At Europe’s Edge by Ċetta Mainwaring

Introduction by
Vicki Squire
Published
May 30, 2022
Print this Page

Mainwaring sheds critical light on the importance of seemingly ‘marginal’ actors to the generation of European migration policies, highlighting the central role that Malta has played in the constitution of the so-called ‘migration crisis’ as well as the animating role that migrants have played in shaping Mediterranean space.

A

s Europe continues to grapple with the displacement of people across international borders, we explore the politics of the migration ‘crises’ through a review forum of Ċetta Mainwaring’s poignant book, At Europe’s Edge: Migration and Crisis in the Mediterranean. 

At Europe’s Edge begins with the struggles of those seeking to migrate across the Mediterranean to Europe. Such struggles retain a central place throughout the text, which explores how migrant and state negotiations of power and sovereignty intersect. Embedding her analysis in the Maltese context, Mainwaring forefronts the ways in which colonial histories and colonial presents continue to shape struggles over migration across the Mediterranean. Treading a careful line between insider and outsider, she convincingly shows how Malta has carved out its role as a gatekeeper of migration to Europe, in so doing perpetuating a discourse of crisis as a means to exert political influence. Yet the book not only draws attention to the unexpected powers of Malta in the formation of European policies. It also convincingly highlights the power of migrants in animating, shaping and contesting such policies, along with the reductive conception of space on which these rely. 

This forum reflects on the significance of At Europe’s Edge from various angles. Alison Mountz draws attention to the centrality of the sea to Mainwaring’s analysis. Highlighting how the book enacts a “shift that is at once epistemological and geographical, away from land to sea,” she invites us to consider the legal ambiguities of responsibility and accountability that arise at sea along with the lethality of such ambiguities for people on the move. Like Mountz, Maurice Stierl notes the historical and contemporary significance of the Mediterranean as a place of mobility. He identifies the politics of crisis as requiring the continuous production of border spectacles, through which migrants are criminalised and subjected to racialised violence. Despite this, Stierl encourages us to take “hope in the migrant and solidarity struggles that challenge the borderisation of society and space.” For Martina Tazzioli, At Europe’s Edge is a reminder of the routinisation of emergency and of the racialised, rather than arbitrary, enactment of violence at Europe’s external borders. She suggests that the ‘margins’ of Europe form “the vantage point for grounding a politics of justice grounded on the materiality of migrants’ struggles.” Finally, Colin Calleja focuses on the dehumanising dimensions of so-called migration ‘crisis’, pointing to a “grim history of migration” in the European context. He invites us to view these in the context of sociological theories of othering as a means to unpack the violence to which the book points.

As Mainwaring herself indicates in closing this forum, the concerns that At Europe’s Edge addresses remain as pressing as ever in light of the severe neglect of migrants amidst COVID, the intensification of violence and pushbacks at Europe’s borders, and the increasing weaponization of migration. The book firmly rejects misperceptions of people on the move as “pawns” and “victims”, continuously reminding the reader that the Mediterranean space is crossed by “people, individuals and families, with their own histories, desires, and reasons for moving.”

At Europe’s Edge has already been recognised with the award for the 2020 British International Studies Association (BISA) Migration, Refugees and Diaspora Working Group best book. It speaks to multiple academic audiences across the fields of Geography, International Relations, Law, Politics and Sociology, as well as to policy and practitioner communities in Malta and beyond. Indeed, it is a must-read not only for scholars of migration, but for all those who are committed to an alternative present and future.

Vicki Squire is Professor of International Politics at the Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Warwick. Her research explores the politics of migration, displacement, asylum and solidarity activism across various contexts. She is author of several books, including Reclaiming Migration (2021, Manchester University Press), Europe’s Migration Crisis (2020, Cambridge University Press), Post/Humanitarian Border Politics Between Mexico and the US (2015, Palgrave) and The Exclusionary Politics of Asylum (2009, Palgrave). She currently leads the international project Data and Displacement, which explores data-based humanitarian assistance to IDPs (internally displaced persons) in north-eastern Nigeria and South Sudan.

essays in this forum

How Shipwrecks Make Europe 

‘At Europe’s Edge' can be understood as a tome on the destructive work that crisis rhetoric can do, including all that it occludes: the violence of state policies that produce death at sea, the ways that this violence is lived, and the voices of those who are living it.

