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Contesting Europeanism: Discourses and Practices of Pro-migrant Organisations in the European Union. CELINE CANTAT A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the School of Law & Social Sciences, University of East London for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. March 2015 Abstract This study investigates the practices and discourses of groups and networks supporting migrants in the context of the construction of the European Union (EU) and the Europeanisation of immigration and border controls. Its main objectives are: (1) to engage in critical examination of the European political project and the discourse of European belonging that has sustained its construction and consolidation; (2) to observe whether novel contentious practices have emerged to respond to multi-scalar developments associated with harmonisation of immigration-related policies; and (3) to investigate narratives of pro-migrant groups and networks. The project mobilises ethnographic research focused on pro-migrant organisations and networks in three European Union member states: France, Italy and the United Kingdom. It analyses testimony from participants involved in solidarity initiatives and assesses their perspectives on Europe and European belonging. This study draws on insights from a range of disciplines including Political Science, International Relations, Security Studies, Historical Sociology and Migration Studies. It embraces an historical approach to European construction and an analysis of global influences upon the development of the EU. It addresses the tensions and conflicts that arise when national, supranational and global processes take their effect upon the European project, and the specific impacts in the area of migration and bordering. This project concludes that a transnational pro-migrant movement is in formation in the EU. It is characterised by intensified cooperation and communication across borders, the development of new crossborder activist tools and tactics, increasingly complex transnational networks and the formulation of a mutually comprehensible analysis of the EU border regime. Yet this movement-in-formation has not been articulated and integrated around alternative visions of Europe and European identity. I argue that this is due to tensions and contradictions generated by the European project and I develop a critical reflection about processes of European construction and the production of ideas about Europe. ii Table of Content Abstract .......................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ...................................................................................... vi Introduction .................................................................................................... 1 Formulation of the research project ................................................................. 1 Research process ........................................................................................... 4 Interdisciplinarity .............................................................................................. 5 A brief note on terminology.............................................................................. 9 Thesis outline ................................................................................................ 11 Chapter I Globalisation, Territories and Borders. The Case of the European Union.13 Introduction.................................................................................................... 13 Studying the European Union........................................................................ 13 Space and scale in the era of neoliberal globalisation ................................... 15 Naturalising neoliberalism .......................................................................... 15 Neoliberal globalisation and the territorial state ......................................... 17 Neoliberalism and sub-national restructuring ............................................. 20 Neoliberalism and supranational reconfiguration ....................................... 22 The European rescue of the nation-state ...................................................... 23 The origins of the new Europe ................................................................... 25 The ambivalent American founding fathers of Europe ............................... 26 Building the European Economic Community ............................................ 27 The Single Market ...................................................................................... 29 The changing borders of Europe ................................................................... 31 European enlargements............................................................................. 31 The centrality of borders ............................................................................ 33 Bordered sovereignties: neoliberal governance and politics ......................... 34 Conclusion..................................................................................................... 37 Chapter II Identity and the Migrant in the European Union ....................................... 38 Introduction.................................................................................................... 38 Identity in the European Union: the politics of Europeanism ......................... 38 ‘You don't fall in love with a common market’ ............................................ 38 The politics of Europeanism ....................................................................... 40 Europe and its Others ................................................................................... 42 Europe’s new Orientalism.............................................................................. 46 The nation-state, national identity and borders.............................................. 48 Inventing the French nation ....................................................................... 49 Creating Britishness ................................................................................... 51 Valuable migrants .......................................................................................... 53 National history and migrants ........................................................................ 56 Statecraft and forced migration ..................................................................... 57 Silencing the migrant: vulnerability and deportability ..................................... 61 The imagined community of Europe: ‘Fortress Europe’ ................................. 63 Conclusion..................................................................................................... 66 iii Chapter III Hyper-statecraft: Building ‘Fortress Europe’. ........................................... 68 Introduction.................................................................................................... 68 Bordering Europe: immigration and border controls in the EU ...................... 69 Territoriality and the EU ................................................................................. 72 Securitisation of migration ............................................................................. 74 A war against migrants .................................................................................. 77 Detention and deportation: managing mobility and regulating labour in neoliberal Europe .......................................................................................... 79 The human cost of the EU border regime ..................................................... 85 Solidarity with migrants: Conceptualising my research questions ................. 89 Social movement theory ................................................................................ 93 Opportunities and constraints .................................................................... 95 Frames....................................................................................................... 95 Repertoires ................................................................................................ 97 Conclusion..................................................................................................... 98 Chapter IV Methodology ................................................................................................. 99 Introduction.................................................................................................... 99 Ethnographic, narrative, multi-sited approach ............................................. 100 Ethnography ............................................................................................ 100 Narrative approach .................................................................................. 102 Multi-sited approach ................................................................................ 104 Online fieldwork ....................................................................................... 105 Selecting countries ...................................................................................... 105 The UK..................................................................................................... 106 France...................................................................................................... 109 Italy .......................................................................................................... 111 Pre-fieldwork