Abstract

This article explores the emergence of the crime of migrant smuggling and its legitimising narratives as tools of global migration management. We examine the ways in which the language of ‘migrant smuggling’ was introduced into and then lifted out of the context of international law and recontextualised to serve the purposes of migration management. The main consequence of this fusion of law, narrative and policy is the redefinition of the legality of actors and actions along the migration routes across the Sahara, the Mediterranean and Europe. We examine the conflict between two dominant narratives of legality: the smuggler narrative vs the rescue narrative. Laws designed to protect people are being turned against the people they were ostensibly designed to protect. We argue that the smuggler narrative facilitates policies whereby wealthy states, under the pretence of law, contain migration from the South within the broader framework of a divisive global politics of life. Since these policies are implemented through bribery, blackmail and brute force, they are displaying the ugly face of global migration governance without contributing in any way to a solution of the problems driving migration in the current global environment.

摘要

本文探讨了偷运移民犯罪的出现以及将其合法化的叙述作为全球移民管理的工具。我们研究了如何将“移民走私”的语言引入国际法，然后从国际法的背景中解脱出来，并重新界定其背景以服务于移民管理的目的。法律，叙事和政策融合的主要结果是重新定义了跨撒哈拉，地中海和欧洲的迁徙路线上的行为者和行动的合法性。我们考察了合法性的两种主要叙事之间的冲突：走私者叙事与救援叙事。旨在保护人民的法律正与表面上旨在保护人民的人民背道而驰。我们认为，走私者的叙述促进了富裕国家的政策，在法律的伪装下，将来自南方的移民限制在分裂的全球生活政治的更广泛框架内。由于这些政策是通过贿赂，勒索和暴力手段实施的，因此它们显示了全球移徙治理的丑陋面貌，而没有以任何方式有助于解决当前全球环境中推动移徙的问题。