By

Alison Mountz

EUropean Border Spectacles and Malta’s Production of a Permanent ‘Migration Crisis’

Mainwaring offers a captivating account of one of these central EUropean border spaces at the geographical periphery where the engineering of permanent border spectacles has political use. While the situation appears daunting, with racialised others being systemically and violented excluded, deterred, and subjugated, “At Europe’s Edge” also highlights the agency and resistance of those ‘on the move’, their ability to subvert border controls stubbornly and often creatively in a struggle for dignified futures.

By

Maurice Stierl

Undoing the Presentism of the “Refugee Crisis” from Europe’s Edge

A genealogy of migration containment that focuses on Europe’s edge enables challenging the presentism which sustains “refugee crisis” narratives. The “margins” of Europe are also the vantage point for grounding a politics of justice grounded on the materiality of migrants’ struggles.

By

Martina Tazzioli

A Reflection on the Migration Crisis: Cetta Mainwaring's "At Europe’s Edge"

The alterity created by the media and political representation of the migrant as the other and the outsider gives credence to the politics of push-backs and the disregard of human suffering.

By

Colin Calleja

Struggles for Freedom

In the Mediterranean and elsewhere, people continue to come together again in old and new ways, at sea and on land, to demand that people be free to move, be free to find safety and life. 

By

Ċetta Mainwaring

At Europe’s Edge by Ċetta Mainwaring

Back to Web Version

S

cholars and practitioners of urban planning need to rethink the field’s futures at this important historical juncture: some might call it a moment of truth when there is little left to hide. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed many cracks, contradictions, and inequalities that have always existed but are now more visible. This also includes the global vaccine apartheid that is ongoing as I write these words. Moreover, this is a time when the violence through which U.S. imperialism has exercised power worldwide is increasingly exposed. Protests in the summer of 2020, which spread all over the United States like fire through a long-dried haystack, showed Americans and the whole world that racialized violence and police brutality are real. They also revealed that such brutality is spatially facilitated in American apartheid—a condition that planning has been far from innocent in creating and maintaining. I think this reckoning is particularly important in the United States, the belly of the beast, where there might have been more of an illusion about planning innocence.

What’s a Rich Text element?

Moreover, this is a time when the violence through which U.S. imperialism has exercised power worldwide is increasingly exposed. Protests in the summer of 2020, which spread all over the United States like fire through a long-dried haystack, showed Americans and the whole world that racialized violence and police brutality are real. They also revealed that such brutality is spatially facilitated in American apartheid—a condition that planning has been far from innocent in creating and maintaining. I think this reckoning is particularly important in the United States, the belly of the beast, where there might have been more of an illusion about planning innocence.

  • Moreover, this is a time when the violence through which U.S. imperialism has exercised power worldwide is increasingly exposed.
  • Protests in the summer of 2020, which spread all over the United States like fire through a long-dried haystack, showed Americans and the whole world that racialized violence and police brutality are real.
  • They also revealed that such brutality is spatially facilitated in American apartheid—a condition that planning has been far from innocent in creating and maintaining.
  • I think this reckoning is particularly important in the United States, the belly of the beast, where there might have been more of an illusion about planning innocence.

What’s a Rich Text element?

Moreover, this is a time when the violence through which U.S. imperialism has exercised power worldwide is increasingly exposed. Protests in the summer of 2020, which spread all over the United States like fire through a long-dried haystack, showed Americans and the whole world that racialized violence and police brutality are real. They also revealed that such brutality is spatially facilitated in American apartheid—a condition that planning has been far from innocent in creating and maintaining. I think this reckoning is particularly important in the United States, the belly of the beast, where there might have been more of an illusion about planning innocence.

  1. Moreover, this is a time when the violence through which U.S. imperialism has exercised power worldwide is increasingly exposed.
  2. Protests in the summer of 2020, which spread all over the United States like fire through a long-dried haystack, showed Americans and the whole world that racialized violence and police brutality are real.
  3. They also revealed that such brutality is spatially facilitated in American apartheid—a condition that planning has been far from innocent in creating and maintaining. I think this reckoning is particularly important in the United States, the belly of the beast, where there might have been more of an illusion about planning innocence.

What’s a Rich Text element?

Moreover, this is a time when the violence through which U.S. imperialism has exercised power worldwide is increasingly exposed. Protests in the summer of 2020, which spread all over the United States like fire through a long-dried haystack, showed Americans and the whole world that racialized violence and police brutality are real. They also revealed that such brutality is spatially facilitated in American apartheid—a condition that planning has been far from innocent in creating and maintaining. I think this reckoning is particularly important in the United States, the belly of the beast, where there might have been more of an illusion about planning innocence.

What’s a Rich Text element?

