A Continent Under House Arrest? Migration, Security, and Contested Sovereignties in the Sahara

Since the 2000s, the surveillance and coercion of individuals living in or travelling through the Sahara have been encouraged and implemented by international, European and African actors, often in blatant violation of international law. The mobility regime that results from this implies a new mode of government, post-sovereign nation-state. To fully grasp the implications of this shift, we need innovative conceptual tools that enable us to rethink the very paradigms through which our understanding of (trans-)Saharan migration is constructed and rendered intelligible. Drawing on two decades of engagement with the region, including five years of ethnographic fieldwork, I aim to make progress in developing these tools. The outcomes of this project will contribute to and help reframe the growing critical literature on human migration and international security, which denounces the portrayal of African migrants as mere risks, threats, or dangers to European societies. Additionally, it will highlight the local effects of international security and migration policies in the area, not only on governance practices, but also on the region’s human geography—specifically, on how African arid land are reshaped, restructured, and re-bordered.