![Sample our Area Studies journals, sign in here to start your access, latest two full volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5922/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Area-Studies.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
During the last two decades, cooperation between Italy, the EU and Libya on migration management has been intended to establish a “cycle of containment” aimed at the externalisation and securitisation of the southern European border on Libyan soil. The escalation of the civil war in Libya since 2014 was one of the main reasons for the European attempt to replicate the international policies of containment southwards in Africa and to address them towards countries that were reputed as major producers of migrants, as in the case of the Horn of Africa. By comparing and discussing migrants’ life-stories collected in Tripolitania and Southern Tunisia, this study deconstructs some recurrent representations of migratory dynamics that are usually taken for granted in order to legitimate international policies of containment, and reveals the not-pre-made character of migrants’ journeys, their solidarity strategies, and the networks of (im)mobility mobilised to deal with the traps of containment. The international policies of containment and human mobility are two sides of the same reality that must be (re)connected to the wider regional or country context where this nexus is taking shape. This represents an analytical imperative and a methodological intersection between migration studies and African studies.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Bob-Milliar and Bob-Milliar, “Politics of Trans-Saharan Transit Migration,” 70.
2 Amin, “Migration in Contemporary Africa,” 32.
3 Ciabarri, “Dynamics and Representations of Migration Corridors,” 259.
4 Schapendonk, “Staying Put in Moving Sands,” 122.
5 See Ciabarri and Simonsen, “Fragments of solidarity”, in this issue.
6 Castles, “Methodology and Methods: Conceptual Issues,” 12.
7 Author’s interview with Patrick. Tripoli, 23 April2016.
8 Boyle, Destroying Libya and World Order, 173–200.
9 Vandewalle, “Libya’s Uncertain Revolution,” 22–25.
10 Lacher, Libya’s Fragmentation, 195–6.
11 Ibid, 196.
12 Paoletti, The Migration of Power and North-South Inequalities.
13 Perrin, “Immigration et création juridique au Maghreb,” 251.
14 Düvell, “Transit Migration: Blurred, Politicised Concept,” 419.
15 Amnesty International, “Scapegoats of Fear.”
16 Cuttitta, “From the Cap Anamur to Mare Nostrum,” 36.
17 Conseil de l’Europe. Secrétariat général, “Plans d’action du Gouvernement italien dans l’affaire Hirsi Jamaa.”
18 Karolewski and Benedikter, “Europe’s Refugee and Migrant Crisis,” 295.
19 Uselli, “Italy-Libya agreement.”
20 Paoletti and Pastore “Sharing the dirty job on the southern front?” 11.
21 Perrin, “Fin de régime et migrations en Libye,” 292.
22 Gebrewold and Bloom, “Introduction,” 6.
23 Danish Refugee Council, “We Risk our Lives for our Daily Bread,” 19.
24 Hassan al-Tarhouni, “ دراسة ميدانية عن الهجرة غير النظامية في ليبيا.”
25 Morone, “Policies, Practices, and Representations Regarding Sub-Saharan Migrants in Libya,” 151.
26 Piper, “Complex Interconnections of Migration-Development Nexus,” 96.
27 Ciabarri, L’imbroglio mediterraneo, 114.
28 Hyndman, and Mountz, “Another Brick in the Wall?”
29 Marchetti, “Expanded Borders.”
30 Ciabarri, L’imbroglio mediterraneo, 115.
31 EU-Horn of Africa Migration Route Initiative, “Rome Declaration.”
32 Boffey, “African Union seeks to kill EU plan to process migrants in Africa.”
33 Oette and Mohamed Abdelsalam Babiker, “Migration Control à la Khartoum,” 81.
34 Campbell, “Conflicting Perspectives on the ‘Migration Crisis’ in the Horn of Africa,” 4.
35 Kidane Mengisteab, The Horn of Africa; Ylönen, A. and Záhorˇík, J., The Horn of Africa Since the 1960s; Hoehne, M. and Luling, V. Peace and Milk, Drought and War.
36 Once again, Italy is a relevant example for understanding this new turn. According to the so-called “Italian non-paper” entitled Migration compact. Contribution to an EU strategy for external action on migration, the Italian Cooperation was addressing more substantial bilateral funding to countries such as Ethiopia and Eritrea, in addition to Niger and Nigeria, for projects that had a direct or indirect impact on contracting migration. See Italian Government, “Migration compact”.
37 Oette and Mohamed Abdelsalam Babiker, “Migration Control à la Khartoum,” 77–9.
38 Human Right Council, “Report of the commission of inquiry on human rights in Eritrea,” 6.
39 Gaim Kibreab, “The National Service,” 635.
40 Karwad, “Itinéraires de l’immigration illégale vers la Libye.”
41 Mehari Taddele Maru, “Transformations in Ethiopia,” 277–8.
42 Campbell, “Conflicting Perspectives on ‘Migration Crisis’ in Horn of Africa,” 13.
43 Author’s repeated interview with Touray. Medenine, 9 July 2018; 5 September 2018; 16 February 2019.
44 Ibid.
45 Williams and Baláž, “Migration, Risk, and Uncertainty,” 169.
46 Author’s interview with Lontsi. Tripoli, 14 November 2019.
47 Ibid.
48 Ibid.
49 Author’s interview with Achille. Medenine, 16 February 2019.
50 Karwad, “Itinéraires de l’immigration illégale vers la Libye.”
51 See Simonsen and Tarabi, “Images of torture”, in this issue.
52 Campbell, “Conflicting Perspectives on ‘Migration Crisis’ in Horn of Africa,” 4.
53 Author’s interview with Mohammed. Tripoli, 13 June 2017.
54 Author’s interview with Blaise. Nalut, 9 September 2018.
55 Ibid.
56 Marwa Mohamed, “Unpacking Libya’s Misinformed Migration Narrative,” 10.
57 Author’s interview with Touray. Medenine, 5 September 2018.
58 Author’s interview with Blaise. Nalut, 9 September 2018.
59 Author’s interview with Daniel. Tripoli, 22 September 2018.