Transnational Mediated Commemoration of Migrant Deaths at the Borders of Europe

Abstract

More than 30 000 people have died at Europe’s borders between 1993 and 2018. These tragedies touch family members and diasporic communities across the globe. While these deaths are often invisible in the mainstream media – they are not ritualized as common loss – this does not mean that media would not play a crucial role in commemoration among diasporic communities directly affected by the loss. Facebook groups, websites, and self-made You Tube videos are examples of transnational mediated commemoration that brings together mourners across distances. By asking, how diasporic communities commemorate border related death, this chapter identifies and theorizes a previously unexplored research area, that of transnational commemoration of border death. The empirical research focuses on the Eritrean diaspora for whom the shipwreck known as the Lampedusa tragedy of 2013 has become an important lieux de memoiré. The chapter shows how the new media technology shapes commemoration in ways that challenges politics, both in Europe and in Eritrea.