ABSTRACT
Today migration is more than ever associated with a scenario of crisis, in which migration is interpreted as a sudden, exceptional, and threatening phenomenon. Far from the ‘space of mobility’ once described by Fernand Braudel, especially the Mediterranean is defined nowadays as a ‘space of crisis’ where migrants and refugees risk their lives to reach Europe, and pose a challenge to European societies. This chapter deconstructs this current crisis narrative, by emphasizing that this perspective is oblivious of the fact that the Mediterranean has always been a region of migration. It shows that previous policies have built irregularity as a defining feature of the Mediterranean migratory regime. The securitization and the externalization of EU migration policies in the region have contributed to crystallizing this feature. The authors also demonstrate that in the post-Arab uprisings period, EU policy continues to be risk averse.
The chapter highlights that migration in the Mediterranean has been managed through a self-feeding dynamic: stricter migration controls and a lack of legal avenues, together with the persistence of economic needs, caused an increase in irregular migration, which in turn generated the need for more control.
