Archipelagos of Constraint: Arrival in Europe

The long journey of African migrant women does not end at the gates of Europe: Southern European receiving countries are “useful margins,” in both spatial and political terms, that serve a valuable purpose for all EU member states, in that they are used to sort out and select those women who will be allowed to continue their journey and those who, conversely, will be stopped, detained, or deported. Building on the notion of “governmental mobility” proposed by Nick Gill, the author examines several examples of governmental techniques and apparatuses that are designed to both detain and move migrants, thus leading to the immobilisation of migrants and, at the same time, increasing their mobility. First, the author describes a detention centre for women located in Rome; the author then analyses the case of women who are relocated in Europe as well as that of women who are “Dublined,” that is, sent back to Southern Europe under the Dublin III Regulation; and, finally, the author looks at instances of so-called voluntary returns. In closing, the author recounts the journey of a Somali woman, Aslya Aden Ahmed, in whose case—a typical example of immobilisation through mobility processes—the European Court of Human Rights ruled against Malta. Drawing on this case, the author introduces the concept of “static mobility”—migrants are tracked, monitored, and detained while also being moved around the EU reception and asylum system—as well as the idea of a “career in detention”—migrants literally end up having a career as detainees in this system.