La « frontiérisation » de Lampedusa, comment se construit une frontière

Why did Lampedusa become the quintessential embodiment of the Euro-African border? This paper starts from the assumption that the border is always a social product, and that turning a place into a border, or transforming the symbolic and practical role of a border place, is always the result of specific social acts. The paper analyses the most important acts that determined the “borderization” of Lampedusa, by creating the Lampedusa border and increasing its degree of “borderness”, in the period between the 1990s and 2011. The research focuses on specific choices of the Italian legislator, on the relations with North-African countries, and on the practices of border control and management (such as the establishment of a detention centre, the choice to systematically divert migrants to Lampedusa and to concentrate professionalized reception activities on the island). The “borderization” process is further fostered through the production of artificial emergencies, culminating in the 2011 crisis, during which the whole island is turned into an open-air camp