The hotspot approach in Italy: a genealogy of border exceptionalism

Titolo Rivista MONDI MIGRANTI
Autori/Curatori Jacopo Anderlini
Anno di pubblicazione 2025 Fascicolo 2025/3
Lingua Inglese Numero pagine 29 P. 64-92 Dimensione file 252 KB
DOI 10.3280/MM2025-003004
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The Italy-Albania Protocol established in November 2023 centres operating under Italian jurisdiction outside EU territory, marking a qualitative transformation in European border governance. This paper deploys genealogical analysis to trace how border procedures evolved from territorial exception to extraterritorial projection, interrogating the mutations in governmental rationality that rendered such arrangements acceptable. Drawing upon multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork conducted between 2016 and 2024 across key sites of border control in the central Mediterranean - Pozzallo, Lampedusa, Pantelleria, Tunisia, and the French-Italian alpine border - combined with systematic documentary analysis of policy frameworks and Standard Operating Procedures, the article identifies three distinct phases. The first phase (2015-2019) establishes checkpointization of the external border, where the hotspot functions as intraterritorial extrajudicial space - a threshold where legal order is suspended de facto. The second phase (2020-2023) witnesses fragmentation and mobility, as screening procedures splinter across quarantine ships and temporary sites, whilst “landings at the internal border” reveal renationalization of border control through programmed inefficiency. The third phase (2024-present) encompasses extraterritorialization: EU procedures enacted outside EU territory through disaggregated sovereignty. Rather than interpreting the Albania centres through operational effectiveness, the genealogical lens illuminates how exceptional measures normalized across a decade now materialize beyond territorial boundaries, with a shift from checkpoint to extraterritorial enclave.

Il Protocollo Italia-Albania stabilito nel novembre 2023 istituisce centri operanti sotto giurisdizione italiana al di fuori del territorio dell’UE, segnando una trasformazione qualitativa nella governance della frontiera europea. Attraverso l’analisi genealogica, l’articolo rintraccia come le procedure di frontiera si siano evolute dall’eccezione territoriale alla proiezione extraterritoriale, interrogando le mutazioni nella razionalità governamentale che hanno reso accettabili tali dispositivi. Attingendo a un lavoro etnografico multi-situato condotto tra il 2016 e il 2024 presso i principali siti del controllo di frontiera del Mediterraneo centrale ‒ Pozzallo, Lampedusa, Pantelleria, Tunisia e il confine alpino franco-italiano ‒ combinato con l'analisi documentale delle politiche e delle Procedure Operative Standard, l’articolo identifica tre fasi distinte. La prima fase (2015-2019) stabilisce la checkpointizzazione del confine esterno, dove l’hotspot funziona come spazio extragiudiziale intraterritoriale ‒ una soglia dove l'ordine legale viene sospeso de facto. La seconda fase (2020-2023) testimonia frammentazione e mobilità, mentre le procedure di screening si frantumano attraverso navi-quarantena e siti temporanei, e gli “sbarchi al confine interno” rivelano la rinazionalizzazione del controllo di frontiera attraverso l’inefficienza programmata. La terza fase (2024-presente) comprende lextraterritorializzazione: procedure dell’UE attuate al di fuori del territorio dell’UE attraverso sovranità disaggregata. Piuttosto che interpretare i centri in Albania attraverso l’efficacia operativa, la lente genealogica illumina come misure eccezionali normalizzate nell'arco di un decennio si materializzino ora oltre i confini territoriali, con un passaggio dal checkpoint all’enclave extraterritoriale.

Parole chiave:approccio hotspot; eccezionalismo di frontiera; extraterritorializzazione; governance migratoria.

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Jacopo Anderlini, The hotspot approach in Italy: a genealogy of border exceptionalism in "MONDI MIGRANTI" 3/2025, pp 64-92, DOI: 10.3280/MM2025-003004