Unmaking the Mediterranean border. From colonial coexistence to a decolonized Mediterranean
Topics: Migration
, Middle East
, Europe
Keywords: coloniality, migration, North Africa, Europe, borders
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Monday
Session Start / End Time: 2/28/2022 11:20 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/28/2022 12:40 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 1
Authors:
Ilaria Giglioli, University of San Francisco
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Abstract
How can we argue against the fortification of material and symbolic borders? In the context of the Mediterranean, some advocates for migrant rights idealize late 19th century North Africa as a model of multi-religious, multi-racial, and multi-national coexistence that should serve as an example for contemporary Europe. Many Francophone historians share this imperative, depicting 19th Century North Africa as a ‘mosaic of cultures’ and a model for the present. This framework, however, ignores the profoundly colonial nature of ‘coexistence’ under French rule.
By including new archival sources, engaging with Arabic language historiography, and interrogating well-studied archives in new ways, this paper re-interprets 19th century Tunisia not as a space of coexistence, but as one of racialized boundary drawing, and of material and symbolic hierarchies between people of European and North African descent.
This reinterpretation highlights the coloniality of notions of multicultural coexistence espoused in contemporary Europe, which reproduce colonial material inequalities and symbolic hierarchies. The paper argues that recognizing the long life of colonial relations can allow us to create a vision for a decolonized Mediterranean based on true equity between people of European and North African descent.
Unmaking the Mediterranean border. From colonial coexistence to a decolonized Mediterranean
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Virtual Paper Abstract
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