Description
Book SynopsisThe Mediterranean Sea is now the deadliest region in the world for migrants. Although the death toll has been rising for many years, the EU response remains fragmented and short sighted. Politicians frame these migration flows as an unprecedented crisis and emphasize migration control at the EU''s external boundaries. In this context, At Europe''s Edge investigates why the EU prioritizes the fortification of its external borders; why migrants nevertheless continue to cross the Mediterranean and to die at sea; and how EU member states on the southern periphery respond to their new role as migration gatekeepers. The book addresses these questions by examining the relationship between the EU and Malta, a small state with an outsized role in migration politics as EU policies place it at the crosshairs of migration flows and controls. The chapters combine ethnographic methods with macro-level analyses to weave together policymaker, practitioner, and migrant experiences, and demonstrate how the Mediterranean is an important space for the contested construction of ''Europe''. This book provides rich insight into the unexpected level of influence Malta exerts on EU migration governance, as well as the critical role migrants and their clandestine journeys play in animating EU and Maltese migration policies, driving international relations, and producing Malta''s political power. By centring on the margins, the book pushes the boundaries of our knowledge of the global politics of migration, asylum, and border security.
Trade ReviewThe way that Mainwaring cements her discussion in ongoing empirical evidence is one of the greatest joys in this book ... I found myself hooked by her attention to detail and have been following emerging events throughout this year as a result of the interest she has managed to pique. For Mainwaring this is not just research; At Europe's Edge reflects the determination of a type of academic activism (an intervention) that has been present in all the work of hers I have read to date. * Richard Vogt, Border Criminologies *
At Europe's Edge: Migration and Crisis in the Mediterranean [is] an impressively comprehensive and polished piece of work, addressing discourses, policy and security in relation to migration in the Mediterranean, based on a methodologically robust study. The book eloquently weaves together the historical evolution of border policy and migration in the Mediterranean, while also bringing the current realities into focus ... The author does not only centre migrant voices, but skilfully brings her interlocutors to life, by capturing in a few words their character, background or the impression that encounter left on her. * 2020 Annual Best Book Award of the'International Politics of Migration, Refugees and Diaspora' Working Group of the British International Studies Association Committee *
It's all there, surgically taken apart by Ċetta Mainwaring in her excellent At Europe's Edge. Anyone who is serious about migration should buy and read this book. * Mark Anthony Falzon, Professor and Head of Sociology, University of Malta *
At Europe's Edge is a compelling account ... [and] a valuable resource; it is relevant not only for scholars of governance and migration research but also for the interested public, migrants' advocates, and politicians alike... Mainwaring's book is timely and much-needed, as dehumanizing events like the tuna-pen incident still happen, as a glance at recent news reports from April 2020 reveals. * Dr Laura Otto, Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main *
From gripping opening to thoughtful ending, Ċetta Mainwaring adroitly locates Mediterranean crossings at the cutting edge of intellectual and political debate. At Europe's Edge demands that readers move border-crossers and small island states where they land from margin to centre. * Alison Mountz, Professor of Geography and Global Migration, Wilfrid Laurier University *
At Europe's Edge offers an authoritative and accessible account of the social, political, and cultural construction of Europe's so-called 'migration' crisis. Mainwaring draws on a decade of ethnographic research to historicize the dominant 'crisis' narrative, to foreground the agency of actors presumed to be marginal in shaping Mediterranean space, and to emphasize the everyday production and contestation of Europe's borders. The result is a major new intervention that deserves urgent attention — this book will shape interdisciplinary debates about one of the most pressing public policy issues in the twenty-first century. * Nick Vaughan-Williams, Professor of International Security, University of Warwick *
Table of Contents1: Notes from the Mediterranean: Shipwrecks, Politics, and Death 2: Constructing Crises to Manage: Migration Governance and the Power to Exclude 3: Limits of Migration Management: Clandestine Journeys to Europe 4: At Europe's Edge: Arrival on the Maltese Islands 5: Lilliputian Power? Malta's 'Crisis' 6: The Future of Europe Appendix: Reflections on Methods and Ethics
