From migrant to citizen: reimagining democracy in the European Union

Ellis Island. The most common entry point for the millions of Italians that emigrated to the United States in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Wikimedia. Public domain.

Citizens and non-citizens

The current debate on migration in Europe presents two opposing views. On the one hand, there are organisations like Amnesty International, which denounce the suffering of migrants and manifest solidarity with them. They raise awareness and promote actions to protect people escaping from war, poverty and oppression. On the other hand, there are anti-immigration movements. They argue that Europe cannot and should not accept most of the people seeking refuge and hospitality at Europe’s Southern frontiers.

At the root of this debate, however, there is a much deeper opposition between the migrant and the EU citizen. The migrant is usually represented as a body in distress. Migrant bodies are portrayed on board of overcrowded ships trying to reach the Southern shores of the EU. They are exhausted bodies arriving from Africa, from Asia, from the Middle East after long and perilous journeys. The migrants do not usually speak; sometimes they stare silently at the camera. If they speak, they respond to questions, tell their condition and their hopes. But most of the time they are spoken for. Someone else narrates their journeys, displays them and exhibits their suffering and desperation.