Lampedusa and the migrant crisis: ethics, representation and history

The tiny Italian island of Lampedusa in the Mediterranean has become notorious in the early twenty-first century through a series of migrant disasters which, until the events of 2015, came to typify the scale and horror of forced migration on a scale not witnessed since the Second World War. This article outlines the background to this story and why Lampedusa became so important in the ‘borderization’ of Europe. It then explores issues of representation, especially within Lampedusa itself, from sources varying from the island’s cemetery to official and alternative sites of heritage (especially the Porto M museum) through to the films, documentaries and plays that have been recently made. Ethical issues are raised including the archaeology of hate speech towards migrants, especially in relation to British Mandate Palestine, and whether there are limits to what can be shown of the horror. Finally, it asks what space there is for the migrant voice to be heard in cultural and political responses to this global crisis