Unmaking Migrants? The Production of the EU´s Internal and External Borders in a Historical-Postcolonial Perspective

This project examines how the distinction between Europe’s external and internal borders was produced and how mobile groups came to be categorized at these borders. Using the example of three border spaces between France and its neighbouring countries, it explores local practices of ‘doing border’ (Kasparek 2010; Wonders/Jones 2019) and categorising mobilities, resulting in the inclusion of some groups and the exclusion of others. Historically, borders have been important ‘sorting machines’ (Mau 2021) that contributed to the production of different mobilities and mobility options. In turn, they were produced and reproduced by various actors, processes, knowledges and infrastructures. The project aims to shed light on the ongoing restructuring of the European border regime in preparation for and as a result of the Schengen Agreement. It relates these processes to bordering practices and categorisations of being ‘European’, ‘non-European’, ‘internal’ or ‘external’ in colonial and postcolonial France. A particular focus lies on the contradictory status of ‘internal migrants’ in the context of decolonisation and Europeanisation.
Three border areas in particular serve as areas of investigation: the Mediterranean border in/near Marseill