Abstract
AbstractSituated at the interplay between ethnic politics, migration, border, and security studies, this contribution analyzes processes of securitization of borders in South Tyrol, an Italian province bordering Austria and Switzerland with a German- and Ladin-speaking population and a past of ethnic tensions. South Tyrol is considered a model for fostering peaceful interethnic relations thanks to a complex power-sharing system. However, the arrival of migrants from foreign countries and the more recent influx of asylum seekers have revitalized debates around the borders between South Tyrol/Italy and Austria and among South Tyrolean linguistic groups. The current COVID-19 pandemic has brought further complexity to the issue. I use the concept of securitization—the process through which an issue is considered as an existential threat requiring exceptional measures—in order to understand why and how borders become exclusionary and restrictive, shaping dynamics of othering. With this framework, the article explores how South Tyrolean borders have been subjected to (de)securitizing and resecuritizing moves in discourses and practices. In this way, I shed new light on debates on the articulation of borders and interethnic relations that are occurring due to recent international migration, consolidation of nationalist agendas, and the current pandemic.
Highlights
Even as we celebrated the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, one of the most notorious borders in recent human history, the subject of borders has never been so present and relevant
On the assumption that borders by nature do not necessarily have negative connotations, I used the concept of securitization taken from the field of security studies to elaborate a framework for analyzing developments affecting borders
As the result of the outcome of war and authoritarian decisions made during the fascist regime, the political, administrative, and cultural-linguistic borders in South Tyrol have been historically contested and processes of securitization entrenched in their creation and development
Summary
Even as we celebrated the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, one of the most notorious borders in recent human history, the subject of borders has never been so present and relevant. Desecuritization can be understood as a process that frames borders more positively as places of encounter and exchange With this framework, the article examines discourses and practices related to South Tyrolean political, administrative, and cultural borders. In the South Tyrolean case, three types of borders are relevant and will be the focus of this article: these are the political border between Italy and Austria; the administrative border that defines and divides the two Italian provinces of South Tyrol and Trentino ( Province of Trento), which together form the region Trentino-South Tyrol; and the cultural-linguistic border among the Italian-, German-, and Ladin-speaking communities These borders at times overlap, like the Italian borders and part of the boundaries of the South Tyrol province, but only partially. Scholars have highlighted processes of de- and reterritorialization of borders, and, in this regard, borderscape has become a trendy concept to grasp the fluidity and fluctuation of the border areas and the politics behind them (Brambilla 2015)
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