ABSTRACT

This article presents the results of an ethnography carried out in Lampedusa – a fundamental hub in the border spectacle of irregular migrations – during the COVID-19 emergency, where landings have increased, especially from Tunisia. Through fieldwork and interviews to local key actors, the research aims to answer the following intertwined questions: how does migrant agency develop? How is the borderwork reinvented? How do different local groups and authorities act, react, and interact with migrant agency and borderwork? These questions are addressed, scrutinizing three steps of a migrants’ corridor towards Europe: firstly, the landings and their social fabrication around the piers; secondly, the hole and the confinement fences on the hotspot-island; thirdly, the forced return to sea on the quarantine ships. In this way, the article shows how the pandemic becomes a constituent moment in border policies, devices and procedures, opening up a reinforced space–time of migrants’ containment.

摘要

本文介绍了在 COVID-19 紧急情况期间在兰佩杜萨（一个非正常移民边界奇观的基本枢纽）进行的民族志研究的结果，该地区的登陆人数有所增加，特别是来自突尼斯。通过实地调查和对当地主要参与者的采访，本研究旨在回答以下相互交织的问题：移民机构是如何发展的？边界是如何重塑的？不同的地方团体和当局如何行动、反应并与移民机构和边境工作互动？这些问题得到解决，审议三步一移民的走廊对欧洲：首先，着陆和围绕着码头的社会生产; 其次，洞以及热点岛上的围栏；三是被隔离船强制返海。通过这种方式，文章展示了大流行如何成为边境政策、设备和程序中的一个组成部分，打开了对移民进行遏制的强化时空。