Bordering and the War on Migration

More than death, some migrants fear returning empty-handed from the EU African borderlands. This Liberian migrant in Niger shows his empty hands after losing his money and almost [...]

“No Kings Day” sign in New York City, June 14, 2025. Photo by Alexandra Délano Alonso. I began writing this essay in June 2025 as the Trump [...]

Activists from Boza Fii Association at the Push Back Frontex event in Dalifort, Senegal, 2023. Photo courtesy of Boza Fii/ Alassane Sow. “Without visas, migrating by boat [...]

Transport of equipment for illegal small-scale mining at Kenkyere Barrier, Ghana. Photo by H.A. Agyekum Although bordering practice is often accompanied by militarized security and violence, in [...]

Traders outside Mayom, Unity State, 2024. Photo by Mawal Marko Gatkuoth. In the last twenty years, a rapid succession of crises—floods, droughts, rebellions, and national wars in Sudan [...]

View of the Mediterranean Sea from the Maltese coast. Photo by Marthe Achtnich The externalization of Europe’s borders, or the outsourcing of border control, has turned the [...]

A Venezuelan immigrant walks in the streets of New York City. Photo by Erick Moreno Superlano. In the early 2000s, Andrés, a middle-class Venezuelan university student, watched [...]

Flowers at the US-Mexico border wall, El Paso. Photo by Ahlam Chemlali The images have become commonplace: the might of war tanks, the ubiquitous speedboats or all-terrain vehicles; [...]

Migrants pass time in a shelter in Tapachula. Photo by Wendy Vogt. On October 2, 2024, a pick-up truck carrying 33 migrants passed through a military checkpoint just [...]

Sequestrated boats originally used for migrant smuggling, Southern Italy. Photo by Luigi Achilli. European migration governance in Libya blurs the boundaries between legality and illegality, transforming migration [...]