Crocevia Mediterraneo

Abstract

For the first time, a vessel of social scientists has traveled the migration routes of the central Mediterranean, stopping at the main hubs of European border control: Pantelleria, Lampedusa, Linosa, Malta. An unprecedented logbook that offers us a radically new perspective on the necropolitical violence of borders and the irreducible drive towards mobility. The prevailing political-media narratives represent the Mediterranean as a 'natural' barrier that divides geographically and socially distant areas. On the contrary, the Mediterranean is – historically – a space of encounter and contamination, as this fieldwork conducted aboard the Tanimar by a group of social scientists testifies, giving voice and legitimacy to all those who cross it: migrants, fishermen, sailors, coast guards, islanders, officials of European agencies.