Part of the HOSTILE ENVIRONMENTS Spring Public Programme
Drawing on research conducted in Calais (Davies et al 2018) and the Balkans (Isakjee et al forthcoming), this presentation examines the technologies of violence that sustain the European border, as well as the racial logics that underpin them. We highlight how refugees have been immobilized not only through the overt use direct violence, but also through the deliberate deployment of political indifference and violent inaction.
The violence of inaction sees migrants left to drown in the Mediterranean sea when they could otherwise be saved, and can be witnessed in the squalor of makeshift migrant camps found across the continent, which have been deliberately denied basic humanitarian standards. We will conclude by raising questions about the possibilities of resistance, refusal and resilience in the face of such direct and indirect forms of oppression.
HOSTILE ENVIRONMENTS Series organised by Lorenzo Pezzani and Nishat Awan Thursday 7 March 2019 Professor Stuart Hall Building LG02 17:00 - 19:00