Projects per year
Abstract
Distance, as the next sections will demonstrate, plays a crucial role as a mechanism not only of dispersion of legal duties, blurring the lines of causation and making attribution of wrongful conduct a difficult task, but also as an artefact of oppression and displacement in itself. It does not prevent (unwanted) migration but rather makes it unviable through legally sanctioned, safe channels, diverting it through ever more perilous routes. The immediate effect of this distance that externalization engenders is at least threefold. First, it leads to the disempowerment of migrants, who are left with no options for safe and legal escape, being instead coerced into dangerous courses operated by smugglers. Second, it legitimizes the actors enforcing externalized control on behalf, and for the benefit, of the European Union and its Member States. Repressive forces in third countries gain standing as valid interlocutors for cooperation, as a result; their democratic and human rights credentials becoming secondary, if at all relevant, as the Libyan case illustrates below. Third, legal alternatives, like the relaxation of controls or the creation of safe and regular pathways, are rejected; perceived as an illogical concession to the failure of the externalization project. The final outcome, and what constitutes the focus of this contribution, is the ‘border-induced displacement’ effect, resulting from the combination of the processes of extraterritorialisation and externalization taken together. Border-induced displacement is not equivalent to the original reasons forcing people into exile, but rather functions as a second-order type of (re-)displacement, produced precisely via (the violence implicated in) border control. This then leads to forms of ‘engineered regionalism’, that is, politics re-producing displacement in certain areas closest to the origin of flows. ‘Safe third country’ rules and practices are the main vehicle of this development, discernible also within the EU, where the Dublin System has ‘rulified’ an asymmetric allocation of responsibility for asylum claims to peripheral countries situated at the external common frontiers of the Union, like Spain, Italy and Greece. In the case of externalization, border-induced displacement is then imposed upon already-displaced persons by non-European actors implementing the EU’s pre-emptive control agenda, reinforcing prevailing patterns of exploitation and existing hierarchies of exclusion and subordination.
The ethical and legal consequences of ‘distance-creation’ are what we turn to analyse in the remainder of this article. Section 2 pays attention to the assumptions and ethical and political-economic dimensions behind this strategy, discussing exit control, coercion, and the democratic legitimization of unelected actors enforcing the EU border within third countries. Section 3 investigates the legal impact of externalization and extraterritorialization, centring on the apparent accountability gaps that it generates, contesting the legality of responsibility dispersion mechanisms. The overall conclusion we reach is that the ‘rulification’ of externalization at EU level does not render it ethically and legally tenable under international law. The ‘lawification’ at EU level of practices inconsistent with human rights is insufficient to render them compatible with international legal standards.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 1 |
Journal | Questions of International Law |
Volume | 56 |
Issue number | 1 |
Pages (from-to) | 5-33 |
Number of pages | 29 |
ISSN | 2284-2969 |
Publication status | Published - 1 Mar 2019 |
Keywords
- Externalization
- border-induced displacement
- Libya
- EU
- border control
- responsibility
- distance-creation
- rulification
- legal rights
- human rights
- freedom of movement
- liberal nationalism
- border control industry
- market for border control
- military companies
- security companies
Fingerprint
Dive into the research topics of 'Border-induced displacement: The ethical and legal implications of distance-creation through externalization'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.Projects
- 2 Finished
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Spaces, Borders, Bodies. A postcolonial inquiry into Danish politics of forced migration
Lemberg-Pedersen, M.
28/02/2017 → 29/02/2020
Project: Research
Activities
- 1 Talks and presentations in private or public companies
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Paneldebat efter screening af "Humanity on Trial"
Martin Lemberg-Pedersen (Lecturer)
21 Mar 2019Activity: Talks and presentations › Talks and presentations in private or public companies
Press/Media
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Spansk-marokkansk grænsekontrol
Martin Lemberg-Pedersen
12/09/2019
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Press / Media
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Europa’s Afrikabeleid militariseert
Martin Lemberg-Pedersen
06/08/2019
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Press / Media
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Meget hård hverdag for flygtninge i lejre i Libyen
Martin Lemberg-Pedersen
16/04/2019
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Press / Media
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Security, industry and migration in European border control
Lemberg-Pedersen, M., 11 Jul 2018, The Routledge Handbook of the Politics of Migration in Europe. Weinar, A., Bonjour, S. & Zhyznomirska, L. (eds.). Routledge, 12 p. (Routledge International Handbooks).Research output: Contribution to book/anthology/report/conference proceeding › Book chapter › Research › peer-review
6 Citations (Scopus) -
Effective Protection or Effective Combat: EU border control and North Africa
Lemberg-Pedersen, M., 1 Nov 2016, EurAfrican Borders and Migration Management: Political Cultures, Contested Spaces and Ordinary Lives. Gaibazzi, P., Dünnwald, S. & Bellagamba, A. (eds.). Palgrave Macmillan, p. 29-60 35 p. (Palgrave Series in African Borderlands Studies).Research output: Contribution to book/anthology/report/conference proceeding › Book chapter › Research › peer-review
Open Access -
Unravelling the Drivers of EU Border Militarization
Lemberg-Pedersen, M., 1 Oct 2015Research output: Other contribution › Net publication - Internet publication › Communication