Editorial [Mediterranean Journal of Migration]

Abstract

The Mediterranean remains a site of profound contradictions, where the politics of inclusion and exclusion, belonging and disposable lives are laid bare. In this historical moment, the sea is a frontier of violence, where the rhetoric of human rights meets the might of border control, all too often with deadly ramifications. Barely making a single headline, the humanitarian crisis continues to unfold across the Mediterranean waters, where policies of deterrence and control are inscribed onto the bodies of those who are forced to move under conditions not of their choosing. In this sense, the Mediterranean Sea is a political project - one that reproduces racialised hierarchies of humanity through its practices of surveillance, detention, and denial.