Solidarity under siege: The crimmigration of activism(s) and protest against border control in Spain

Abstract

Over the past two decades, the creation of the European border regime has increasingly sparked acts of protest and resistance by immigrants and led to the creation of initiatives to defend immigrant rights. This activism has provoked many European states to formalize what is known in the literature as ‘crimes of solidarity’ in their legal systems. Taking the Spanish case as an example, the objective of this article is to analyse the ‘crimmigration’ of protest and activism defending the rights of irregular immigrants at Europe’s southern border. This analysis describes the development and implementation of the repressive tactics employed by the state against activists, including forms of police control of protests, informal and formal dissuasion techniques, and the use of administrative and criminal sanctions. This work provides valuable insight into the practical impact of these crimmigration processes, particularly how they have affected activists, social organizations and immigrants, as well as how they have extended beyond the territory of the state (externalizing punishment).

‘If you don’t have documents or a legal procedure, you are out!’ Making humanitarian organizations partner in migration control

“…Carrera et al (2016) show that these humanitarian organizations experience harassment and intimidation in their work and fear administrative sanctions, even though humanitarian assistance may not be formally criminalized. We do not observe this trend in the Netherlands, 13 but others report the criminalization of humanitarian organizations in Spain (López-Sala and Barbero, 2019), in Belgium, France and the UK (Fekete, 2009), and in Italy and Greece (Carrera et al, 2018). This criminalizing approach affects all kinds of support, including shelter, medical aid and advocacy/protests.…”

“…This criminalizing approach affects all kinds of support, including shelter, medical aid and advocacy/protests. This sometimes deters volunteers, activists and humanitarian organizations from getting involved in providing humanitarian assistance (Sigona, 2018) and may result in civil actors being forced to limit or end their humanitarian assistance (see Carrera et al, 2016; López-Sala and Barbero, 2019). Making support organizations a full partner in migration control and/or criminalizing such organizations threatens the unauthorized migrants’ safe havens in an increasing hostile environment (see Sigona, 2018).…”

Beyond rights-based social protection for refugees

“…Solidarity responses to displacement have garnered much attention since the so-called refugee crisis of 2015 when the spontaneous movement of people from West Asia along the Balkan route rose to prominence as a security concern for European states. Largely based in critical border studies, the literature here focuses on the peripheral regions of Southern Europe: Italy (López-Sala and Barbelo, 2019; Rakopoulos, 2016; Zamponi, 2018). As with faith-based responses to displacement, there remains a distinct lack of empirical data on the value of social assistance provided through such efforts.…”

Migration Policies, Participation and the Political Construction of Migration in Spain

“…Moreover, they have had a fundamentally structural focus, centered on the conformation of deportation regimes, leaving aside a dimension that has attracted considerable international attention in recent years within the field of deportation studies, namely the life experiences of the deported subjects and their social impacts. In this academic context, another line of research has recently emerged, focused on the analysis of mobilization and resistance actions against border regimes and the criminalization of pro-migration activists (Fernández-Bessa, 2019;López-Sala and Barbero, 2019).…”