california series in public anthropology The California Series in Public Anthropology emphasizes the anthropologist’s role as an engaged intellectual. It continues anthropology’s commitment to being an ethnographic witness, to describing, in human terms, how life is lived beyond the borders of many read- ers’ experiences. But it also adds a commitment, through ethnography, to reframing the terms of public debate—transforming received, accepted understandings of social issues with new insights, new framings. Series Editor: Robert Borofsky (Hawaii Pacifi c University) Contributing Editors: Philippe Bourgois (University of Pennsylvania), Paul Farmer (Partners In Health), Alex Hinton (Rutgers University), Carolyn Nordstrom (University of Notre Dame), and Nancy Scheper-Hughes (UC Berkeley) University of California Press Editor: Naomi Schneider 1. Twice Dead: Organ Transplants and the Reinvention of Death, by Margaret Lock 2. Birthing the Nation: Strategies of Palestinian Women in Israel, by Rhoda Ann Kanaaneh (with a foreword by Hanan Ashrawi) 3. Annihilating Difference: The Anthropology of Genocide, edited by Alexander Laban Hinton (with a foreword by Kenneth Roth) 4. Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights, and the New War on the Poor, by Paul Farmer (with a foreword by Amartya Sen) 5. Buddha Is Hiding: Refugees, Citizenship, the New America, by Aihwa Ong 6. Chechnya: Life in a War-Torn Society, by Valery Tishkov (with a foreword by Mikhail S. Gorbachev) 7. Total Confi nement: Madness and Reason in the Maximum Security Prison, by Lorna A. Rhodes 8. Paradise in Ashes: A Guatemalan Journey of Courage, Terror, and Hope, by Beatriz Manz (with a foreword by Aryeh Neier) 9. Laughter Out of Place: Race, Class, Violence, and Sexuality in a Rio Shantytown, by Donna M. Goldstein 10. Shadows of War: Violence, Power, and International Profi teering in the Twenty-First Century, by Carolyn Nordstrom 11. Why Did They Kill? Cambodia in the Shadow of Genocide, by Alexander Laban Hinton (with a foreword by Robert Jay Lifton) 12. Yanomami: The Fierce Controversy and What We Can Learn from It, by Robert Borofsky 13. Why America’s Top Pundits Are Wrong: Anthropologists Talk Back, edited by Cath- erine Besteman and Hugh Gusterson 14. Prisoners of Freedom: Human Rights and the African Poor, by Harri Englund 15. When Bodies Remember: Experiences and Politics of AIDS in South Africa, by Didier Fassin 16. Global Outlaws: Crime, Money, and Power in the Contemporary World, by Carolyn Nordstrom 17. Archaeology as Political Action, by Randall H. McGuire 18. Counting the Dead: The Culture and Politics of Human Rights Activism in Colombia, by Winifred Tate 19. Transforming Cape Town, by Catherine Besteman 20. Unimagined Community: Sex, Networks, and AIDS in Uganda and South Africa, by Robert J. Thornton 21. Righteous Dopefi end, by Philippe Bourgois and Jeff Schonberg 22. Democratic Insecurities: Violence, Trauma, and Intervention in Haiti, by Erica Caple James 23. Partner to the Poor: A Paul Farmer Reader, by Paul Farmer, edited by Haun Saussy (with a foreword by Tracy Kidder) 24. I Did It to Save My Life: Love and Survival in Sierra Leone, by Catherine E. Bolten 25. My Name Is Jody Williams: A Vermont Girl’s Winding Path to the Nobel Peace Prize, by Jody Williams 26. Reimagining Global Health: An Introduction, by Paul Farmer, Jim Yong Kim, Arthur Kleinman, and Matthew Basilico 27. Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies: Migrant Farmworkers in the United States, by Seth M. Holmes, PhD, MD 28. Illegality, Inc.: Clandestine Migration and the Business of Bordering Europe, by Ruben Andersson Illegality, Inc. Illegality, Inc. Clandestine Migration and the Business of Bordering Europe Ruben Andersson university of california press University of California Press, one of the most distinguished university presses in the United States, enriches lives around the world by advancing scholarship in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. Its activities are supported by the UC Press Foundation and by philanthropic contributions from individuals and institutions. For more information, visit www.ucpress.edu. University of California Press Oakland, California © 2014 by The Regents of the University of California Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Andersson, Ruben, 1977– Illegality, inc.: clandestine migration and the business of bordering Europe / Ruben Andersson. pages cm. — (California series in public anthropology; 28) Summary: “In this groundbreaking ethnography, Ruben Andersson, a gifted journalist and anthropologist, travels with a group of African migrants from Senegal and Mali to the Spanish North African enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla. Through the voices of his informants themselves, Anderson explores, viscerally and emphatically, how migration meets and interacts with its target— the clandestine migrant. This vivid, rich work examines the subterranean migration fl ow from Africa to Europe, and shifts the focus from the concept of ‘illegal immigrants’ to an exploration of suffering and resilience. This fascinating and accesible book is a must-read for anyone interested in the politics of international migration and the changing texture of global culture”—Provided by publisher. Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 978-0-520-28251-3 (hardback) isbn 978-0-520-28252-0 (paper) isbn 978-0-520-95828-9 (e-book) 1. Illegal aliens—Spain—Cueta—Case studies. 2. Illegal aliens—Spain—Melilla—Case studies. 3. Ceuta (Spain)— Emigration and immigration—Case studies. 4. Melilla (Spain)— Emigration and immigration—Case studies. 5. Mali—Emigration and immigration—Case studies. 6. Senegal—Emigration and immigration—Case studies. I. Title. iv8259.z6c482 2014 364.1′370964—dc23 2014010244 Manufactured in the United States of America 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 In keeping with a commitment to support environmentally responsible and sustainable printing practices. UC Press has printed this book on Natures Natural, a fi ber that contains 30% post- consumer waste and meets the minimum requirements of ansi/niso z39.48-1992 (r 1997) (Permanence of Paper). To those who have died trying Contents List of illustrations ix Acknowledgments xi Author’s Note xiii Selected Abbreviations xv Timeline xviii Introduction 1 Scene 1 27 part one. borderlands 1. Mohammadou and the Migrant-Eaters 33 2. A Game of Risk 66 3. Hunter and Prey 98 part two. crossings Scene 2 133 4. The Border Spectacle 137 viii | Contents part three. confrontations 5. White Mother, Black Sons 177 Scene 3 208 6. Stranded in Time 212 Scene 4 241 7. Marchers without Borders 245 Conclusion 273 Appendix: A Note on Method 283 Notes 289 Selected Glossary 309 Bibliography 313 Index 327 Online Content The appendix “A Global Front: Thoughts on Enforcement at the Rich World’s Borders” is available online from the University of California Press website, www.ucpress.edu/go/illegality. Illustrations figures 1. Pirogues on a Dakar beach / 46 2. Moored pirogues / 47 3. The Indalo symbol / 69 4. Sketch of information fl ows in Eurosur / 93 5. The Illegal Entry sign / 94 6. A Spanish-funded quad bike for patrolling clandestine migration / 103 7. Views of Mauritania from the Red Cross base, Rosso-Senegal / 109 8. Border police post, Senegal-Mali border / 121 9. An award-winning picture of a sea rescue in the Canaries / 141 10. A rescue in the Strait of Gibraltar, September 2012 / 146 11. Between Ceuta’s twin fences, July 2010 / 156 12. The Ceuta fence: view towards Tarajal / 163 13. Close-up of the Ceuta fence from Moroccan side / 163 14. Strikers in front of the government delegation in Ceuta / 195 15. Ceuta’s protesters “shackle” one another in front of the cameras / 213 16. Marchers on the border road of Gogui, Mali / 246 ix x | Illustrations 17. Anti-Frontex graffi ti outside the agency’s headquarters in Warsaw / 255 map Irregular migratory routes between Africa and southern Europe / xx Acknowledgments A great many people and institutions have helped make this book pos- sible, too numerous to mention here. First of all, I am very grateful to the young repatriates of the Dakar neighborhood I call Yongor for welcoming me despite their diffi cult circumstances and for setting my whole project on a new track. I am greatly indebted to all the migrants who have shared their stories with me, in Senegal, Mali, Morocco, and Spain: protecting their identities prevents me from mentioning them by name here. In Ceuta, I am indebted to Pepi Galván, without whose hospitality, kindness, and help my experience in the city would have been com- pletely different. I am also grateful to the director of the enclave’s migrant reception center and its workers for receiving me, as well as to the Spanish Red Cross staff and volunteers in Ceuta. A great many journalists, aid workers, academics, and activists have helped shape this project. While many of them will not be mentioned here by name in order to safeguard anonymity, I do wish to thank Mel- anie Gärtner and Max Hirzel for their great collegiality; Pepe Naranjo and Nicolás Castellano for their contacts and inspiration; and Papa Demba Fall for receiving me at l’Institut Fondamental d’Afrique Noire in Dakar. Among the numerous organizations that have helped make this research possible, I wish to extend special thanks to the team at Aracem for their warm welcome in Bamako. I am also thankful to the xi xii | Acknowledgments Spanish Guardia Civil and the Senegalese border police for having received me on numerous visits. The PhD project on which this book is based was funded by a U.K. Economic and Social Research Council Studentship, and I am very grateful for this generous assistance. At the London School of Economics and Political Science, I am deeply indebted to my supervisors, Mathijs Pelkmans and Deborah James, for their unfailing support and guidance over many years. Both have been incredibly patient and helpful and have provided me with constructive criticism and stylistic advice that has fundamentally helped shape this book.