Migration management and uneven development: economic geographies of migrant camps on the Greek island

Journal title MONDI MIGRANTI
Author/s Panos Hatziprokopiou, Filyra Vlastou-Dimopoulou
Publishing Year 2024 Issue 2024/2
Language English Pages 24 P. 135-158 File size 250 KB
DOI 10.3280/MM2024-002006
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

Below, you can see the article first page

If you want to buy this article in PDF format, you can do it, following the instructions to buy download credits

Article preview

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

This article focuses on Lampedusa as an exemplary case study of economic transformation brought about by migration, as well as the creation of a ‘migra-tion industry’. On the basis of interviews with key informants and a reconstruction of the secondary literature, it shows how migration has given international visibility to the island, starting from the first arrivals of emigrants in the 1990s, through the increase in landings during the so-called ‘Arab Spring’, and up to the pre-sent. This has fed various processes of conversion from an economy based on fishing towards an economy built around relatively recent tourism. Further-more, it highlights how the national, European and international policies of migration governance have contributed to creating an industry based on con-sumption by the military, police, volunteers, health and humanitarian person-nel present on the island and the impact this has had on the local service sec-tor.

Keywords: migration industry; migration satellite activities; Lampedusa; tour-ism; refugees and asylum seekers.

  1. Aime M. (2018). L’isola del non arrivo. Voci da Lampedusa. Torino: Bollati Boringhieri.
  2. Alpes M. (2012). Bushfalling at All Cost: The Economy of Migratory Knowledge in Anglophone Cameroon. African Diaspora, 5, 1: 90-115; DOI: 10.1163/187254612X646189/
  3. Ambrosini M. (2017). Aiutiamoli a casa loro? Uno slogan superficiale e fallace. Autonomie locali e servizi sociali, 3: 531-548; DOI: 10.1447/89541/
  4. Anderlini J. e Favrega E., a cura di (2023). Crocevia mediterraneo. Milano: Eleuthera.
  5. ASGI. (2022). Report sulla visita al Centro hotspot di Lampedusa.
  6. Bartolini L., Mantanika R. and Triandafyllidou, A. (2020). Emerging Reception Economies: A View from Southern Europe. In: Spencer S. and Triandafyllidou, A., a cura di, Migrants with Irregular Status in Europe. Evolving Conceptual and Policy Challenges. Cham: Springer.
  7. Bassi M. (2018). Lampedusa. Dynamics of bordering and “encampment”. In: Caponio T., Scholten P. e Zapata-Barrero R., a cura di, The Routledge Handbook of the Governance of Migration and Diversity in Cities. London: Routledge.
  8. Bauman Z. (1998). Dentro la globalizzazione. Le conseguenze per le persone. Roma-Bari: Laterza.
  9. Benert V. and Beier A. (2016). Influx of Migrants versus People in Need – A Combined Analysis of Framing and Connotation in the Lampedusa News Coverage. Global Media Journal, 6, 1; https://globalmediajournal.de/index.php/gmj/article/view/48
  10. Bertoglio B., Grignani P., Di Simone P., Polizzi N., De Angelis D., Cattaneo C., Iadicicco A., Fattorini P., Presciuttini S. and Previderè C. (2020). Disaster victim identification by kinship analysis: the Lampedusa October 3rd, 2013 shipwreck. Forensic Science International: Genetics, 44;
  11. Bruno M. (2014). Lampedusa/Italia. La costruzione giornalistica dell’“emergenza” e la politica televisiva dei numeri. Comunicazionepuntodoc, 9: 55-75.
  12. Campesi G. (2011). The Arab Spring and the Crisis of the European Border Regime. Badia Fiesolana: European University Institute, Working Papers RCAS 2011/59.
