Political-Humanitarian Borderwork on the Southern European Border

This book focuses on the role mainstream humanitarian organizations have in the functioning of the border management system on the southern European border (i.e. Italy). In particular, the author analyses the mainstream humanitarian organizations and NGOs (i.e. Red Cross, the UNHCR, Medici per I Diritti Umani MEDU, Terre des Hommes and Oxfam) and their role within and beyond the implementation of the so-called 'hotspot approach' in Sicily. This work suggests that a vision of humanitarian action as just anti-political and complicit with migration control can be questioned. This book suggests that a) mainstream organizations have been able to politicize their positioning and actions vis-à-vis authorities when migration policies have been tightened; b) mainstream organizations' political borderwork has helped to promote incremental change in the status quo rather than a radical one. Finally, this book suggests that the discourses and practices of mainstream and grassroots actors seems to be characterized by similar contradictions.

Explores the political dimension of the action of mainstream humanitarian actors on Europe's southern border Aims to dig deeper into our understanding of the forms and limits of the humanitarian action at the border Unpacks the kind of change and politicization to which humanitarian action at the border contributes

Autorentext

Roberto Calarco is Doctor of Sociology at the Sorbonne Paris Nord University, France, and Doctor of Sociology and Methodology of Social Research at the University of Milan, Italy.

Inhalt
Chapter 1. Introduction.- Chapter 2. The Italian Border Management Policy Strategies.-Chapter 3. Humanitarianism, (De)politicization and Migration Control.- Chapter 4. The Implementation of the Hotspot Approach in Italy.- Chapter 5. Mainstream Humanitarian Organizations Politicizing the Increasingly Restrictive Border Management System.- Chapter 6. Mainstream Humanitarian Organizations Depoliticizing the Border Management System.- Chapter 7. Conclusion.