CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2019
| Author | Bhat, Shreya Shankar |
|---|---|
| Title | (Re)Framing Europe's Borders: The Migration Crisis and Irregular Migrant Women Along the Nigeria-Libya-Italy Route |
| Summary | The migratory route between Nigeria and Italy spans over an approximate distance of 4,998 kilometers, connecting the region of West Africa to the southern region of the European continent. Irregular migrants along this route traverse through the Sahara Desert between Niger and Algeria before arriving in Libya to begin their journey through the Central Mediterranean route, the world’s deadliest migration route, towards Europe. Scholars in the field of migration studies, international NGOs and intergovernmental human rights based organizations are critical of the European Union’s (EU) push back approach towards irregular migrants and call for the EU to be held accountable for human rights abuses occurring in transit zones along this route. This thesis is situated at the crossroads of these debates and examines modes of governmentality employed by the EU to regulate the mobility of irregular migrant women along the Nigeria-Libya-Italy migratory route, to restrict their arrival in receiving countries. Using findings gathered from fieldwork in Nigeria, I argue in this thesis that by constructing irregular migration as a phenomenon that poses a threat to the migrant subject, the EU adopts measures designed for facilitating tighter border controls and regulation of irregular migration. The EU’s interventions are constructed under a humanitarian rubric, through the medium of the anti-trafficking discourse and the work of the International Organization for Migration in Libya. Nevertheless, the humanitarian nature of the EU’s intervention casts a shadow on the role of the EU in the detention, dehumanization and abuse of human rights of irregular migrants in Libya. Additionally, this thesis unpacks the manner by which the EU is able to extend its territorial reign and exert control beyond its external borders in the south – stealthily creating a new locus of control in the North African territorial region. |
| Supervisor | Gailani, Nadia Jones |
| Department | Gender Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2019/bhat_shreya.pdf |
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