  13. Choe J. and Lugosi P. (2022). Migration, tourism and social sustainability. Tourism Geographies, 24, 1: 1-8; DOI: 10.1080/14616688.2021.1965203/.
  14. Cohen R. (1997). Global Diasporas: An introduction. London: University College London Press.
  15. Corso A. (2023). The smell of bare death: Encountering life at the graveyard of Lampedusa. Anthropological Theory, 23, 3: 332-352; DOI: 10.1177/14634996221128104/
  16. Cranston S. (2016). Producing Migrant Encounter: Learning to be a British Expatriate in Singapore Through the Global Mobility Industry. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 34, 4: 655-671; DOI: 10.1177/0263775816630311/
  17. Cranston S., Schapendonk J. and Spaan E. (2018). New directions in exploring the migration industries: introduction to special issue. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 44, 4: 543-557; DOI: 10.1080/1369183X.2017.1315504/
  18. Cuttitta P. (2015a). La frontière Lampedusa. Mises en intrigue du sécuritaire et de l’humanitaire. Cultures and Conflits, 99-100: 99-115;
  19. Cuttitta P. (2015b). La « frontiérisation » de Lampedusa, comment se construit une frontière. L’Espace Politique, 25, 1;
  20. Cuttitta P. (2015c). Lampedusa tra produzione e rappresentazione del confine. REMHU, 44: 31-45;
  21. Cuttitta P. (2012). Lo spettacolo del confine. Lampedusa tra produzione e messa in scena della frontiera. Milano: Mimesis.
  22. De Swert K., Schacht L. and Masini A. (2015). More than Human Tragedy? A Quantitative Comparison of Newspaper Coverage on Irregular Migration and Lampedusa in Five European Countries. Italian Studies, 70, 4: 506-520; DOI: 10.1080/00751634.2015.1120947/.
  23. Di Matteo G. (2023). Resistance or exclusion? The paradoxes of volunteer tourism, migration, and memorialization nexuses. Tourism Geographies. An International Journal of Tourism Space, Place and Environment; DOI: 10.1080/14616688.2023.2175235/
  24. Di Matteo G. (2021). Oltre la frontiera: rappresentazioni e immaginari geografici di volontariə a Lampedusa. Geography Notebooks, 4, 2: 131-142; http://dx.doi.org/10.7358/gn-2021-002-matt/.
  25. Di Matteo G. (2020). Confini visibili e invisibili a Lampedusa. Il caso degli spazi vissuti dai volunteer tourist. In: Zilli S. e Modaffari G., a cura di, Confin(at)i/Bound(aries). Firenze: Società di Studi Geografici
  26. Di Matteo G. (2017). Immigrazione e turismo in un contesto microinsulare. Sperimentazioni di responsabilità turistica a Lampedusa. In: Salvatori F., a cura di, L’apporto della Geografia tra rivoluzioni e riforme. Roma: A.Ge.I.
  27. Dines N., Montagna N. and Ruggiero V. (2015). Thinking Lampedusa: border construction, the spectacle of bare life and the productivity of migrants. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 38, 3: 430-445; DOI: 10.1080/01419870.2014.936892/
  28. Elbek L.L. (2021). There’s a Hole in the Fence: Civil Pragmatism in Ambiguous Encounters on Lampedusa, Italy. Ethnos. Journal of Anthropology, 88, 2: 373-391; DOI: 10.1080/00141844.2021.1887912/.
  29. ENAC. (2022). Dati di traffico 2022. Roma: ENAC- Direzione Studi e Analisi Economiche.
  30. Filippi D., Gilberti L. and Queirolo Palmas L. (2021). From Lampedusa to the Susa Valley: solidarity networks in two border battlegrounds. Journal of Modern Italian Studies, 26, 5: 608-626; DOI: 10.1080/1354571X.2021.1953776/
  31. Franceschelli M. (2020). Global Migration, Local Communities and the Absent State: Resentment and Resignation on the Italian Island of Lampedusa. Sociology, 54, 3: 591-608; DOI: 10.1177/0038038519890824/
