MACMILLAN EurAfrican Borders and Migration Management: Political Cultures, Contested Spaces, and Ordinary Lives (Palgrave Series in African Borderlands Studies)

This volume traces the African ramifications of Europe’s southern border. While the Mediterranean Sea has become the main stage for the current play and tragedy between European borders and African migrants, Europe’s southern border has also been “offshored” to Africa, mainly through cooperation agreements with countries of transit and origin. By bringing into conversation case studies from different countries and disciplines, this volume seeks to open a window on the backstage of this externalization of borders. It casts light on the sites – from consulates to open seas and deserts – in which Europe’s southern border is made and unmade as an African reality, yielding what the editors call "EurAfrican borders." It further describes the multiple actors – state agents, migrants, smugglers, activists, etc. – that variously imagine, construct, cross or contest these borders, and situates their encounters within the history of uneven exchanges between Africa and Europe.   Review “The book is very helpful in setting out the major issues of the externalization of the European border management system in Africa. … EurAfrican Borders and Migration Management is a non-technical read that would appeal to both experts in migration and borderlands studies and the general reader interested in understanding the dynamics of migration from sub-Saharan Africa to Europe and Europe’s attempts in managing it.” (Allwell O. Akhigbe, H-Net Reviews Humanities and Social Sciences, January, 2020) From the Back Cover This volume traces the African ramifications of Europe’s southern border. While the Mediterranean Sea has become the main stage for the current play and tragedy between European borders and African migrants, Europe’s southern border has also been “offshored” to Africa, mainly through cooperation agreements with countries of transit and origin. By bringing into conversation case studies from different countries and disciplines, this volume seeks to open a window on the backstage of this externalization of borders. It casts light on the sites – from consulates to open seas and deserts – in which Europe’s southern border is made and unmade as an African reality, yielding what the editors call "EurAfrican borders." It further describes the multiple actors – state agents, migrants, smugglers, activists, etc. – that variously imagine, construct, cross or contest these borders, and situates their encounters within the history of uneven exchanges between Africa and Europe.   About the Author Paolo Gaibazzi is a Social Anthropologist and Research Fellow at the Centre for Modern Oriental Studies (ZMO) in Berlin, Germany. He is the author of Bush Bound: Young Men and Rural Permanence in Migrant West Africa (2015). Alice Bellagamba teaches Political Anthropology and African Studies at the University of Milan-Bicocca, Italy. Together with Sandra Greene and Martin Klein, she has edited African Voices on Slavery and the Slave Trade, Vol. I and Vol. II (2013 and 2016) and The Bitter Legacy: African Slavery Past and Present (2013). Stephan Dünnwald works at the Bavarian Refugee Council, Munich, Germany. He has conducted research on refugees, migrants and border regimes in Central and Southeastern Europe (Kosovo) as well as in West Africa (Mali, Mauritania, Cape Verde). Dünnwald is on the editorial boards of Hinterland-Magazin and Movements: Journal of Critical Migration and Border Regime Studies.