{"title":"Externalization Beyond “Immigration Risk”? UK Borderwork Creep in Africa and its Cumulative Rippling Effects","authors":"Nicole Ostrand","doi":"10.1177/01979183241264988","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"This article examines UK “borderwork creep” into ever more sites in states across Africa and considers how it is transformed and produced by practitioners on the ground. The aim is to go beyond research focusing on the EU and Northern and Western Africa to show the more expansive and, in some cases, unexpected reach of UK borderwork. Drawing on interviews, documentary research, and freedom of information requests, I find UK-funded “training” and “capacity building” in 17 African states. This creep, in many cases, is driven less by the UK perceptions of “immigration risk” and more by opportunism based on African counterparts’ interests and the ability of UK immigration liaison officers to establish relationships on the ground. This complicates conventional narratives, and government claims, where externalization is largely seen as a response to perceived “migration crises” and increases in “unwanted” and illegalized mobility. The paper adds to the rich and growing body of research on externalization in Africa by attuning specifically to the productive role of relationships and cumulative dimensions, which have received limited attention to-date. It does so by proposing the metaphor of rippling to better highlight how previous actions and interactions build on each other and spread outward, generating new actions. The result is UK borderwork diffused and distanced from the original goals of externalized migration control.","PeriodicalId":48229,"journal":{"name":"International Migration Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.3000,"publicationDate":"2024-09-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"International Migration Review","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/01979183241264988","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"DEMOGRAPHY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This article examines UK “borderwork creep” into ever more sites in states across Africa and considers how it is transformed and produced by practitioners on the ground. The aim is to go beyond research focusing on the EU and Northern and Western Africa to show the more expansive and, in some cases, unexpected reach of UK borderwork. Drawing on interviews, documentary research, and freedom of information requests, I find UK-funded “training” and “capacity building” in 17 African states. This creep, in many cases, is driven less by the UK perceptions of “immigration risk” and more by opportunism based on African counterparts’ interests and the ability of UK immigration liaison officers to establish relationships on the ground. This complicates conventional narratives, and government claims, where externalization is largely seen as a response to perceived “migration crises” and increases in “unwanted” and illegalized mobility. The paper adds to the rich and growing body of research on externalization in Africa by attuning specifically to the productive role of relationships and cumulative dimensions, which have received limited attention to-date. It does so by proposing the metaphor of rippling to better highlight how previous actions and interactions build on each other and spread outward, generating new actions. The result is UK borderwork diffused and distanced from the original goals of externalized migration control.
期刊介绍:
International Migration Review is an interdisciplinary peer-reviewed journal created to encourage and facilitate the study of all aspects of sociodemographic, historical, economic, political, legislative and international migration. It is internationally regarded as the principal journal in the field facilitating study of international migration, ethnic group relations, and refugee movements. Through an interdisciplinary approach and from an international perspective, IMR provides the single most comprehensive forum devoted exclusively to the analysis and review of international population movements.