Islands and Undesirables: Introduction to the Special Issue on Irregular Migration in Southern European Islands

Abstract

This introduction presents the challenges to studying irregular migration in the southern European islands. After presenting the debates surrounding the category of irregular migration and recent developments in irregular migration to southern European islands, we argue that the situation of islands needs to be contextualized within the broader scheme of Euro-Mediterranean irregular migration. We then propose considering islands as remarkable “places of condensation” in the Euro-Mediterranean migratory setting. The article introduces two themes that will be developed throughout the special issue: (1) analyzing and challenging narratives of islandness and (2) policing and bordering the islands.

KEYWORDS:

• Border
• islandness
• irregular migration
• Mediterranean
• places of condensation
• policy

Notes

¹“Island features” is translated into French by the term “insularité,” while the English term “insularity,” generally little used by English-language literature, is pejorative and refers generally to the negative characteristics of the island societies, such as conservative and small-minded attitudes. “Islandness” can be translated into French by the term “îléité.” It refers to narrative representations and perceptions that island societies have of their island that are connected to a “particular sense of being in place,” as Stratford puts it (2008; see also Baldacchino 2004, 2005; Bernardie-Tahir, 2011; Falzon, 2012).

²On 6th October 2010, the 2-day meetings in Libya between EU commissioners Cecilia Malmström and Stefan Füle with Libyan representatives resulted in an agreement between the EU and Libya on a plan for future cooperation on issues related to asylum, migration, and international protection. See http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-10-472_en.htm?locale=en.

³On the increase of detention facilities and the length of detention in Europe see the maps produced by Migreurop at http://closethecamps.org/2013/11/23/la-carte-des-camps-de-migreurop/.