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Stopping boats, saving lives, securing subjects : humanitarian borders in Europe and Australia
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Little, A. and Vaughan-Williams, Nick (2017) Stopping boats, saving lives, securing subjects : humanitarian borders in Europe and Australia. European Journal of International Relations, 23 (3). pp. 533-556. doi:10.1177/1354066116661227 ISSN 1354-0661.
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1354066116661227
Abstract
In April 2015, former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott called on European leaders to respond to the migration and refugee crisis in the Mediterranean by ‘stopping the boats’ in order to prevent further deaths. This suggestion resonated with the European Union Commission’s newly articulated commitment to both enhancing border security and saving lives. This article charts the increasing entanglement of securitisation and humanitarianism in the context of transnational border control and migration management. The analysis traces the global phenomenon of humanitarian border security alongside a series of spatial dislocations and temporal deferrals of ‘the border’ in both European and Australian contexts. While discourses of humanitarian borders operate according to a purportedly universal and therefore borderless logic of ‘saving lives’, the subjectivity of the ‘irregular’ migrant in need of rescue is one that is produced as spatially and temporally exceptional — the imperative is always to act in the here and the now — and therefore knowable, governable and ‘bordered’.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||||
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Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare J Political Science > JV Colonies and colonization. Emigration and immigration. International migration |
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Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Politics and International Studies | ||||||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Syria -- Refugees -- European Union countries -- 21st century, Afghanistan -- Refugees -- European Union countries -- 21st century, Iraq -- Refugees -- European Union countries -- 21st century, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees -- 21st century, Emigration and immigration | ||||||||
Journal or Publication Title: | European Journal of International Relations | ||||||||
Publisher: | Sage Publications Ltd. | ||||||||
ISSN: | 1354-0661 | ||||||||
Official Date: | 1 September 2017 | ||||||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | 23 | ||||||||
Number: | 3 | ||||||||
Page Range: | pp. 533-556 | ||||||||
DOI: | 10.1177/1354066116661227 | ||||||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||||||
Date of first compliant deposit: | 17 August 2016 | ||||||||
Date of first compliant Open Access: | 17 August 2016 |
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