Migration management, capacity building and the sovereignty of an African State: International Organization for Migration in Djibouti

ABSTRACT

This article analyses the activities of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Djibouti, and especially its capacity-building activities in the field of migration management. It ethnographically documents how these projects transform state sovereignty. It argues that this is done not only through the Djiboutian government’s increased capacity to exclude undocumented migrants, but also through the renewed governance of the entry of national-citizens into the state territory. IOM’s projects institutionalise a state of exception (Agamben) that produces both legitimate political authority and national citizenship in the receiving State. Such institutionalisation is finally embedded within an international mobility regime characterised by a ‘sedentarist’ narrative, targeting specifically African citizenship.

KEYWORDS:

• IOM
• sovereignty
• state-building
• border
• mobility regime
• Africa
• ethnography

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 PIRS is now known as ‘Migration Information and Data Analysis System’.

2 See http://www.jeuneafrique.com/136998/politique/djibouti-vos-papiers-s-il-vous-pla-t/.

3 In 2011, indeed, Djibouti joined the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) a peacekeeping mission authorised by the United Nations Security Council to intervene in Somalia to restore peace. Its mandate explicitly targeted the eradication of the Al-Shabaab (mandate 1, 4 and 7). The latter threatened of reprisal all countries engaged in the military operation, notably Djibouti that was welcoming ‘crusaders’ military forces in its territory. Djibouti enforced a plan of national vigilance which was each year growing in importance. In 2013, Djibouti considered the threat had reached its acme as Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia, all three countries involved in AMISOM, were successively victims of terrorist attacks perpetrated by Al-Shabaab. In 25 May 2014, 15 Europeans, mostly members of the European Atlanta forces fighting against piracy in the Red Sea and Spanish military were injured in the suicide bombing of Al-Shabaab members in Djibouti’s capital.

4 See also https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/sep/17/1.

5 See https://www.state.gov/j/ct/rls/crt/2003/c12153.htm and https://www.state.gov/documents/organization/31936.pdf.

6 Catha Edulis, stimulating leaves cultivated in Yemen and Ethiopia.

7 See http://acbc.iom.int/.