Living the Securitized Border: Testimonies from the Central Mediterranean Sea
Europe’s borders are not just distant physical barriers but powerful forces shaping how we perceive and manage migration across the continent. “Thinking Outside the Border,” an illustrated booklet launched by doctoral researcher Anna Marino, focuses on this reality. Created with the activist Simone Gavazzi and illustrator Arianna Sisani, the project uses art and personal experiences to make Europeans rethink the impact of border policies in the Central Mediterranean, giving a spotlight on the human stories of migration.
Anna Marino, a doctoral researcher of the nccr – on the move, at the Université de Neuchâtel, organized an event to launch an illustrated booklet “Thinking Outside the Border” explaining how migration is governed in the Central Mediterranean Sea. Drawing on international law, and international and national governance frameworks, the booklet reflects on lived experiences shaping the reality of these peculiar EU borders. Created together with Simone Gavazzi, human rights activist and editor for media platform Penshare and freelance illustrator Arianna Sisani, it brings together policy and personal stories.
These knowledge transfer events bring us closer to contexts that might feel irrelevant to us and our daily lives, letting us understand how much closer we are [than we think] to these realities. What happens in the Central Mediterranean Sea – and on European borders more generally – shapes the way we talk about and think about migration flows and migrants. It is about time we started reflecting on European borders as permeating European society rather than as fortresses designed to be far and, as such, more easily neglected. The narratives and governance of these far borders affect the way we think about migration in the whole region.
Migration Through Narratives
“If border obstructions fail to stifle movements, they do effectively deflect them. People on the move take more circuitous routes than they otherwise would in order to circumvent barriers […]. Not all migrant routes are the same. People on the move choose the safest and most direct routes first. As those close off, people get diverted into more exposed territory. As the myth of a sedentary past evaporates, a previously obscured question emerges: not why people migrate but why their movements inspire terror.” Journalist Sonia Shah reflects in her book “The Next Great Migration” on the implications of thinking of human existence as sedentary. The obscured question mentioned by Shah eloquently presents the motivation that brought me to study how we talk and what we hear/read about migration and migrants in specific contexts.
I started my doctoral research in 2022 as part of a project of nccr – on the move that sees narratives, crises and migration as central concepts. The project aims to investigate narratives of moments of crisis and how they impact discourses and policies around migration. My research plan focuses on the Western and Central Mediterranean Sea, more specifically, comparing Italy and Spain. My specific interest in studying the borders of the European Union is linked to the extent to which these specific areas are mediatized when specific events (tragedies at the border, crises and their implications for the border context, e.g., Covid-19 health crisis) occur and how the European vision of migration governance is discussed. That is, what happens at these borders speaks to and for the EU as a whole creating an imaginary of migration and migrants viewed by the rest of the continent.
I define the Central Mediterranean Sea as a border that is beyond Europe: being aware of the distance we all have to these areas, I started discussing with people who were closer and lived within these borders daily. A former junior lecturer and colleague at Maastricht University, Simone Gavazzi, currently engaged in volunteer work in the Mediterranean with Doctors Without Borders, has been one of my interlocutors. The booklet entitled “Thinking Outside the Border,” which we presented to a broader public on the 26th of September, was mainly the result of our reflections and discussions.
How It All Started
On November 26th, 2023 (the 26th seems to be our number), Simone and I had an insightful discussion at Isola, a literary café in Paris. Inspired by this discussion and the questions we received, which are featured on the last pages, we started imagining the booklet. The event and the booklet feature the work of Arianna Sisani, a freelance illustrator, whose precious creativity translated words into images.
As a researcher of the latest developments in both national and European migration governance around the area of the Central Mediterranean Sea, I felt the need and urgency to talk to a greater audience about what people like Simone on the border witnessed in the Mediterranean Sea, which led to the creation of the booklet and, consequently, the launch our second event. The aim of this creation, more generally, is bringing the border to us, although we might feel too detached for it to be relevant or to be involved in it in any way.
Going Beyond Borders
Additionally, as the booklet’s title suggests, I wanted to go beyond the idea of the border and question it: the Central Mediterranean and territories like Lampedusa make us question the strong erected border of the European Union – and Italy as one of its member states. I think of the border as alive: it is not something passive, that needs to be defended by what some controversial figures call “invasions.” Through this project, I wanted to give space to the people who make and live on this border rather than amplifying the words of those who instrumentalize it.
Keeping this aim in mind, during the launch event on the 26th of September, I organized, as part of the event, the screening of ‘North of Lampedusa,’ a docu-film created by Alessandro Rocca and Davide Demichelis featuring Vito Fiorino, a resident of Lampedusa who, on the 3rd of October 2013 saved 47 lives at sea. Vito and the filmmakers Alessandro and Davide did not choose to represent the dramatic events of 2013 in this docu-film. They aimed to depict the future of the people Vito rescued, showing their lives and reflecting on the potential of the journey they started in 2013 – if not earlier.
In the words of filmmaker Alessandro Rocca, “What drives you to tell this type of story is the need to bring them to the attention of the highest number of people possible. […] Mainstream information lets us see a little piece of a story, but we do not see the entire lives of these people, who should be allowed to arrive with a visa they do not have. Why is my passport more valuable than that of an Eritrean citizen? These people are affected by famines, by the climate crisis and we need to change how we talk about their lives.” Vito, Alessandro and Davide were present in Neuchâtel on the 26th of September giving us the unprecedented opportunity to discuss their experiences and hear their account.
Acknowledgments
Through the organization of this event and the creation and printing of the booklet, I received precious support. I want to thank nccr – on the move, Alessandra Polidori, Arianna Sisani and Simone Gavazzi for their collaboration on the booklet, a very much-needed work of knowledge transfer that will hopefully be informative for many. Simone, your reportage and support work on European borders is crucial/vital, and I am grateful you took part of your very valuable and limited time to collaborate with me on this project.
Furthermore, I want to thank Sara de Athouguia Filipe, a Post-Doctoral Fellow at nccr – on the move, for her constant support in the creation of the booklet and Robin Stünzi and Gina Fiore for their incredible support in the event’s organizational matters. A big thank you goes to my mother, Enrica Ferrante, who was the key actor in the connection with Vito Fiorino, whose immense courage brought him to experience the brutality and violence of the border and to act to reduce the injustices created by a broken and cruel system. Thank you, Vito, Alex and Davide, for taking the time from your extremely busy schedules to be with us and share your testimony and remarkable work: amidst the many incalculable tragedies, these are also the stories we must share with the world.
Anna Marino is a Doctoral researcher at the nccr – on the move, the University of Neuchâtel working on the project “Narratives of Crisis and Their Influence in Shaping Discourses and Policies of Migration and Mobility,” which aims to better understand the role of crisis narratives in the context of human mobility governance.
Reference:
–Marino, Anna, Sisani, Arianna,Gavazzi, Simone,and Polidori, Alessandra. Thinking Outside the Border, 2024.
