Of Bastions and Bulwarks: A Multi-Scalar Understanding of Local Bordering Practices in Europe

Barbara Oomen,Moritz Baumgärtel,Elif Durmuş,Tihomir Sabchev,Sara Miellet

doi:10.5204/ijcjsd.2038

Barbara Oomen, Moritz Baumgärtel + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.5204/ijcjsd.2038

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Abstract

In recent years, local authorities in Europe have increasingly developed bordering practices that hinder or further migrant rights, such as the freedom of movement. They bypass national borders by facilitating refugee resettlement, they claim local space to welcome or shun certain migrants, and they develop or break down local impediments to migrant mobility. These local practices, we argue, can best be understood from a multiscalar perspective, which considers processes of placemaking as reproductive of power dynamics. Applying such a perspective to local bordering practices in Greece, Turkey, the Netherlands, Italy, and Germany, we point out the importance of the multitude of the actors involved; legal pluralism; and the contextual role of social, economic, and spatial factors. This offers a theoretical foothold for understanding the power dynamics at play when local authorities become bastions or bulwarks, in which some migrants are welcomed, and others are not.

Highlights

Borders can be considered the ultimate litmus test of human rights, the affirmation or the negation of paper promises in real life
As concerns the actors involved, our analysis seeks to unpack the wide variety of local actors that shape bordering practices: political parties; municipal departments; local branches of national, European and international agencies; churches; nongovernmental organizations (NGOs); migrant organizations; and businesses (Ambrosini, Cinalli, and Jacobson 2020)
The cases presented highlight the agency of local actors involved, which we use as a shorthand for a myriad of public and private, individual and collective actors participating in the bordering practices

Summary

Introduction

Borders can be considered the ultimate litmus test of human rights, the affirmation or the negation of paper promises in real life. Keywords Multiscalar bordering; local actors; cities; forced migration; human rights; freedom of movement.

Results

Conclusion