in respect to the issue of migration. Central components of the EU’s approach to the current influx of irregular migrants are to enhance the capacity of countries at the Union’s periphery in order to prevent illegal migration movement early on, to fight migrant smuggling, and to rigorously return persons who do not qualify for international protection under the 1951 Geneva Convention. However, the EU is externally lacking partners while at the same time appearing to be internally in quarrel over how to respond.