This paper examines how racial violence underpins the European Union’s border regime. Drawing on two case studies, in northern France and the Balkans, we explore how border violence manifests in divergent ways: from the direct physical violence which is routine in Croatia, to more subtle forms of violence evident in the governance of migrants and refugees living informally in Calais, closer to Europe’s geopolitical centre. The use of violence against people on the move sits uncomfortably with the liberal, post-racial self-image of the European Union. Drawing upon the work of postcolonial scholars and theories of violence, we argue that the various violent technologies used by EU states against migrants embodies the inherent logics of liberal governance, whilst also reproducing liberalism’s tendency to overlook its racial limitations. By interrogating how and why border violence manifests we draw critical attention to the racialised ideologies within which it is predicated. This paper characterises the EU border regime as a form of “liberal violence” that seeks to elide both its violent nature and its racial underpinnings.

中文翻译：

---

自由暴力与欧盟的种族边界

本文研究了种族暴力如何支撑欧盟的边界制度。借鉴法国北部和巴尔干地区的两个案例研究，我们探讨了边境暴力如何以不同的方式表现出来：从克罗地亚常见的直接身体暴力，到非正式生活的移民和难民的治理中明显的更微妙的暴力形式在加来，更靠近欧洲的地缘政治中心。对流动人口使用暴力与欧盟的自由主义、后种族自我形象不符。借鉴后殖民学者的工作和暴力理论，我们认为欧盟国家对移民使用的各种暴力技术体现了自由治理的内在逻辑，同时也再现了自由主义忽视其种族局限性的倾向。通过询问边境暴力的表现方式和原因，我们引起了对其所预测的种族化意识形态的批判性关注。本文将欧盟边境制度描述为一种“自由暴力”形式，旨在消除其暴力性质和种族基础。