‘The other’ crossing: Discursive representations of the management and dynamics of the Southern Border of Spain

Abstract

Spain has undergone important transformations in its migratory patterns. In the last decades the country began to observe a decrease in the net of emigration and an enlargement of the immigration influx. Although the financial crisis has had a strong impact on the mobility dynamics of the population in the country, which include a strong reduction in the immigration rate, Spain continues to receive immigrants, including, irregular ones, that look to settle in the country or to transit to others in the European space. The influx of irregular immigrants who often arrive through means so precarious as ‘pateras’ (boats) to Spain, is also observed in other southern European countries and as an established phenomenon, it has been paralleled by the strengthening of the borders of ‘Fortress Europe’. The new forms of governance emerging from the creation and expansion of the European Union have required deep transformations in the way European societies interact with each other and with the rest of the world, in order to come up with ways to manage and mitigate the intrinsic contradictions, challenges and complexities present in this process, among which the management of the external borders is central. As the migratory pressure rises, Europe faces the difficult task of simultaneously controlling the influx of immigrants and respecting the human rights and democratic values upon which it claims to be founded. These contradicting aims are often pernicious to each other in borders where deportations, violence, brutal encounters and vehement signs of rejection and exclusion are the rule everyday. Borders, including the European external ones, are not only geographical limits. They are institutions where values, interests, beliefs, feelings, imaginaries, and political and economic objectives are synthesized, materialized and reflected. In the process of making Europe, new border rules and practices have to emerge, as the European Union and its member states seek to ensure the perpetuation of a particular order of the world where they maintain the sovereignty over certain territories and populations. In this context, the importance of the Spanish-Moroccan border is major, not only because of the geographical proximity between Spain and Morocco, and therefore between Europe and Africa, in the area, but because, to a great extent, of the strong migratory pressure it is the object of, the success of the political, economic and social agenda of Europe, depends greatly on the securing and control of its borders. [...]