TY - JOUR

T1 - Recuperation through Crisis Talk

T2 - Apprehending the European Border Regime as a Parasitic Apparatus of Capture

AU - Scheel, Stephan

N1 - Funding Information: I would like to thank the participants of a workshop titled “The Operative Dimension of Migration Regimes” at the Institute of Migration and Intercultural Studies (IMIS) of the University of Osnabrück in July 2015 for valuable feedback on an earlier version of the arguments presented here. The same goes for participants of the workshop on “Migration and Crises” organized by Martina Tazzioli at the Maison Méditerranéenne des Sciences de l’Homme (MMSH) in Aix-en-Provence in March 2016. Moreover, the writing of this article was supported by funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Seventh Frame-work Programme (FP/2007–2013) / ERC Grant Agreement no. 615588. Principal Investigator, Evelyn Ruppert, Goldsmiths, University of London.

PY - 2018/4/1

Y1 - 2018/4/1

N2 - The diagnosis of a migration crisis has prompted multiple processes of rebordering in Europe and beyond. These include the buildup of physical barriers like walls and fences, the tightening of asylum regimes, the expansion of biometric databases, and the enrollment of authoritarian regimes in controlling Europe’s borders. These developments have prompted a revival of the image of the “fortress” in critical accounts of the European border regime. Building on existing criticisms of the metaphorical Fortress Europe, this article proposes an alternative political imaginary of the European border regime. Starting from a version of the autonomy of migration approach that is based on the notion of appropriation, it proposes to apprehend the European border regime as a parasitic and precarious apparatus of capture. This apparatus of capture tries to recuperate migrants’ practices of appropriation in order to turn the knowledge and creativity of these practices into a driving force for its own development. Important aspects of this dynamic are illustrated through two examples: the refinement of control mechanisms of the European visa regime and the repeated tightening of Germany’s asylum regime since the “summer of migration” in 2015. Taken together, these examples illustrate three aspects of processes of recuperation: first, that legal changes often only formalize previously informal practices of recuperation, second, that the framing of migration in terms of crisis functions as a vehicle for processes of recuperation that, third, are incoherent and thus open up new opportunities for practices of appropriation. In sum, the reading of the European border regime as an apparatus of capture paves the way for more assertive antiracist politics as it invites us to apprehend increasingly violent forms of border control not as signs of strengths of the European border regime, but as indicators of its increasingly desperate fight for survival.

AB - The diagnosis of a migration crisis has prompted multiple processes of rebordering in Europe and beyond. These include the buildup of physical barriers like walls and fences, the tightening of asylum regimes, the expansion of biometric databases, and the enrollment of authoritarian regimes in controlling Europe’s borders. These developments have prompted a revival of the image of the “fortress” in critical accounts of the European border regime. Building on existing criticisms of the metaphorical Fortress Europe, this article proposes an alternative political imaginary of the European border regime. Starting from a version of the autonomy of migration approach that is based on the notion of appropriation, it proposes to apprehend the European border regime as a parasitic and precarious apparatus of capture. This apparatus of capture tries to recuperate migrants’ practices of appropriation in order to turn the knowledge and creativity of these practices into a driving force for its own development. Important aspects of this dynamic are illustrated through two examples: the refinement of control mechanisms of the European visa regime and the repeated tightening of Germany’s asylum regime since the “summer of migration” in 2015. Taken together, these examples illustrate three aspects of processes of recuperation: first, that legal changes often only formalize previously informal practices of recuperation, second, that the framing of migration in terms of crisis functions as a vehicle for processes of recuperation that, third, are incoherent and thus open up new opportunities for practices of appropriation. In sum, the reading of the European border regime as an apparatus of capture paves the way for more assertive antiracist politics as it invites us to apprehend increasingly violent forms of border control not as signs of strengths of the European border regime, but as indicators of its increasingly desperate fight for survival.

KW - Sociology

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85047647262&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/59c5b5a5-2a6f-3125-a88f-ca7e56b5c1ec/

U2 - 10.1215/00382876-4374834

DO - 10.1215/00382876-4374834

M3 - Scientific review articles

AN - SCOPUS:85047647262

VL - 117

SP - 267

EP - 289

JO - South Atlantic Quarterly

JF - South Atlantic Quarterly

SN - 0038-2876

IS - 2

ER -