http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1368-1154
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Abstract
Despite a growing interest in transit migration and border controls along migration routes, there is relatively little work on the production and operation of the category of ‘transit’ itself. This article investigates how Niger emerges as a country of migration ‘transit’ and what impacts this categorisation has had on security and development interventions targeting the country. Building from the literature on the governance of transit migration and on the ‘migration state’, this article theorises transit as a political label. It argues that Niger’s status as a transit country is constructed through a ‘polyvocal’ process involving the discourse and everyday assumptions of international and local actors. The article locates this shared understanding in official texts, everyday routines, and sub-state diplomatic practices. It goes on to argue that these framings, despite divergent rationales, have effects visible in the evolution of security intervention in Niger. These include shifts in the location of border security, the blurring of migration into other transnational threats, and the creation of new domestic institutional practices. The article contributes to theorising the political construction and specificity of transit-ness and provides a fresh case for the research agenda on inter-state relations around migration governance.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Acknowledgements
The author is grateful for the comments of the two anonymous reviewers, which tightened the focus of the paper. The author is also thankful for feedback on earlier drafts at the 2017 EISA conference and at a Borders in Globalization project workshop in Brussels. Any remaining errors are those of the author.
Notes
1 Poutignat, “Présentation du Numéro: ‘Transits, Etc.’”; Schapendonk, “Multiplicity of Transit”; and İşleyen, “Transit Mobility Governance in Turkey.”
2 The clearest recent example of this is Adamson and Tsourapas, “Migration Diplomacy in World Politics.”
3 By ‘international security interventions’, this article refers to efforts by external actors to govern, discipline, and shape governing practices of an intervened state in response to constructed security threats. These diverge from humanitarian interventions in their greater emphasis on reinforcing the coercive powers of the state.
4 Tsourapas, “Migration Diplomacy in the Global South.”
5 Here ‘diplomatic practice’ refers to the use, by individuals and institutions representing states and international organisations, of material and symbolic inter-state policy tools in an ongoing, routinised way.
6 Ansems de Vries and Guild, “Seeking Refuge in Europe,” 2157.
7 Bomono, “Filières Migratoires Transsahariennes.”
8 Falzon, “Immigration, Rituals and Transitoriness.”
9 Sampson, Gifford, and Taylor, “Myth of Transit.”
10 Schapendonk, “Multiplicity of Transit.”
11 Poutignat, “Présentation du Numéro: ‘Transits, Etc.’”
12 Castagnone, “Transit Migration: A Piece of the Complex Mobility Puzzle.”
13 Baldwin-Edwards, “Between a Rock & a Hard Place.”
14 Düvell, “Transit Migration: A Blurred and Politicised Concept,” 417.
15 El Qadim, “Symbolic Meaning of International Mobility.”
16 Fine, “Liaisons, Labelling, and Laws,” 7.
17 İşleyen, “Transit Mobility Governance in Turkey,” 23.
18 Hollifield, “Emerging Migration State.”
19 Gamlen, “Emigration State.”
20 Paoletti, “Power Relations and International Migration,” 279.
21 Natter, “Formation of Morocco’s Policy,” 23.
22 Oelgemöller, “‘Transit’ and ‘Suspension,’” 415 (original emphasis).
23 Tsourapas, “Migration Diplomacy in the Global South”; and Adamson and Tsourapas, “Migration Diplomacy in World Politics.”
24 Tsourapas, “Migration Diplomacy in the Global South,” 2367.
25 Paoletti, “Power Relations and International Migration.”
26 Adamson and Tsourapas, “Migration Diplomacy in World Politics.”
27 Wendt, “Anarchy Is What States Make of It.”
28 Campbell, Writing Security.
29 Hansen, Security as Practice.
30 Bhatia, “Fighting Words,” 8.
31 Buzan, Wæver, and De Wilde, Security: A New Framework for Analysis.
32 Klüfers, “Security Repertoires,” 283.
33 Grimm, “European Union’s Ambiguous Concept.”
34 Fisher, “When It Pays to Be a ‘Fragile State.’”
35 OHCHR, “Niger: Human Rights Protection.”
36 Le Monde, “L’Italie va Déployer 470 Militaires.”
37 Huysmans, Politics of Insecurity, 91.
38 Van Hulst and Yanow, “From Policy ‘Frames’ to ‘Framing.’”
39 UNODC, “West Africa: Cocaine Trafficking.”
40 African Union, Migration Policy Framework for Africa, 55.
41 ECOWAS, “La CEDEAO et le Danemark.”
42 IOM Niger, “Cartographie et Présentation de la Gestion des Frontières au Niger.”
43 Government of Italy, “Joint Statement,” 2–4.
44 EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa. https://ec.europa.eu/trustfundforafrica/index_en
45 EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa, “EUTF-SAH-REG-01 Addendum,” 2.
46 European Commission, “Operational Framework.”
47 Council of the European Union, “Council Conclusions.”
48 Agence Nigérienne de Presse, “Renforcement des Capacités.”
49 Euronews, “Mohamed Bazoum.”
50 Ibid., 33.
51 Landau and Achiume, “Misreading Mobility?”
52 Foster, Mauritania: The Struggle for Democracy.
53 Ibid., 23.
54 IOM, “Over 40 Migrants Die of Thirst.”
55 Le Point, “Mahamadou Issoufou.”
56 Reuters, “Niger Tells G7.”
57 Barrios, Transit Niger: Migrants Rebels and Traffickers, 2.
58 Clingendael, Multilateral Damage, 29.
59 Stambøl, “EU Initiatives along the ‘Cocaine Routes,’” 303.
60 EUR-Lex, “Regulation (EU) 2016/1624.”
61 Takle, “Migration and Asylum Statistics.”
62 Ibid., 33.
63 Agence Nigérienne de Presse, “Le Niger Est Très Fortement Engagé.”
64 AllAfrica, “Afrique de l’Ouest: Mohamed Bazoum.”
65 EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa, “Création d’une Equipe Conjointe d’Investigation.”
66 VOA Afrique, “L’Allemagne et les Pays-Bas.”
67 IOM, “UN Migration Agency Search and Rescue Missions.”
68 EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa, “Rapid Action Groups.”
69 Raineri, “Human Smuggling across Niger,” 67.
70 European Commission, First Progress Report.
71 European Union, “Niger: Action and Progress.”
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Philippe M. Frowd
Philippe M. Frowd is an assistant professor in the School of Political Studies at the University of Ottawa. His primary research interest is in the transnational governance of security in West Africa’s Sahel region, with an emphasis on interventions around irregular migration and border control. His research draws on ongoing fieldwork in West Africa, with his current work focusing on migration governance in Niger.