At Europe's Edge

Migration and Crisis in the Mediterranean

Ċetta Mainwaring

A far-reaching study providing the basis for new theoretical advancements in migration studies
Presents rich empirical data collected over ten years, including participant observation, and more than 150 interviews with migrants, policymakers, and practitioners
Employs a multi-level and interdisciplinary analysis of developments at the regional, national, and local levels
Offers significant new insights into migrant journeys and EU migration policies
Draws on the often-overlooked case study of Malta

At Europe's Edge

Migration and Crisis in the Mediterranean

Ċetta Mainwaring

Description

The 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.

At Europe's Edge

Migration and Crisis in the Mediterranean

Ċetta Mainwaring

1: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

At Europe's Edge

Migration and Crisis in the Mediterranean

Ċetta Mainwaring

Author Information

Ċetta Mainwaring, Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow, School of Social and Political Sciences, University of Glasgow

Cetta Mainwaring is a Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Glasgow. She holds a DPhil in International Relations from the University of Oxford and an MA in Sociology from City University, London. Dr Mainwaring's research interests lie at the intersection of migration, borders, and state controls. Her research projects have examined how European Union member states seek to control migration at the external border in the Mediterranean region and how these policies shape migrant experiences. This includes co-leading a collaborative, cross-regional project, 'Clandestine Migration Journeys', which examines the everyday experiences of migrants travelling without authorization and the ways they challenge and overcome restrictive policies and barriers they face along the route.

At Europe's Edge

Migration and Crisis in the Mediterranean

Ċetta Mainwaring

Reviews and Awards

2020 Annual Best Book Award of the 'International Politics of Migration, Refugees and Diaspora' Working Group of the British International Studies Association

"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