Abstract
This article provides a re-conceptualization of human security by exploring humanitarian discourse in the EU periphery. It analyzes human security at the Mediterranean borders by focusing on humanitarian, migrant-centered discourse concerned with defending the world’s most vulnerable populations (Barnett in Annual Review of Political Science 16(1): 379-398, 2013). Empirical research has detected humanitarian discourse defending migrants’ rights, based on claims for the right to be free from inhuman treatment (Aradau in Millennium: Journal of International Studies 33(2): 251–77, 2004), as a counter-argument to the defense and closure of the borders. A humanitarian discourse focused on the alleviation of migrants’ physical and mental suffering erupted at the EU periphery when the Italian government denied a port of safety to the SeaWatch3 vessel in January 2019. This case study provides an example of center-periphery conflictual dynamics. The Italian government, defending the EU/Italian borders by closing the Italian ports, was challenged by actors mobilizing pressure, shaming the state into compliance and requesting pro-migrant legislation.
Highlights
Security debates have traditionally characterized IR literature, as well as European Union (EU) politics, and the concepts of security and borders have become closely intertwined over time
It touched on territorial borders and the essential boundary function of peripheral EU areas, where humanitarian discourse and solidarity practices have emerged over the years
Actors in the EU periphery play a crucial role in elaborating a humanitarian discourse that combines narratives and practices and can produce distinct results from the national cores
Summary
Security debates have traditionally characterized IR literature, as well as EU politics, and the concepts of security and borders have become closely intertwined over time. In the EU’s Mediterranean periphery, non-state actors and humanitarian associations provide food and shelter to those in need, promote migrants’ rights and protection of the vulnerable, advocate the regularization of irregular migrants and/or the advancement of the existing legislation These humanitarian stances can challenge central governments, as occurred in Italy with the SeaWatch blockade. They regard migrants, children in particular, as the prime beneficiaries of local policy measures due to their vulnerability, their basic needs for shelter, health care, education, etc. Human rights promotion and vulnerable protection must imply activities of human rights promotion and protection of vulnerable people moving beyond existing norms
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