INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN ORGANIZATIONS AT THE SOUTHERN EUROPEAN BORDER: (DE)POLITICIZATION AND (DE)BORDERING WITHIN AND BEYOND THE HOTSPOT SYSTEM IN SICILY

This thesis explores the contribution of international humanitarian organizations to the (de)politicization of the current EU border regime and to the legitimization or countering of (de)bordering processes. This research focuses on the role of some international humanitarian organizations (the UNHCR, MEDU, Terre des Hommes, the Red Cross and Oxfam) operating on the southern Italian border (in Sicily) during different key rebordering phases (i.e. the introduction of the hotspot approach in 2015 and the adoption of the security decree of 2018). Based on ten months of fieldwork in Sicily, the present study adopts a mix-method approach and resorts to three main methods: document analysis, semi-structured interviews and direct observation. This thesis suggests that the discourses and practices of international humanitarian organizations contribute to both depoliticizing and re-politicizing the current migration and border regime. Humanitarian discourses and practices can have inherent depoliticizing features that contribute to perpetuating the actual border management system in different ways: by legitimizing States’ categories and processes of selection of migrants or by providing services that contribute to building States’ capacity to manage migration. At the same time, the humanitarian borderwork of international humanitarian organizations is coupled with political borderwork and contributes to challenging the current border regime in different ways: by advocating for migrant rights, by criticizing governmental practices and policies, by promoting migrants’ inclusion through direct engagement.