The mediatized border: technologies and affects of migrant reception in the Greek and Italian borders

Abstract

In line with the European self-description of its borders as a space of “humanitarian securitization,” this article approaches the border as a network of mediations around migrants and refugees, where emotions of fear and empathy co-exist through digital connectivities—what we call the “mediatized border.” Drawing on media, security, and gender studies, we demonstrate how such techno-affective networks are constitutive of (rather than simply complementary to) the border as a hybrid site of both military protection and care for the vulnerable. We do this through hermeneutic and participatory engagements with the two main border sites of the 2015 migration “crisis,” Italy and Greece, and discuss their implications on our understanding of the power relationships of human mobility.

Keywords:

• Mediation
• emotion
• border
• humanitarianism
• securitization
• migration

Notes

1. “Migration crisis” is placed in quotations to challenge Eurocentric uses of the term, which point to the high number of the 2015 arrivals as their main cause for concern and policy focus, whilst ignoring the ongoing conflict-related crises in the Middle East that led populations to flee in the first place (Nick Vaughan-Williams 2015).

2. See http://frontex.europa.eu/news/frontex-publishes-risk-analysis-for-2016-NQuBFv (accessed March 12, 2017).

3. Report of the European Council on Foreign Relations (22/12/2015): http://www.ecfr.eu (accessed January 26, 2017).

4. There are now a dozen such humanitarian ships still patrolling Mediterranean, chartered by MOAS, Doctors Without Borders (MSF), SOS Mediterranee, the Catalan Proactiva Open Arms and German Sea-Watch, Sea-Eye, and Jugend Rettet: http://reliefweb.int/report/world/small-aid-ships-play-big-role-europes-migrant-crisis (accessed March 18, 2017).

5. EUNAVFOR Med, launched on June 22, 2015 with the mission to identify, capture, and dispose of vessels and enabling assets used or suspected of being used by migrant smugglers or traffickers, has since been renamed as “Sophia” in honour of a baby born on board one of the German frigates as part of the EUNAVFOR MED Task Force.

6. The relationship between symbolic practices of communication and emotion is the subject of a rich body of literature. Following Melissa Gregg and Gregory J. Seigworth, we define affect as a pre-discursive state of experience that regulates our capacity to act through varying degrees of intensity. Yet, as a state, we can only encounter it through symbolic expressions, corporeal and linguistic/semiotic, that work to establish bonds of sociality; that is, through “regimes of expressivity … tied to resonant wordings and diffusions of feelings/passions—often including atmospheres of sociality, crowd behaviours, contagions of feeling, matters of belonging …” (Melissa Gregg and Gregory J. Seigworth 2010, 8 in Zizi Papacharissi 2014, 16). For our purposes, then, we understand that affect becomes accessible in the form of emotions of various qualities and intensities, as these are articulated (i) in the visual story-telling of the official videos of migrant rescue operations, produced by the Italian Navy Forces; and (ii) in the online and offline communicative practices of actors in the enacted border (registration officers and NGO practitioners).

7. It is worth noting that these two videos may be referring to Mare Nostrum but have been released just after Operation Triton substituted Mare Nostrum in the Mediterranean (November 1, 2014). Nineteen countries took part in the operation and the European Union funded it with 2.9 million euros per month.

8. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7LWma67WAA (accessed February 9, 2017).

9. The emotional regimes of intermediation are also repeated in the documentary co-produced by the Italian Navy and broadcast at prime time in October 2014 by the Italian national television network (RAI): Catia’s Choice: 80 miles south of Lampedusa. Alternating images of the brave rescue operations with personal stories of the crew, the video focuses on the positive influence of Catia’s strength and empathetic nature in serving others, while maintaining vigilance, keeping the seas safe on her watch.

10. http://www.awaremigrants.org (accessed March 12, 2017).

11. This is not the first European fear-mongering campaign. Indeed, although this 1.5 million euro effort focuses on reducing loss of life by informing migrants of the dangers of irregular routes, smuggling or trafficking, in its attempt to use communication to discourage irregular migration, Italy seems to follow Hungary and Denmark (and before them, Australia).

12. The fieldwork lasted for ten days, in December 2015, so that all discussions refer to that period of time and reflect reception arrangements at that point in time. Data collection relied mainly on multi-sited observation (divided between us) and, where appropriate, participation, online communication (through our inclusion in local Facebook groups), document collection, and interviews.