Moreover, this is a time when the violence through which U.S. imperialism has exercised power worldwide is increasingly exposed. Protests in the summer of 2020, which spread all over the United States like fire through a long-dried haystack, showed Americans and the whole world that racialized violence and police brutality are real. They also revealed that such brutality is spatially facilitated in American apartheid—a condition that planning has been far from innocent in creating and maintaining. I think this reckoning is particularly important in the United States, the belly of the beast, where there might have been more of an illusion about planning innocence.

What’s a Rich Text element?

Static and dynamic content editing

A rich text element can be used with static or dynamic content. For static content, just drop it into any page and begin editing. For dynamic content, add a rich text field to any collection and then connect a rich text element to that field in the settings panel. Voila!

How to customize formatting for each rich text

Headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, figures, images, and figure captions can all be styled after a class is added to the rich text element using the "When inside of" nested selector system.

A

s Europe continues to grapple with the displacement of people across international borders, we explore the politics of the migration ‘crises’ through a review forum of Ċetta Mainwaring’s poignant book, At Europe’s Edge: Migration and Crisis in the Mediterranean. 

At Europe’s Edge begins with the struggles of those seeking to migrate across the Mediterranean to Europe. Such struggles retain a central place throughout the text, which explores how migrant and state negotiations of power and sovereignty intersect. Embedding her analysis in the Maltese context, Mainwaring forefronts the ways in which colonial histories and colonial presents continue to shape struggles over migration across the Mediterranean. Treading a careful line between insider and outsider, she convincingly shows how Malta has carved out its role as a gatekeeper of migration to Europe, in so doing perpetuating a discourse of crisis as a means to exert political influence. Yet the book not only draws attention to the unexpected powers of Malta in the formation of European policies. It also convincingly highlights the power of migrants in animating, shaping and contesting such policies, along with the reductive conception of space on which these rely. 

This forum reflects on the significance of At Europe’s Edge from various angles. Alison Mountz draws attention to the centrality of the sea to Mainwaring’s analysis. Highlighting how the book enacts a “shift that is at once epistemological and geographical, away from land to sea,” she invites us to consider the legal ambiguities of responsibility and accountability that arise at sea along with the lethality of such ambiguities for people on the move. Like Mountz, Maurice Stierl notes the historical and contemporary significance of the Mediterranean as a place of mobility. He identifies the politics of crisis as requiring the continuous production of border spectacles, through which migrants are criminalised and subjected to racialised violence. Despite this, Stierl encourages us to take “hope in the migrant and solidarity struggles that challenge the borderisation of society and space.” For Martina Tazzioli, At Europe’s Edge is a reminder of the routinisation of emergency and of the racialised, rather than arbitrary, enactment of violence at Europe’s external borders. She suggests that the ‘margins’ of Europe form “the vantage point for grounding a politics of justice grounded on the materiality of migrants’ struggles.” Finally, Colin Calleja focuses on the dehumanising dimensions of so-called migration ‘crisis’, pointing to a “grim history of migration” in the European context. He invites us to view these in the context of sociological theories of othering as a means to unpack the violence to which the book points.

As Mainwaring herself indicates in closing this forum, the concerns that At Europe’s Edge addresses remain as pressing as ever in light of the severe neglect of migrants amidst COVID, the intensification of violence and pushbacks at Europe’s borders, and the increasing weaponization of migration. The book firmly rejects misperceptions of people on the move as “pawns” and “victims”, continuously reminding the reader that the Mediterranean space is crossed by “people, individuals and families, with their own histories, desires, and reasons for moving.”

At Europe’s Edge has already been recognised with the award for the 2020 British International Studies Association (BISA) Migration, Refugees and Diaspora Working Group best book. It speaks to multiple academic audiences across the fields of Geography, International Relations, Law, Politics and Sociology, as well as to policy and practitioner communities in Malta and beyond. Indeed, it is a must-read not only for scholars of migration, but for all those who are committed to an alternative present and future.

Vicki Squire is Professor of International Politics at the Department of Politics and International Studies, University of Warwick. Her research explores the politics of migration, displacement, asylum and solidarity activism across various contexts. She is author of several books, including Reclaiming Migration (2021, Manchester University Press), Europe’s Migration Crisis (2020, Cambridge University Press), Post/Humanitarian Border Politics Between Mexico and the US (2015, Palgrave) and The Exclusionary Politics of Asylum (2009, Palgrave). She currently leads the international project Data and Displacement, which explores data-based humanitarian assistance to IDPs (internally displaced persons) in north-eastern Nigeria and South Sudan.