  32. Gatta G. (2012). Corpi di frontiera. Etnografia del trattamento dei migranti al loro arrivo a Lampedusa. Rivista della Società italiana di antropologia medica, (33-34): 129-161; https://www.amantropologiamedica.unipg.it/index.php/am/article/view/295/.
  33. Gatta G. (2011). Clandestinità e luoghi terzi. Legittimazione, sicurezza, soggettività. Rassegna italiana di Sociologia, 1: 37-62; https://dx.doi.org/10.1423/34333/.
  34. Gatta G. e Muzzopappa G. (2012). «Middle passages», musealizzazione e soggettività a Bristol e Lampedusa. Estetica. studi e ricerche, 1/2012: 167-181; DOI: 10.4434/ESR.20396635.032012.11/
  35. Gilberti L. and Queirolo Palmas L. (2022). The hole, the corridor and the landings: reframing Lampedusa through the COVID-19 emergency. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 45, 9: 1760-1781. DOI: 10.1080/01419870.2021.1953558/
  36. Giubilaro C. (2017). (Un)framing Lampedusa: Regimes of Visibility and the Politics of Affect in Italian Media Representations. In: Proglio G. and Odasso L., eds., Border Lampedusa. Subjectivity, Visibility and Memory in Stories of Sea and Land. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
  37. Giuliani G. (2017). The Colour(s) of Lampedusa. In: Proglio G. and Odasso L., eds., Border Lampedusa. Subjectivity, Visibility and Memory in Stories of Sea and Land. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
  38. Giuzio A., a cura di (2023). Critica del turismo. Lecce: Grifo.
  39. Glick-Schiller N. and Çağlar A. (2009). Towards a Comparative Theory of Locality in Migration Studies: Migrant Incorporation and City Scale. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 35, 2: 177-202; DOI: 10.1080/13691830802586179/
  40. Ieracitano F. (2014). La rappresentazione mediale dell'emergenza: il caso degli sbarchi a Lampedusa. Sociologia: rivista quadrimestrale di scienze storiche e sociali, 48, 1: 85-93; http://digital.casalini.it/10.36165/1353 - Casalini id: 4571134/.
  41. Khrebtan-Hörhager J. (2015). Italia – la terra promessa? Lampedusa and the immigrant crisis of the European Union. Journal of Multicultural Discourses, 10, 1: 85-99; DOI: 10.1080/17447143.2014.956750/.
  42. Masera L. (2014). Il “caso Lampedusa”: una violazione sistemica del diritto alla libertà personale. Diritti umani e diritto internazionale, 2014/1: 83-102; https://www.rivisteweb.it/doi/10.12829/76310/.
  43. Mazzara F. (2017). Objects, Debris and Memory of the Mediterranean Passage: Porto M in Lampedusa. In: Proglio G. and Odasso L., a cura di, Border Lampedusa Subjectivity, Visibility and Memory in Stories of Sea and Land. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
  44. Mazzara F. (2016). Subverting the narrative of the Lampedusa borderscape. Crossings: Journal of Migration & Culture, 7, 2: 135-147;
  45. Mazzara F. (2015). Spaces of Visibility for the Migrants of Lampedusa: The Counter Narrative of the Aesthetic Discourse. Italian Studies, 70, 4: 449-464; DOI: 10.1080/00751634.2015.1120944/
  46. Melotti M. (2018). The Mediterranean Refugee Crisis: Heritage, Tourism, and Migration. New England Journal of Public Policy, 30, 2: 1-26; https://scholarworks.umb.edu/nejpp/vol30/iss2/11/.
  47. Melotti M., Ruspini E. and Marra E. (2017). Migration, tourism and peace: Lampedusa as a social laboratory. Anatolia. An International Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Research, 29, 2: 215-224; DOI: 10.1080/13032917.2017.1414441/
  48. Montagna N. (2023). Quarantine Ships as Spaces of Bordering: The Securitization of Migration Policy in Italy During the COVID-19 Pandemic. International Migration Review, 58, 2, 499-521; DOI: 10.1177/01979183231154560/
