05 September 2023
Reinventing a Broken Wheel
On 16 July, the European Commission and the Tunisian government signed a new strategic partnership on migration, sparking outrage by European parliamentarians, researchers and civil society actors given Tunisia’s autocratic turn since 2021 and the recent flaring up of racial and xenophobic violence. The deal is emblematic of the blind spots of trans-Mediterranean migration cooperation over the past decades: First, a growing reliance on informality and symbolic politics at the expense of accountability; and second, a persistently Euro-centrist perspective that overlooks the dynamics South of the Mediterranean, with dire policy consequences. Continue reading >>
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21 August 2023
Team Europe’s Deal
On 16 July 2023, the European Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement and Tunisia’s Secretary of State of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Migration and Tunisians Abroad signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on a ‘strategic and global partnership’ between the European Union (EU) and Tunisia. The signing followed a meeting in Tunisia between Tunisian President Kais Saied and ‘Team Europe’ (European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte). The deal is part of the growing trend to externalise migration control. Against this background, this blog post first clarifies what was agreed before explaining why the agreement is problematic both in terms of substance and form. Continue reading >>
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