Confronting Neo-Colonial Violence and Advancing Justice: A Decolonial-Intersectional Approach to the Study of Borders & Mobility

Guest post by Teresa M. Cappiali and Agnese Pacciardi . Teresa Cappiali is a Senior Researcher at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law and an international consultant. Currently, she is leading the “Border Externalization and Militarization: A Global Analysis” project for the American Friends Service Committee. Her prior work, INTERSEC_RACE, focused on migration politics, racism, and gender violence in Morocco, and was supported by the Vinnova MSCA-Seal of Excellence Fellowship (2021-2023), also receiving the European Commission's Seal of Excellence in 2020. She is working on single-authored book for Cambridge University Press, titled Migration Politics, Gendered Racism, and the Multiplicative Effect of Intersectional Discrimination in Morocco. Agnese Pacciardi is a PhD candidate at the University of Lund, Department of Political Science in Sweden. Her PhD project focuses on the analysis of border externalization policies in West Africa from decolonial and feminist perspectives. Her recent work on this topic has been published in Geopolitics, the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Critical Studies on Security and European Security. Prior joining her PhD she worked as a research assistant in the project “EMiC - Externalizing Migration Control” founded by the Swedish Research Council. 

In March, the European Commission signed an agreement with Egypt to manage migratory flows. This adds to the list of recent agreements with Tunisia and Mauritania, the established ones with countries such as Morocco and Libya, and the ongoing negotiations with other countries such as Senegal. European cooperation with African countries on migration is not limited to bilateral agreements but has been institutionalized through initiatives such as the Emergency Trust Fund for Africa (EUTF) (2015-2021), the Global Europe: Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument (2021-2027), and the recent New Pact on Migration and Asylum. Defined by scholars as "border externalization", these initiatives support a process whereby a state (or the EU in this cases) shifts its border beyond its political boundaries, entrusting the protection of the externalised border to third countries and actors.  

As the main objective of these policies is to deter and discourage South-North mobility at any cost, border externalization often results in physical and psychological harm. This is best illustrated by the everyday countless deaths at Europe’s border, as well as the exceptionally brutal and deliberate violence displayed during the massacre of Melilla on June 2022, when over 2000 young black men from Western and Central Africa attempted to cross EU borders by entering into Spain's Melilla enclave from Morocco. This attempt led to a severe clash with the Spanish and Moroccan forces which resulted in the tragic death of several people and injuries to over a hundred. The aftermath saw widespread circulation of videos on social media showing young African men in various states of distress, highlighting the severe violence and abuses inflicted by  Moroccan Security Forces with the complicity of the EU.  

This brutal violence, as we argue in a recent article published in Geopolitics, should be interrogated not as episodical or accidental, but rather as integral to a wider neo-colonial, racially and gender-biased mobility system perpetuated by border externalisation. It serves as a punitive mechanism with deadly consequences for those daring to contest its norms and structures. Indeed, this systematic dehumanisation extends beyond isolated events and transcends the border spectacle, extending further southward, affecting countries not directly bordering the EU but nonetheless subject to its externalisation policies. In light of this, we posit that delving into the effects of externalisation policies on historically marginalized groups—those disproportionately affected by race and gender-based discrimination, particularly when challenging established borders—could yield valuable insights into understanding and confronting these practices. 

Budling on recent debates in migration and border studies, which emphasise the importance of decolonial and intersectional feminist perspectives, and inspired by authors such as as Frantz Fanon, Achille Mbembe, Maria Lugones, bell hooks, Patricia Hill Collins and Kimberlé Crenshaw  among many others, our article aims to integrate these frameworks to analysis of border externalisation. After a thorough review of literature spanning the last two decades, we have observed that decolonial and feminist approaches have largely lived separated lives within this field. While critical research is gaining traction, the combination of decolonial and intersectional approaches remains limited and often confined to academic niches or a few empirical studies. Therefore,  inspired by both decolonial and critical feminist scholars, we call for a critical and necessary shift towards a decolonial-intersectional approach in the way we study border externalisation, to shed light on the interplay between neo-colonialism, race, gender, and the pervasive violence and injustices that continue to shape global geopolitical dynamics.  

In doing so, we aim to initiate an “academic intervention” that promotes a more critical and inclusive examination of border externalisation and its harmful impacts, particularly focusing on gendered and racialized individuals in motion. We propose a framework that underscores three key concepts essential for uncovering and confronting the violence at the externalized border: coloniality, Eurocentrism, and gendered racialization1. Expanding upon this framework, violence at the externalised borders can be interpreted as a form of “colonial violence” as theorised by  Frantz Fanon, and further elaborated by Achille Mbembe. In other words, border externalisation can be better understood as a continuation of the historical expropriation and dispossession of black lands and bodies during colonial periods brought about by European powers in other ways. This perpetuates a cycle of exclusion and violence rooted in the construction of gender and racial identities, influenced by Eurocentric notions of acceptable and unacceptable movement. Such dynamics dictate policies and practices aimed at deterring entry while advancing the EU's envisioned ideals of development and civilisation. 

Finally, we delineate three research dimensions (epistemological, empirical, emancipatory) where a decolonial-intersectional approach to studying border externalisation could enhance knowledge production to be more just and transformative, aligning research with social justice imperatives. Epistemologically, this entails challenging ingrained concepts and biases, confronting neo-colonial, racist, and sexist ideologies inherent in knowledge production about border externalization. It encompasses scrutinising the concepts we use, from terms like "centre" vs "periphery", "receiving" vs "sending" countries, "migrants" vs "refugees", to the very notions of border and externalisation itself. 

Empirically, embracing a decolonial-intersectional lens can inspire researchers to pose questions that deepen our understanding of border violence beyond spectacularisation, exceptionalism, and essentialism. This encourages thorough investigations into the structural underpinnings of violence and its entrenchment within systemic inequalities and power dynamics between the Global North and South. 

Lastly, such an approach renders research more emancipatory by engaging researchers with silenced and marginalized groups, amplifying their agency and resistance. It challenges the perception of border crossings as mere survival tactics, recognising them as potent decolonial acts that seek to dismantle Eurocentrism, coloniality, and gendered racialization through their very existence. 

In conclusion, we hope our reflections will contribute to existing conversations in migration studies and the social sciences, urging scholars to adopt diverse decolonial and intersectional frameworks. This shift in perspective is vital to align academic discourse with the pursuit of social justice, aiming for improved living conditions, autonomy, and freedom from oppression. 

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