  49. Natale A. (2014). I migranti e l’habeas corpus alla prova delle emergenze: il caso di Lampedusa. Questione giustizia, 2013/5: 181-199; DOI: 10.3280/QG2013-005016/
  50. Nyberg Sorensen N. and Gammeltoft-Hansen T. (2013). Introduction. In: Gammeltoft-Hansen T. and Nyberg Sorensen N., a cura di, The Migration Industry and the Commercialization of International Migration. New York: Routledge.
  51. Orsini G. (2016). Securitization as a Source of Insecurity: A Ground-Level Look at the Functioning of Europe’s External Border in Lampedusa. Studies in Ethnicity and Nationalism, 16, 1: 135-147;
  52. Orsini G. (2015). Lampedusa: From a Fishing Island in the Middle of the Mediterranean to a Tourist Destination in the Middle of Europe’s External Border. Italian Studies, 70, 5: 521-536; DOI: 10.1080/00751634.2015.1120945/
  53. Orsini G. (2014). Un’isola in mezzo al confine: oltre il razzismo istituzionale e ritorno. Storie di pesca e migrazioni a Lampedusa. In: Grasso M., a cura di, Razzismi, Discriminazioni, Confinamenti. Roma: Ediesse.
  54. Puggioni R. (2015). Border politics, right to life and acts of dissensus: voices from the Lampedusa borderland. Third World Quarterly, 36, 6: 1145-1159; http://www.jstor.org/stable/24523189/.
  55. Ritaine É. (2016). Lampedusa, 3 ottobre 2013. Letture politiche della morte. Intersezioni. Rivista di Storia delle Idee, 5, 1: 101-112; DOI: 10.4474/DPS/05/01/DMM222/12/
  56. Rizzo C. (1998). I distretti turistici siciliani: alcune considerazioni. Bollettino della Società Geografica Italiana, 12, 3: 275-290.
  57. Schmoll C. (2018). Quoi de neuf sous le soleil de Sicile? Migrations internationales et enjeux géopolitiques en mer Méditerranée. EchoGéo;.
  58. Spaan E. and Hillmann F. (2013). Migration Trajectories and the Migration Industry: Theoretical Reflections and Empirical Examples from Asia. In: Gammeltoft-Hansen T. and Nyberg Sorensen N., eds., The Migration Industry and the Commercialization of International Migration. New York: Routledge.
  59. Surico G. (2020). Lampedusa: dall’agricoltura, alla pesca, al turismo. Firenze: Firenze University Press.
  60. Tassin L. (2016). Le mirage des hotspots. Nouveaux concepts et vieilles recettes à Lesbos et Lampedusa. Savoir/agir, 36: 39-45;
  61. Tassin L. (2014). Accueillir les indésirables. Les habitants de Lampedusa à l’épreuve de l’enfermement des étrangers. Genèses, 96: 110-131;
  62. Triulzi A. (2016). Working with migrants’ memories in Italy: The Lampedusa dump. Crossings: Journal of Migration & Culture, 7, 2: 149-163;
  63. Tucci I. (2018). In response to migration policies and to the militarization of territories: Activism in the community of Lampedusa. In: Ojala-Fulwood M., eds., Migration and Multi-ethnic Communities: Mobile People from the Late Middle Ages to the Present. Berlin-Boston: De Gruyter Oldenbourg.
  64. Vietti F. (2019). Turisti a Lampedusa. Note sul nesso tra mobilità e patrimonio nel Mediterraneo. Archivio antropologico mediterraneo, 21, 1;
  65. Williams A.M. and Hall C.M. (2000). Tourism and migration: New relationships between production and consumption. Tourism Geographies, 2, 1: 5-27; DOI: 10.1080/146166800363420/
  66. Zerback T., Reinemann C., Van Aelst P. and Masini A. (2020). Was Lampedusa a key Event for Immigration News? An Analysis of the Effects of the Lampedusa Disaster on Immigration Coverage in Germany, Belgium, and Italy. Journalism Studies, 21, 6: 748-765; DOI: 10.1080/1461670X.2020.1722730/

Panos Hatziprokopiou, Filyra Vlastou-Dimopoulou, Migration management and uneven development: economic geographies of migrant camps on the Greek island in "MONDI MIGRANTI" 2/2024, pp 135-158, DOI: 10.3280/MM2024-002006