38 research outputs found
Communities, Identity and Borders: What does the Kenmure Street Protest tell us about belonging to Glasgow?
No full textThe way we control our borders and treat those who want or need to cross them says so much about our national identity. And for the last 25 years, the U.K. Government has - with significant public support - moved to make immigration as difficult as possible. But in contrast, the Scottish government has been more focused on encouraging migration to Scotland to address population decline and contribute to the Scottish economy.
This episode of Recovering Community begins with the Kenmure Street Protest, when community resistance to a Home Office raid resulted in the release of two men back into their neighbourhood.
Anne Kerr talks to Teresa Piacentini, David Millar, Pinar Aksu and Cetta Mainwaring to consider the ways that community activism in Glasgow sets the city apart from wider UK sentiment towards immigration
Constructing a crisis: the role of immigration detention in Malta
No full textMalta remains the only country in the European Union that maintains an 18-month, mandatory detention policy for all irregular migrants upon arrival. This paper examines the role that detention has played in the Maltese government's response to the flows of irregular immigration to the island in the 21st century. It argues that detention is symbolic of the crisis narrative that the Maltese government has constructed as a response to these immigration flows in order to gain more practical and financial support from the European Union. The detention policy also serves to reinforce this interpretation of irregular immigration. Such a portrayal, combined with the use of detention as a deterrent, produces detrimental consequences for the migrant population, as well as the wider Maltese society. The paper draws on over 50 interviews, conducted by the author, with government officials, non-governmental organisations, and migrants and refugees on the island
Centring on the Margins: Migration Control in Malta, Cyprus and the European Union
No full textWhy does the European Union focus on controlling irregular immigration at the external border? The emphasis presents a paradox as most irregular migrants in the EU arrive through legal channels and subsequently overstay or violate the conditions of their visa. In order to explore this paradox, the thesis examines two case studies, Malta and Cyprus. As small island states on the Union’s southern periphery, the two are ostensibly unable to resist the transfer of migration controls and asylum responsibility to the EU’s external borders. Yet, employing nonmaterial power, namely by highlighting the perceived migration pressures they are under, the two states have successfully attracted significant financial and practical support from other member states. In doing so, they have influenced policymaking within EU migration governance, but have ultimately reinforced the emphasis on controlling irregular immigration at the external border by portraying the phenomenon as a crisis. This thesis not only sheds light on the interaction between the EU and the two states under investigation, but combines three levels of analysis – the regional, national, and local. The crisis narrative detrimentally affects the migrant and refugee populations as it encourages the adoption of restrictive and deterrent measures rather than ensuring access to rights and long-term integration. Nevertheless, this population is not without agency. It is their individual decisions to move across national borders without state authorisation that in the aggregate both compels states into dialogue about the issue and provides the basis for the dynamic between the EU and these two member states
In the face of revolution: the Libyan civil war and migration politics in Southern Europe
No full textNo abstract available
Review of: Foundations Of International Migration Law, edited by B. Opeskin, R. Perruchoud and J. Redpath-Cross. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2012
No full textNo abstract available
On the edge of exclusion: the changing nature of immigration in Cyprus and Malta
No full textAt the heart of the Mediterranean crossroads, lie two islands that bridge
North and South, islands that will undoubtedly continue to experience flows
of migrants and refugees, like the ones that have caused such a furore
during the last decade. Malta and Cyprus were admitted into the European
Union (EU) in 2004, a fact that has greatly affected the type of migration
they are both experiencing and the related policy responses. Moreover, they
lie between the shores of rich Europe, with its declining birth rates and
consequent labour shortages, and poor Africa with its burgeoning jobless
population, visible demarcations of the North-South divide and the related
South-North migration routes into the EU. Their geographic location now
means that they are lucky enough to be considered part of “Europe”, but
must also bear the consequences as their borders have been redefined as
external EU borders in need of fortification and control.
This paper is a comparative analysis of how Malta and Cyprus are coping
with their new migration realities as member states on the European
Union’s southern periphery. I will first discuss what the two islands have in
common and where they differ in terms of migration and the responses to
this relatively new phenomenon for countries historically known as
countries of emigration. Where can lessons learnt be shared and what does
each of these countries have to gain from the experience of the other? This
discussion will be framed within the accession of the two states to the EU.
Although part of the rich club, they are also minor political players within
the Union and therefore hold little power to affect the type of migration and
asylum policies they are obliged to enact as member states. Indeed, as
members, they are now not simply facing new forms of migration, but have
also been placed in the difficult position of acting as gatekeepers. In this
context, EU policies and directives have impelled them to adopt increasingly
restrictive migration policies
Small states and non-material power: creating crises and shaping migration policies in Malta, Cyprus and the European Union
No full textThis article examines how the power relationships between Malta and the Republic of Cyprus, on the one hand, and the European Union, on the other, shape irregular immigration policies in these two sovereign outpost island states in the Mediterranean. As member states on the EU's southern periphery, Malta and Cyprus have faced new institutional structures since their accession in 2004 within which they now construct their migration policies. Here, I examine how the new structures influence the discourse and logic of migration policies and politics and also how the seemingly small and powerless states affect regional policies. My contention is that, within this EU framework and with limited material power, the two outpost states have developed strategies based on nonmaterial power in order to defend and promote their interests. Such strategies have resulted in treating irregular immigration as a crisis in order to attract support. The new dynamics have thus resulted in more barriers to migration, and in negative consequences for the individual migrants and refugees on the islands. Although the strategies of Malta and Cyprus have been surprisingly successful in influencing regional migration governance, their long-term effectiveness is questionable, and their effects on the migrant and local population problematic
Change and opportunities in the emerging Mediterranean
No full textRevolutionary protests have spread across North Africa and the Middle East since what was dubbed as the ‘Arab Spring’ first erupted in Tunisia in December 2010. As these popular movements emerge with varying degrees of success across other countries, they have prompted new migratory flows out of the region. Those lucky enough to have the resources have secured air travel out of the region. Holiday makers, for instance, concluded their stays in Egyptian resorts prematurely, and chartered airplanes evacuated oil workers from their rigs in the Sahara Desert. However, in much larger numbers, others have been forced to make their way across land to neighbouring countries. A small fraction of those unable to secure air travel have chosen to board boats, especially from Libya and Tunisia, and made their way across the Mediterranean to Europe in search of security.peer-reviewe
