(Re)Branding the State: Humanitarian Border Control and the Moral Imperative of State Sovereignty

Performing Border Externalisation: Media Deterrence Campaigns and Neoliberal Belonging

“…These logics also shape how campaigns circulate. In line with other works Kaneti and Prandini Assis 2016), we recognise campaign design -both its message and its intended reach -as representative of state attempts to curb migrant arrivals by performing and extending the border via neoliberal notions of the migrant as an individual decision maker. CBP describes their efforts as protecting migrants by providing them with information that should prevent them from falling victim to smugglers' lies (CBP Launches Digital Ad Campaign 2022).…”

“…In the specific context of deterrence campaigns, these are generally funded by national border agencies, enlisting the collaboration of both military agencies (e.g. Dangers, designed by the US Military-funded Defense Video and Imagery Distribution Systems; see Kaneti and Prandini Assis 2016) and private corporations, including design firms, and international bodies such as the IOM. Indeed, as Julien Brachet observes, the IOM operates as an 'institutional lever' for governments, helping them 'implement, abroad, migration policies that might be challenged by their own citizens' (Brachet 2016, 275; see also de Jong and Dannecker 2017;.…”

“…Even though several studies argue that they do not deter departures (cf. Fleay et al 2016;Kaneti and Prandini Assis 2016), in this article we choose to focus on the rhetorical work campaigns perform, rather than their potential 'success'. We feel strongly that to attempt to assess that 'success' risks legitimising such campaigns and their exclusionary impulse.…”