Varieties of Securitization: Migration Governance along the Central Mediterranean Route

This book contributes to migration and security studies alike by examining the transformation of migration governance across the Central Mediterranean Route connecting Sub-Saharan Africa to Europe through Italy.
Leveraging this migratory corridor in historical and comparative perspective, the volume provides a multidisciplinary reappraisal of securitization theory, highlighting how different fields such as anthropology, history, visual semiotics, and science and technology studies can enrich, reappraise, and decentralize this paradigm. Far from merely exploring the different ways migration is framed as a threat after the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the volume systematically dissects the interplay between discourses and border enforcement practices as well as the diffusion of migration governance models worldwide, pushing securitization theory beyond security studies
Eugenio Cusumano
is full Professor of Political Science at the University of Messina, Italy.  He has published extensively on crisis management and border enforcement and is the principal investigator of the project “Securitizing Human Transit across the Central Mediterranean” (SHUT-MED), funded by the Italian Research Ministry.

Luca Raineri
is Assistant Professor in Security Studies at the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa, Italy, where he co-leads the SHUT-MED project. He has conducted extensive fieldwork across Sub-Saharan Africa and worked as consultant on issues like peacebuilding, security and development, which are the focus of his scientific research.

Diego Caballero-Vélez
works on the SHUT-MED project as Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Messina, Italy. He is the author of Contesting Migration Crises in Central Eastern Europe, published by Palgrave in 2023.

List of contents

Chapter 1: Introduction.- Part 1: Securitizing migration: a multidisciplinary reappraisal.- Chapter 2: Securitization and foreignness in history: competing nationalities in colonial Tunisia.- Chapter 3: Anthropology of Securitization: Conceptual Foundations and Ethnographic Insights into Human Smuggling.- Chapter 4: Securitization and visual analysis.- Chapter 5: Securitization and technology at the European Union’s Mediterranean borders.- Part 2: Securitizing migration across the Central Mediterranean Route: actors and cases.- Chapter 6: Health and the Securitization of humanitarian assistance: The enduring legacy of COVID-19 protocols in Mediterranean Sea rescue.- Chapter 7: The twofold securitization of Italian settlers to Libya.- Chapter 8: Security for whom? Securitization, border enforcement personnel, and local communities: the case of Lampedusa.- Chapter 9: Securitization, flexible borders and unaccompanied migrants' subjectivities: a case-study.- Chapter 10: The European Union and the Socio-Technical Systems of Migration Governance in Libya and Tunisia.- Chapter 11: Securitization through criminalization in Italy and France.- Part 3: Beyond the Mediterranean: securitizing migration in other regions.- Chapter 12: Liberal regionalism, illiberal borders: Navigating contradictions in South America's migration governance.- Chapter 13: The securitization of irregular migration in Australia: 2000-2025.- Chapter 14: Conclusions.

About the author

Eugenio Cusumano
is full Professor of Political Science at the University of Messina, Italy.  He has published extensively on crisis management and border enforcement and is the principal investigator of the project “Securitizing Human Transit across the Central Mediterranean” (SHUT-MED), funded by the Italian Research Ministry.

Luca Raineri
is Assistant Professor in Security Studies at the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa, Italy, where he co-leads the SHUT-MED project. He has conducted extensive fieldwork across Sub-Saharan Africa and worked as consultant on issues like peacebuilding, security and development, which are the focus of his scientific research.

Diego Caballero-Vélez
works on the SHUT-MED project as Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Messina, Italy. He is the author of Contesting Migration Crises in Central Eastern Europe, published by Palgrave in 2023.

Summary

This book contributes to migration and security studies alike by examining the transformation of migration governance across the Central Mediterranean Route connecting Sub-Saharan Africa to Europe through Italy.
Leveraging this migratory corridor in historical and comparative perspective, the volume provides a multidisciplinary reappraisal of securitization theory, highlighting how different fields such as anthropology, history, visual semiotics, and science and technology studies can enrich, reappraise, and decentralize this paradigm. Far from merely exploring the different ways migration is framed as a threat after the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the volume systematically dissects the interplay between discourses and border enforcement practices as well as the diffusion of migration governance models worldwide, pushing securitization theory beyond security studies.

Product details

• Assisted by: Diego Caballero-Vélez (Editor), Eugenio Cusumano (Editor), Luca Raineri (Editor)
• Publisher: Springer International Publishing
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Release: 15.03.2026
• EAN: 9783032152749
• ISBN: 978-3-032-15274-9
• Illustrations: Approx. 350 p. 5 illus., schwarz-weiss Illustrationen
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Political science > Comparative and international political science; Migration, Öffentliche Verwaltung, Borders, Mediterranean, European Union, Migration Policy, Securitization, International Security Studies, Externalization