From colonization to Schengenisation:

Socio-history of migrations from the Maghreb to Europe

Introduction

In studying the postcolonial shift which, a few decades after the independence of the countries of the southern Mediterranean, gave rise to the emergence of the figure of the immigrant, we are not calling for the recognition of rights nor demanding the integration of former colonies into the postcolonial empire . The aim of this article’s genealogy of the border, in its contemporary European form, is to show how what presents itself as humanitarian, regulatory and promoting integration and diversity, is in fact an inhospitable border policy conscious of the privilege accumulated since colonial times. By integrating European societies into this inhospitable post-colonial community, border policy makes the choice of relegating southern populations to the margins and to immobility – regardless of the new authoritarian post-colonial systems that govern these populations.

Intellectual figures such as Frantz Fanon and committed sociologists such as Abdelmalek Sayad have been warning since the end of the colonial era against this “Cunning of history”, which characterizes the environments that have inherited this integrationist thinking, which has become a tool in the quest for recognition, further separating privileged societies from others that have been exploited. In keeping with the Fanonian tradition and political anthropology , our approach is both sociological and political. Our aim is to show how the post-colonial hegemony of former metropolises uses the border as a weapon against former colonies and their civil societies, and the resulting transformations in subjectivities.

To turn away from such a problematic by insisting on humanist dimensions such as “integration” is to forget the right to free movement and the danger of the disintegration of the immigrant from the point of view of their society of origin, and in a global way the de-subjectification and deflagration that threaten the whole of the society of origin exposed to the politics of borders. In short, it means overlooking what emigration means in terms of settlement conditions, bans on movement and, more generally, a desire for the West founded on migration policies based on economist and legal selections. As a result, such an undertaking to unveil the neo-colonialist logics that find repressive power in border policies in no way clears the way for the internal struggles of societies in the South, struggles that are necessary if we are to emerge from our condition: indeed, it’s a matter of avoiding the internal/external duality by showing the entanglement of the two logics that lead to the status quo.

Beyond the precautions of method and epistemology, the urgent need to investigate the continuums traced by border policies and devices finds its ethical raison d’être in the need to show responsibility for the crimes committed through this contemporary power. Death in border areas has a history that clearly begins with devices, such as the Schengen Visa, that integrate some (citizens of Europe) and disintegrate communities exposed to death and disappearance, as in the case of so-called irregular migrants. These systems have a history that prolongs an earlier domination – colonization. They have actors and representatives, activists and spaces for the building of xenophobic and racist discourse. It is in this sense that we need to understand the manifestation of the border, its outlines and its effects, in order to better pose the problem and participate in contemporary and forthcoming struggles waged by the individuals and communities who confront it.