Borders and Migration

Governing mobility in times of crisis: Practicing the border and embodying resistance in and beyond the hotspot infrastructure

The contributions to this special issue dissect the hotspot approach in order to unravel the mechanisms of power that are awakened to administer the response to the collective movement of migrants. Managed as a protracted crisis, the EU distributed 23.3 billion euros to member-states over the course of the five years since 2015 for the management and humanitarian protection of asylum seekers and refugees. In this way, the hotspot approach – working in tandem with humanitarian governance logics such as those of rescue, interdiction, humanitarian assistance and long-term encampment – has constructed and consolidated the dividing lines between those who deserve protection (refugees) and those that do not (migrants). Five years into its implementation, those arriving and caught up in the hotspot system are still being warehoused where they are not wanted, pushed back to where they came from and constantly moved around at will. With the introduction of fast track asylum procedures and geographical movement restrictions on the islands, hotspots have become spaces where exceptional rules apply and where mobility is explicitly targeted.

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Volume 38 Issue 6

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Though not an exhaustive list, these are many of the main areas we cover.