Politiques migratoires et représentations de l’Europe chez les migrants : violences et ambivalences

Abstract

The European Union pretends to protect itself against the arrival of migrants from southern countries. To do this it set up a migratory policy that aim to reinforce the controls on borders, including far beyond its territory (frontex), making itself a “Fortress Europe”. Migrants and candidates to migration are aware of this politics and of the coercive measures and sometimes violent measures accompanying it, and that not lead to decrease their wish to migrate in Europe. The strategic and concrete knowledge they gain thanks to their experience when they go through the administrative procedure to claim for papers, thanks to the stories of those who made a tentative to enter Europe with success or not, or thanks to the associations that defend the migrants rights, profoundly shape their representation of Europe. One of the effects of this politic is the radicalization of the poles of references (negatives or positives) of their representations and the increase of the ambiguity that characterize them. This text is based on information collected with Argentinian and Malian migrants during surveys conducted by several researchers in Argentina, Spain, Mali and France in 2009-2010 on their representations of Europe.

Keywords

• Europe
• migrants
• representations
• migration policies