Responding to the self-declared “Mediterranean migration crisis” in 2015, the European Commission launched a Hotspot Approach to speed up the handling of incoming migrants in the “frontline states” of Greece and Italy. A key element in this operation is the identification of those eligible for asylum, which requires effective communication across cultural and linguistic difference between the asylum system and the migrants, facilitated by officially designated “cultural mediators.” We assess the hotspot governance as a form of outsourcing border control within the EU territory. Beyond sorting out and separating migrants into the categories of deservingness and undeservingness, we propose that the hotspot mechanism represents “governing by communication,” with cultural mediators as key players in this humanitarian–bordering strategy. A focus on how cultural mediators provide the precarious human labor for this governance, offers, we argue, a productive inroad into the ways in which the hotspot economies of deterrence, containment, and care sustain inequalities embedded in race, socioeconomic status, and citizenship.

中文翻译：

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欧盟内部的外包热点治理：作为希腊人道主义边境工作者的文化调解人

为应对 2015 年自称的“地中海移民危机”，欧盟委员会启动了热点方法，以加快处理希腊和意大利“前线国家”的入境移民。这一行动的一个关键因素是确定那些有资格获得庇护的人，这需要在官方指定的“文化调解人”的协助下，就庇护系统和移民之间的文化和语言差异进行有效沟通。我们将热点治理评估为欧盟境内外包边境控制的一种形式。除了将移民分类和区分为应得和不应得的类别外，我们建议热点机制代表“通过沟通进行治理”，文化调解人是这一人道主义边界战略的关键参与者。