Columbia International Affairs Online: Journals

CIAO DATE: 11/2008

Foreword

Cultures & Conflits

A publication of:
Cultures & Conflits

Volume: 57, Issue: 0 (Spring 2005)


Abstract

Full Text

The countries of the European Union, like the other “Western” countries, are developing a political culture of separation by distinguishing those allowed to circulate and move freely throughout the world from the ones for which this is forbidden. This symbolic wall can be read through the common European visa-document dividing and rejecting: the Schengen Visa (Culture & Conflits n°49 and 50). The will to exclude foreigners, except for those who are considered as economically useful, is being exacerbated by repressive policies locking up the undesirable: it is the Europe of the camps. This phenomenon has to be distinguished from the “refugee-camps” that appear in conflict-ridden areas and has nothing to do with the “concentration camps” of the Second World War. What we are seeing is a multitude of zones in which foreigners wanting to reach Europe in order to find shelter, be they asylum-seekers, refugees or illegal migrants, are regrouped by force. The proliferation of these camps reshapes the European map by inscribing the marks of the contemporary fear of migrants on it. This phenomenon bears testimony to the profound transformations of the European cultures and has also very concrete implications at the marches of Europe: the neighbouring states are constrained to accept the repressive function of border-guards.